The last couple of days I have been so incredibly tired but I woke up this morning around 6:30 feeling refreshed. When I opened my eyes I saw you, Forrest, with your arm wrapped around my neck and your face nuzzled into my face. It's my favourite way to wake up. I made my way downstairs, made myself some coffee and then got cosy on the sofa listening to the bird song and continued with crocheting my enormous temperature sofa cover. It feels so nice to have some quiet in the morning before everyone else is awake.

About 30 min later I heard you, Forrest, crying and calling out for me so I rushed up to you and you said your lip really hurt. I hate that you get these big angry cold sores. So I got our special salve that was especially made for you and put it on. It always helps and makes them go away so much faster. We just planted our lemon balm in the garden so we can make more salve at the end of the year. After another lovely snuggle you wanted us to all get up so you could play Mario on the Nintendo switch. I made it to the sofa first and when you came down you looked straight at me and started shouting where's mamma, where's mamma! And it really made me laugh. 

While you and daddy played Mario odyssey I decided to make another batch of cupcakes for a nixies party tomorrow. I don't think I really needed to but it's always better to be safe than sorry.  

You, Nixie, were still asleep at 8:30 and I had to go upstairs to check on you to make sure you were ok but you were just blissfully asleep. You did however wake up and come down around 9:00. And then you wanted to play Mario kart which caused a bit of an upset but after a while, you, Forrest, were ok with it and the three of us played together while daddy had to run to the shop to get some missing ingredients for the frosting and then frosted the cupcakes. 

After a little while we all got dressed and ready for our little outing to Charmouth. In the car, you, Forrest, kept practising your numbers by looking at google maps and telling us how many minutes are left and we were so proud of you that you were able to tell us the number 53. I love that Google maps has become such a wonderful source of learning for you! Learning really does happen in the most unexpected ways. You also told us some more stories of spotting Foxy in the woods and the fields that we drove past and how quick he was because you were the only one who could spot him.

We ended up having such a great day at the beach even if the tides weren’t in our favour. I knew they weren’t but really wanted to go anyway as I had just been missing it so much! It was also a bit crowded but that’s to be expected on one of the first warm sunny Saturdays we’ve had in a while! The first thing we did after parking the car was to get ourselves some ice creams and then you, Nixie, wanted to pop into the heritage centre to have a look around. Afterwards we crossed the little bridge by the car park and before even making it to the beach we saw a family hanging over the side looking at something in the grass so we had a look too and it was a little mouse! They told us that there was an adder in the grass about a metre away and that they had just seen it eat one mouse and slip back into the grass, we only saw the tail end of it as it slipped away but we were so incredibly excited to be able to get so close to a little mouse! Forrest, you really wanted to hold her but we told you that it would probably terrify the little mouse if you tried since you are so big and you understood this and let that idea go. Afterwards we headed towards the big landslip, I wanted to find a spot for our stuff on the other side of it so that was our first mission. Once that was completed we spent the next few hours lounging, searching for treasures, playing in the water (well just the two of you) and just had the best day. We found some partial ammonites and some of our best ammonites we’ve ever found but they were still quite small. We are all on a mission to find some big ones! At one point you, Nixie, had found this pretty big stone that had a bit of a partial ammonite on it, not anything that me or daddy thought was worth keeping but you loved this stone, telling us it was the biggest fossil you had ever found and that you needed it. We told you it was impossible, that it was just too heavy for either of us to carry back. You were in tears over it. You couldn’t let it go. For about an hour you kept insisting you wouldn’t leave without it and even tried to carry it yourself which caused you to hurt your fingers really bad and in the end daddy decided he would try to carry it back for you. I was deeply touched by your unfaltering determination and thought you were rather incredible for it! And I’m pleased to say daddy was able to get it back to the car and you were so so grateful and just gave him the biggest hug, your eyes were still red from all the crying you did and it just made me want to scoop you up and hug you too. 

Before heading home, we ordered pizza from a place we love in Lyme Regis and took them to the beach front to eat and soak in the gorgeous views. Once our bellies were full we made it back to our car and began the drive home. Once we made it through our front door we made a quick dash to the bathroom so you both could have a quick bath before snuggling up in bed for some stories.