OUR HAPPY PLACE

Yesterday we went out for the afternoon and let Lucas burn off bundles of the energy he has. He has so much energy and no matter how hard we try he rarely burns it all off.
Lucas is your typical toddler and stereotypical boy. He loves to get messy, and yell "mess" at you, get wet and yell "wet" at you and he loves to pick up things off the floor, which is either going to be really cool and interesting or really dangerous. The floors not the safest place to pick things up from, but he's exploring, and taking every thing in from his surroundings.

I always find the shore a safer place for him to pick things up from as it is mostly stones, shells, sticks, ect... and he loved it. The shore or the beach are my favourite places to be. I find it helps with my anxiety and the sound of the water splashing and the smells just seem to totally relax me. Even when dogs that aren't anything to do with us come out of the water and shake and get me wet. I let it go over my head as i'm in my "happy place" and Lucas is also so content too.

Lucas is obsessed with all things "vehicles" at the moment. Buses, cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, trains and especially boats. So yesterday watching him joining me in my happy place, throwing sticks, stones and shells into the water, watching other peoples dogs and spotting all the boats was so wonderful. He had a huge smile on his face and was in his element. It's days out like this that make me feel all happy, warm and fuzzy.

We went down with my best friend, Kayleigh and we stopped off at the cafe for a picnic lunch and a latte to start off with and was so lovely to see there was a little car he could play on in eye view, about 2 meters away from the table. This meant we could chat, I could drink my coffee and he could play. he played so lovely with the other children, although yelling "share" at them although he was in the drivers seat, wasn't the best. He's grasping sharing and has had it drummed in his head so much, that he is getting it. As long as he's polite, sharing and using his manners, i'm happy to let him play on his own with the other children. In my view of course.

We walked down to the seafront and I managed to slide down the huge wall, and even get back up it again gracefully, and at nearly 35 weeks pregnant, i'd say that was pretty impressive really. Did it more gracefully than Kayleigh did.
We sat down on the stones and chatted, spotted boats out for Lucas, and just let him explore. He couldn't go far from where he was and if he attempted to go out of eyesight, i'd say "Lucas look at this... *insert stick, stone, shell*" and his curiosity, or stupidity would mean he'd come back and I didn't have to keep getting on and off the floor to get him back.

The only thing missing from sitting by the shore was a nice cuppa. The weather was a little chilly yesterday, required a coat, but was crisp and autumnal and it was wonderful. It was so lovely to watch my little boy, who 2 years ago was only a few months old, now running around, exploring, being expressive, talking in sentences and being wonderful. A lifeboat even went by and waved at him and he was so excited by that.

Crisp September/October trips the shore are my favourite, nothing beats it. A coat on, a cuppa (usually), the smells and calmness and it's not hot that it's busy or you're sweating. Lucas seems to have adopted my love of this too and I loved that we could sit there and he could spot the boats.
Nothing beats having a happy place, especially one with such beautiful backdrops for photographs.

What's your happy place?