Shoes

Today, Tom managed to put his sandals on more or less by himself, just needed a little direction and encouragement, he was a very pleased boy once he had done it! :0)

A week in Devon

Sorry, getting behind - but I had to do 5 cakes in 3 days last week which is why.

So, we went down to Devon for a long weekend so Tom could visit / tire out his grandparents.  He was an absolute star in the car, we stopped once to change drivers, he didn't complain once - the first time ever.

Having a giggle in Crapstone

He was very excited to see Granma and Pop Pop and it didn't take too long for him to start saying 'Nam-ma' for Mum which was great.  On Thursday Tom decided to take Pop Pop and Nam-ma on the South Devon Railway (Buckfastleigh to Totnes).  He was excited as usual - especially as the steam train pulling the coaches was a 'Duck'.  We took a ride down the line and back again, had lunch and then did it again.  Unfortunately we were too far out of season to experience the double decker bus and miniature railway - so we will have to go again in season to try them out.  Anyway, we all had a good time (especially Tom, who discovered various different train toys dotted around the site to amuse him - in the restaurant and the museum (we discovered that you can't interrupt his play for savoury lunch, but you can for CAKE!))

We all got tired out, so Tom and Nam-ma fell asleep on the way back.  Tom went mad on his return to Crapstone, Nam-ma, didn't!

On Friday, Nam-ma and Pop Pop took Tom out for the morning to an adventure park in Plymouth whilst Matt and I had a morning together - trying to sort out the car bump (no luck) and then a quick trip in to Tavistock to try out the pasty shop again (service only slightly better than last time, so still mediocre!)

We then spent the afternoon out in the garden enjoying the sun.

Saturday Matt and I decided to give Mum and Dad a break from Grandparent duties and took Tom into Plymouth.  We popped into a travel agent to pick up some brochures for our holiday in October, and then walked to The Barbican to get the boat round to the old naval base and the rather lovely coffee shop there.  We had the boat to ourselves (a bright red landing craft type vessel)  Tom wasn't 100% sure, but enjoyed himself enough.  We had a good lunch (breakfast bun for Matt and tapas for me with Tom eating a fair share as tends to be the norm these days) before getting the boat back and then the double decker bus back to the park and ride.  A non train day, but still quite exciting for a little boy.

Nik & Tom at Totnes Station

Sunday it was gloomy and overcast so we decided to stay close to home and went to Buckland Abbey for the morning.  Tom seemed to enjoy himself, in the garden and then upstairs in the abbey where there were dressing up clothes, including some Tom's size.  He hated us putting the clothes on him, but once they were on he went loopy and ran round and round giggling.  We then decided to go back to The Dartmoor Diner for lunch (as it has a toy train going round the wall) but it was fully booked so we ended up at The Rock instead, had a good lunch, but the lack of a train could not be made up.

All too quickly it was Monday morning again and time to go home.  We went back home via Sheppy's (got our last ever cases of Tremlett's Bitter as they are discontinuing it :0( ) and Bristol for lunch where he was an absolute angel.  He said he didn't want to sit in a high chair, but on a big boy chair.  We made it very clear that if he got off the big boy chair then he would go in the high chair, he still fidgeted, but he didn't try to get off it.  He also pointed to some pasta on the menu, so I got some for my lunch and he ate at least 50% - so a very well behaved boy.  He then played in the fountain in the middle of the shopping mall before we made our way home.

A nice break.

I can count to 6

Tom's speech has come on a lot in the past few weeks, and we thought you'd like to see this example.
He also managed his first wee in the toilet yesterday, so things are really moving forward.

Bye Bye Jodie

Not a great week for us - they say things happen in threes.  On Sunday / Monday - someone bashed one of our car doors, then the dish washer packed in and then on Monday we had to take Jodie to see the vet for the last time.  Let's hope our luck picks up!

So, back to the weekend, on Saturday we went to Chester to visit the Watsons.  They have 3 girls: Maggie - 7, Tamsin - 5 and Jenny - 21 months.  Tamsin seems to really like Tom, and before too long the two of them were playing as if they were best buddies (Tom took his snake with him, which became a great game - Tamsin holding the front and running, tugging Tom behind her who was holding on to the tail).  This meant that I got the afternoon off, so enjoyed putting my feet up on the sofa and watching them play. They played long and hard, meaning that at bed time, Tom went to sleep easily (after a talking to by his Dad) and we could relax (although poor Cameron was suffering quite badly from jetlag)

Oh - on the way up to Chester, I heard a little voice say 'Baa baa black sheep'.  Typical, every night for months I have sung Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Wind the Bobbin Up and The Wheels on the Bus and he comes up with Baa Baa Black Sheep.  Oh well, never mind, it is progress.  Oh and we now have some colours: black, white, yellow, blue and purple.  No red and green yet - but we are working on them.

Jodie has been going down hill for a number of weeks now.  The last week she refused to eat (apart from some duck giblets) and her back legs were getting weaker and weaker.  When we came back from Chester, she could hardly get up and down the stairs and was walking sideways.  Her time had come.  We knew it and she knew it.  We tried to make her last night as comfortable as possible and spent some quality time with her in order to say our goodbyes, including Tom, he spent some nice time with her, stroking her and being gentle with her which was lovely.

