As the weather suddenly realised that it should be summer, we decided to go camping and make the most of it. we spent some time finding a new campsite in the hope of not having to camp in a field with hedges round it that feels like someone's garden. We thought that we had ht the jackpot with Willow Garth which looked like it was in a wood, but when we got there we discovered that the wood was in fact Dagobahian!
However, our camping spot in the orchard was pretty ace:
We set up camp and got everyone acclimatised to their new sleeping quarters. Dorothea was highly pleased!
Supper was taken amongst the daisies and Dorothea had her first taste of melon which she was incredibly impressed with.
She ate and ate and ate and ate, and I had pretty much got Nathaniel ready for bed when we decided that she had got too tired to wrestle with it any more and declared supper over.
Everyone slept well and after waking up at 7:30, everyone was jolly!
We decided to spend the morning at a stream on the moors just outside Hutton-le-Hole and due to an early start, we had the place to ourselves for playing the the stream (Nathaniel), climbing hills (everyone), reading books (Tassy) and napping (Dorothea).
Then to Helmsley for a tasty lunch of fish and chips from the second best fish and chip shop in the country in a deserted and sunny church yard. Everyone was then rather sleepy so we headed back to the campsite and hung out there for the rest of the afternoon. It was hot with very little breeze so we were very thankful for the cool bell tent!
Next day, Nathaniel sucessfully negotiated a return to the stream, but actually spent the whole time scooty biking through the heather. I discovered a fine swimming hole (to be returned to when everyone is a bit bigger) and we had a very tasty lunch in a purpose built tent.
Its been a beautiful day. Perfect for a trip to the park. We joined the other children for the Very Young Friends of West Bank Park to paint old cardboard boxes and decorate them with flowers (and grass and dead leaves!) before using them as tunnels.
Well I did. Thea slept. Nathaniel and his friend J spent the whole time running around and comparing their bikes the way that 18 year olds compare cars;
J: "Mine has 'tab-lizers"
N: "I don't have little wheels - I've got a big boy's pedal bike. I have two brakes"
J: "Can I have a go on your brakes?"
Everyone else went home and Thea woke up and watched Nathaniel and I climb trees.
Then we went to the playground and Nathaniel rode his bike:
Food was so the right decision!
Here is Thea after her first proper meal of slightly stewed apple:
And here is the apple!
There is a surprising amount missing, and it wasn't on the floor! I've never met a baby who gets the injestion thing so quickly!
And since then she has been enthusiastically tucking into everything:
Steak and potato wedges:
Nathaniel has two favourite things at the minute, sounding out the letters of words and singing the months of the year song endlessly. So I taught him a new song. He likes it!
For those who haven't heard the months song, here it is:
NB This video was from a while ago. He remembers November now! And the wierd hand movements at the end relate to the You Tube video that we learnt the song from (http://youtu.be/5enDRrWyXaw). At the end of the song all the words file on to the screen to leave a static shot of all the months of the year. He is showing how they glide on!
I was told in no uncertain terms to go back into the kitchen because Nathaniel and Dorothea were playing. He passed her cuddly toys to mawl and cover with slobber and then Nathaniel played the ukelele to her. They contentedly got on with this for at least 15 minutes!
Dorothea has been a pain at meal times. First she wouldn't sit in her chair because it didn't allow her to sit properly. So she sat on our laps. But she spent the whole time trying to grab our food. Not the toys we had provided. Not the interesting cutlery and crockery we gave her. She wanted the food.
Things improved when we put her in the highchair. She felt as if she was properly involved. But this only lasted a few days. It was all about the food again.
I am quite sure that she doesn't require food at this stage. She has plenty of milk and she is not hungry. So there is no need to start solids before 6 months. And she is only just sitting firmly which is essential for baby-led weaning.
But there it is. Baby-led weaning. I have stopped describing it to people as giving a baby finger food rather than mush, and now describe it more accurately - its about giving your child the opportunity to develop their eating skills at their own rate by giving them total control on when, what and how much they eat. The finger foods just enable them to have that control - to move on as they are developmentally interested and ready. And boy, is she ready.
So while Nathaniel and I were preparing supper and Dorothea was yelling at us, we gave her a flat bean. Uncooked, so that she couldn't break bits off it, but cut so that she could get the taste.
She was happy.
Did she gag on it? No. Did she enjoy it? YES. She munched and sucked and watched Nathaniel intently to work out how to get the most our of it. When it was demolished into a floppy bit of greenery and had stopped tasting of sweet beanyness, she threw it on the floor (yes, she can do that now. It's great fun. Honestly), and demanded another one. This baby knows her own mind.
Today I gave her a bit of apple. Same deal - uncooked so that she couldn't actually swallow it, but so she could taste.
Ten minutes later she had worked out how to soften it with saliva and then grind the edges with her gums so that she had apply mush in her mouth. She was grinning ear to ear!
