When she was not yet three, her Poppa and I bought her a tent.
We just intended for her to play in it at first, until she got used to it,
but she had other ideas and slept in it from night one!

A few nights later the wind in the pine trees was sooo loud I thought
Aldonna may be afraid, so I got up to check.

Her tent was very close to ours, so I sat and watched through a window,
as her walls billowed in the wind.

I sat and sat - and nary a peep from her, eventually thunder and
lightning - along with heavy rain - started.

So I still sat and sat - and no movement from her - or anyone!

What seemed hours and hours later the storm abated, and all was quiet,
so I crawled back into my bed.

Next morning nobody believed me when I mentioned the storm, not
until other campers asked if we weathered the storm ok!

Independence, even to a child is so important - and even more
important are the lessons learnt whilst achieving it!
Aldonna is the tallest, then Vanessa and the little tot striding out is
Miranda.

It was to be a fun day for the kids - although it rained all the time, it was
not cold and the simple act of needing to take the kids to the toilet
also became FUN!

The cry went up - shoes and sox off please!
And we would go - barefooted through the grass, much to the kids delight!

It made good sense - it meant dry sox and shoes were waiting for us
on our return.