Forrest, your new wake up seems to be consistently 5/5:30 these days.  We got up and left Nixie and daddy in bed (Nixie, you came into our bed last night because you said I needed your cuddles and you’re right I do very much love them). Once downstairs I love the way you, Forrest cannot go past the bathroom without closing the door all the way if it hasn't already been done so.

I decided to get some of the chores done & while I emptied the dishwasher you got into your favourite chair,  you love sitting at the table like the rest of us and you grabbed a marker on the table and started to draw which is another thing you've started to really enjoy doing.  While I made breakfast, (yes it’s banana pancakes again!),  you grabbed an orange and bit into it telling me you wanted one, you really love citrus! You'll start with eating the pieces completely but then after a couple you just suck the juice out and spit the rest out. 

Amazingly the second caterpillar we found in the garden and put into our habitat has now also turned into a pupa, it's so exciting, I wonder what they will turn into! But sadly 3 more of  our froglets have died,last week we lost 5 of them.  I'm still not entirely sure what happened,  maybe it was just a natural thing and the early ones weren't strong enough but I have a horrible suspicion that it's to do with us putting a seashell in the tank and even though it was washed maybe there was still some salt on it which might have hurt them.  We redid their tank and they seemed to be doing so much better but now several more have died again and now i’m thinking it’s because we are not setting them free right away like we normally would do. This life of lockdown has affected so much of our lives.

Nixie,  you and daddy got up at 8:00 just as I was finishing breakfast, you came down in such a bad mood and weren't happy about me making pancakes,  your favourite, because you wanted cereal.  You ended up going back upstairs in a huff,  and your bad mood seemed to only get worse. You are extra sensitive this morning and things that haven't upset you for a long time like not going down the stairs first has now really caused a big giant upset. Daddy is being so patient and radiating pure love which thankfully is rubbing off on me. I have been feeling slightly impatient lately but I feel a shift again and I'm in a much better place, I was able to catch up on some sleep over the weekend which was much needed! But once you did come down you were happy and even happy to be eating pancakes!  After breakfast I decided to bring back in our courgette plants because they don't seem to be doing so great outside,  maybe they were too little to go out and in the process I found loads of itty-bitty snails underneath the pot which you absolutely loved and proceeded to take them out into the garden so you could play with your new snail friends,  you decided to build them a den and you kept telling me how strong they are since they can carry their whole house on the back. 

While Forrest had his nap you and I learned about levers and you thought it was pretty cool that one penny was able to lift over 20 marbles as long as the fulcrum was close to the marbles.. You had fun experimenting with different weights and moving the fulcrum back and forth.  After that little experiment we made a catapult out of Popsicle sticks, it didn't turn out as good because we only had the small ones instead of the jumbo ones.. But it still worked and we had lots of fun catapulting pompoms across the room. After a little while the catapult turned into an ice cream scoop and we spent the next while playing ice cream parlour. 

After lunch we headed out for a walk but first I annoyingly needed to get some stuff from Waitrose.  I hate needing to go to the shops, now we go wearing masks and it takes such a long time. As soon as I got back you were ready with your basket. We were on a mission to pick dandelions so that we could make some dandelion bread. We thought the idea of making bread with dandelions was very exciting and so did others who we passed on our walk who were intrigued by our basket full of dandelions. Forrest, you were in the backpack and when I eventually let you out so that you could walk, Nixie was acting so protective of you, making sure you didn’t walk into the brambles or stingy nettles. We headed towards the rapeseed fields but somehow ended up walking through a bog on our way and it was the smelly kind but at least the sun was shining and once we made it through the bog we sat down to have a little rest and a snack.  Whenever I'm sitting I love the way you back up into my lap and have a seat it's so incredibly cute and then you always look up at me in the sweetest way at the same time. You and your sister had fun running around for a little bit before heading back home and you also of course had to walk straight back into the smelly bog and refused to come to me so I had to go and get you and get my converse shoes really muddy and smelly all over again.

On our walk back we saw a lot of butterflies and whenever you, Nixie see a white one you claim it’s from the Arctic, anything that is white you think is from the arctic.We ended up following a butterfly the whole path home,  she let us get so close to,  she was beautiful. 

One amazing thing that has come out of this whole pandemic is that I've been really enjoying the connection I feel from strangers. I love the human encounters and small talk that is made while social distancing, I mean we are all going through the same thing but in our own way and that brings us all together. But we did come across a lot of people, even though everyone was as accommodating as they could be taking turns to pass each other, I don’t necessarily think it’s the best place to go during the day.  

We had such a nice walk back home though stopping along the way to smell all the flowers and you would ask me to take your photo. As soon as we got home and after washing our hands  we started making our bread. You loved picking all of the petals off and Forrest you  really loved to help too...but you especially loved eating the petals and Nixie loved feeding them to you. Afterwards once the bread was in the oven I started prepping dinner so that we could head to the woods super quick to release some of our froglets because I was not going to let anymore die.  

We should always return the froglets to where we found them, unfortunately we always find them in a temporary puddle so we release them close by instead and we go to the same place every year. This time our path was blocked by a herd of cows. I love cows so incredibly much but I am also very intimidated by them especially when it’s baby season, Kevin thinks I’m being ridiculous and always laughs at me but I got scared and wanted to go somewhere else. Instead we just walked around them and all was well! To get to our little spot we have to cross a little bridge & you (Forrest) tripped going over the little ledge and sort of gently rolled down a bit but instead of getting upset you had to go back up on the bridge and try going down it again this time you managed doing so without falling and you seemed so pleased with yourself. Once at our spot you wouldn't take no for an answer about going into the river and daddy really struggled with keeping you happy but without letting you go into the river. Me and your sister went to release three of our froglets. I always get such a lovely feeling seeing them hop away into their freedom.

We headed straight home afterwards and you (nixie) found me the most amazing heart shaped stone for my special heart collection, I love that you are always on the lookout for them for me. 
When we got home I finished making our dinner of butternut squash and sage pasta as fast as I could but luckily we had the dandelion bread to hold us over which we all enjoyed especially the two of you!