THE 3 PEAS IN WINTER

I have 3 main memories of winter. Miserable weather – 3 months of rain and wind. The start of our house extension, in said miserable weather. Coronavirus throwing everything up in the air, germs included. Obviously it was a lot more than that, thankfully many smiles too, but what a grim few months it was in amongst the good stuff!

When it was nice weather, we did our utmost to get outside. In fact there were days that the little one didn’t play inside at all! On the nice days nursery run views are a bit of a dream too! Hampshire is spectacular when it has its dawn or dust glad rags on.

When the weather wasn’t so good we were obviously searching for alternatives indoors!

And went searching for puddles at other times…

Obviously there was much fanfare about Christmas decorations and we were impressed B didn’t try to destroy the tree, most often just walking right past it pointing. There was one rabbit decoration he particularly liked, but the others weren’t touched!! Christmas was fun. And so much more engaging than last year as already he loves opening presents. He seemed to grasp that as interesting as the wrapping and boxes initially were, there was always something more interesting inside!

And he loved the LinkedIn Christmas kids party too, even found a calculator!

Over Christmas he also got bronchiolitis which wasn’t great. NHS 111 sent us to A&E for a check up, thankfully he didn’t need to stay in long or for oxygen. I’m not too sure he realised he was in hospital as Southampton A&E has a separate childs unit which is basically a playroom, and he was even given a Christmas present!

Building work started on the back of the house… 18 weeks of winter with a special ‘air conditioning’ system known as not having a back on the house. Not so delightful in the wind (part of the building site landed on our car at one point), but it will be worth it for the end result this summer. My advice to those contemplating a build – one of you needs to play bad cop and the other good cop. Contractors need careful management and the company thinking I’m slightly unhinged sometimes definitely works in our favour. The customer that screams the loudest at the appropriate time definitely gets looked after best! And real tears are fairly hard to argue with.

In the winter there aren’t so many tractors in the fields for B to eyeball. Thank goodness for tractor rallys! Just after Christmas, 122 tractors (yes, one hundred and twenty two), drove through Stockbridge one after the other. It was like next Christmas come early as far as B was concerned. We found it pretty impressive too, seeing how big and shiny tractors are and just how many different models and makes there are! Apparently there are 500,000 in the UK in total, so we do still have a couple more to see!

We had a lovely day at Lepe Beach. We were invited to return and it had been a while since we’d been, a while in fact since we’d been to the seaside. We all enjoyed ourselves and no water went over the top of any wellies!

Time away. I popped to Zurich for 2 nights with work in December, but was poorly when I was away so it was truly awful. In January after a few shocking nights of sleep, I just needed a break. It was our busiest time at work and I needed to get my head down to be able to perform at work. Mr P sent me away to a nice hotel in London with some of his points and it was absolute bliss. A good way to regroup and relax by having no childcare responsibilities!

The Silk Mill in Whitchurch had a light display in the depths of January. They were blessed with nice weather actually and B had the best evening charging around the lights. He was so excited it was just gorgeous. Kissing and touching the lights, running between them squealing with glee. We enjoyed the Southampton West Quay ones too! We had an early tea in Zizzi and I have to say it is most toddler-friendly and a good wine and sharing starters list too. Turns out B liked the deep fried squid as much as us!

Painting is something we don’t do much of at home. Mess making… Spend 2 minutes making it and 30 minutes cleaning up, that is the domain of nursery… But recently I have been buying some more craft bits, given how much wet weather there has been and we’ve all had fun together. When we get the time for it right, the little one excels at his mark making!

Clos Maggiore was our grown up treat for Mr P’s birthday in February. Pre-baby we’d once a month have a London date night. Since-baby this was our first in London! And what a treat, it’s a gorgeous restaurant and we spoilt ourselves. How decadent to have champagne and fine food on a Monday night. We were obviously still home by 9pm, and in bed by 10pm. And of course the little one behaved impeccably for his grandparents!

Eating with the little one continues to be fun, and unpredictable! He loves food, most days. Other days nothing but a pouch will do!

And then for balance, of course some pancakes! My Tuesday club of mum’s and babies met for play, pancakes, pizza and prosecco. The toddlers were deeply unimpressed with the latter 3 items but enjoyed their play, and the garlic bread! I was glad of a kitchen to make pancakes in given we are without walls in ours…

Cheers to the new year and hopefully a sunnier spring that brings health and less worry. Cheers is one of this little ones favourite words so lets hope we can do it with gusto again soon!