She’s now crawling rapidly, standing, trying her best to walk (still aided) by anything that will hold her up. So a few camping chairs side by side proved to be great practice for her all weekend. I didn’t bring any toys with me because the car was literally stuffed but she found out how to have fun with branches, twigs, leaves, anything she got her hands on!
We tried to keep most things the same from the last trip, the one difference is we bought a really cheap light buggy (called Zeta citi about £38 on amazon). It was so handy walking from our camp to the toilets, or just strapping her into it when we were putting up and taking down the tent. She is a hefty 9.8kg now so not as easy carrying her around in my arms.
We also invested in a proper carrying backpack, since we love hiking we felt it was worth the cost. It’s a Deuter kid comfort pro. We had done a test run in it before camping with a long walk on the London canals and she slept for an hour in it, so test passed. She slept twice in it over the weekend, as we planned our hikes around her morning nap. It has a lovely headrest and a sun shade which was defintely needed in the 25 degree plus heat we had at the weekend.
Camping is such a lovely family break and a great opportunity for Isobel to mix with other babies. She made a lovely new friend, Florence, a 3 year old who was just obsessed at looking at Isobel and spent most of her mornings with us. She even fed Isobel one morning for me which was really sweet.
We stayed in Hollands campsite in the New Forest, which was literally on the edge of the forest. We were also about a 10 minute walk from Brockenhurst which was handy for picking up supplies. I also got some mom time on Sunday and enjoyed a great mountain bike ride with my friend who camped with us.
On our final day we ventured to Lymington, a lovely marine village which has the largest sea pool in England. We didn’t get a chance for a dip but it’s defintely on the list for next time.
Our car journey back turned into a hellish nightmare when Isobel refused to sleep and had been awake since early that morning. The only way to console her was playing baby shark on youtube over and over again. It’s now currently stuck on a loop playing around my head. Altogether now: Baby shark do do do do do do!!
