I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since I posted a 5 Happy Things post - time flies! But that means there are lots of great things to choose from to go into this week’s list.

 

01. We had a lovely week’s break down in St Ives, Cornwall, principally to celebrate both my parents turning 60, but John, Max and I managed to sneak in a few days on our own too before everyone else got down. I always worry that a change of scenery will be difficult for Max but he’s becoming much more adaptable as he gets older, and was very taken with the ‘holiday house’. Of course his sleeping was a different matter and he definitely found it difficult to settle at night. But he loved his ‘choo choo bed’ - a Thomas the Tank Engine Ready Bed that we had to hastily buy from Amazon when we realised that he was too big for a cot bed now!

 

02. We had a lovely family meal out in Padstow at Rick Stein’s Bistro - us, my parents, my sister, brother in law and my nephew. I had John Dory with capers and olives and some fabulous cauliflower cheese, and the most amazing white chocolate pannacotta for dessert. I wish I’d taken photos as it was fantastic!

 

03. It was lovely to watch Max and his cousin play so well together - they spent all week just chasing each other round! And for the first time ever I felt like they got on more than they argued - a big turning point! They’re the same age, so have grown up really close, but I do think that closeness in age has made things like sharing very difficult at times. But I was staggered when Max noticed that his cousin really wanted a toy that he had and was crying about it, and I watched him go over and hand the toy to him - heart melting! (and jaw dropping too!)

 

04. We visited the Cornish Seal Sanctuary at Gweek which was a lovely morning out (free entry with our Merlin passes!) Max loved seeing the penguins and the otters, but his absolute favourite was an enormous sea lion who decided to roar right as we approached. Quite frankly I thought it was pretty terrifying, but Max loved it, and ran towards the sea lion, roaring back at him!

 

05. I didn’t feel well on Thursday at all, and we had to have a stay-at-home day, which Max always finds difficult - he’s very much a ‘get outside’ kind of guy. But he obviously picked up that I wasn’t well (in fact, he suggested Calpol!), and was just the most well behaved and cuddly little guy. We even had a nap together in my bed, which he thought was a total treat!