Sam enjoying himself at the Eden Project, Cornwall
We've been pondering on this for a while; the matter of going out early, with someone else preparing and putting Eve to bed. An opportunity appeared to us a few weeks ago, which seemed to be the green light that said go. This opportunity seemed to arise at the perfect moment and felt right. I'm so proud of Sam, he is such a hardworking and caring teacher. He excitedly called me one day to tell me that he had been nominated by his students for an award for excellency in teaching. The awards evening was to be hosted by Cornwall College at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
Eve in Granny T's garden
Logistically the only way that I could attend the formal dinner and ceremony with Sam was for my mum to look after Eve. So, we arrived at lunch time on Friday at my mum's house in Dobwalls, which is half an hour from the Eden Project. Granny T has a really cute cottage, we spent a lovely afternoon settling in, getting Eve's cot set up and had a stroll about the garden.
The pathway to Granny T's garden
Good ol' Granny had bought a few toys from a second hand shop - one was a little china tea set. Eve loved it on first sight. The little teacups and plates were in her hands throughout our stay, and she was often seen offering cups of tea.
Teatime for Daddy and Eve
Sam, Eve and my mum all enjoyed tinkering away on the piano whilst we were there. We attempted a Christmas song or two.
I had felt a little nervous that neither Sam or I would be putting Eve to bed, but it went smoothly. We were really pleased; it was nice to breathe a sigh of relief in the knowledge that we can leave Eve happy with someone else to put her to bed. The reason that I was a bit wary is because bath time has quite often been a bit of an ordeal, and I didn't want to land that on some unsuspecting person.
During the afternoon we did a test run - Sam and I walked to the shop and left Eve with Granny T. She cried as we left but had a nice time whilst we were gone, and then she saw us return and was happy.
We had been explaining to Eve for the past couple of weeks that Granny T would be looking after her. Eve totally understood, she watched us getting ready to go out early that evening. When the taxi arrived we hugged and kissed her and she said, 'Goodbye, see you soon.' This was a real proud parent moment. There were no tears.
We got into the taxi and set off to have a lovely evening together at the Eden Project. Sam had already said to me, 'your mum brought up three children by herself, she's better at it than you are!' and he was quite right. Eve had a nice bath with Granny T and then went straight to bed. It definitely helps that Eve has started to 'want' to have a bath over the course of the last couple of weeks. We no longer have bath time struggles which is making life that much easier, phew.
We had been explaining to Eve for the past couple of weeks that Granny T would be looking after her. Eve totally understood, she watched us getting ready to go out early that evening. When the taxi arrived we hugged and kissed her and she said, 'Goodbye, see you soon.' This was a real proud parent moment. There were no tears.
We got into the taxi and set off to have a lovely evening together at the Eden Project. Sam had already said to me, 'your mum brought up three children by herself, she's better at it than you are!' and he was quite right. Eve had a nice bath with Granny T and then went straight to bed. It definitely helps that Eve has started to 'want' to have a bath over the course of the last couple of weeks. We no longer have bath time struggles which is making life that much easier, phew.
Photo Copyright by Tamsyn Williams
Sam and I had an amazing time at the Eden Project. Cornwall College, who have recently partnered with dBs Music, is an incredible organisation. The Christmas party/Awards evening was inspiring and we both came away with big smiles on our faces, and high hopes for the future. I even bumped in to Sharon at the event, who was a close school friend. It was lovely to see a familiar face.
A cool Christmas Feast set up at the Eden Project
The following day the weather was very blustery, we didn't have much planned which was nice. My brother Jon, who has recently moved from Canterbury to a village outside of Truro, visited us with his little girl Lottie. Lottie is 5 years old. She got on well with Eve, and even let her play with her special pens. It was really nice to see the cousin's playing together, as the last time we saw Lottie Eve was only 8 months old.
Cousin's, Lottie and Eve
Lottie and Jon in the playground
Sam enjoying the roundabout
It was nice to get a bit of fresh air at the playground
Family favourites - Choggy Yoggi Cakes
We returned home to find that Granny T had been busy making us some choggy yoggi cakes. These are a big favourite of mine and my sister's when we were growing up. The name is kind of self explanatory - chocolate with yogurt, and oats. My mum is a 60's hippy and has always been a healthy eater and cares for the environment. Much to our dismay as children, she would always cook healthy options - such as choggi yoggi cakes. We now of course realise how incredibly lucky we were.
Eve enjoyed eating her first choggy yoggi cake.
Lottie
It was lovely getting to know Lottie, I felt a good bond between us and had a great time playing with her and Eve. Now that my brother and his wife are that much closer to us in distance I'm looking forward to seeing them more often. We had a great time staying with my mum, it was really relaxing and we felt very grateful to her for looking after us all.
We drove home from Cornwall on Sunday morning. As we usually only take Eve in the car to the supermarket Eve kept saying, 'trolley yay!' thinking that she was about to go on a trolley ride. She was awake for a fair bit of the journey and after initially getting a bit upset at being bored in the car, she listened to us when we said, 'listen to the music.' She did just that and stared out the window at the countryside passing by.
Back at home in Bristol after lunch, we pulled out the old baby carrier pram from the store cupboard. We had the idea that we could fit the Christmas tree in it so that we could walk to collect it. We walked down the hill with Eve through Arnos Vale Cemetery to buy a tree. As I was loading it on top of our pram explaining that we were going to push it up the hill, a nice chap who worked at the cemetery said that he would put the pram and the tree in the back of his truck and give us all a lift to the gates at the top. Kindness from strangers is what Christmas is all about! He was a really nice guy and Eve said, 'Goodbye, Man,' to him as we left his truck, which was amusing.
Eve decorating the Christmas tree for the first time
Putting up the Christmas tree was interesting. As quickly as we put decorations on the tree, Eve pulled them off. She was quite funny but soon got bored, which meant that I could get my obsessive compulsive tendencies in order, and decorated the tree myself :-)
Eve is formulating sentences well, and they are getting more complex. She's always asking questions and is curious about everything. She says, 'What's this?' and 'What's he doing?' often. Yesterday I stopped off at the library and ventured for the first time into a different section of the children's book area to pick out a few for older toddlers. I enjoyed looking through the variety of stories that are on offer for children, and came home with a stack mainly about aliens, dinosaurs and safari animals which Eve loves. Christmas has truly begun in our house, next stop, Eve's 2nd birthday at the weekend...
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