Summer, summer, summer time.

Making the most of a brief burst of sunshine yesterday, Ms Squeaky & I (and then a bit later Daddy as well) headed off to Barry Island.  Fabulous first thing in the morning, before anyone was on the beach, but by lunchtime it was chaos.

Now I know she's a toddler, and asserting her tiny independence any way she can, but it's so strange to find that one day she hates something, and the next she loves it.  She was quite unimpressed with the beach on holiday for the most part, it would take her ages before she'd relax enough to play in the sand, and she really didn't like walking on it.  No such fears yesterday, the sand and the beach were the best things in the world (and yes, that includes eating sand, grrr).  I bought a cheapo set of stacking cups from poundstretcher, and we used them to build, dig, demolish, pass around, and whatever else it was she thought we were doing with them.

We also had a diversion into one of the amusement arcades - not Nessa's one, but one of the bigger arcades, where we spent £1 in the 2p falls, got back well over £2 in my "put it all in, count the winnings, put them all back, count, rinse & repeat" method of wasting money in slot machines, and no less than 2 pool ball keyrings.  I have no idea what I'll do with them, but I was most disappointed to run out of 2ps before I won the third keyring in the machine.  Squeaky also took the opportunity to demonstrate what a grubby little madam expert horse rider she is (no 50ps were harmed in the making of this photo, she's still too small)

And finally.  The BIG NEWS!  REALLY REALLY BIG!  We have a real & proper word that isn't Mama, Dada, Baba, Baboon, Abba or Asda.  And she actually knows what she's saying, and uses it appropriately.  The word?  BANANA!  Or 'Nana at least. Bless.  She actually really loves bananas, so it figures.

'Nana!