This past weekend we made the long journey to Shropshire to spend the day with my Nana and Grandpa.  When Mads was born they didn't get to meet her until she was about four months as my Grandpa was quite poorly at the time so we decided we would make the trip up there so they could meet LL when she was still 'new'.  

My Grandpa is 92, already a lot older than most people get.  My Nana isn't far behind in her late 80's.  

They have a whole lot of stories to tell- about their childhoods, my Grandpa's tales of the Second World War, and of course tales of my Dad and Uncle growing up.  The funny anctedotes of my Dad pushing my Uncle's face into a cow pat, or bouncing him off his bed and breaking his arm.  

Or hearing my Grandpa wistfully talk about 'courting' my Nana.  

I could sit for hours and listen to them.  Their fascinating story of where they came from, and ultimately because of them, how I got here.

 How my babies got here.  

The circle of life.

They are getting very old and no one knows for sure what life has in store for us.

But in the meantime we will treasure every meeting, moment and emotion of making more memories.

So one day maybe I can sit with my great grandchildren just as they did last Saturday and tell them stories of my childhood- and the tales of my ever so wonderful Grandparents.

Sometimes it is easy to get bogged down in every day life.  Occasionally I find, especially at the moment when my hormones are all over the place, that I get stressed or worked up about things that just don't really matter.  If I have a boring, long day at work, I come home and find my mood is black- I get annoyed because the house is a mess, or because there are piles of washing to do.

Money is another one, most days I am fine, and then others I get worked up about our sky high mortgage, or the bills that keep landing on the doormat.  I get grumpy about the fact that I can't afford to buy as many clothes as I used too, or that I can't buy that little knick knack that would look nice on our bedroom windowsill.

Or I get irritated by the fact that since having Mads I have had to change job roles- and have had to take a big paycut- I had worked hard to get where I was, and I loved my job, but travelling a week of the month with a baby just wouldn't have been feasible.  Instead I am now in a role where I don't feel as valued and the days drag.

But then I have weekends like the one I have just had that make you realise just exactly what you have.  

Don't get me wrong, these moments are only very rarely, and I know how lucky I am.  I have a wonderful family and loyal friends, an incredibly caring husband and a little girl who brightens up our world.  We have to budget a lot more than we used too, but at the end of the day the reason we have high outgoings is because of our little home that we are privilged of owning, and from having a lot of holidays and travels before our little person arrived.  But in the grand scheme of things, we have money to put food on the table and to treat ourselves occasionally, and I know we are a lot more fortunate than others.  I took this pay cut so I could spend time with my girl and I wouldn't change that for all the clothes money could buy.

Back to this weekend.  We went up to Cheshire to see Mr E's side of the family.  We didn't do much, we went to lunch on the Saturday and then went to the local park, and on Sunday we went out for brunch and went to feed the ducks.  But the sun was shining, there was a crisp frost on the ground and the trees were full of beautiful autumn colours.  

There was something about my little girl running through the fallen leaves with her Daddy, her face lighting up when we gave the ducks some food, and the way she kept turning back to me and smiling, that clarified so much for me.

All of those things don't matter.  Yes we all have bad days, and yes we all have good ones- ones where we treat ourselves, have a trip out or do something different.  But this weekend was just normal, going to the park isn't anything extraordinary, we do it all the time.  

But it made me realise that my 'normal' life is pretty damn good.  

I wouldn't change a single thing about it.

This little face above is completely innocent.  Don't get me wrong she is a crafty little minx- when I tell her to get one biscuit out the drawer she almost certainly comes back with two, and I often find her unzipping my bag to get my lipstick out even though I have told her about a hundred times to leave it alone.  She knows exactly what she is doing.  She has tantrums that make me question my own sanity.

But she is lovely and kind, and she doesn't have a bad bone in her body.  I have written before about how I wish she would keep her innocence but today we have had a different kind of experience.

The Soft Play Devil Child.

Now don't get me wrong, Mads has been on the recieving end of a few pushes and shoves in her time, and the odd smack.  I think it is part and parcel of being a toddler, and I also think most children go through a small phase of lashing out every now and again.  Normally I smile sweetly at the child in question and say 'Be careful she is only little.'  Normally that is the end of it.

But not today.  The Soft Play Devil Child was unlike any breed of child I have ever seen.  First of all he pushed her over when she was playing on a swing, she cried but I told her it was fine and that was it.  I wasn't too fussed at this point.  Then her and her friend were playing in the ball pool and he came along and pushed her over again and tried to kick her.  It is not for me to discipline this child so I just said 'No please don't kick her.'  Mads again started crying and clung to me for a while.

