Blossoming

Nicole was on a late today, so she partook in the morning routine. She complained about, but I think secretly enjoyed the morning viewing from the cringeworthy "Big, Big, World" with the most incredibly patronising West-Coast American Three-Toed Sloth you can possibly imagine through to Bananas in Pyjamas by way of Charlie & Lola which she (we're still talking Nicole here) loves.

Then we went on a bike ride up the Brook, all 3km there and back with babe and dogs in tow, which was fun. The sun is out again today, hurrah!

I lashed up a salad for lunch to go with some hummus from the fridge and toast, then Nicole went off to work with us waving goodbye from the gate. Eloise ran after her up the road, which was slightly, but only slightly, reminscent of a scottish camping trip in the Tay Forest when Tiny chased Nicole up the road as she went to get supplies one time. Only differences: Nicole was driving, and Tiny caught her. Ahhhh, back in the days when Tiny could run like the flaming clappers for prolonged distances.

Squeaky went down for a nap with only limited "No"s and slept for a couple of hours, then we hopped back onto the bike and went to the bakery in search of bread and croissants, neither of which was on the menu owing to the bakery being closed.

So we (I) cycled back the way we had come, down and across the Brook and back up the other side to Stafford where we went to Fresco's and got the supplies we needed.

We stopped off at a playground on the way back and played on the slides for a while, which Eloise loved, as there was a wood bridge and a metal tunnel there which could be banged and clanged on to great comic effect.

Then I thought it would be a great idea to take the dogs out for another walk and see if Eloise would be more progress-orientated if she was pushing her new pram. This went pear shaped shortly before we reached the front gate as the pram got ditched in the excitement, but it was too late to turn back.

It took us half an hour to get to the Brook, all of four hundred metres, as gates, dogs, ants, kerbs and (tennis) balls all had to inspected and played with where possible.

Similar approaches were taken to crossing the brook, which was frankly a bit hairy as the flow was getting towards being semi-prodigious and any reasonable crossing point was literally hours of travel away, ie 500 metres or perhaps even more.

I don't remember if I recounted the story here about the woman who fell into the brook up to her neck after it was swollen from a storm a few months ago while we were debating whether to cross a tributary, but this same tributary faced us on our agonisingly slow passage back home. Flippy-floppies - sorry, thongs - came off and wading was done at this point. My skill as a forder of inhospitable bodies of water is obviously greater. No harm came unto us.

By the time we got back home (Eloise had to collect some of the flowers fallen from the tree pictured above) two hours had passed and it was tea time.

Now you may have picked up on Eloise having become a little more assertive of late. Her favourite word is definitely now "No." Her favourite phrase is now "No, No, No, No, No!!" It's a little wearing. We are trying to look on it as a gesture of independence. She is certainly becoming more independent, wanting to do everything for herself, and rejecting many apparently reasonable proposals out of hand. For instance, "Would you like some milk Eloise?" (thinks) "No." "With a straw?" (thinks) "No." "Some juice then?" (thinks) "Juice" (thinks) "No." (milk handed to Eloise) Eloise drinks milk.

Another day of amazing accomplishment then.