Busy few weeks

Wow!  Didn't realise how behind I have got with this - now going to have to try to remember what on earth we've been doing the last couple of weeks.

19th & 20th November
Matt went to London for the day, so Tom and I had the day together.  It was a bit of a non-event I'm afraid.  First of all we went to Stafford as I have been wanting to visit Hobbycraft for a long while (supposed to be good for all crafts, including baking).  I was very disappointed, there were hardly any baking things there at all, couldn't find silicone moulding material anywhere (to make my own moulds for specialised cakes) only had a very small selection of paint brushes, not much 15mm ribbon, in fact I left empty handed - good for my bank balance I suppose.  It was quite a small shop, so I'm thinking maybe it was a small store and others would be better.  I will have to go to explore the one in Wolverhampton next.

Little and Large

Sunday we finally got to meet up with Matt's old colleague, Carol.  She's had a bad year - Breast Cancer and a hip replacement.  However, she is very stoic and seems to have bounced back.  Apart from her eyes, you would never know she had been ill.  All was as usual at the Chapman household - complete chaos, everyone talking over each other, but very homely and a warm atmosphere and heaps of warm scones straight from the oven - Carol is a good cook so they were very yummy.  Victoria (Carol's daughter) was there and after a while Olly (her son who is about 3 weeks older than Tom) turned up on his balance bike.  Luckily we had Tom's balance bike in the car so they had fun cycling up and down the yard (Carol keeps horses, so her garden is VERY interesting).  Olly is quite quiet and shy like Tom, so they got on with out too much trouble, in fact Tom was probably a little more boisterous than Olly (that's something I don't get to say much).  Once Tom's bike was out though he disappeared, he was quite happy to be out in the cold exploring, so much so that Graham (Carol's husband) had to turn the electric fence off to be sure of no 'shocks'.  It was good to see Carol in such good spirits.


26th & 27th November
Matt took Tom out on his bike this morning - he took him to Apley Castle.  Unfortunately it was a little windy and Tom decided he didn't like it - they aborted their journey and Tom got sent upstairs in disgrace.  Once they had both calmed down, they went to Wyevale to visit the food fair (Matt wanted some more sausage rolls) and then picked me up on the way to Tom's club for lunch.

Two boys concentrating with jigsaws

Sunday we met up with Jude in Shrewsbury.  We were going to go for a cycle at Haughmond Hill, but there was no point as it was still windy.  We had a couple of errands to run in Shrewsbury anyway, although a couple of them got aborted with shops being closed (we thought all the shops would be open, being close to Christmas).  Found somewhere different to have lunch which was nice enough.  Tom proudly announced to the whole restaurant that he had done a wee wee, which was fine, but then he announced quite loudly the same when Jude left the table - just as well there weren't too many people around!  Anyway, he seemed to have a good time and walked nicely.

Showing Granma the way at Attingham

 The following Tuesday Granma and Pop arrived for a couple of days (delivering some very important parcels).  Tom went to nursery as usual on the Wednesday to give them a chance to recover and then they all went to Attingham Park on the Thursday - Tom on his bike and Granma and Pop Pop chasing after him.  Unfortunately it wasn't all open, so they couldn't do the walk right round, but I think Tom impressed them enough, plus he ate nicely in the restaurant.  They all came back happy, can't ask for more.  In fact they and Tom played really nicely the whole time they were up, so much so that Tom's bottom lip stuck out when they left, and I had to take him to see Rachel to cheer him up.  Tom really came on during his time with Granma and Pop Pop, just goes to show how good it is for him to have time away from me and time with other people (other people do things differently from me which is a good thing - gives Tom different perspectives), his language really came on as did his confidence, which is so good to see.

Tom and Marcus at the Dragonfly 

On Saturday, Michael and Marcus came up for the weekend.  Marcus is 5 and a half now and quite like Tom in that he is quite shy.  Once again, Tom didn't mind having someone else in the house and playing with his toys and positively enjoyed playing with him.  We took them to do the Loamhole Dingle - which they both enjoyed, Tom did the whole thing this time without any picking up - it is much easier doing walks with other children, he always wants to keep up and races ahead which is ace.  We picked up a keyring thingy from the geocache this time, which we need to place in another geocache - think there are some in Granville.

Sunday we did a little walk in Granville, had lunch in Tom's club and then went to Cosford so the boys could have a run around.  Both seemed to enjoy it a lot.  Before we knew it, it was time for Marcus and Michael to leave, time flew when they were here - it was a good time.

10th December

Daddy here. Tom and I continued our Saturday morning boys' activities by making our first visit to a dads & tots group that's held once a month at Albrighton Primary School. I had a feeling it would go well as Tom kept saying "playgroup" all the way there in the car. Sure enough, we both had a great time and the 2 hours flew by. There were 4 kids there, with Tom being the oldest by a few months. The other folk there were all very nice, as was the lady who runs the group. I didn't hear a single whinge or moan from Tom all morning, and he played nicely with the other little ones, did a 20 piece jigsaw (more or less) all by himself, shared "his" cars with a little girl called Amelia, and rode on every single one of the outdoor vehicles (see video). We haven't seen him pedal a vehicle along before, so that's another sign of his current rapid development. He ate his snack, despite dropping his cucumber in his milk, and even joined in (ish) with the songs at the end. All in all, a complete success, and it's a shame that we won't be able to go next month - I'll be in York.

We drove home, picked up (a very pleased) Mummy and headed to the Golf Club for our usual lunches - calzones for Nik & me, and cheese on toast and running around like a loony for Tom. Thence back home for a sleep for his nibs, after which we watched a few YouTube clips of Doctor Yellow (as we have to every day at the moment). Tom had dinner by himself today, as we were too full from our lunches to eat at 5.00. Tom then put on a show of utter madness for his Grandpa on Skype before having a bath with Mummy and a story with Daddy and then hitting the hay. A good day.