I set myself the challenge to head into the great outdoors and have adventures with Ebony once a week every week for a whole year. I’m now officially a quarter of a way through the challenge and I can’t believe how fun it has been. Ok, it’s been summer, so arguably the easiest quarter of the year to enjoy being outdoors, but I’m still pretty pleased we made it this far without missing a single week.
We’ve spent quite a lot of time outdoors in week 12, but mostly on playgrounds which is against the rule. Great adventures is all about enjoying nature, so playing on the slide doesn’t count. We ventured to the sunny south this weekend, which unfortunately meant a lot of time cooped up in the car. Ebony isn’t a huge fan of car journeys, and over the course of three days she spent almost ten hours strapped into her car seat. To compensate, and tire her out before long journeys, we visited lots of parks. While she spent most of her outdoor time this weekend on the playground, she did enjoy some running around in the open air too.
On the way home, we stopped at a park in Glossop to stretch our legs before getting a bite to eat. After an overpriced trip on the miniature railway, we found some nature to explore. Ebony was pretty excited to be out of the car seat, so spent quite a while running across the fields, with a manic look of happiness on her face. Once she had run off some energy, she started to pay attention to her surroundings. She is getting better at climbing and balancing, so immediately put those skills into action by climbing onto a flower bed and picking out some discarded litter. 
She found a gap in some bushes, and climbed up to see what she could find. She soon found herself stuck in a web of thorns, but we managed to coax her out gently before she got too scared. I don’t want to go rushing into situations like that and make her feel she can’t do things for herself, so instead I try to just offer my hand and let her do the work herself, or even just talk her through it. I want her to feel supported and empowered, not dependent.
After freeing herself from the tangle of undergrowth, she ran off at speed across the field again, screeching for “dodos!” She used to call all birds “Twit twoos”, now somehow they have all become dodos, even the owls. I have tried to explain, to the bemusement of passers by, that dodos are actually extinct because they were kicked to death by sailors on the island of Mauritius, but she is not convinced.
The dodo hunt led us into the bushes, which soon revealed the playground beneath and so unfortunately our great adventure was cut short as she ran towards the park shouting “Weeeeee!”.
How were your great adventures this week? Please link up in the comments, thanks.
