Summer Holiday Shenanigans #1

As you may already know, I am currently on a 2 week holiday from work. S's nursery closes for 2 weeks, so I have no choice but to take that time off work.

As I mentioned in this post, I had been a bit worried that, after 3 months of her being entertained at nursery, S might be bored by just boring old me. I was worried that, since she has grown and developed so much over those 3 months, I might have forgotten how to spend time with her.

Actually, it turns out we're having quite a lot of fun. I thought it might be fun to make some posts about what we've been up to...

Monday 12 August

Went for a walk into town; bought some things for messy play, walked in and out of the M&S automatic doors about 50 times.

Had fantastic fun with messy play cake dough (which you can read about on Edspire); also made cakes and played with that silly soap stuff. S was not impressed with that though.

Went for a long walk with my 2 sisters and the trike.

S had tea and then the world's shortest bath before zonking out 10 minutes before bed time. Successful day!

Tuesday 13 August

Despite going to bed early, S had not slept well and was rather tired. We didn't go for a walk in the morning; instead she played on the mats for a while, then had a rather long nap.

Both of my sisters came round for a while, and iced yesterday's cakes while we went out to visit my cousin, who lives on the other side of town.

Once S had gotten used to seeing different faces, she had a fabulous time. She made friends with the giant Newfoundland dog, poked at the rabbits, almost allowed the guinea pigs to escape, and spent a good half hour just running up and down the garden.

When we came home S was a little cranky, so she sat on the work surface next to me and played with some bits while I made tea.

S had trouble sleeping again, so I put a dvd on for her; but she fell asleep really quickly, and slept through til 7 the next morning!

Wednesday 14 August

Out for a walk in the morning; I have learned this is the best way to guarantee a good nap! In and out of M&S automatic doors several times, but a meltdown when I introduced S to the escalator, and another when I allowed her to climb the stairs in Boots (holding my hands) but not to immediately go back down and do it again. We did spend 10 minutes in the downstairs window of Boots waving at passing cars though.

After S had had a nap and lunch, we went to soft play with both of my sisters.

We had never been to soft play before; it was fun, and S enjoyed herself; but I did not enjoy the lack of supervision of the older children, and the number of rude, obnoxious children who came into the baby/toddler area and jumped around or threw things so that it wasn't particularly safe for the younger ones. I got really angry to be honest, and in the end we gave up and left. S had a fabulous time though, and thoroughly enjoyed going down the slide!

Super messy tea (not on purpose), then bath and bed. Out like a light again! 

Thursday 15 August

Off to Bournemouth with my sister A, to visit the Oceanarium. We timed it with genius precision, so that S slept for almost the entire bus journey down there. Fabulous time had by all in the Oceanarium, slight rain situation did nothing to dampen our moods and we had a lovely toddle through the gardens before catching the bus home. Lovely day.

Friday 16 August

We had no plans, but we'd had a reasonably busy week so decided to have a quiet one. Accidentally went puddle splashing in the morning, when we nipped out for some bits and it started peeing down. S was happily splashing about in her rain coat; I was trying to be patient in my white top and no coat!

S had a massively long nap over lunch time, then we played a bit more, made cakes, and went back out for another wander. A nice lazy day!

You can read about our second week off here!