Boomerang in Melksham. One of the few things I'll miss.
A giant indoor soft play centre. Four stories of foam filled fun.
Tectonic Pate
Inside the head of freelance journalist, Adam Oxford
...or why there are two mince pies in the hearth
This was Tabby’s first ‘proper’ Christmas. For the last two she was a bit too young to really understand what goes on, but with 12 months of well-remembered birthday parties under her belt she had a good idea that something was coming. Someone at nursery must have prepped her well too – she knew plenty of Christmas songs before I got round to trying to teach her any.
There were some things she wasn’t sure of, though. For the week leading up to Christmas, the putting to bed ritual including clear instructions that Santa was allowed to come down the chimney at Christmas, but he musn’t come into her room. She still wasn’t completely sure what this was all going to be about, and she has a very well developed sense of caution before embarking on any new experiences.
As is her wont before any big event, on Christmas Eve she terrified us by developing a temperature of 40 degrees. So any excitement there was got tempered by illness and a quick run to the doctors surgery before it closed for some antibiotics. We put mice pies and carrots out for Santa and Rudolph before she went to bed, but I’m not sure she was particularly bothered about the whole thing by the time she went to sleep.
Tamsin and I ate the mince pie, broke the carrot to make it look chewed and drank the scotch and settled down to watch District 9. It was about an hour later that Tabby woke up, and too hot to sleep again, came downstairs to join us.
Just as I was putting her back to bed, she noticed the mince pie. The excuse? ‘Santa came down the chimney, but he had to hide again because you woke up. He’ll come back later, when you’re asleep to leave the presents.’
You could almost see the light of realisation go on in her eyes. I’ve never seen her more keen to go to bed, never been more impressed with her quick thinking – we must phone Santa on his mobile and tell him to come back. After putting out another mince pie, of course.
Suddenly, for Tabby, Christmas was really happening. Sickness was forgotten (fortunately it turned out to be a 24 hour thing anyway) and presents Which is why he got two mince pies at our house this year.
The really good news was that because she was so late to bed the second time, we actually got a lie in on Christmas Day. Bet that won’t happen for another decade or so.
And the rocking horse was a hit too. Bigger than I was expecting though.
When a two year old crawls into bed and says she wants to sleep more with Mummy and Daddy, what she means is she wants to wait until you’ve dozed off again so it’s double the fun prodding and poking you in the eye.
Finally got round to puttinng together the second hand trampoline Tamsin bought a year ago. Half an hour ago, this was a pile of screws, poles and bungee cord.
And no instructions.
See the joy?
It was fun while it lasted.
It would appear that the little one has finally developed a fear of the dark. This is unfortunate. Since she was six months old she’s slept through the night with the door closed and without the need for a night light. The last few days, she’s lept out of bed as soon as we’ve gone downstairs, crying about ’scary’.
She’s also going through a ‘want to be with Mummy phase’. On the one hand, it means I’ve had a few lie ins lately, which were nice. On the other it means I’m being rejected by a two and a half year old, and since we’re back into the alternating routine of morning shifts, the daily routine begins for me at 5.30 with a screaming temper tantrum. Her, not me, I hasten to add.
That meant that for a couple of nights we thought she was faking it with the scarys, and trying to get Mummy back into the room. Oops. Bad parents.
Left brain
-
Random-photo-rama
Archives
Licensed under a Creative Commons Licence unless otherwise noted. Powered by Wordpress and based on the Constructor theme.