W is for Wonderful Woods

(Goblin is 28 months)

We found some more amazing woods! I have come to the conclusion that Essex is littered with wonderful woodland and I just haven't been paying enough attention. 

We wanted to do something new with Nanny so we decided to explore some woodland less that a half hour drive from our house. It turned out to be a huge actively coppiced wood with some old Roman roads running through it. We thought we were going for an hour long walk but Goblin was still hurtling three hours later.

 There were plenty of logs for Goblin to climb and balance on - great for his gross motor skills. 

 Some of the more mature trees were big enough to climb. Goblin said this one was his Pirate ship. We made "aaargh!" noises and swayed with the motion of 'the waves'.

There were loads of gnarly trees to explore. They looked like fairy dwellings.

  Goblin found some interesting plants and asked me what they were. I think they were a type of moss but I try not to tell Goblin something unless I know its correct, so I said I didn't know but pointed out the interesting star shaped leaves.

Later Nanny confirmed that it was indeed a type of moss, so Goblin learnt a new word - "moss".

 Clarrie, Nanny's dog, drank from every puddle we came across. Goblin treats Clarrie like a friend and follows her around whenever he can keep up. So of course he wanted to go in every puddle we came to.  

 Unfortunately some puddled were deeper than others.

But he didn't let that stop him! 

He managed to find some opportunities for imaginary play. There were a few ready made dens scattered through the woods. Goblin particularly liked this one which was big enough for us all to fit in, and had little log stools inside. 

 

He also found a triangle of log seats and some sawdust. He put the sawdust onto the logs and invited us to sit and have a tea party eating the sawdust. 

 I was reading a post yesterday at Nurturestore about making your teaparties posh. Well, Hublet had quite the opposite effect on our tea party when he pretended to puke the sawdust! It was, however, absolutely hilarious and Goblin made him do it again about twenty times. 

 At several points during our walk Goblin paused to dig up the path. 

 And when Goblin started to get a bit tired Hublet flung him around a bit and pretended to piledrive him into the ground, which was just the play Goblin needed to get his second wind.

In my usual disorganised way I managed to remember my own waterproof trousers, but completely forgot to put on Goblin's - even though we'd brought them with us. So by the end of the walk Goblin was quite muddy.  

But being covered in mud seems to be Goblin's preferred state of being, and that is absolutely fine with me. Its a sign of a good days play.

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