Fish

I accidentally needed the loo at just the wrong time and Matthew ended up awake from about 5:45 this morning. As a result he had a very grumpy morning at the childminder's until he fell asleep in her bike trailer on the way to the Botanic Gardens. Advantage of a trailer over our box bike is that you can detach it when you arrive and use it as a buggy too so he got a good 40 minutes morning nap before a play in the sunshine. She sent me some lovely photos of him running around and also carrying round a snail on a leaf.

After his usual afternoon nap they popped to Scotsdales for a potter round and visited the fish and bunnies and Thomas and assorted garden figurines. Hania doesn't put money in Thomas :) - loved his expression in this one.

A pleasant enough evening when we got home but short as usual. Tuesday is one of my nights in charge of bedtime. I'm trying to get back to the point where I can sit quietly across the room and just make occasional reassuring sounds as he goes to sleep, but he wouldn't let me stop stroking. Still - it's an improvement on last week when we couldn't get past singing either. And though he stirred and mumbled 'stroke' a couple of times after I left the room once he was asleep I just stood silently on the landing and he settled back down. Phew. So - progress. But I do curse the squeaky floorboards and stiff door handle!