One of my favourite things to do as a family is to get outside. With a two kids with a small age gap sometimes it can feel like more work than it’s worth but once the door is shut behind us I rarely regret it. With the exception of the time I took them both to Tesco, alone, whilst we were all ill. That was a massive mistake! Anyway, this weekend was no different. In the winter, we all get a little cabin fever-y when the weather’s not so great so our weekend adventures are what keep me sane! This week we headed up to Haldon Forest near Exeter to check out the new Zog Trail. We loved the Gruffalo trail up there so I was hoping this would be just as much fun… and it was. Plus we got to check out the cafe at the end which is absolutely my favourite way to end a Sunday walk!
Him
So independent. I find it amazing that he’s so little and yet so big. Having a younger sibling definitely forced him to grow up in some respects and yet, he’s still very much my baby at other times. He’s testing his independence constantly and ‘no’ is one of his favourite words at the moment. Yet when you challenge him, he’ll usually come right back and want to cuddle. It’s incredible to watch him working out the world and where his boundaries are; incredible and incredibly frustrating at the same time.
Right now, his biggest challenge is his sister. He loves her so much; he’ll be all over her in the mornings, smothering her (quite literally sometimes) in affection, constantly checking where she is. He’s her biggest fan, her number one love and spends hours trying to entertain her. And yet… as she gets bigger and more independent herself, she’s started wanting his toys, his food, anything and everything. As you can imagine, that goes down like a lead balloon!! Watching him tell her off and get grouchy as she tries to join in is hilarious… it’s payback from her for all those months of abuse, sorry, affection, where she was unable to fight back!!
Her
Every day her crawling gets more and more confident and she’s quickly becoming a little terror in the house – you look away for a second and she’s disappeared! It makes you realise how easy life is with a toddler in some respects, which is something I never thought I’d say! Her favourite thing to do is to attempt to pull herself up on the cupboards, table and fire guard in the lounge. I’d forgotten how difficult it is to not hover over them constantly to make sure they don’t hurt themselves. It’s funny, all of the little things come flooding back to you; we talked about putting some corner protectors on the coffee table only to reminisce about how the toddler ate them when he was her age. We quickly stopped that idea!
This week she’s eating more food again, her second top tooth is almost completely through and she’s moving far more so you’d think she’d be sleeping well. She isn’t. My poor settled baby has spent the last few nights waking every few hours and crying as soon as you leave her. It’s a development thing I think, her brain must be overloaded right now! Either way, it’s a fascinating time… my baby is growing up far too fast!
This post is linking up with the Living Arrows series over at What The RedHead Said. If you’d like to see more of our weekly updates, you can find them here!
4 Comments
I have never been here, but that first picture looks amazing. The baby also looks so pretty in these pictures!
It’s lovely there – so much open space you barely see other people!
Your two sure are growing up aren’t they? In my head your little lady is still a newborn – obviously not anymore! x
I go back to work in just a couple of weeks, where does the time go?!