Max caught me out today and arrived somewhat earlier than usual. His mum wasn’t taking Alfie to school today, so it meant I saw Max’s first smile of the day at the bottom of the stairs instead of in the car. That was fine by me. The lady of the house made her way cheerily to work and Max and I just chilled. The fire was lit, and the blankets unfolded, and we just sat and enjoyed each other’s company. It was pretty cool – Max didn’t seem in a hurry to move. I wasn’t keen on doing much either – apart from cuddling Max! The events of the previous day meant I was quite tired and needed a day just chilling out and reflecting.
We watched a couple of Thomas the Tank Engine episodes, before slowly getting ready to go out. We had been invited to share a day adventuring with Max’s cousin Eli and it was agreed we would visit Coconuts again – just two short weeks after our previous visit. Max didn’t mind, he absolutely loves it there.
We had arranged to meet Eli and Elsie at ten o’clock at the Centre and as we approached it Max went rigid with sheer excitement! He was so happy. We met the others just inside!
Eli – as usual- was all smiles to chatting away quite happily. Elsie looked as beautiful as ever. We paid our dues and made our way in and Eli and Max were off.
It was beautiful to see these two little cousins playing happily together, each doing their own thing, sometimes playing together and sometimes playing and exploring on their own.
They both made for the ball pit. Max was in his element throwing the balls everywhere and Eli carefully picking each one up and sometimes throwing them back and sometimes putting them gently back in.
Max made a big step forward this week. Last time I had to scale the heights and help him through a small hole between the bouncy ladder and the big blue slide. Today he attacked it confidently and made his way to the slide all on his own. He even encouraged Eli to do it and the two little friends had so much fun.
Elsie watched on smiling all the time and she even had a go in the ball pit herself. I think she enjoyed it – she smiled anyway – mind you she smiles constantly. Maybe she just loves everything!
At one time the door into the main hall had been left open… Max was onto it straight away and made a bolt for the Noddy Car – his favourite thing of all, I think. No need to insert a pound, Max just loves sitting it steering to his heart’s content!
After a couple of hours both little lads were exhausted and so we made our way home after agreeing to make this a regular occurrence. It was so sweet to see all the cousins so happy in each other’s company.
Max made dash for the slot machines on the way out.
He had very heavy eyes when we reached home and gave the biggest smile of the day when we climbed the stairs to the special room set aside in our home for the grandchildren – it is uniquely decorated half with boys’ things and half with a girls’ theme and thankfully they all love both bits. It’s their special place. The shutters were closed, the pillow was plumped up and Max snuggled down to sleep. He dreamt of climbing, sliding and rolling about and he dreamt about his little cousins who he loves so much.
After his extended nap he woke refreshed and we enjoyed a late lunch and listened to the Scallywags DVD.
It wasn’t too long before Max’s dad arrived. Half term had begun Happy days! We had a lovely day – Just Max and me and Bes and Eli and little Elsie.
Treasured times!
Ramblings of a retired teacher 