Health Update, etc

Through the help of family and friends, we've found out that Howard is conscious and his memory is returning. Still not sure what is going on with him, but it sounds like he's improving, which is a big relief. We'll find out more soon, hopefully.

On to the trip B, E and I took...

We headed down to Dorset, near Dorchester, about half a mile from Thomas Hardy's cottage. The place we stayed was an excellent self-catering community filled with families and kids. The cottages ranged from large to small, so multi-family groups were welcome. The grounds were also quite communal, so if people decided to barbecue together etc, they could... or if they wanted to eat privately, that was fine too.

There was a fresh pint of milk waiting for us...


...as well as lots of tea. We spent the first afternoon just wandering around and getting acquainted. The folks next to us had three little kids, one born just a few weeks after E. They kindly shared their bouncy ball with us in the communal (walled in!) garden that backs on to some of the cottages.

E and I went exploring...

In the above picture we're headed to the little play area behind the vegetable patch/greenhouse. There are ponies in the pasture at the top of the hill.


E on the hopscotch pad counting his way toward the boonga-boonga (what he calls trampolines).

Playing with big legos in the little "fort" next to the playhouse. Did I mention this place was a toddler paradise?


Visiting the chickens, who provided us with fresh eggs in the morning.


E absolutely loved this fountain. Conveniently, it was about two steps from our front door. Not so conveniently, E quickly learned how to open the door if it wasn't locked. There's a waterfall at the far end of the pond, and huge fish swimming around inside.


The place also had a great clubhouse with a toddler section (pictured above), which came in handy round about ooh.... 6:15am as I gave B a much-needed sleep-in. E could be as loud as he liked there since nobody was around. The clubhouse has a flat-screen TV, couches, pool table, ping-pong set etc... great for getting together with other people/family and friends along. I was impressed. And yeah, E is in the same shirt he was in the day before - nobody is very particular about clothes at 5:30 am.

I wasn't able to get any photos of the swimming pool, but that was pretty good too. Indoors, set up underneath a huge Roman mosaic. E loved it.

And that's all for now... off to bed. I have plenty more trip update to come - gave Dad a brief overview on the phone but pictures are hard to put into words, so...

To be continued.

News on Uncle Howard

Just to let family and friends know - Uncle Howard (Dad's brother) is in the hospital in Thailand. Due to the language barrier, we're not sure whether he's in a coma or not. Apparently he was only able to speak two words - Dad's name and his wife's name, and he was unable to recognize his wife.

Dad got through to a doc who said it looks like Howard had a diabetic seizure and that his lungs are in serious condition. Dad thinks the doctor may have said the prognosis was 'good' before he was cut off, but we're not sure whether that was a) misheard due to phone issues or b) what the doc thought we wanted to hear.

So if you have a moment please spare a thought for him. And on the off chance if you know someone who speaks English in Mukdahan, Thailand, drop Dad or me an email.

Cornwall

No time to post long updates, so here is a small taster of what we've been up to.

More Mundanity

B is busy at work, I've been busy with random stuff. I found the time last weekend to cook up an almost-vegan dinner... spicy sweet potato and carrot soup, spelt bread... and B did a Greek salad (the feta ruined the veganness, but was yummy). While I was chopping vegetables, E grabbed an entire stalk of celery off the counter. He gave himself away by loudly crunching and announcing: "YUMMY! MMMM!"




Since the soup was so spicy, we added a big dollop of natural Greek yogurt to E's bowl. He loved it.

We are off to Devon, then Cornwall, at the end of this week. Looking forward to it. And we're happy that we didn't book flights anywhere. Go go 'staycations.'

I have nothing else to blog about, so here is a toddler in a box.

May

Been busy/sick, so haven't been updating as much as I'd like.

We visited the Horniman Museum last weekend on a rainy Saturday. They were doing hands-on African drumming, but the big draw for us was the little aquarium.


And here is B making the mistake of lifting a 21 month old within tempting reach of gallons of water. You can guess what happened after this picture was taken!


After drying off we went into the hands-on instrument area where E got to play a homemade instrument (you whack a foam sandal across the pipes to make whuffing noises). I like the random kid with his arm down the pipe.

B and E playing another instrument. Camera ran out of battery after this pic so that's all for now.