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I usually try to do my adventuring at the weekend, because that way I have an extra pair of hands and can take the camera and try and capture what Ebony is doing. This weekend, thanks to a lot of work (mine) and a football tournament (Laurie’s), that didn’t happen. So my post is a little late this week, because we went adventuring on Tuesday instead. This meant I had to use my phone to take photos, so apologies for that. And yes, that is my finger on one of the photos, but Ebony was balancing on a narrow wall overlooking the cow’s field so I was absolutely terrified and not paying proper attention to my photography.
I took Ebony for her second dance lesson on Tuesday afternoon. The dance school isn’t the easiest place to get to and, because we were in a rush, I used the Ergo to carry her there. We haven’t been using the Ergo as much recently, it probably only sees the light of day once a week now. Since she started walking, Ebony wants to walk everywhere, and it’s much easier to spend three hours walking home from the corner shop, than it is to spend twenty minutes trying to wrestle her onto my back in the Ergo. What can I say, I like an easy life.
So we got to dancing in time, and Ebony seemed to enjoy the lesson. It definitely went better than her last lesson (you can read about that here). She’s a bit older now, and much more interested in following instruction and copying what other people are doing. After 45 minutes of nursery rhymes, it was time to go home. The dance school is close to a small public gardens called Chadkirk Estate, it’s small but pretty and there’s room to run about so I decided we should head there.
It’s a 10 minute walk from the dance school to the gardens, and it took us one hour and 15 minutes to get there. The first half of the journey was a country lane, or heaven, if you are a puddle-enthusiast like Ebony. She jumped in every single puddle for at least five minutes, and there were quite a few along the way. I eventually coaxed her off the road and onto the secure path. This path is popular amongst dog walkers, and every single dog that walked past us was greeted with squeals of, “Hello, puppy! Snotty nose!” and shrieks of laughter accompanied with aggressive pointing. Er, yeah, sorry dogs. That’s her new joke. It’s not particularly funny, but it’s an improvement on “Hat!” said while holding something that does not qualify as a hat atop her head.
The country path we spent 75 minutes on, is probably the most dull path in the world. Yet somehow Ebony managed to find a lot to do - sniffing flowers, collecting stones, splashing in puddles and getting into fights with long blades of grass.
Eventually, I managed to get her into the gardens, and she ran around screaming excitedly. She loves being chased so we did that for a while (because there wasn’t anyone else around), and then I sat on a bench to catch my breath while Ebony explored the gardens. For the past few weeks, she has been venturing further and further away from me. Where she was once always within a few metres, she is now a tiny dot in the distance, I can only keep track of her because of the sunlight bouncing of her head.
After saying “Hello, moo!” and “Boobies!” to some cows (while pointing aggressively at their udders), smelling every flower in the gardens (approximately 13 million), and being chased across the lawn, she finally announced, “Home.” I managed to coerce her into the carrier, and we made it home just in time for the sun to go down.
Have you been on any adventures this week?
The reasoning behind the great adventures challenge can be found here.
