Our last summer

This summer will be our last as a three and although we're obviously all getting really excited for Simba to arrive, I'm also really sad that these are our last few days and weeks with just Henry. We're a little team, he's beyond easy, such good company, and we have our own little routine; I'm really sad that all of that will come to an end so soon. Of course we have more adventures to look forward to next year, and we are super excited to  have another little crazy to add into the mix, but for now I'm just trying so hard to cherish these days of just us. Me and my boy. Even without Simba's arrival, Henry will be off to nursery every day from January, so our mornings and afternoons will be very different to how they are now. And then it'll be school for goodness knows how many years. Our days of just the two of us are definitely numbered.

This morning I had a rare morning off work and Henry sat up in bed and said "what's us plan?" He still hasn't mastered the us/our me/my we/us parts of the English language, love him! I told him what I'd planned and he told me he was so excited and "us so happy mummy" which he says ALL the time at the moment. He constantly checks that everyone else is as happy as he is.

We started off with a trip to Brocksbushes to pick strawberries. It wasn't a typical hot summer day that you'd equate with picking strawberries but it was warm enough and we had wellies with us so it was all good. He absolutely loved picking them and was much better than last year, discarding the mouldy ones or unripened ones before they made it to the basket. He absolutely refused to eat any, he's obviously not a rule breaker and told me that we had to pay the man first.

We collected a basket full pretty quickly and once we'd paid we headed off to Wheelbirks for our lunch. Henry played, we had a really tasty lunch and a run around outside in the orchard too. He's such good company now he's older, he chats away and makes me laugh, shows off to all the old ladies that think he's great and I absolutely mean it when I say that I love to be with him. He's my very best friend in the whole world. We saw all the cows in the fields and the barns and then I put a very excited boy back into the car to head to Prudhoe Waterworld for some swimming.

He is so much more confident in the water since our holiday and absolutely loved our hour splashing around in the pool. He was just so grown up compared to all of the little toddlers and babies in the pool, the only one swimming himself in his arm bands, the only one refusing my hand going down the slide. He's growing up so so quickly.

The plan was to come straight home, but he's a creature of habit just like his mummy and as soon as we were all dry he told me he was very hungry and needed a 'snacka' in the little cafe. The one we ALWAYS go to after swimming. I foolishly had thought that a Wheelbirks lunch would be good enough but apparently not. So off we went for juice and snack by the poolside.

I then had an exhausted boy so loaded him back into the car where he fell asleep almost instantly for the drive home. He was still out for the count when we got home and snuggled into me on the sofa, telling me he needed a cuddle every time I tried to lie him down. So do you know what, I cuddled him, I stopped thinking of everything I needed to do: the wet towels still in the swimming bag, strawberries that needed washing, laundry ready to go on the line. I just cuddled my sleeping little baby because the days that I'll be able to do that are numbered now. Very soon there will be no afternoon naps or there'll be another little one who needs a mummy cuddle at nap time too. I spent a whole hour just sitting cuddling him, kissing him and loving every single second of it. I'm so intensely proud of him, I never dreamed I could love anyone like I love him and I hope that this summer is filled with plenty more happy days just like today. Just me and my little pigwidgeon.