Ethan's 1st Holiday - Widecombe In The Moor

Widecombe In The Moor 

This was another place on my mum's must visit list. When we arrived it was lunch time so we had a lovely pub lunch before taking a look around. 

My parents looked around the village shops and craft fair whilst we looked around the village church before joining them in the craft fair. 

It was lovely and peaceful there away from the hustle and bustle, a very different way of life!

Ethan's 1st Holiday - Castle Drogo - Devon

Castle Drogo

We decided to visit Castle Drogo as it wasn't that far from our holiday cottage in Devon. 

Castle Drogo is a country house that was built in the 1910s and 1920s. It was the last castle to be built in England and probably was the last private house in the country to be built entirely of granite. 

We started by looking around the house but unfortunately didn't take any photos of the inside of the house, I wasn't very good with taking photos back then! 

The afternoon was spent looking around the amazing gardens. 

Ethan's 1st Holiday - Devon

When Ethan was 16 weeks old my parents kindly offered to take us to Devon with them for a little break. Due to my work I'm normally very busy in the summer so it was nice to take advantage of this season whilst on my maternity leave. We did have to hire a car for this little trip in the end as we didn't factor in how much one little person needs to take with them at such a young age. I think the only thing we did leave at home was the kitchen sink!

We stayed in a lovely cottage for the week and everyday we went out to different parts of Devon.

Clovelly

This is one of my mum's favorite places so it was only right that this was our first day trip.

Clovelly is a fishing village built into a cleft in a 400' high cliff. It is famous for its cobbled, traffic-free High Street and whitewashed cottages. 

It is also famous for its donkeys, who traditionally carry goods up the hill but we didn't see any on our visit.  

It is advised not to use prams on the cobbles so Ethan was placed in his carrier for the journey whilst Darren prepared to push the pram down the High Street. The start of the journey is very deceiving and even looked like it would be a nice stroll...

... but the Darren started to have some fun as he pushed the pram down Clovelly's High Street!

It's a very pretty place and the views are amazing but we had to make lots of pit-stops along the way. 

 

We also made sure that Ethan was protected from the sun as it was a lovely warm day. 

We finally made it to the bottom and stopped for a quick lunch in the Red Lion Hotel. 

After all of Darren's efforts with navigating the pram to the bottom we decided to let him have a well earned break and we took the landrover service back to the top of the hill!

Ethan and the Sea!

He Loves It, I Hate It!

Darren grew up in a costal town so the sea is a big part of his life. He grew up with summer holidays swimming in the sea and days by the coast. He loves the sea!

I grew up in a London borough we did school day trips to the sea side if we were lucky. I hate the sea... 

There are animals that live in the sea that don't want us there so they bite us! That in itself is enough reason for me to keep out of the sea but I must admit for me to get a good photo of Ethan enjoying himself in the sea I have been known to be found knee deep in the water soaked through! 

So with Darren's passion in mind and Ethan's love of water we have tried to take him to see the sea whenever we can. 

Ethan's Seaside Walks

We have taken Ethan for many walks along the seafront, he was just two weeks old the first time we took him. If I remember correctly he didn't really see much of it as he slept all the way through our walk.  

Gradually with each trip we showed him the water and the sand. Ethan was ten months old in these photos. 

Ethan first walked holding our hands during one of our walks, he was 15 months old. 

As with everything Ethan likes to do things when he is ready so it took a while for us to build up to paddling in the sea. We also had to wait for the right weather and a free day. I will blog about that adventure in another post. But as you can see from the photos Ethan enjoys his walks along the seafront and I must admit so do I! 

A Surprising Day!

Sleep!

For the first time in over a year Ethan slept through the night from 8pm until 7am this morning! I would love for this to be the start of things to come but I think it may be a one off. We won't know for a while!  

Even though this was amazing I still didn't have a great night sleep because when I realised he wasn't in the bed with us I was then awake worrying what was wrong. I did send Darren in there at 5am to check on him and everything was fine. 

 

Noticing Babies!

Whilst we were waiting for Ethan's swimming lesson and I was talking to one of the other mum's Ethan decided to pay attention to her baby daughter that she was feeding at the time. Now this is a first for Ethan as he has seen many other babies and has hardly even looked at them. 

It started off with Ethan stroking her hair with his middle finger. This is the finger that Ethan uses for everything he never uses his index finger, we call it his ET move! Hair is also Ethan's thing he always wants to touch your hair as it is his sign of affection. He kept moving from this baby to another baby that had also caught his eye who was sitting in his pram. 

After mastering his ET move he then used his full hand to stroke the little girls hair and then he decided he wanted to give her an Ethan cuddle. Ethan's cuddles are when he touches his head against yours. I couldn't believe what I was watching he was so gentle with her the whole time and I'm so grateful that her mum was happy for Ethan to have this moment with her little girl. 

With the second baby he decided to play peek-a-boo, he stood at the side of his pram smiling at him and just slowly lowered himself to the floor before jumping up again. He did this about three times. 

Swimming

I have been taking Ethan to swimming lessons since January this year and as with everything Ethan likes to take his time so far he has mastered floating with his armbands and turning in circles. We are working on kicking his legs and moving his arms.

Today Ethan started to use his left arm as he moved about in the water he also started to understand jumping into the water. This means he did actually do a small jump into the water and not just walk off of the edge of the pool!

All in all a great Ethan day was had by all! 

Ethan's Biggest Adventure - Walt Disney World!

Your Taking A Toddler To Disney - Are You Mad?!

We are asked this all the time along with 'You know he won't remember it right'?! 

Yes there are days when we think we are mad and it doesn't bother us that he won't remember it because we will, and we will have the memories and photos to talk about when he is older. Granted when we booked the holiday we did think that Ethan would be using some words by now possibly even a little talking and it does make me sad that I can't build up his excitement about the trip the weeks before we go. He does know who Mickey Mouse is as we get excited running around the room when Mickey Mouse Club House comes on in the morning. Ethan has no idea that we are going and I do try to tell him but I'm not sure if he understands what I'm talking about. I will be making Ethan a countdown the month before we go so that he has a visual reference of what we are talking about. 

In hindsight this trip is happening at the perfect time for us because it is in the middle of us waiting for Ethan's next appointments and all I feel like I have been doing for the last few months is watching Ethan for signs of autism. So we can go and enjoy being big kids, have fun and forget about everything else.  

So Why Disney?

Disney is a big part of our lives I would say that its more my passion than Darren's but he embraces it. He even agreed to getting married there having never visited Florida before. 

Officially this is Ethan's second Disney trip as I was pregnant when we visited Disneyland Paris for my 30th birthday.

Really Ethan hasn't had much choice as you will see many of his clothes are Disney related and he has had a fantastic collection of hats!

Now we just count down the days looking forward to our first Disney trip as a family.