The Ordinary Moments – Feeding the Ducks

This week, whilst I worked on the local election count, I got chatting to a family friend. Her lovely family feels like part of our family, and she told me that she always reads my posts and is glad I’m taking the time to document as much as I can of Pickle’s early life. She told me these memories are so precious. And that I’ll be so glad of them in the years to come. It’s easier to remember the big moments: the birthdays, the big days out and the holidays. And it’s all so easy to forget The Ordinary Moments. Which is why I make sure I write about them whenever I can.

Yesterday was just an ordinary day. It started slowly, with a lazy breakfast and too much CBeebies. By the time I’d gotten showered and dressed, Pickle was ready for a nap. And once he’d woken from that, it was quite the battle to change his nappy and get him dressed! Eventually, we managed to leave the house at 3pm, and we headed to our favourite place: the lake.

It’s about a mile walk to the lake. If I’m walking it on my own, I can get there in under fifteen minutes. Yesterday? It took us about an hour. We just let Pickle set the pace – and that pace included running in the opposite direction most of the time. We weren’t in a rush, and it was just so lovely to be enjoying the sunshine.

He clasped his ball for most of the walk – occasionally throwing it in front of him and running after it. We were originally going to bring a bigger ball he has, but he threw it to one side and picked his Tiger ball instead. I was secretly quite pleased as I bought this ball after a day out at Hatton Country World and I’ve been worried it was a bit of a rubbish memento from our day out as he didn’t seem that fussed about it.

We even spotted a little patch of bluebells and I couldn’t resist taking a few snaps of him in amongst them. Even though it was gorgeous weather, Pickle was adamant he wanted to wear his stripey jumper, and it had to be zipped up. He loves this jumper (which was a £6 bargain from Tu, Sainsburys!).

The best thing about going for a walk with Daddy is that he does fun things like letting you walk up the underpass walls! Our little Spiderman was having the time of his life.

Once we arrived, we rewarded ourselves with ice creams. Pickle had a Smarties push-up (in my limited experience, the ice cream with the least mess – thank goodness for no drips!), I had a Crunchie ice cream and LPD went for a mint cone. It was one of the calmest times I’ve spent with Pickle outside! He was quite happy, sat in the shade, licking his ice cream and being still for a change. It was lovely!

Once our ice creams were finished, we headed to the park. Pickle’s favourite was definitely the swing! He laughed, he giggled and he kept asking for more. I like to hold the swing high and say “Ready… steady…” which Pickle repeats in his own way, and then let him swing with a big ‘GOOOOOOO!’. He loves it. And I love it too.

Months ago, I bought a packet of duck food, and ever since I’ve kept forgetting to take it with us when we go to the lake. But not yesterday! Once Pickle had a go on the slide, the roundabout and did some excellent rocking on play horse, we headed in search for ducks. What we found? Lots of geese.

I was very grateful for this fence and gate – I would ordinarily let him run wild but these geese were right in front of the lake and I had visions of Pickle running straight into the water or jumping off the little jetty. As much as it was a lovely day, I didn’t fancy a dip myself to save him.

It was just the loveliest two hours. The exact way I hoped we would spend weekends as a family. Long may this sunshine continue so we can carry on enjoying the outdoors. And I am very glad to have written this, and taken these photos. It may not seem like much now, but these are the exact things I want to look back on and remember.