First holiday - Brighton

Our first holiday together has been lovely. We went to Brighton for a few days, this was our first proper break together, some family time. If I'm honest I hadn't really thought about it much, Richard was getting excited as he wasn't going to work for 10 days but I hadn't thought of it as a break for me, I thought that it would be same thing just in a different place. I've spent days desperately trying to get Tilly into a routine and to take a bottle but it is not quite working and as this would be a holiday it was supposed to be relaxing. So I threw strict routines out of the window, it was getting me stressed anyway and I didn't fancy sitting in a hotel room from 5pm just to accommodate the bedtime routine.

We picked an amazing time as the weather was lovely, really hot. It was also Brighton Pride week so it was full of colour and with it colourful people too. I've never been to Brighton before, it is lovely. A seaside town that manages to contain the tacky seaside paraphernalia in one place, the rest of Brighton is uber trendy and creative.

Look at all the pretty lights

We've walked and walked and walked. For the first time, I sat the pram chair upright and Tilly was able to sit up and see the world. We walked up and down the pier a few times, Tilly should have been asleep but I couldn't resist getting her out as she still looked so wide awake. We stood for at least 30 minutes as she watched the jet skiers do tricks in the water below us, her eyes so wide taking everything in, even following one of them under the pier and back again. Walking up towards the fairground rides, her eyes once again were as big as saucers as she took in all the new sights, lights and strange sounds. It was a wonderful experience for me, I loved watching her face as she saw each new thing. She was totally amazed and I just wanted her to be able to talk to tell me what she was thinking. I suppose like me, she must be bored at home of the same four walls and this was certainly something different!

The birth of Jean
Tilly needed her hat on to protect her little baldy head from the sun. In honour of her looking like a dinner lady we have named her hat Jean. It became quite amusing as we have now got into a habit of asking where's Jean?

Strapoon or Spooaaw?
We tried an amazing milkshake at a milkshake bar. The shop advertised that they had literally thousands of flavours of milkshakes, they weren't lying. Behind the counter was little trays, like that you'd find in a DIY shop but these were full of sweets, nuts, chocolate, marshmallows and more. Every sweet you could imagine was in the shop and on the menu, Cream Eggs, Mars Bars, Dairy Milks, Double Deckers through to Parma Violets and Wham bars - just how to you make a milkshake with them?? We plumped for Cream Egg. It was just delicious. So simple, they put a cream egg in a blender and then poured in the milk and continued to blend - and charged us a fortune for the privilege! What a money spinner. We drank it with a straw and small lumps of chocolate and the yolky middle occasionally got slurped up with the milk. As we got to the bottom, there were larger chunks of left over chocolate. The strapoon/spooaaw or whatever it is called is genius - a straw with a spoon design on the end so you could spoon the leftovers and make sure you'd devoured every single bit. Wonderful, we left with the purse lighter but wanting more.

Baby bunting
Tilly's fascination with Brighton continued as we stopped off for another coffee and her feed. Instead of feeding properly she stared at the bunting above our heads, I could see her eyes following the string from one end to another and back again. Each time she started to feed again, the wind blew the bunting flapped and she came off, desperate to see properly what was happening. Again, I became fascinated by her face and wanting to know what was going through her mind as she stared, concentrating on them for a good 15 minutes.

We met Dulcie for dinner and Tilly fell asleep. She was perfectly behaved, maybe it was all the sea air. As it got later we walked back to Dulcie's flat and sat and had a few glasses of wine. Tilly should have slept there but was fascinated by yet another new environment.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was late. It was optimistic thinking we could just go to bed and certainly was very optimistic bringing her crib. The moment I put her in it she screamed, we both tried to calm her but the screams were louder and louder. Eventually we put her in bed with us - she'd won. We both spent the night on each side of the bed and she had the whole of the middle to herself. If I'd have been at home I'd have persevered but I wasn't sure how thin the walls were and didn't want to wake up or annoy the other guests.

What a flirt!
In the morning Tilly and I waited outside the hotel as Richard went to fill up the meter for the car. A man was walking towards us and as he got nearer Tilly smiled and her smile just grew bigger and bigger until she had the biggest gummy grin, lurching towards him then she broke into a short squeal of excitement. What a flirt??! I looked at him and smiled, his smile by this point was almost as big as hers (but with more teeth!). Richard returned having past him further up the street, unaware of what had happened and commented that he was very happy. I filled him on on what Tilly had done.
This flirting of Tilly's continued, every shop we went in regardless of what kind of a mood she was in with us, she completely changed at the sight of any shop owner, assistant, waitress, passer-by. She greeted them with her now trademark gummy grin, flutter of the eyelashes (which always provoked the response, what big eyes!) and then coyly buried her head into my collar bone and then quickly glanced back flutter the lashes once more accompanied by another huge smile. She won a lot of fans in Brighton!

Daddy's girl
As Richard has been at work, he has not been able to spend as much time with Tilly. When he does come home, she is already into the bedtime routine and then she is asleep. These last few days have been lovely for him to spend with her and me. It is a great time to have some time now as she is more interactive and is getting more interesting by the day.
Recently he has choreographed a little song and dance 'Daddy dancing' that will always, without fail, even through tears make her smile. He has always loved her to pieces but this week he has become totally besotted with her. Totally loved up. It has been really nice to spend time together, all three of us, our very own little family.

Richard has spent this bonding time teaching her important lessons, lessons about art. Lessons about arsey artists like Hamish Black. We took her to see the infamous donut of Blacks and we taught her about respecting an artist's work and the importance of crediting their work. So we stuck our tongues out whilst poking our heads through Black's big hole while Richard took a picture. She did make her Daddy proud!

We ended the trip by going on a tiny electric train. We enjoyed it - Tilly slept through the journey!

I've really enjoyed the holiday, it was a holiday for me too. It's been great being with Richard again, we've had time to spend together where we can just be us again, away from the washing, cooking and mundane day to day life. I don't want him to go back to work, I want him to have another week off, another week of family time of just us three.