Granny and cherries!

On holiday to stay with Granny and Granddad is such an exciting event for Ruby, she has been looking forward to seeing them and of course their little dog Juno for some time now.  Anyone with kids will know that the days of just simply just packing up the car and going is history – it is a fine art to work out what will fit in the car (within reason) and still leave space for the driver and the kids.  Ben spent the morning of our departure with the kids so that I was able to get all our items together and loaded – everything from nappies to trampolines – long live the estate car!

We are very lucky that my mum and her husband live about 3 hours drive from us and have the space for us to invade them every now and then so that the kids are able to spend time with them and for me to visit my mum also – three generations of ladies – feel sorry for the men in the house.  They live at Argentat which is a town located south of the department of Correze in the edges of the plateau of Limousin in the valley of the Dordogne, it has approx 3125 inhabitants and covers 2241 hectares.

It is a beautiful setting right by the river and the scenery is stunning.  Ruby loves Juno who is a rescue dog with a very big heart – he is very excited when we all arrive and he is probably thinking “if only I had known I would have got a few more days sleep”.  He is so good with the kids and at the end of the day when his “babies” are in bed he can finally close his eyes and sleep, sleep, sleep and sleep.  He is very gentle and Ruby takes great pleasure in holding his lead as we take him for a walk – no pulling or running after other dogs – his duty is to be the proud owner of a little Miss Ruby.

"come on, come on Juno lets go!"

Rivan is old enough now to really relate to both granny and granddad – he has a special connection with Adrian which is wonderful to see and I can just imagine the future and see him and Adrian “building” boys things down in his workshop. 

It is a big week for him – he will be one year old on Wednesday and is now really standing, walking and even dancing!  The world that this has opened up for him must be amazing – his independence is growing and he is now able to get to all those places that were just out of his reach before.  He is into everything, but is very pensive – you can see him thinking about how to get “this DVD into the video player”, how to get his box of Lego open and how to climb up the stairs without anyone noticing.  He wants to feed himself now and if you do not give him a spoon to help out during mealtimes then he gets very cross, throws everything on the floor and refuses to eat.  Give him a spoon and he will happily eat whatever is on offer that night.  Tonight he had a cous cous salad with garlic sausage, cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, all washed down with a fromage frais, fruit puree and cherries and strawberries from the garden.

The weather has been a bit mixed since we arrived, but we have managed to get out and help pick the cherries, do a bit of weeding and take a lovely walk by the river to feed the ducks.  Ruby was quite unsettled last night before she went to bed and wanted lots of cuddles and kisses.  She also missed her dad as he is always the one who puts her to bed at home so we finally got her off to bed with grannies special blanket (actually one of Juno’s blankets) and a picture of her dad under her head while she slept (how lucky was it that MiPix had delivered the recent photos just before we left!)

Comments

[minutepapillon]

How nice to hear from you! It seems like you are having a good time there. Enjoy muffin eating tomorrow and give a kiss to the birthday boy for us.
I love the pictures of Ruby walking the dog!

Trampolines?????