free cake!

Dulcie and I have a new nearly-weekly routine of going to the cafe in the Botanic Gardens to take advantage of their free cake.  Yes, free cake!  You get a free slice of whatever sponge is available (we've had carrot cake, coconut sponge and iced ginger so far - all delicious!) with every tea or coffee purchased between 10.00am and 11.30am on weekdays.

Dulcie loves being a lady-what-lunches type and the wee square of cake is just the right size of treat to share between us when we're supposed to be eating less of the fat-kid stuff.  Dulcie also had a hot chocolate on this occasion.  Sometimes she has warm milk with a wee chocolatey sprinkle instead.

£3 or so for a face this happy.  Bargain!

And the great thing is, as soon as we've finished stuffing our faces, the park is right there and ready for us.  This picture was taken inside a bush that Dulcie and I can both fit inside.  We hide in there for ages, eating the imaginary apples that Dulcie shakes onto our heads.  One day, when Dulcie was wandering off outside, my attempt to summon her back was intercepted by a man who happened to be walking by.  Ah, springtime!  Daffodils, sunshine and accidentally inviting total strangers to come in your bush...

After we're done with hanging out in the bush, we'll normally do some squirrel spotting.  Dulcie, like all toddlers, it seems, calls squirrels "squiggles" and it has caught on with all of us.

Is it just me or was this year especially good for daffodils?  They seemed to be absolutely everywhere.  I'm not sure whether there were more than normal or if I was just more aware of it because Dulcie was so interested in them.  # It's been a good year for the...daffodils... #

Daffodils!

Taking time to stop and smell the flowers.

Getting her nose right in there.

Oh, she is ridiculously cute.

Dulcie is getting a bit better at setting out on her own these days, though she still doesn't like to get too far away.  Probably a good thing, I suppose.

Once the daffodils have been thoroughly explored, we spend hours hanging out in the children's garden, which is just Dulcie's favourite place in the world these days.  There are all sorts of nooks and crannies to explore.

This is what Dulcie calls the tree house.  I sit in a chair outside it while she prepares me numerous imaginary breakfasts.  Most relaxing!

The end of winter weather has made toddler entertaining so much easier.  Roll on a summer of lounging around in the great outdoors while Dulcie takes on the role of the entertainer rather than the...entertainee?

On a side note, the day these photos were taken was the same day I learned yet another valuable parenting lesson.  Never take a toddler with you into an echoey public-toilet cubicle if you are not prepared to have the general public listen to a very loud and detailed running commentary of everything you're doing in there.  Damn Dulcie's excellent communication skills!  Mind you, even without speech, the round of applause she gave me would have been embarrassing enough.  Ha!