A holiday in Suffolk (part 1)

We have spent most of the last week on holiday in Suffolk, a beautiful county in the East of England – hence being a bit quiet recently on the blogging front. Despite getting married in December we still hadn’t been away, my husband had booked some time off work, and we wanted to escape our house for a while as despite buying it just over a year ago there is still a huge list of DIY and house tasks we still need to complete (although I wonder if we will ever manage to do these with an active and inquisitive child around, especially as there are so many things I would rather do than paint wardrobes or sort out cupboards or research tiling).

Anyway. At the last minute we rented a beautiful converted cottage called The Seed Store, just a short drive from the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The cottage itself is wonderful, with the main living area surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows; perfect for soaking up the spring sunshine which we were lucky enough to have throughout our stay. You can look directly onto the field in front of the cottage, which was home to lots of sheep. Frida was in heaven, pointing at them and saying “baa baa”. Needless to say we did many trips outside to look at them!

At home I co-sleep with Frida so we did the same on holiday, and made sure we booked somewhere with a comfortable looking sofa in case my husband needed somewhere to retreat to. I’m so glad we did this as Frida is still waking up very often, and this holiday was no different – possibly even more than at home, perhaps because the bed and surroundings were unfamiliar. Yawn.

Although I was determined to get organised with packing, I predictably did not manage to do so and found myself frantically packing the just a few hours before we had to leave. This led to quite chaotic over-packing! My husband and I both ended up packing books for Frida, which meant we ended up with a lot. However, most of the time we spent indoors Frida sat flicking through them, so I don’t think it was too bad a move. We emptied a fruit bowl to use as an improvised Montessori book basket.

I also packed a few of Frida’s favourite toys, though in hindsight I should really have been more confident in not bringing any toys with us as when she wasn’t looking at books she was busy crawling around, pulling herself up onto things, and trying to grab our sunglasses / phones / the laptop / our muddy walking boots. I set her toys up in a calm part of the living room, and she did use them, but not very much.

The toys I packed are: Grimm’s conical stacker / a few Holztiger animals / GALT pop-up peg toy / three circle puzzle / wooden rainbow sound blocks.

Before leaving we were both a bit anxious about the journey as the longest Frida had been in a car was less than two hours. Again though our fears were unfounded; we timed both journeys so that Frida had a long nap, and then she was in a good mood for the rest of the drive (and whilst she napped we were able to listen to an audiobook – such a treat).

To make our lives easier whilst away, we packed our trusty IKEA Antilop, as without the tray it can be sat flush against the table, making family mealtimes easier.  We also decided to take disposable nappies as we didn’t know if we would have a washing machine to wash Frida’s cloth nappies. We took the potty as well as we wanted to continue Frida’s toilet learning whilst on holiday.