Happy Monday everyone! We had a lovely weekend - the kind where you go into it with no concrete plans made so get the chance to just gently potter around the house and garden, getting jobs ticked off the to-do list that have been hanging around for ages. Life clutter cleared! We managed to sneak in a trip to RHS Wisley as well for their Harvest Weekend and had a great time negotiating the hay bale maze and seeing the autumn colours.

Things that have made my week last week:

1. Watching Max become a little artist. Not in the traditional painting or colouring way, but observing him intently arranging things – carefully laying 3 plastic bin bags on the floor, making sure they’re lying flat exactly how he wants them, and then arranging various kitchen utensils on top of them, one by one, adjusting until he’s happy with the composition. He’s an odd sausage but it’s beautiful to watch!

2. Completing Week 2 of the Couch 2 5K, which was particularly hard going due mainly to forgetting to take a puff of the asthma inhaler before heading out. Proud of myself for getting out there in the rain as well – there’s nothing less appealing than dragging yourself out for a run in the rain but once you’re out there it feels great!

3. Although Max loved the TV when he was a bit younger, he’s not shown much interest in it lately – until now, when suddenly any advert with an animated creature elicits squeals of joy, manic waving, and much running up to the screen and trying to touch it. Current favourites include the Admiral car insurance Russian doll, the British Gas penguin, and the Workplace Pensions fluffy monster (the boy has strange taste!)

4. Lighting the hallowed Jo Malone candle (Blackberry and Bay) while I worked in my office on Friday. It’s been a long awaited moment – I think I’ve had it 3 years now! Anyway, it’s the perfect autumn scent and gave the office a lovely cosy feel on a murky day.

5. Max had a hearing test on Monday that confirmed he has perfect hearing. We’d been referred by our Health Visitor, as apparently by 18 months the average child ‘should’ have somewhere between 2-20 words, so it seems that Max is a little delayed on the speech front. I speak to him all the time and his understanding is good, so I’m confident that he’ll get there in his own time, but it was good to have the confirmation that there isn’t an underlying problem.