A sensory walk on an Autumn day with my toddler.

Rushing on ahead to see the ducks

Baby Boy has been gabbling for a while now. He will exclaim loudly and point to get what he wants as his vocabulary is limited to family names and animal sounds. The latter is pretty helpful when I ask if he wants to go and feed the ducks as he makes a quacking sound which I treat as agreement with my plans.

As the sun was out today we decided to go and see the ducks at the local pond. I had a pot of  leftover toast slices in the car to feed them and picked up some coats as I wasn't entirely sure it was really all that warm.

Pesky Pigeons stealing all the bread 

People often ask if Baby Boy is speaking yet and will console me by saying, "it won't be long." as if I should actually be worried that he isn't. I don't worry about it at all. We communicate well enough and I encourage him to express himself and experience the world in many different ways. He is really into sensory play at the moment and today was an ideal opportunity to use all the senses during our morning outdoors.

Visual: We often observe trees and have been watching the leaves change colour for weeks now. Today we also saw lots of colourful leaves on the ground. Then Baby Boy spotted the duck pond and ran ahead to watch the birds swimming contentedly round on the water.

Crunch crunch crunch 

Sound: There is nothing like the sound of leaves crunching underfoot, I love it. Where we go to feed the birds they can be very noisy - not as loud as Baby Boy admittedly, but still. He does a pretty impressive duck quack sound which either draws them near or scares them off depending on how screechy he is.

Taste: When we feed the birds Baby Boy always gives in to the temptation to try some of the bread. This is why I have to make sure it's edible just in case he pops it in his mouth before giving it to the ducks.

Quack, quack, quack

Smell: Autumn has an amazing smell all of its own. The freshly cut grass, wet leaves and that distinctive tang of autumnal air.

Touch: On our way home from dropping off Big Boy at school we regularly pick up leaves, conkers and pine cones from the ground. We feel the different textures and compare them with each other. As we were preparing to come home for lunch I felt his hands and they were very cold so I knew it was time for something hot to eat and a nice nap.

Lovely leaves

Autumn is my favourite season by far. In writing this post I can now see why - it really is a feast for all the senses.

Park Life

With the summer holidays come long weeks that we have to fill with activities to stop the boys from getting on each other's nerves - and mine. I have found that while Big Boy does like to go to structured activities it's not always possible and it can run to a lot of expense to keep sending him to play schemes. This week was one that was filled with dread for me as I had no firm plans for him so I put out an APB to all the mums I know for ideas. We now have some plans and he will see friends from school which will both excite him and tire him out - double bubble. 

One of the simplest things to do that works for both my boys is to take them to the park. As Baby Boy doesn't have his own friends yet he usually has to occupy himself while Big Boy plays with his mates, but a park has enough to keep them both busy. We are so fortunate to have a lot of open spaces near where we live and I take the boys to a lot of different places to play. One of our favourites is Kelsey Park in Beckenham. Big Boy and I used to go quite frequently last summer and both boys love it so we will do the same this year. Today we met a few of Big Boy's school pals there and they had a great time. 

Big Boy has really grown in confidence in the last year and he had never wanted to go on this big slide or climbing wall before. Now he's so fearless he went straight to them.

Baby Boy loves the lake with all the birds on it. There are Canada geese, ducks and swans. He likes to chase the pigeons and shouts out 'uack 'uack at all the birds. Today one of the other mums had brought some nuts to feed the birds and the boys really enjoyed throwing food for them. We see a lot of dogs here as well and that makes Baby Boy very happy and he shouts, woo' woo' at them.  

No trip to the park on a sunny day is complete without a stop for ice cream. 

Or climbing a tree

Or pointing at a squirrel.

There will be a lot more days out over the next few weeks - let's hope they are as fun filled as this one.

This post is being shared as part of the fab #countrykids linky hosted by the lovely Fiona of Coombe Mill - our favourite family holiday destination.