It's been a busy weekend.
Cubling had fun, but also a sore bum. That almost rhymes, I'm such a poet.
Well, the bum thing is really annoying, it seems to come with teething, and yes, I did think she'd get a break once she had 12 teeth, two viruses, and was finally well again. No. not that simple. I did wonder why she went back to 2 wakings per night, and getting up for the day at the crack of dawn.
Tooth number 13 is through and no end to the night time terror screams. So no. 14 etc may be on route.

Anyway. Outings. One of the great things about having a toddler is that finally, outings are fun for them, and you can start doing stuff that actually is fun for mum and dad, and convince toddler it's great too.
Friday saw me head down the M8 towards Port Glasgow (not a nice place), to visit Finlaystone House and Gardens (a very nice place). The gardens are just lovely, the tea room had positively yummy cakes and the forest walks were just amazing - if only I hadn't brought my new lightweight McLaren, which really didn't like stones or tree roots. On the good side, I got a real and much needed workout (even though Cubling was clearly unimpressed by the shakes that this workout involved). The forest walks brought us ever deeper into the woods to ever more adventurous playgrounds - for older kids, so we will be back. There wasn't really a lot of stuff for toddlers, but sometimes the magic works and Cubling was intrigued by a water feature. Hours of fun.

Today we ventured out to a place recommended by my colleague - Heads of Ayr Farm Park. I imagined a multiheaded monster, but instead we got wallabies, lemurs, guinea pigs and mice. And many other animals too. Cubling was hysterical about most of them. She's strange like that, excitement can totally take over and make her screech in delight, exploding saliva towards the poor creatures. She didn't like the horses, I guess they were a tad bigger than the ones in her picture books. She also was convinced that the Shettie wasn't really her pony because its nose wasn't soft enough.

While we were a bit taken aback by the hefty entrance fee, looking back it has to be said that it's worth it. There's enough to keep the whole family entertained for a day or more, between a large selection of exotic and not so exotic animals, giant sand pits, quad biking, drop slides, piknick areas, trampolines and tea rooms. Apparently, the place is also near the beach but we never even ventured that way, in spite of the glorious sunshine.

Cubling loved the animals (mice, monkeys and goats were her favourites), sandpit, and particularly sitting in a tractor. She ate sand, ice cream and another child's sandwich (I haven't quite yet adapted to her ability to walk fast and far: one second out of sight and she not so sneakily approached another buggy, eyes and hands fixed in perfect coordination on the sandwich held by its occupant). And on the way back, she conked out while chewing her very own sandwich, tired and happy.