The Super Great Outdoors!

We have managed to resume some sort of normaility again after our period of incarceration. But little J has still not been 100%. So we made an executive decision to just stay close to home, but explore what was on our doorstep, in our bid to embrace mother nature and all she has to offer.

The week started with a little ramble behind our house, with a trip to the farm and the footpath that leads up to the top road. What usually takes me about 10 mins to walk took our little posse about an hour to amble up. And what an amazing hour that was. We had muddy puddle splashing, dry stone walling, cattle grid negotiating, cow chasing/spotting, tractor spotting, ruin climbing, trailer leaping, stone collecting, nettle stomping, plane watching........ the list goes on and on and on.

I realised something as we were going on our little adventure, watching J and his friend N, and that is how much of a priviledge it really is to watch the world through the eyes of a toddler. I spent the whole hour just watching them play together shrieking and playing, taking in all of thier surroundings with amazement and wonder. Hearing J shout "House, build, house", as they were dry stone walling was really something else and watching his little face light up with pride as he managed to stack 3 rocks on top of each other as N kept passing up more and more rocks was possibly one of those moments that will be etched on my memory for the rest of my days.

On Friday we went to Blackpool Zoo, which was brilliant. Our band of merry mummies and toddlers arrived in a state of harrassment and frenzy. Trying to round up four very independant toddlers and a five month old, whilst battling with buggies, reins, backpacks and issuing "time-outs" for the heavyweight battles that were commencing (due to being tied down in thier car seats for an hour and then being asked to go in a buggy, whilst Mummy paid to get in) had managed to wear everyone down. But after a frought hour of trying to channel our inner peace and not shouting the same three names over and over again ( to the point where passers by knew the names of the three monkeys in question) we all started to calm down and enjoy the surroundings and the animals. We had a really lovely afternoon watching the sealions whilst eating ice cream, playing in the trees and on the playground.  Absolutely brilliant. Fabulously finished off with pizza and fish fingers with our dear friends. Can it get any better??

J really responds well to being outside, where he can run about with some freedom and independance. He always seems to come on leaps and bounds when he is allowed to spend most of his time outdoors. I too am becoming a bit of an outdoorsy kinda gal. Not bad for someone who's idea of embracing the great outdoors involved a credit card and an afternoon shopping in Manchester! Oh how children change us for the better!

I think sometimes I spend my time fretting about what activities to do with J, what books to read to help him develope, what songs to sing, which toys to play with, so much so that I forget, that its the simpler things that bring him the most enjoyment and pleasure. So I can really say thanks to Mother Nature, for helping me to focus and realise that the outdoors really are GREAT!!!!!