happy summer days

The days just keep getting better. Now we're getting a little more sleep, have relaxed a bit more, are settled in to our temporary home (for the week) a bit more, things are so much better. Ben even let me go out to get my hair fixed this morning!! It took a little persuasion but with cuddles and explanations and reminding him that he is important too and his feelings are equally as valid as mine, he was happy to stay here and show Grandma how to drum, and have a biscuit and some raisins.

I've not been happy with my hair since it was trimmed a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't how I wanted it by a long way and I couldn't really tell at the time as the stylist put about half a can of hairspray on it and backcombed it to within an inch of its life so this morning to find a stylist who listened to what I wanted, had a proper good look at the original picture that we took inspiration from in the first place, and took the time to figure out how to fix all the problems (and there were many!) was fantastic. I said when I had all my hair chopped off two months ago that the one thing I didn't want was an "english" haircut so to find this lady had been all over the world training and styling was great - and she has a Czech lady who comes regularly for a similarly severe cut as mine too. I like her. I might go back to her next time I'm up in Manchester!! It looks and feels SO much better now.

I came back to mum's beaming! We asked Ben what he'd like to do and he opted for going to the park so we packed some bits to nibble on and headed off. We tok the bike but went by car. It was only down the road to the park I used to cycle to as a child, but we were glad of the car. It's changed a bit, has Ashton Park!! Really quite good now. I stopped going as I got older not because there was nothing for older kids but because there was so much broken glass and dog poo and cigarette butts and the odd syringe too :s so to find it so lovely and well kept was wonderful. I'm glad it's still in existence and SO happy to find it well-loved too!

Ben made a couple of friends while we were there. A little girl came along with her dad, she was only a few months younger than Ben. I think he might have met his match in her. She was a proper little chatterbox and just as bossy as Ben and they chattered away and played really well together and told each other what to do. I got argued over at one point. This little girl hadn't quite grasped the "my" mummy / "my" grandma / "my" daddy thing yet, and all mummys were "mummy" and all grandmas were "grandma". Ben was quite insistent that I was "his" mummy and the argument went something like this:

"That's my mummy!"
"Yes that's my mummy!"
"No, that's not your mummy, that's MY mummy."
"My mummy!"
"No, MY mummy"

etcetera....

We had a good chuckle anyway :)

I took some lovely pictures of the two of them playing together. Ben was a tunnel on the slide and the little girl had great fun climbing underneath him to get to the top of the slide and then sliding back down through the "tunnel". They played on the seesaw - the two of them on one end, and her daddy on the other. He looked like he was enjoying the two littlies playing as well! I wish I'd asked him for a contact email address so I could send him some of the pictures I took of the two kids playing but they left before I'd plucked up the courage to ask. Maybe we'll go back to the park for another play around lunchtime again, and hope that they'll be there too.... not that I'm stalking him or anything!!!!

After a lunch in the garden (too hot to sit indoors to eat, just comfortable in the shade with a slight breeze) we headed over to see Gran and Aunty Joan and the gang. Lovely time there :) Ben took his old ladies out into the garden for a runabout while I had a lie down (annoyingly, restless legs meant I couldn't actually sleep but it was nice to be able to shut my eyes in peace for a while!), and then Grandad came home, and eventually Aunty Ruth came home. The suspense was killing me waiting for Ruthie to get off the phone and come into the house: Ben and Aunty Joan were waiting by the front door to greet her and I could see Ben getting more and more restless and eventually he just couldn't contain himself any more and started drumming on the radiator! That was it though when she did come in, nearly everybody else was forgotten and he only wanted to play with Aunty Ruth. She loved it :) He had sausages and raisins and a piece of apple for tea, and then completely surprised me by not wanting icecream for pudding but opting for jelly instead!! Previous attempts to offer him jelly have seen him not even entertain the idea let alone try any to see if he likes it so to find he'd had TWO BOWLS of the stuff just bowled me over. His words: "What's this? It's really nice!" Cauliflower and jelly. Not together though. He never ceases to amaze me.

He'd only had about 15-20 minutes' sleep in the car on the way to their house though so by 7.30pm even with all the people to play with he was flagging - he came in for a cuddle saying he was tired, and looked out of the window and noticed that it was dark outside and he was tired because it was dark outside. Quite happy to get into the car, didn't want to say goodbye to anyone though or give kisses. Too tired. But then he won't even say goodnight to Steve if he's that tired. Just wants his bed! Got back to mum's house and he'd not quite fallen asleep in the car, was just tossing and turning. Quite happily got into pyjamas, had a drink, cuddled up and was asleep.

I do love my boy. He's brill :)

And I've skyped my hubby, had a giggle, and can go to bed very grateful and very happy! Kind of glad we're having to stay an extra few days. It means that we're not having to travel back almost as soon as we've settled in. We can actually enjoy being not exhausted for a few days!