As soon as the snow came down and began to lay, Joe and I were outside!  Joe was excited and I have to admit that I was too – I grew up in the North East, where snow was snow and I recall some years when I was living in County Durham where the snow came half way up the door and if you banged the back door too hard you ended up with snow on your head and everywhere else for that matter.  So yes, I was very excited too.  I eventually talked Joe back in doors and this is what we saw when we woke up the next day…

After breakfast we wrapped up warm and went out to play!  Chris couldnt get to work because of the snow so he was home too.

and 5 days later, the snow is still here!  However, as much as I love it, it does need to be gone by 28th which is when we will be travelling up North to see my family!

Up until a couple of weeks ago Joe would not leave my side if we went out anywhere.  If we went to play areas both indoor and outdoor, I had to take him on the play things; if we were out walking, he would hold my hand; with swimming, he would always hold on to me.  That was until the Summer.  Maybe, it was the fact that we went to our local park almost every day, that gave him a confidence boost or that we went swimming for fun where he could jump in as many times as he wanted, I’m not sure but he runs off to play ahead of me in the park now and at swimming he swam on woggle which was completely out of character as he would never go near one, let alone swim on his own on one!  Not that I’m complaining, its fantastic to see him swimming from one side of the pool to the other with his arms resting over the woggle, while he frantically kicks his legs and reaches out with his arms.  It certainly makes 2 years of swimming with Merbabies worth it.

Today, we went swimming as usual and then stopped by a local family pub for lunch with a friend and her little boy who is Joe’s age – we met when they boys were about 5 weeks old so they have pretty much grown up with each other.  Anyway, in this pub they have a room with a ball pit, slide, climbing stuff for kids and the boys were so excited that I think they were fit to burst!  I thought I would be in for an afternoon of climbing up and sliding down an throwing balls around, however the boys ran straight to the play area when we got into the room and that was that.  There was a twisty, covered slide which Joe went down, he loved it, so much so he went on it about 12 times!  He was quite happy to climb and run and shout, “Hello Mummy!” from the top of the play area… so out of character for him but equally fantastic at the same time.

You never quite know what is going to happen next with toddlers!