Nathaniel has been obsessed with windmills ever since he was first introduced to Windy Miller.
He can explain to you in great detail the differences between traditional and modern windmills and once had a tantrum in the car because we couldn't do anything about the fact that the wind farm we were passing had all the sails docked (this, he tells me, is the term for when the sails are not turning even though there is wind. How does he know this?!)
Fortunately we have a windmill rather closer to us than is terribly likely, and this week the Very Young Friends of West Bank Park (a forest-schooly type of group we go to). went to visit.
Nathaniel was in his element. We could have been there for weeks while he examined all the models and then the actual cogs and ropes and trap doors.
It is very hard to take photos in limited light when you are trying to avoid too many children's faces. So you can't see Nathaniel behind the arm of Jenny who was giving us the tour (and some great stories). But rest assured that he was hanging on her every word and was so engrossed in thinking about how everything worked that he didn't want his turn at using the model mill stones to grind some wheat!
Life has suddenly got easier - Dorothea is now officially big enough to ride in the bike trailer which means that we can get around sensibly again!
Our first trip - to town in the fog
Nathaniel and Thea and I used our new found freedom to meet some friends for some cycling today, and Nathaniel's friend brought his new pedal bike. He was kind enough to let Nathaniel have a go. On his first attempt I held the back and gave him a push to get him going so that he could work out how to pedal. Duration - about 30 seconds. Here is his second attempt:
It's so unremarkable, it's boring! No £250 from You've Been Framed for dramatic face planting for us. Let it be known that kids who have scooty bikes take 30 seconds to learn how to ride a pedal bike!
The scariest bit came this evening when I discovered how much kids pedal bikes cost!
(NB He is burbling about his discovery that the bike has back-pedal brakes)
What Thea likes to do most is stand. And hang out with Nathaniel. Here they are entranced by Pingu. I had forgotten how great it was! Thea looks like she is kneeling, but those are in fact her legs! Most of them are hidden by the giant cloth nappy. And if you look closely you can see the lovely pox scabs. She has had the pox much more convincingly than Nathaniel and looked so much like a proper plague victim that I couldn't bring myself to take photos of her spots!
This is Thea's favourite way of winding down before a nap - listening to Ian play the guitar (please ignore the piles of clothes - we are trying to sort them out!).
This makes her very happy, do little dances and blow lots of accompanying raspberries!
She loves having a big brother and is happiest when she is with Nathaniel. He's sometimes rather nice to her as well! Today he made her a shade so that she wouldn't get too hot in the sun:
This weekend we headed down to Shropshire with James and Beth. As we both now have babies, we decided not to waste valuable time and energy in researching new venues, so we went back to the same cottage, which we had found to be exactly right last year.
And new activities seemed too much effort as well, so we just repeated them albeit with major alterations to reflect the fact that the carryable 2 year old had turned into a semi-independent, boisterous 3 year old!
Ian and Nathaniel took an early morning walk up Caer Caradoc in the rain.
When the rest of us got up (babies had slept for longer in the morning than Nathaniel, but made up for it by enjoying our company in the night!), we watched them play in the stream using binoculars.
We visited Carding Hill Valley and slowly made our way up it rather than down. This took a long while as Nathaniel wanted to watch cars go over the ford (many times):
and play in the stream.
He and I spent at least 15 minutes investigating the drainage systems for the houses on the side of the valley. N has an endless fascination for seeing how a drain and pipe on one side of the road can take water to a waterfall on the other side!
We did eventually manage to climb up most of Bodbury Hill.
It would have been nice to get to the top, but we were keen not to push Nathaniel too hard, and to make it down again before it stopped being fun. We just about managed it. The last bit required quite a bit of encouragement, but everyone stayed happy.
It looks much more impressive when you see the hill from the top. It is the one to the left of the picture.We are seriously high here - you can't see the valle floor.
The next day we drove (!!!) to the top of Long Mynd and walked and scooty biked along about 500 yards of it(!) to the trig point. It was ridiculously windy and really quite cold, and I'm not sure that the babies had that great a time. But we enjoyed the view, and Nathaniel enjoyed his biking. Again, quite a bit of encouragement was needed, but he reports that he had lots of fun.
I think he was quite pleased when he saw a grown up mountain biker reach the top shortly after us. There is nothing like a bit of external verification that what you have done is worth doing!
N also discovered the joys of heather. Who would have thought it would be so much fun to fall over in it and have to be rescued (about 100000 times).
Coming back down was fun. We observed our blood pressure hit maximum while Nathaniel free wheeled at an amazing speed down a rocky path. He got several serious wobbles and when he got the end, he got off his bike pretty quickly, but once the adrenalin had dissipated, he seemed to think it was all good fun. And while we ate a rather chilly lunch huddled behind the largest shelter we could find, he did some zooming.
It was a lovely weekend. We got to chat and catch up and meet baby I, and yet again vow that we will be back to this part of the world to explore some more.
