Thursday photo #227

This has been one of those weeks that has run away with me. For the past couple of weeks, Lia has only been going to school for half days. Yesterday was her first full day and Libby was off school because she had to have two teeth taken out at the dentist. Add to that a wonderful but full-on weekend adventure and it has been rather chaotic.

The weekend

A few weeks ago, I posted about a competition to win a Spirit Sleepover. At the time, I was wishing my two could enter because they love the Spirit Riding Free television programme and the prize sounded incredible.

Amazingly, they got in touch and asked if my girls would like to go along. Of course, the answer was yes. The only drawback was that it was up in Newcastle. So it meant a five hour journey up on Saturday to get there in time for their horse riding lesson.

From then on, the weekend just kept getting better and better – until the train delays on the way back of course. I will be writing about the weekend in due course but I think this face should give you some idea of how much they loved it. It really was every child’s dream come true.

The river is getting chilly

One of the things I’ve been looking forward to when the children went back to school is getting back into the river. I didn’t manage to swim much over the Summer and really missed it. As you can imagine though, the river in September is a little cooler than it was when I last swam in July. I know it will only keep getting colder but it’s not putting me off.

In fact, there’s something relaxing about swimming in icy cold water. While you’re in there, you can’t think of much other than the water. It’s essential to focus on the way you’re feeling and make sure you don’t become hypothermic. We might be talking about work or what the children are up to, but we’re really focussing on keeping on swimming and ensuring we don’t get into trouble due to the cold.

For us, there seems to be a second wave of cold. You feel chilly when you first get in, but it’s some time later that you start to get shivery and feel cold again. Before the Summer break, we were managing an hour and a half but this week, it was just under an hour. From next week, we’ll be cycling after swimming to try to get warm and get some extra exercise in. I’m not sure how long into the Winter we’ll manage to keep going for, but at the moment it’s an exhilarating way to start the week.

The dentist

Several years ago, Libby smacked herself in the mouth when she fell out of Lia’s cot. We took her to the dentist at the time and they said it could get infected in the future. Fast forward a few years and Libby had an abscess on her gum. She was booked in to have it taken out but in the meantime, another abscess developed above the next tooth along.

So yesterday, Libby had a day off school and I took her to the dentist to have her two front teeth removed. It’s quite sad, particularly as she’s probably 12 months away from her big teeth growing through. But, she was a star at the dentist and they whipped them out with just a local anaesthetic, no sedation and no fuss. It was a horrible experience for her, but I’m so pleased that the abscesses should be gone in a few days and won’t end up causing her any pain.

Our Thursday photo could only be one from the amazing weekend we’ve had. Here are two little girls waiting to go horse riding. Lia managed to trot for the first time ever and despite a few wobbles, she managed the whole lesson.