Superdad Will Lodge goes walking ready for the summer holidays

Well the summer holidays are upon us and I am rather excited.

I am sure there will come a time when the children have had enough of each other and spend a day playing up where I will wish they were back at school and exposed to each other for six hours less each weekday.

But on the whole it is fun to see them in high spirits, doing all sorts of activities, and generally dragging me into the merriment.

I even have a whole fortnight off work myself to enjoy some of the time with them.

This year’s long summer break will be particularly enjoyable I hope as we are able to do more things.

Last summer, when baby had just arrived, it was too hot for her to really go outside and much of our time was spent with her in bed and us trying to catch up on sleep – no mean feat in the sweltering temperatures we were fortunate to have last July and August.

However now baby is one she is able to withstand a bit more, provided of course we take the usual sensible precautions as parents such as avoiding the hottest parts of the day, offering shade and plenty of fluids, not to mention sun cream.

We don’t even have to go anywhere, though I am sure we will venture for some days out during the break.

Baby has already tried, and loves, our big paddling pool (it has to big for all six of us to enjoy) and even the sometimes particularly cold water doesn’t faze her as she splashes around.

Indeed her watery antics have already given us much amusement as she tries to eat her rubber ring, causing her to tip forwards and dunk her head much to her bemusement.

Although she kicks her legs in earnest in the water, it is on dry land she is really close to being mobile.

Cruising trips around the furniture have progressed to much more confident walking holding onto just one of our hands, and on a few occasions in the past week she has made us smile as he takes her first steps completely unaided.

We know she is capable of it, though it will take some practice before she perfects the technique, but it is now a question of building her confidence to try it.

That said too much confidence could be a bad thing as she over-estimates her abilities – or our ability to be there to catch her – so as always it is a question of balance (literally and metaphorically in this case).

Baby has progressed so much we have even bought her her first shoes, which was a fun shopping trip.

Soon we will be back in the shops for some reins so we can keep tabs on her as she will undoubtedly try her hardest to keep up with her big brothers.

All I can say is good luck with that, because I struggle to!

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