Holiday 2019 D12

Small boy woke up a bit earlier this morning – a fly in his room apparently. He was persuaded back to bed with remarkable ease and eventually we got up at 8.30am. I took the boys to get bread, croissants and pain au chocolats. It was a bit chilly so fleecy (£4 bargain H&M) dinosaur hoodies went on and we had a little wander round the lake on the way back because it was very pretty with a morning mist.

After breakfast I stuck my head back into the real mundane world for a bit and did a Tesco order for Monday once we’re home. Sunday tea and Monday lunch box will probably be service station food but never mind.

The boys went to play with the new neighbour and disappeared inside their caravan. I’m not sure what the etiquette is – am I supposed to introduce myself?

We decided I had to go say hello. Then large boy and the other 7yo went off to visit the Citroen DS. When they came back they were both riding on the rear mud guards of a go kart driven by the other boy we met yesterday. They disappeared off again until large boy reappeared wanting his swimming shorts on. Apparently they were all in the lake with no adults. The neighbours and I didn’t like the sound of that, so we went to investigate; sensibly small boy was not in the water. We found the two other older boys in the lake and our small boy sitting on a lounger with an older girl who was very kind, she’d noticed him sitting by himself and was keeping him company. Having determined that swimming without grown ups is not ok for 7 year olds we got our swimming kit on and sorted ourselves for a morning by the lake. The boys and I left himself to get showered and meet us later. The older boys all played catch with the older girl and generally mucked about. Small boy isn’t a big fan of sand so he sat on a sun bed with me and stayed warm and dry, holding my hand.

After a couple of hours in the lake, including a visit from himself, we went back to the caravan for lunch and sun cream top ups.

Large boy is proper fidgety, always wants to be doing something else. We sent him to play out by himself while we finished pudding, so of course he wanted to get different toys out and grumped when told no.

Back to the lake for a bit and then the pool. Large boy practised his diving (well what he thinks is diving) and small boy had great fun with the young teenage girl he’d met this morning. I was really impressed with how kind and friendly she was. It was great seeing our two boys, the two other boys we’d met and this older girl play together. They hadn’t met each til now and they were getting on really well.

In the mean time himself popped out to the nearest town for some milk and juice we forgot yesterday. By 4pm we’d been in and out of the water for 6hours so tiredness was setting in. We came back to the caravan to shower and chill with screens for a bit.

After an hour of screen time small boy went off in search of different neighbours with a bow and arrow while large boy and I played dominoes – he thrashed me 4-1. At this point I noticed his arms glowing a bit, it seems that he didn’t have enough sun cream between elbow and shoulder. He was starting to look rather pink, so aftersun was applied.

Twice today other mums commented to me about having more children. Both times I wavered and then I was honest that we are missing a 6 week old baby from our family. Both times they were quite uncomfortable, but this is part of normalising what’s happened for us, part of making it less uncomfortable for them and for me/us. I know I made them feel awkward – what do you say to someone you’ve just met who mentions miscarriage? But I didn’t weep at them, just a matter of fact honest response to a question or observation. I don’t and won’t feel bad about that.

As planned we went out to the all you can eat Asian food place. I avoided the sushi and shellfish but the buffet was really good, different from home but tastey. The boys wolfed down all chicken dishes as usual and even tried sweet and sour pork. The desserts were epic, small boy had four different chocolate dishes! I possibly ate too much crystallized ginger but it’s so yummy and unusual to find fresh.

Rather than a walk round the campsite we went down into Bergerac and wandered about. There was a little evening market in some streets, it’s a beautiful little city centre. We walked down to the quay and back up again through narrow alleyways lined with 14th century wooden framed buildings. By 9pm it was starting to get dark and the boys were flagging so we came away, back to the campsite and straight to bed for the boys (have re-applied aftersun to large boy). I won’t be far behind, so g’night.

To see what else we got up to on our 2019 summer holiday, see Holiday 2019 Round Up.