We love just hanging out doing toddlery stuff locally but it’s nice to have a treat day further afield from time to time. Tesco reward vouchers made that possible for us recently when we met up with E’s also-2-years-old cousin at the Sealife Centre in Birmingham. E was more interested in clambering and running than fish gazing but he very charmingly shouted ”Wow, look at that” as he zoomed past! 
We lunched afterwards at Pizza Express (food for free when £2.50 in vouchers = £10 towards the meal). E was worn out by his adventures and fell asleep on my lap much to the delight of Daddy who could indulge in his favourite chocolate ice-cream without having to share.
On the way home we pulled into our beloved Hillfield Gardens to stretch our legs after the journey. E decided my vacated front seat was a much better option and cheerily refused to get out: ”Euan doing driving”. So the boys stayed in the car and I enjoyed a peaceful sit in the scented garden, lovely.
I eventually managed to persuade E out of the car with leftover pizza and the promise of meeting a new doggy friend. Here he is trying to share with Isla* dog!
Did you know that Euan would have been an Isla if he’d been a girl? 
It turns out Birmingham is quite a big word for a small boy to master.
”Burmigan. Burmingung. Burminham”. He soon got in when I broke it down to ‘Birming-ham’. I later overheard him saying to himself ‘‘Birming-ham. Yeh, that’s right. Burming-cheese too. Burming-breakfast’. Burning-dinner’. What a busy brain!
This on a day when he’d already informed me ‘‘Red light says stop. Green lights says go go go. Yellow light says Fix the hoover”.
What a fabulous little man he’s growing into. I blame the parents, of course :}