It’s been a bit of a rubbish couple of weeks over here lately – first Max was ill, then I was ill, then Max was ill again, while I was still ill – and I’m still not well now! I felt that this week would be scraping the barrel a bit to find 5 Happy Things, but after a bit of thought I did manage to come up with some!

01. I took Max for his second meningitis B jab at Boots last week and I have to admit that I was dreading it. We had to travel to a large Boots that we’ve never been to before, apart from meningitis jab 1, so I was convinced that he would recognise the place as soon as we pulled up in the car park, and if not then, then definitely once we set foot in the store. My husband came with me as I wasn’t feeling great, and we armed ourselves with chocolate buttons. We came into the store and Max showed no signs of remembering being there before, and was perfectly happy to go into the consultation room on the promise of a chocolate button. I gave him one just before the jab, and I honestly don’t think he even noticed it happen! My husband asked the lady if she’d actually done it! It just goes to show that so often the things that we stress about with our children turn out to be no bother at all.

02. Max has settled really well into his new room at nursery. His nursery like to move them up on a regular basis, which I really liked the idea of when we looked round, as they’re always grouped with similar aged kids, but in reality it means a big change every 6 months. For a child like Max who doesn’t like change, that always unsettles him for quite a while. But this is his third room change now, and I’m so impressed with how well he’s settled in – he loves his new Key Worker, and seems to be coming out of his shell a lot more.

03. John and I had a lovely meal out last weekend. My parents had Max overnight, and we headed to a lovely little place near to us that we’ve been meaning to try for ages. It was lovely to have a peaceful meal, although we arrived home at 10.15 totally exhausted! It was strange to wake up the next morning without being woken by Max crying though – and apparently he slept in until 7.45 at my parents! Unheard of in our house!

04. I’ve talked before about Max’s speech being slow to come together. I have friends who talk about their not yet two year olds counting to 30, so Max’s lack of counting has been a mild concern. He has counted, he just calls every number 2 – “two…two…two…two” – you get the gist! So I was staggered the other day when out of the blue he counted up to ten walking up the stairs – no prompting at all, he just came out with it!

05. I managed to get out of the house with Max for the first time in ages on Thursday. We headed out to my favourite local spot, RHS Wisley, and had a quick burst of fresh air. It made me laugh though – I’d forgotten how exhausting it is going out with Max – I’d taken the pushchair as I couldn’t face carrying him, and it really slowed me down. In all my photos of him, he’s miles ahead of me, waiting for me to catch up! Normally I’m right there behind him! We headed to the cafe and had a cake (although he massively embarrassed me by having an almighty tantrum because I wouldn’t let him have crisps as well as the cake). He was really cute on the way home, and ‘phoned’ Daddy (using his hand as a telephone) and told him all about how we’d been to Wi-wi and the cafe and had cake.