Although as I write this we are now a family of four and I have two ‘Living Arrows’ in my life this post is really about last week so I’m going to dedicate this post to Toby in his last week as an only child. These pictures were all taken last Sunday, when we got back from the beach I had the first sign that labour might not be too far away.

Toby is such a little boy now. He’s a little whirlwind sometimes and loves nothing more than a massive space to run around in. His still so unsure of so many things though, he doesn’t like things he isn’t sure of and can be very set in his ways and can get upset if anything is different.

When we first got to the beach I put him in some crocs that I’d got from Tesco but that he’d never worn before. First up he didn’t like wearing them without socks – when I come to think of it he’s never worn any shoes without socks before so I can see why he was confused. Then he didn’t like it that the sand went through the holes and got on his feet, even though he regularly comes home with sand in his shoes and socks from playing in the sandpit at nursery. Luckily we’d taken his wellies as well as the weather was a bit mixed so we put those on and he was much happier.

He still wasn’t that convinced about the beach though, although to be fair his dad and I don’t really like beaches either so I can’t blame him! I love this next picture of the two of them together though, I think they had found a shell and Barry was explaining what it was.

If Toby wasn’t sure to begin with he definitely didn’t like the sand after he picked up two handfuls and threw it into his own face!  After that incident we decamped to the field behind the beach where he had a lot more fun running around like a loon and running towards a blackbird shouting ‘BIRD, BIRD’ and then being surprised when it flew away.

He may not be the youngest in the family any more but Toby will always be my baby, no matter how big he gets. I love that I have the last 85 weeks of Living Arrows photos of Toby, and from next week I’ll be adding Gabriel into this fabulous record of their lives too.