St Francis

Well we’re back after a good holiday in France. We went to the Vendee and Loire regions and the weather was on the whole hot, hot, hot!

We were in a caravan for the first week which despite being a 6-8 berth felt a bit cramped at times. The children enjoyed the pool though Blessing usually had an early evening swim as she went to a little group in the morning and went to bed in the afternoon. It was much quieter then and she wasn’t at risk of sunburn so easily. She loved it! Splashing about.

Blessing seemed to adapt well to the change of surroundings and we made sure she had all her favourite toys and books around her to give her familiar things as well as her pillow and bedding from home. She seemed to be less hungry as well…probably the heat.

We had to be vigilant at times too as she wanted to just walk out of the caravan door. Unfortunately there were steps and it was a bit like grabbing someone as they were just about to walk off a cliff! We had bought a travel stair gate which came in handy at times when we needed the door open for ventilation. She also wanted to go for walks with her little buggy and there was no way of containing her outside on the site so we had to take it in turns to take her for walks (the older ones were great at doing this). We did try and put a line of patio chairs in the way but she found ways to get round them. Houdini must be her middle name!

She is doing well with her walking but still walks a bit like a cowboy and falls over easily. This is a lot to do with the Hypermobility and Hypertonia. It will take her a while to become steady. She was a bit like this when she was learning to crawl lots of ‘face plants’ as her joints and muscles just give way easily.

Blessing did get her new shoes before we went away. Amazingly this time they came back in 24 hours and we could pick them up the next day! It was so hot on holiday I felt sorry for her in shoes and socks when we were in sandals and flip flops. Whenever she wasn’t weight bearing, when she was in the buggy or car or something, I just took them off and let her have bare feet. I did look like a mean mother making my daughter wear ankle boots in blistering heat! It’s for her good though so we have to persist!

Our second holiday home was a French cottage/Gite and was out in the middle of nowhere with only three or four other houses in the hamlet. It was lovely!

It was much easier with Blessing as the Gite was on one level so she had a long corridor to wheel her buggy up and down and much more space to play inside and out.

She adapted well to yet another new place and seemed relaxed and happy and I think we could relax a bit more too with less hazards to worry about!

We went to a zoo which all the family enjoyed and Butterfly copied down all the French names for the animals to write a piece in French about our visit to the zoo for her teacher. Blessing particularly liked the wild cats and kept Miaowing when she saw them!

We had tea out on the way home and the restaurant had some soft play. We found the French very child friendly in their restaurants and one restaurant we went to didn’t even charge us for Blessings dinner or pudding!

Anyway! Back to the unpacking and the mountain of washing and ironing! Glad to be home though.