Weekend in Chester

This weekend we toddled off to Chester to meet up with Lisa, Cameron and the girls.  Tamsin who is 5 has a soft spot for Tom and so does he for her, which means that after the compulsory 30 initial 30 minutes shyness they played together really well and Matt and I relaxed, very nice.

Picking my nose is more interesting than the story Tamsin.

All girls were doing well, especially Jenny who has developed loads since we last saw her in October, she is talking now - she's 10 months younger than Tom and you can really see the difference.  It's hard to imagine him 10 months younger now - Jenny is still (just) a baby whilst Tom is a small person.

We didn't really do that much, but relax and what the children play.  Tom was asked if he wanted to sleep with the girls and he said he did.  So, he had his first sleep over, in a sleeping bag on an air mattress with Tamsin.  Tamsin even read to him so we weren't needed at all.  I didn't think it would last long, but after a lot of excitement and play, they both fell asleep on the mattress.  Unfortunately at 10pm Tom woke up crying (the air mattress had deflated) so he ended up in the travel cot, but he did way better than I thought!

The next morning, he decided that he would play on Jenny's scooter and dive off it everytime  he got into the lounge.  We think he will make a good footballer!  Anyway, after a leisurely breakfast, we said our goodbyes and came home.  A good time was had by all.

Oh development news - Tom has dropped his naps - argggggggggh - 3 months too early!  It wasn't even gradual, he suddenly decided that he didn't want to sleep in the afternoon anymore and gets really upset if he thinks I'm going to take him upstairs to bed.  So I'm having an interesting time doing my cakes as I have lost 10 hours a week creative time.  Won't be a problem in April as then he'll get extra time at nursery, but until then I think I'm going to have to do some evening work.  Oh hum.

Weekend with my cousins

This weekend Matt was in York, so I took the opportunity to take Tom down to Aylesbury to see his cousins as it has been quite a while since they've been together.

It was an absolutely glorious weekend and we had a nice and easy journey down.  Tom stayed awake for the whole journey, but was as good as gold amusing himself and even letting me sing to my music (normally he shouts "Mummy stop!" when I sing along)  First stop was Thame, S&C had got me a token for the cake shop there for my birthday last year which I hadn't yet used, so as we were in the area I thought I would use it (saves paying p&p).  Simon was right it is a weird shop, and you have to be in the know, as the shop was very small but with a huge store room.  Pretty much everything I wanted was out back, but they did have everything I wanted.

Jake and Tom on top of the hill

We then jumped back into the car and headed to Aylesbury, arriving dead on 12.  Amber was napping upstairs, but the others were all there and happy.  Tom and Jake took a little while to get rid of their shyness, then Tom took a while to relax as Jake was pretty full on, and Tom doesn't like having his personal space invaded, he got there in the end though which was good.

We had lunch, waited for Amber to wake up and then headed out to a nearby hill to give everyone some fresh air and a chance to enjoy the good weather.  I got out Tom's bike as him going on a bike is much quicker than him walking.  Unfortunately it was mega muddy - at one stage I think his bike was double its normal weight.  Anyway, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, we got the fresh air and exercise that everyone needed.

When we got home, it was playtime - Jake, Tom and Amber played run round in circles around the ground floor for a good while (until they were hot and sweaty)  then they had their dinner (Mum and Dad are right, Amber is a eating machine - blink and you miss it - food doesn't last long around her).  They then had a bath together (Jake got a jug of water and poured it over Tom which spoilt the mood for a while - that whole personal space issue again!) Amber was quite happy though - she really is a placid, happy little thing.

The Bath Photo (before it all went wrong!)

All went to bed without a problem - Amber generously handed over her cot to Tom and she slept in S&C's room in the travel cot.  Tom made himself at home - we didn't hear a peep out of him all night, which is amazing seeing as Amber did some good screaming at various intervals during the night - believe me she can make herself heard, although she is teething - it looks like her back molars are coming through which can't be fun.  We then had dinner and one of Colin's bottles of wine - very nice it was too.

