Yesterday we had a nice wander around Bristol city centre in mild drizzle, looking at things, letting Charles chase birds, being amused by Charles watching some Parkour perpetrators and trying to emulate them on a much smaller scale.

This morning while I stumped around a race track, Tony took Charles to "Explore @Bristol", what used to be the Exploratorium when Tony and I were young (er). Apparently it was fabulous and Tony "had nearly as much fun as Charles". I think some visits to the South Kensington museums are making their way onto my to-do list ...

We bought Charles a balance bike at the end of July: a small bike without pedals or stabilisers, designed to teach small children about the balance that goes with bike riding. Within a month he has got quite proficient at propelling himself along on it, and can now go fast enough that I now insist he wears his helmet. This week we experimented with taking him to his childminder on his bike rather than his buggy and so far it seems successful: when he's fast we have to run to keep up, and even when he's slow, it's usually for less time and less irritating than when he was entirely on foot. The downside is we can't load everything on the buggy, but the upside is faster journeys, less distraction, more exercise for Charles and less temptation for me to catch the bus home (so more exercise for me).