A trip to Kew Gardens with the grandparents

Although the seemingly endless days of 30°C we grew accustomed to over summer are now a fading memory (and Marley’s crab-suit has been packed away) the sun has still been out in force for autumn.

So it was perfect weather for Marley to take his visiting grandparents out to Kew Gardens at the weekend.

It’s a pity for Marley in some ways, living so far from both sets of grandparents – not to mention many of his aunties, uncles, cousins – so it’s a treat for him whenever they visit.

He is at an age now where it’s very apparent what’s on his mind – and the fact he’s also an incessant talker (good lad) makes it twice as clear what he’s thinking.

“Play!”

“Toys!”

“Car!”

“Dinner!”

“ICE CREAM!”

After just a few hours of them being here, the only words he seemed to be shouting were “GRANNY!” and “GRANDDAD!” at the top of his voice, which is really lovely.

And he had an especially great day out with them at Kew.

We spent a few hours there and probably still only managed to walk about a quarter of the grounds and visit a few of the glasshouses.

It’s all a feast for a toddler’s eyes, packed full of amazing colours and thousands of trees, plants and flowers, not to mention a few squirrels, geese, parakeets and other wildlife.

There’s even a tree-top walkway where I tried to get Marley more familiar with heights. 

No fear

It’s tricky, trying to teach someone not to be afraid of something that you yourself are a bit afraid of! 

Romesh Ranganathan summed it up beautifully in his interview with the Observer at the weekend:

“I’ve tried to tackle my fear of spiders because I don’t want my children to have that phobia. It hasn’t worked because they now realise that if a man sits rigidly still with a single teardrop rolling down his cheek, and he’s soiled himself, he’s probably scared of spiders.”

Thankfully, grandparents are immune to these kind of phobias – so they are more than welcome to come back down and visit any time we find a giant spider in the house…

After they left to travel back to Edinburgh, Marley was still asking where Granny and Grandad were the next morning.

A little reminder of how significant family is to little ones and their development…..and how important it is to enjoy the time we get to spend all together.