Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
This past fortnight has shown us what Summer is all about; perfect blue skies with wispy white clouds, bird singing in the green-leafed trees, The Boy running bare foot over the scorching sands of the beaches we've been visiting.
Balmy evenings have meant later bedtimes, glasses of Pimm's (for us, not him), ball games, dancing in the sprinkler valiantly trying to rehydrate the parched lawn, and climbing frame fun.
Like this:
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I know that we're coming to the end of the Summer and you may be wondering the relevance of this post and competition now, but there is never a wrong time to protect your skin from sun damage. Even in the middle of Winter, the sun's rays can be damaging. Especially in Winter in this country if the past few years are anything to go by.
Five years ago I used to look at my sister's skin with concern. She'd developed this brownish pigmentation around her hairline on her forehead and it was quite obvious. She told me that it was nicknamed the pregnancy mask and was in fact chloasma. Fast forward two and a half years and it's my forehead that I'm looking at in concern.
With the cobalt blue sky and the sun shining so beautifully all week, getting out and about has been an absolute must for us. It coincided brilliantly with the start of the holidays, and has ensured that we haven't wasted our time together!
On the way back from Silverstone on Sunday, we stopped off at an RSPB nature walk to stretch our legs. While we were hunting for The Gruffalo and calling out to mouse to see if he knew where he was, we came across a cave and The Boy just had to explore it to see if anyone was inside!
After Mr. TBaM got home from work on Monday, we nipped down to our local beach to partake in some pebble plopping. Mr. TBaM was determined he'd be able to skim stones, whereas The Boy just wanted to make the biggest single plop possible.
We met up with our toddler group down at Barry Island beach and managed to avoid high tide, but only just. Then, because we hadn't played with enough sand, we came home and built some more sandcastles.
On a Friday morning The Boy goes to nursery. While he's there he has lunch, but because he has so much to say for himself, he never eats well and quite often doesn't like what they give him anyway (spinach and potato pie for example). I'm not bothered because the socialisation is more important for him, but when I pick him up we always have to have a second lunch to make sure he's had enough to eat. I decided to take him to the clifftop park for he could burn off some more energy and eat a picnic lunch.
The sun today heralded more outdoor play so we headed for the beach again. We originally went further down the coastline to Southerndown beach, but the problem is that when high tide is approaching there it covers all the sand and only leaves a swathe of rocks. Cue an about turn and off to the old faithful of Barry Island! More sandcastles, more buried The Boy, and finishing up with a round of pirate mini-golf!
Hope next week is just as activity filled!
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I'm bored of using the prompts from Photo A Day July, especially when we've had too much fun doing this today.
Apparently, we're due to have a heatwave later this week. Yeah right, like we did in August? If we do, it will be your last chance to get a tan (safely!) before the sun comes back to see us next year.
It's not going to happen though is it?
Therefore those pale and pasty people like me are going to need a little help to stay looking healthy, alive and not like a zombie. Help in the form of fake tan.
Which is lucky because I've recently been sent some of the products from the new range by Tanatomicals, a fab and funky fake tan range exclusive to Superdrug.
Yesterday we spent the late afternoon at the beach building sandcastles in the sand and filling our buckets with salty water to empty into our moat. Yesterday it was boiling. Today it has rained, but yesterday was brilliantly sunny with temperatures of 28°C here in south Wales. Perfect weather to try out the UltraSun Professional Protection sun-cream we'd been sent to review.
As we are typically British in complexion, and therefore likely to burn at the drop of a hat, it is always extremely important that we cover ourselves in really good sun protection. I have suffered second degree sunburn from half an hour in the sun (in Dubai) and it's not a fun experience. There is no way that I am going through that again, especially as my skin now seems to almost have been tattooed with the shoulder straps from the swimsuit that I wore that day. I kid you not.
There's not much more relaxing after a long, hot afternoon at the beach that a cool shower to wash away the salt, sea, sand and sun-cream. Even more relaxing is knowing that your little one is dropping off happy and clean but exhausted next door on nice, fresh bedding.
It has been sweltering today, a marked contrast from a fortnight ago on The Boy's 2nd birthday when it widdled it down torrentially all day. The sky has been azure blue with a few wispy clouds here and there, accentuated by the criss-cross of the jet planes ferrying holiday makers around the world.
Of course on a day like today there is only one place to go: Barry Island (our nearest blue-flag sandy beach).
Only that's where everyone else in south-east Wales had decided to go. The road leading in and out was chockablock with cars crawling along at a snail's pace. I veto-ed the decision to go to the usual Whitmore Bay (the Island's main beach) and the alternative Jackson's Bay; instead we ventured into the unexplored Watchtower Bay and Old Harbour. At the top of the bay lay the skeletons of old boats ready for exploring by curious little boys at low tide, at the entrance to the harbour is a huge expanse of silky soft, golden sand.
Better still there were about ten families over the entire ares! Whereas around on the main Barry Island beach, we'd have had to fight the seagulls, rubbish and chavs to find a metre square to set up on! The cross is where we set up 'camp', in the protection of the harbour walls.
We had great fun! The Boy, daddy (especially his ears) and I were slathered in our new sun-cream (UltraSun Professional Protection) and built a whole load of sand-castles, trotted down to the fast-receeding water's edge and paddled away to our hearts content.
Definitely going there again as opposed to the usual beach; no chavs and no fairground noise!
