Magic Moments: Sometimes "Uneventful" is Perfect.

Some weekends, you go out and do lots of fun and exciting things. Or you stay home and do lots of fun and exciting things.

And some weekends, you do none of the above. And it's great.

"Reading" a book about happiness by a French monk...
I don't think he can teach this one anything!

I had wanted to go to the beach this weekend; we went to the coast with a friend on my day off in the week, and S had a fabulous time. But my mother didn't want to drive us, and the weather didn't look predictable enough to risk the bus (nothing worse than sitting on a bus for an hour in freezing wet clothes after being caught in the rain), so we abandoned the idea.

Instead, we stayed in for most of Saturday, except for a brief trip to a local garden centre with my mother. I say "garden centre;" This place has alpacas, tropical fish, tortoises, chickens, snakes, lizards, parrots, birds... it's basically a mini zoo. The only things S was interested in though, were running up and down a ramp outside, and briefly saying hello to the tropical fish.

Practising walking down stairs in WH Smith. 

On Sunday, my sister came over and we went for a walk around town. S made most of the decisions regarding where we walked, and we ended up having a nice wander around the Cathedral Close, before nipping into WH Smith to enjoy their escalator and practise climbing down stairs. In the afternoon I had been considering grandiose plans of messy play and biscuit making and all sorts... but S seemed perfectly happy wandering about the living room in her vest. She jumped on the trampoline, read books, did some colouring, pulled faces, ran up and down the hall like a mad thing, and generally had a giggle. 

Although she needed little assistance in her play, I found it was fun to just sit and watch her. Every now and then she would look over and I'd exclaim "wow! That was good!" or similar, and then she'd carry on. Sometimes she came over to me to see what I was doing, or to ask for something. My sister was here for part of the afternoon and S sometimes interacted with her. I think she enjoyed having an audience to play up to, showing off her new words and skills. 

Around tea time, a friend popped in for a coffee. S decided that since she'd not seen him for a few weeks, she'd give him a thorough demonstration of my office chair, and spent most of the time he was here spinning round in circles shouting "wow!" When she was done with that, she showed off her climbing skills by balancing on one of the arms, and when my nerves got the better of me and she was removed, by standing on her own chair. 

After a rather messy tea, she had a long shower, got into her PJs, had some stories, and went to bed. As I came back downstairs, I was struck by what a lovely weekend we'd had.

S was off nursery for two weeks over Christmas, during which time she was in pain with four molars coming through, and the weather was pants. We both went a little stir crazy and were more than a little fed up by New Year. I don't think we really enjoyed that time together. But the last two days have been fabulous; we've had great fun just doing normal, every day things. 

Never underestimate how perfect an uneventful weekend can be.