A Lovely Weekend

We have had a lovely weekend, helped in the fact that the sun shone all this afternoon. It wasn't all good though. We had a grizzly morning on Saturday - hysterics on the stairs before breakfast and then we decided to take him to the barber's for his first ever haircut. There was a little boy, a little younger than Tom in the queue before him. He behaved impeccably, sat on the booster seat and sat still whilst the barber cut his hair. Next up was Tom. As soon as we got near the chair he turned red in the face and started to cry. There was no way he was going to do it so I sat on the chair and held him. He cried and cried, moving his head as he went. Poor Mick (Matt's barber) had a real job not to poke him let alone cut his hair in some sort of style. We had to resort to giving him a dummy (snacks, toys, books didn't do anything). It sort of calmed him down, but he never really settled. I ended up with snot and tears and hair all over me! Mick, to his credit, stayed calm and did a good job, I really don't know how he did it! So anyway, we now have a very smart boy. He looks so different.

He cheered up in the car, and after a trolley ride in Tesco he was back to his usual self. We spent lunchtime in Wellington - I had a long list of ribbon I needed to get for various cakes and there is a really good stall in Wellington market - huge variety and very cheap. We went to our favourite pub first, found out they've stopped making our favourite meal - bucket of chicken wings, so had a combo platter instead which included chicken goujons. We haven't been able to get Tom to eat chicken yet - but he kept pointing to our plate, so we let him choose and he choose the chicken and he ate it. We were astounded - it wasn't processed chicken either - proper chicken breast in a thin batter. I will try that at home.

We then toddled around Wellington - Tom on his reigns as he has now got so confident with his walking and within himself that he is quite happy to walk off away from us which means trips out can be a bit scary with him going in any direction. He did really well, we managed to go to all the places we wanted to go to and he didn't sit down in protest or throw a tantrum = a successful trip.

We came home, he had a nap, I did some fruit cake experimenting in the kitchen (I have a dairy free, wheat free cake on order so made a small one to see how it turned out). The afternoon was spent playing trains in the lounge as it was raining. He really enjoyed himself as you can see in the video below.

Sunday we decided to go to the Sealife Centre in Birmingham. Been meaning to go for ages. Well Tom woke up in a very good mood, which was enhanced in the car, he kept clapping everytime we pulled away from a red light! We got to the centre just as it opened, so it wasn't full. He had a fantastic time. He was back on the reins again so we had some control over him. Lots of the tanks had viewing at his level, so he was able to get a really good look at the fish and coral etc. He seemed to like the silver coloured fish the best (wasn't really interested in the the brightly coloured ones)?! Some bits we missed because he was so excited and full of pent up energy that he just had to run through them, but it was a good visit. We took him to the 4d theatre for a short film, but I had to take him out as he didn't like being sprayed with water (maybe the memories from yesterday's hair cut were too raw!). He was a little uncertain walking through the tunnel with sharks etc, but did manage it in the end. Oh, and we got a new word - 'turtle' which was good.

Once out he had a play in the soft play area there (more interested in a Bob the Builder ride than the soft play) and then to a pub for lunch (well we actually had breakfast but who's counting) and home. Tom had a nap and then as it was such a beautiful day (blue sky and sunshine) we

spent the rest of the day outside running up and down the cul-de-sac outside. The Gouge girls joined us for a while. Was really nice - Tom ran his heart out and the girls played really nicely with him, almost forgot to make dinner and had to rush in to get it made.

So a really nice weekend filled with good memories.

Oh and as you can see from the pics, Tom will now only eat bananas in their skins, far more interesting than slices or chunks!