We then went over to the little dance mats to get away from him when five minutes later he followed us over.  She was minding her own business and dancing away, looking absolutely adorable when this child came running over to her and pushed her so hard that she went flying.  She is only small and he literally knocked her halfway across the room.  I couldn't help it by this point and my finger shot out at him and I shouted 'No' at him.  Eventually his mother came over and told him off, she was too busy chatting to her friends to notice what he was doing.

It sounds silly but it was her little face that actually made me want to cry myself.  One minute she was laughing and dancing, and then her little face looked so unbelievably confused as if she was wondering why on earth someone would do this to her.    She started crying again and for the rest of the morning she wouldn't leave my side, whereas before she was off on her own running around.  This child made her lose a little part of her independent streak that makes her who she is.

The Soft Play Devil Child carried on causing havoc, I saw him push over a little girl that was barely walking and make her cry, hit a little boy, push over another boy and he also hit and pushed Mad's friend as well.  All the other parents were looking at him but his parents literally seemed oblivious.

It sounds ridiculous but I cannot stop thinking about this child and also my little girls face of confusion when he pushed her.  Don't get me wrong, I have no doubts that she will go through a phase like this herself, it is part of learning how to control their emotions, but there is a difference between lashing out in temper or upset, to being aggressive for absolutely no reason.  My friend who I was with works as part of the health visitors team and she said the family is known to them all.  Enough said.

One day I want Mads to go to nursery or pre-school, at the moment she is looked after by family friends while I am at work which I love because they adore her, but one day I want her to go and interact and learn with other children.  At the moment all her friends are lovely, but one day when she goes to school or nursery I won't be there to protect her and see who she hangs around with or chooses to be friends with.  And while 99% of them I am sure will be lovely, there will always be a Soft Play Devil Child.  And it sounds awful but I don't want her mixing with children like that.  

I want to keep her cocooned in that safe little bubble of innocence where she wouldn't hurt a fly, where she shares her toys and snacks with anyone who happens to walk past her, and where she smiles at anyone.

I hate the thought of her being out in the big wide world when I am not there to protect her.  And more than anything I want to make sure she keeps that wonderfully kind streak that we love about her so much, and that she grows into a well rounded, lovely child.  Albeit one with a stroppy side.

I never want it to get to the day where a cuddle from Mummy can no longer solve the problem.

And I never want other parents to look at her and shake their heads thinking 'Thank God my child isn't like her.'  

At the start of this year I set myself a challenge.  Along with a few other bloggers I decided to take part in the 366 challenge, where I would take a photo a day for the whole year.  All guns blazing, I went in and even dedicated a tab on my taskbar for all my photos.

I can definitely say I have lived up to the challenge.  In fact that is the problem.  I traded in my old DSLR for a new one and since then my camera is never far behind me.  I have always been very snap happy, but now Mr E curses the day he ever gave in and let me buy a new camera.  I can quite easily say that I take far more than one photo a day- in fact I take lots, the only exception being work days where I doubt the inside of my grey office building would be very exciting.  I love preserving our memories.

I am so busy with work, being a mama, freelance work, blogging and ensuring I spend quality time with Mr E that I have been neglecting to post my photos daily- therefore I would spend ages on a Sunday adding the weeks photos.  Not fun.  But then I realised that they are very similar to My Week That Was posts- so I have decided that I am no longer going to faff around with uploading the photos.  RIP 366.

Instead, I had been thinking about all the many little details I take on my iPhone, and inspired by a post Bryony did recently saying about things that made her smile, I have decided to do a new mini blog series called 'Little Bits Of Life.'  Rather than post daily, every once in a while I am going to do a post on my life through my iphone.  After all, although my DSLR captures a lot, my iPhone captures the smallest details that may not warrant a post of their own.  I think I will enjoy doing this a lot more.  It may be once a week, once a fortnight, or even once a month- but it will be all about the little details in my life.   And don't worry I am still taking a zillion photos a day!

Here is the first of my 'Little Bits Of Life.'

1.  It all went quiet for a second and I found this carnage on my kitchen floor- biscuit thief!

2.  What can be better in life than a summer dress, and blowing bubbles with your Daddy on a nice warm evening?

3.  Playing kitchens- note her holding the dolly's hand.  Too cute!

4.  New shoes from Auntie Paula.  Toms inspired but with flowers.

5.  When we let her feed herself this is what happens.

6.  Summery brights- Mads is so bang on trend!

7.  Summer footwear- makes even a work day a little better.

8.  The three of us.  I love our little family.

9.  Glittery nails this week.