On Monday morning, Matt made the dreaded phone call and we all walked over to the vets.  We were all with her when she passed away - she didn't fight at all - the only time in her life when she hasn't shown any malice to the vet - another sure sign she was ready to go.  We left her behind on the table and walked home.  Tom wasn't happy with us - pointing to the vets and shouting 'cat' which was very hard to deal with. 

The house isn't the same without her, we keep looking round to see where she is so we don't trip over her, picking things up so she won't soil them, thinking we are hearing her.  It is very strange and a little eerie.  She was almost 21 so had a good innings, a wonderful friend and pseudo mum to Tom - she was as gentle as anything to him, allowed him to thump her when he was a baby and never retaliated - we think he prolonged her life - she certainly showed more interest in life once he arrived.  Not much of a hunter - think she caught a dead leaf once, a bit cheeky (she climbed into my parents car the first time she met them - much to my mum's surprise) and a good lap cat and purrer.  We will remember her fondly.

As luck would have it, I had arranged to meet up with a friend from twitter on Monday afternoon, so rather than moping around the house, we went to Burntwood to meet up with her.  I call her Kathryn Biker Cake - she has a motorbike and runs her own home based cake business so we have a lot in common.  As it turns out, she is also a really good talker and very welcoming.  She has a 9 year old boy, so got a box of cars for Tom to play with - which he did and we talked and talked and talked.  We then went to a local pub and talked and talked and talked, went back to her place and talked and talked and talked.  We talked until she had to collect her kids and we went home.  Tom was such an angel, hardly needed any interaction - just played by himself the whole day, couldn't have asked for better behavior.

Trains, trains, trains

Blackberry face

Before I start this weekend's entry - here's a photo of Tom from the week - we went blackberrying.  I was hoping to get a good stash to put in the freezer, but Tom decided that he wanted to eat every single one he could get his hands on, and if he couldn't get any he would muscle his way into my bag and eat what I had picked!  He must have eaten a good 1/2 lb of them - as you can see from his face, he enjoyed them!

It's fun being the prey of dinosaurs!

Surprise, surprise, our weekend was dominated by trains.  Saturday it looked like it was going to be rainy, so we decided to do our (now becoming regular) lunch trip to the Station Inn for lunch.  We stopped off at Shifnal Park on the way to give Tom a chance to run his energy off and then got to the station platform in time to watch a couple of fast trains before getting the stopping train to Codsall.  Tom as is usual was quite excited by the trains, and demanded 'MORE' as soon as each train departed, but he had to make do with 10 including one very long freight train which was 'wow!'

Had our usual good nosh and came home again - it didn't rain all day, but we had a good time never-the-less.  Oh and today was a milestone, Tom was back to napping in the day and sleeping at night without a murmur and is lying in in the morning as well.  It has taken us a full week to get him back on track, but we are there.  We definitely think it was a spider that started it all off, as he saw one in the bathroom earlier this week and got a bit upset with it, until it was dispatched.

The Horse Carousel - Tom's really enjoyed this one

Oh, it was our 7 year anniversary on Saturday as well (doesn't time fly).  We celebrated by some slap up nosh at the Cholmondley Riverside whilst very pregnant Rachel babysat with strict instructions on what to do if she went into labour.

Sunday was supposed to be sunny so we decided to go to Thomasland at Drayton Manor (just 40 miles away).  We know quite a few people who have taken their toddlers along and had a good time, so we thought we should take Tom before the season comes to an end.  We didn't have the best of starts, we got on the Bertie the Bus ride and Tom dissolved into tears, so we got off before the ride even started.  He refused to walk anywhere, so we had to carry him, however, it was quite packed and he doesn't like crowds.  We then tried a calmer ride with some of the diesel engines which started off ok, but went on too long and he started to grizzle. We then found an even slower ride with the little engines on the Blue Mountain Railway, which he did enjoy - phew!  Next stop was a ride on Thomas himself up to another part of the park.  This was a success and it took us to a huge outdoor play area which Tom liked immediately so we stopped there and had lunch. 

Enjoying a ride on Rheneas

Next stop was the Dino trail which Tom enjoyed - I will never understand how a toddler's brain works - how can life size models of dinosaurs with huge teeth and claws not be scary? We then had a look round their zoo, which was quite well stocked, had lots of birds, monkeys, leopards, tiger and lots of reptiles, much more than we expected, and Tom had a good run around and splash in the puddles there.

Rosie - Tom's Favourite

We found ourselves back in the theme park and walked towards a lake where we got a paddle steamer for a quick sail round.  We then found another train which took us around another part of the park.  Tom made it clear that he wanted to have a go on the horse carousel, so Matt did that with him - he loved it - hurray.  We went back to Thomasland and redid a couple of rides and then went for another ride on the train to the play area (this time with Rosie - the pink train which Tom took a great liking too) By now it was quite late, so we had one last ride on the train and drove home.  We were there until 4.30pm so Tom did really well, we didn't get any tired grizzles, he just slowed down.  He was asleep in minutes in the car, so we drove back to Telford and then decided to go straight to our local Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Tom did really well considering that he had to eat immediately on waking up.  He didn't get to bed until about 8.00 and went down again without a murmur, a good happy day.