Regular updates commencing ;-) (although outdoor competition is fierce!

For those who pay notice, you'll realise that I should be on my way to London so that I can leave for the Bahamas in the morning. The trip however has been postponed until late summer so I unexpectedly have some 'unallocated' time. Yay me :-)..

This week-end, the weather was lovely so we took the boys to an RSPB venue which is about 40minutes away from us. I was really impressed by the organisation, we were met by a volunteer as we arrived (I think that they always approach families with children) and she explained the route and discussed membership options. As it was we decided to just pay the normal entrance fee as we wanted to get an idea of what the place was like before committing to an annual membership and I was really impressed that they didn't try and push the membership. The boys each got given a pack of stickers and a laminated card to hang around their necks so that they could play 'Birdy Bingo'. Each card had 10 blocks with pictures and instructions about what they were to look for. At nearly 3 years old I didn't think they would get it but they loved the idea and really engaged with the concept. Unfortunately poor planning meant that we didn't have time to do the whole 2 mile walk so we went about halfway before we needed to leave but we'll definitely we going back.

The boys are really growing up fast now, everyday they're creating more complex ideas and communicating them with such ease. I like to eavesdrop on their conversations when they're playing and I am always rewarded by little gems. Nath loves to impersonate me and has mastered the nagging mother intonation and he orders Tom around in that tone all the time. Tom still has the edge in terms of size and strength but they're pretty evenly matched which means we rarely have to intervene when they fight (although sometimes we'll do so for our own sanity!).

We did start potty training this week-end (Thanks Pen!) and it went fairly well but I think that we'll need to commit properly this coming week-end and make sure that we don't have anywhere that we need to be (we had a Christening and the RSPB yesterday which seriously interfered with potty plans). I think that they get the idea but they're pretty uninterested, but I guess this is an improvements on the earlier attempt because at least they no longer fear the potty.

I am going to finish off this rather bland post now with a promise that I will come up with something a bit more entertaining for tomorrow!

Love
VP