WIN: A Classic Spa Break Gift Voucher for Two

Spabreaks.com is a multi-award winning spa booking platform working with more than 600 spas in the UK and Ireland, arranging spa days and breaks for up to 6,000 people a week. As Europe’s number 1 spa specialist, they were founded on the principle of making spa experiences more accessible, and to bring back the ancient purpose of spas as places of sanctuary for mind and body. The Classic Spa Break Gift Voucher for Two is a pre-packaged experience voucher o ering you one night bed and breakfast, full use of the spa facilities and a 1 x 25 minute relaxing treatment per person, available to use at selected spa hotels. Allowing for the priceless gift of rest and relaxation!

Competition closes midnight Sunday 19th March. T&C’s apply, see toddle.fun/spabreaks for details.

Fun is an essential ingredient at Nene Valley Day Nursery and Preschool where the care and education opportunities for each and every child are as extraordinary as the staff who provide them.

by Tom Kre er Tom Kre er

Continuing with our celebration of all things books, to mark World Book Day on 2nd March, we invited dad and author Tom Kre er to share a story with us. It’s a story that is at once familiar and invited dad and author Tom Kre er to share a story with us. It’s a story that is at once familiar and ordinary, and yet amusing, emotional and, surprisingly, full of adventure. We hope you like it…

My son, Arlo, is almost three. Today, he’s at nursery, and I’m on pick-up duty (which I love). It’s a task that ranks in my top three parenting responsibilities. I snake my way through the building occupied by loud, shrieking children and always-busy, alwayson-their-feet sta . I pass walls that host artistic endeavours created by small, curious hands.

Nine times out of ten, I’ll nd Arlo in the garden. He’s an outdoor kind of guy. And he’s always easy to locate among the sea of moving infants because he’s often the loudest among them.

I still get a buzz when I hear myself referred to as ‘Daddy’, a badge of honour that I’m proud to wear each day; I still occasionally question if it’s real.

‘Hey bud, have you had a good day?’

A member of sta gives me the highlights from the day. Since Arlo changed his nursery setting over a year ago, he’s had pretty much nothing but good days – a stat any parent would welcome.

We always have a set agenda to work through on our walk back home. First, we stop to pick up stones. Arlo is considerate enough to get one for each of us. Sometimes, the stones come from the pavement. Other times, they come from the front garden of one of the houses we pass. It has a gravel section that’s marginally thinner than it was eight months ago.

Next, we visit a at-development site. Most of the time, it’s shut for the day, and we can only look in through the chain-mail fence. But today we strike gold: the gate is still open. There’s a man in a hi-vis jacket, guiding a reversing atbed truck onto the site with some expert arm-waving. Arlo and I stand to one side.

‘Can we watch the whole thing, Daddy?’ he says, with a face full of fascination.

We’re midway through ‘watching the whole thing’ when another man arrives on the scene, instantly grabbing Arlo’s attention. ‘Daddy, that man has a hard hat. He might be the head builder.’

‘Why don’t you ask him?’

‘Excuse me, are you the head builder?’

He smiles warmly, like most tradespeople do at a toddler in awe of their profession.

We leave the site, and Arlo locates ‘the wall’. It’s typical by most wall standards, coming up to the bottom of my ribcage. This means it’s high enough