Village Walk Around

Yesterday we managed to explore another part of the village - there are loads of footpaths going in to the fields around us and until now it's been too muddy to have a good look. The weather was lovely (though a bit windy) and it was really nice wandering through the long grass in the meadows, playing hide and seek - the grass was almost as tall as Beth.

We found a couple of reservoirs where people were fishing, it was very relaxing and peaceful. I always like the idea of fishing, not for actually catching anything but just because you get to sit in nice surroundings without being bugged by anyone!! You could almost see our house from up there, this photo shows the estate of houses.

Toby was with us but slept most of the way round in the Bjorn. He seems to be calming down a bit probably because he's almost got rid of his cold. Today he laughed for the first time - it was a lovely sound. :) He has also taken a liking to his binky, Beth would never take one (except for now when she wants one as soon as Toby has his). Anyway, that has probably also helped to calm him down.

Rolling

We've had a couple of weeks of sickness, Toby still has his cold and Beth has an ear infection. Both Steve and I have head colds - all great fun. I think it might be because the weather has suddenly changed and it's pretty warm and sunny. Hopefully we'll be cleared up and well very soon . . . The warm weather is very nice, Beth can actually go outside without her big coat on so you will all get a break from the photos of English landscape with Beth in the foreground bundled up in 'the coat'! Here's one last one - taken last week when we went for a walk in the woods under Roseberry Topping.

Apart from the cold, Toby is doing great. He still isn't sleeping longer than three hours at a time but his tummy time is doing him wonders and yesterday he rolled (multiple times) from his tummy onto his back. Bit worrying, if he can do that at eight weeks, what else will he be doing soon!! Perhaps he's trying to beat Beth's milestones and be crawling before six months.

Painting

Even though the weather was lovely today, we did an indoor activity this afternoon and broke out the paints. I'm very ashamed to say that it was the first time in Beth's life that she had painted at home (the thought of multi-coloured walls had put me off).

She had a fantastic time experimenting with colour mixing and created some masterpieces. :) It was surprisingly easy to tidy up since I used a paper plate to hold the paint and the kitchen table cleans very easily (and it was really cheap so I'm not too worried if the paint doesn't come off!). I think we'll be doing that again - perhaps we'll try to design our own greeting cards . . . if we start now, we might have time to do enough for Christmas cards!

Farm Visit

Today we ventured out with Beth's cousin and his family to the farm (Big Sheep Little Cow). It was a pretty nice day but not very sunny. The farm is quite small and you go in groups to see the animals. First we feed the hens - they were a bit pecky and Beth wasn't overly keen despite Rosie's Walk being one of her favourite books!

After that we met a little mouse, very cute until it relieved itself in Steve's hand. Beth was adventurous enough to stroke it though she didn't hold it. Nightly readings of Goodnight Moon until she was 18 months has set her in good stead to like mice and expect to find them in every nook and crannie!

The next room had turtles and hedgehogs in - she fed a hedgehog, more than I was willing to do since they eat worms that look like maggots. The next bit (in my opinion) was the best bit, everyone got to give the pig, Wilbur, his bath. Beth enjoyed this but I suspect just liked the fact that she got the chance to play with a bucket of water and sponge!

The last part of the tour was seeing and bottle feeding the calves and lambs. You can't really see Beth in the picture but she was quite insistant on holding the bottle herself even though the lamb was far stronger than her.

After the farm we went to Fountains Abbey again (see a previous post) for lunch then 'the boys' assembled and flew a kite. We've had it for ages, I think it was a Costco one we bought a couple of years ago and it just sat in the garage forgotten about until now. It was pretty good - fairly light and aerodynamic since it wasn't hugely windy. Beth helped to fly it but Toby just hung out in the pushchair. :)