My Wild Ones // Playing with friends

Toby is just getting to an age when he is starting to play with other children, rather than just next to them. I’m sure being at nursery since he was 13 months old has helped him develop this skill. Having said that he’s still got a way to go before he can really play with other children happily by himself.

Yesterday we went to visit my friend Claire and her twins Thomas and Edward who have featured in some of my previous My Wild Ones posts. Being three months younger than Toby all three boys have spent a lot of time together since they were tiny. In this picture I think Toby is about 8 months and the twins are 5 months.

Baby boys

Recently they have started asking to see one another which is very sweet. The other day when we were on the way to take Toby to nursery he was saying, ‘not nursery, see Thomas and Edward in the park’. I tried explaining that Thomas and Edward were at nursery too (they go to the same one as Toby but are in a different room at the moment), but he wasn’t having any of it.

Anyway, yesterday Toby was very excited to go to Thomas and Edward’s house and the twins had been waiting for Toby so he could help decorate some cakes they had made in the morning.

Cake decorating

Obviously having been dealing with her boys since they were born Claire is very used to policing them and trying to get them to share and take turns, and they’ve had to do this since they were born too. Toby isn’t always so keen on the idea though and although we had a few moments of playing together we had quite a lot of crying too. How is it that in a room full of toys toddlers will always want to play with the same thing?

Car ramp

Actually on advice from Claire I now always get the boys exactly the same thing for Christmas and birthdays – if you know someone with twins I would definitely recommend it. You might think that getting them two similar but slightly different things is a good idea but invariably they will both want to play the same one – and having two identical toys can help solve the problem (although sometimes even that doesn’t mean they won’t both want the same one!).

All mine

Despite the tears and moaning Toby didn’t want to leave and had a lovely time playing with Thomas and Edward. I just realised last week though that even though he’s known them all his life, and they aren’t identical, Toby doesn’t actually know who is Thomas and who is Edward. I suppose we always just refer to them as ‘Thomas and Edward’ so it might be quite tricky to work out. Toby has solved the problem though by just calling them both Thomas!

I think I’m going to have a very sad little boy on my hands at the end of the month when his friends move away back to England. And I’ll be sad too – I’ll miss having a friend round the corner who I know I can always call on for a cuppa and a moan…I can see a lot of FaceTime happening in our future!

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My Wild Ones // Swans, Stickmen & a very big pond

After last week’s success, and blessed with another sunny day, Claire and I decided to take the boys for another Wednesday morning walk. This time we headed to our local loch (the very big pond!) for a walk around – there’s a path all the way around which is just about the right distance for little legs to manage.

A very big pond

As you can see it was a beautiful day, although rather cold but there was plenty to keep the boys occupied as we made our way round.

Toby has only just started to enjoy listening to stories and we bought a copy of The Stickman at the weekend which I think I have read about twenty times already. It meant of course that every stick he picked up was a ‘Stickman’. Even after reading the book though he still took a bit of convincing that these swans weren’t ducks or geese.

Swans

He was fascinated by them though, I love this expression of on his face as he watched them swimming around.

Concentration

Thomas and Toby were happy running backwards and forwards but after having carried Edward for most of last week’s trip to the park Claire had come prepared this week and he was happy on his mum’s back.

Claire and the boys

Although we’re happy to let the boys explore and stop to look at things we were on a bit of a schedule too as we had a doctor’s appointment to get to. Toby loves pretending to be a tiger at the moment and a bit of roaring soon got him and Thomas running off up the path.

On your marks

They must have walked twice as far as us though as they would run off ahead, then run back to be roared at so they could run off again. They thought it was hilarious!

Giggles

Of course Toby had to find a really big stick, I think we were lucky he didn’t have anyone’s eye out!

Big stick

There was, of course, plenty of puddle splashing going on too…

Puddle jumper

And our walk ended with the now obligatory biscuit…

Biscuits

And Gabe? Well this week Gabe was awake at least but he actually spent most of the walk with the sunshade down on the buggy because the sun was right in his eyes so I don’t know that he saw much. Maybe next time I’ll put him in the carrier and then he’ll be able to see a bit more.

Gabe

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My Wild Ones // Muddy puddles, trains & squirrels

If you read my post last week you’ll know there’s an awesome park where we live. Well, yesterday, as at last the rain and wind stopped and we got some sunshine, I met my friend Claire and her twins Thomas and Edward there so the boys could all get some fresh air and run off a bit of energy. [And I took a lot of pictures so this is going to be a very photo heavy post].

We were exploring a different part of the park to last week though. We started off at the old train engine that has recently been painted and re-sited in the park.

Train

It’s not really for playing on but you can go up on the footplate, which all the boys managed to get up to but they needed a hand to come back down.

On the footplate

From the train we headed off to find some puddles. This one was a bit rubbish really but the boys happily spent 10 minutes throwing sticks and leaves into it.

Puddles

And then we saw some squirrels. There are loads of them in the park and guess they’re pretty used to people. Toby and Thomas stood shouting ‘squirrel, squirrel’ at these two and they actually came right up to them instead of running away.

Squirrel

Down another path and we came to a bridge that was perfect for throwing sticks down into the water below. This bridge is actually the one we walked under last week.

Stick throwing

And then it was time for some squirrel chasing. This time they did run away but Toby and Thomas spent ages chasing after them just shouting ‘squirrel’.

Squirrel chasers

Toby got a bit stuck in the mud at one point and was a bit perturbed by his muddy boots, which weren’t even that muddy!

Muddy boots

There really were loads of squirrels today. Some of them were brave enough to get pretty close too.

Squirrel again

There was some great light, and Toby stayed still long enough for me to get this picture. It’s not quite what I was aiming for but photography whilst pushing a buggy and making sure a toddler doesn’t fall into a massive ravine isn’t that easy!

Looking

Then we walked back up the hill to the part of the park where the big open spaces are. Somewhere off in the distance there are the Forth bridges.

Open spaces

There was time for a bit more puddle wading…

Puddle fun

Before a well-earned sit down and a biscuit.

Biscuits

Toby, Thomas and Edward had a great time in the park (we didn’t name them all after Tank Engines on purpose by the way). Looking at these photos makes me realise just how tall Toby is – he’s only three months older than the twins but he’s a full head and shoulders tall than them!

Oh, and Gabe? Gabe slept through the whole thing. I guess he can do his exploring another day.

Gabe sleeping

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