a WONDERFUL day

12 months + 15 days

Today's been fantastic. A really great day. We started off at gymnastics, she spotted Ava from across the hall and waved madly at her. Ava's walking now and was doing so well, first time properly doing it in public, so we (her mum and I) were mega excited! We took the girls to soft play, although both of them had decided after half an hour that they were starving, so we took an early lunch.

We then drove over to Scarborough and met a friend at a super lovely playgroup. The sensory room was open, there was soft play, a big messy play area, music area, physical play area, Katie did finger painting on one of the messy tables, and a print was then made from that, which was a cool idea, I thought. We went for coffee with the friend and her little boy (young, but not so little - he's half katie's age, but the same height and heavier - he's a big lad!) At first katie wasn't sure about staying - if she's ready to leave somewhere, she's not subtle about it, she waves and heads for the door. But she decided to come and play after she reallised there were boxes to be emptied, treats to be consumed.

The afternoon/early evening was a majorly wonderful time. I gave Katie some tea and then me, her, granny and grandad all headed for a walk down to the beach. This is something we frequently did as a child, and the rain stopped just in time. We timed it perfectly, just as the fires were all properly establishing, about 7 or 8 along the beach, more than a dozen different sets of fireworks, hundreds of people. And Katie loved it. She was in the sling, snuggled up and she watched every single firework go up, waved at people, proudly clung to her light stick, ate some bread from a burger, and just totally enjoyed being part of it. She forced her eyes to stay open an hour past normal bedtime before curling into me and sleeping.

There's a large cliff to walk up to my parents house, but the view from the top is worth it entirely. Being there, however long I'm away, however much happens in life, coming back there, I always feel like I'm home and safe. It's my favourite view, my favourite place. And it was a completely magical evening. I have no photos of it, I regretted it only twice during the evening, I made the decision to enjoy the evening, not miss the atmosphere by being behind my camera. I'm glad I took that decision because it's been one of the most wonderful evenings I've had in a long time. Made all the more wonderful because my little girl loved it too.