In the morning we got up, had breakfast and then headed out to the local Leisure Pool for a swim.  What an amazing facility,  3 little pools all geared towards the under 5s, with jacuzzis, shallow water, lots of seats, 2 slides linking two of the pools, a current pool (deeper with a current going round an island meaning you don't have to swim very hard - just float and let the current take  you) and another very shallow pool with 2 mini slides, a boat with levers, a dolphin and some other playthings.  Absolutely brilliant and really not that expensive.  However, it was full and noisy and Tom didn't exactly take to it.  He pretty much clung to me and grizzled the whole time we were there (well until the last 5 minutes when he finally let go of me and had a good on the smallest slide without too much encouragement).  Simon tried to take him away from me to see if that would help - it didn't!  Amber and Jake however had a fab time.  We certainly don't have anything like that in Shropshire, I wonder if there is somewhere in Wolverhampton similar?  I am determined to get Tom to enjoy swimming...

We returned to S&C's - playtime for the boys, sleep for Amber whilst S&C cooked a 2 joint roast - yummy.  Jake and Tom played really nicely with each other - even managed to share playing with the loop the loop car.  We all sat down for roast dinner together which was fab.  Amber ate hers without any encouragement, the boys also did well, but needed some words.

By now it was 3pm, so Tom and I said our goodbyes.  Tom ran upstairs and hid in Jake's bed shouting 'no home', 'no home' and Jake told me that Tom was going to live with them now.  All very sweet, but I had to break the spell.  Tom wasn't too upset as he was deeply asleep within minutes and stayed that way until Matt called me in the car an hour later (a very long story, but he had got a lift home from Shrewsbury with a friend and his family.  His car then died, the RAC had to be called out - they were stuck at ours for about 3 hours - with a 1 year old and a 4 year old) - so Tom came home to a full house - but he was good and played mad games with the 4 year old until they left.  He went to bed without a bath - we didn't hear a sound from him.

Anyway a good time was had by all.  It was good to spend longer than 3 hours with the cousins.  I even got a kiss off Jake, and he called me Auntie Nik, which he hasn't done before, felt very weird.  I'm hoping they will allow us to return the favour and come up to stay with us sometime soon - maybe for a trip to Thomasland.

Oh Tom is developing lots a the moment, I'll try to expand in another blog post sometime soon.

Fast Tom

Puff Trains

Not paying attention (as usual)

Mummy had a cake to make today, so the rest of us headed down to Bridgnorth after breakfast for a day playing on the Severn Valley Railway - I don't think Grandpa needed his arm twisting very hard. We caught the first train south all the way to Kidderminster, and had a coach almost to ourselves - handy, as His Nibs was in full-on fidget mode and wouldn't sit on any given seat for more than about 10 seconds at a time. Having said that, he seemed to enjoy looking out of the window and impressing his grandparents with his ever-growing vocabulary. I think "river" was a new word for the day, which was hardly surprising as you can see for pretty much the whole journey.
As soon as we disembarked at Kidderminster, Tom legged round the end of the platform to where he remembered there was a miniature railway - he was spot on, and it was running, so he took Grandpa for a quick spin. We then had a quick look round the railway shop, with Tom seriously interested in some beautiful-looking model locomotives in a glass case. However, they were upwards of £100 each, and we don't have a train set, so they remained in the case.
We then caught the next northbound train, which was absolutely jam-packed - we could hardly find seats together. This meant that Tom didn't have as many wriggling opportunities as on the way down, and he sat quite nicely, mostly on Grandpa.

Beating up Grannie

We had lunch in the Engine Shed cafe at Highley - baguettes for the grown-ups and fish fingers & chips for the lad. It was all quite nice, but none of us could finish up. We then dispersed throughout the museum; Tom & me to the wooden train set, Grandpa wandering round the steam engines and Grannie buying jigsaws in the shop. I took Tom outside to watch a southbound train go past, but it peeped very loudly just as it went past us. Cue a few (but only a few) tears from Tom, so I guess us repeatedly telling him that when trains say TOOT!, they mean HELLO! has at least partly worked.
We the caught the train back to Bridgnorth, in a compartment of our own where he was changed from pants to nappy as he was looking very tired. Sure enough, he was asleep almost as soon as we left the car park.
Dinner was a curry for five at Abdul's, which we all enjoyed. Tom didn't eat his own weight in curry, rice, naan & poppadums (as he generally does), but he did enough to impress his grandparents with his culinary range.