KELLY BROWN Mum's the Word...There may be a battle as the little man says no to wearing a hat

It was like a mini heatwave as we went to our first impromptu barbecue of the year, spent a large portion of the day outside and even headed to the beach for a little walk.

Almost without exception, everywhere we went there were sunglasses, sun hats, shorts, summer tops and suncream.

But when you have a little munchkin this sunshine brings with it a few added challenges.

This time last year my little man was beginning to perfect the art of commando crawling – so he never went very far (or very fast) so I could always make sure he was in the shade.

But now my very independent little boy doesn’t want to stay glued to mummy, he wants to go exploring.

So caked in sun cream, he went off round the garden/park/beach.

Now, keeping his arms and legs covered was easy and hassle-free because he had no objection to the clothes I had dressed him in.

But keeping his head and neck covered up was a different story.

Despite my best efforts he flatly refused to wear his sun hat.

Every time I put it on his head he just pulled it off, shook his head and sweetly said ‘no’ as he gave it back to me.

At one point I thought I had sneakily put his hat on while he was playing.

But seconds later he ran the entire length of the garden just to hand me back his hat and say ‘no’.

I’ll keep persevering, but I sense this will be a battle which will carry on over the summer.

Still at least I won’t have this problem when the traditional April showers return.

Then the battle will be over whether or not he will wear his raincoat and wellies.