Why I'm Not Outdoorsy
When we woke up this morning (for the second time - I had insisted on a return to bed at 5.45!) and I looked out of the window, I was amazed to see what looked like beautiful sunny skies. Something like this...
...although obviously without the attractive rural backdrop!
"Great!" I thought. "We're not at Playgroup today and there's nothing else in the diary. We'll go to the far away park with all the animals."
I don't know why I bother thinking these things sometimes.
Of course, our house being what it is, there was a full two and a half hour hiatus in getting the plan going while I fed them, dressed them, fed them, mopped up milk vomit, changed them, prepared packed lunch, changed nappy, changed clothes again (those last two are connected), prepared bottles, packed massive emergency supplies bag, searched all over the house for pram rain cover, waited for boy to put on coats/wellies, gave in and did the coats/wellies thing myself, and loaded the car. And all the while, the sky was ominously getting greyer and greyer.
By the time we were all safely strapped in, the first drops of rain were just beginning to sprinkle the windscreen.
"No matter," I thought optimistically. "We're not made of sugar. A little rain won't hurt us." I had a cunning plan to use the spare pram rain cover (I always bring both as I can never tell which is which until I'm actually trying to manhandle the thing onto the pram!) as a protection against wet swings.
Ten minutes into the journey, the rain was coming down pretty constantly. I broached the subject with OB.
"I think it might be too wet to go to the park. Shall we go to the soft play centre instead?"
This suggestion was not popular to say the least. No. I had promised the park and to the park we must go.
Ten minutes later, we were looking at something rather like this:
At this point I gave up and just drove home through the sheets of rain. Parking on the drive, I struggled into the house with the baby before going back to get all the bags. It was when I went for the pram that OB woke up and cried because we were outside our house and not at the soft play centre.
Determined as I was to make something decent of the day I dutifully went back in the house, got the bags and the baby and headed off to soft play.
Of course, eating food you've brought yourself is not allowed in the soft play centre (for health and safety reasons apparently!!) so we ate our picnic parked up in the dreary industrial estate car park to a depressing soundtrack of rain beating against the car from all directions in a pretty fierce wind. Idyllic.
Having said all of that, OB had an excellent time at soft play - there's a really good slide there that I'm pretty partial to myself! Maybe next time we'll just head straight there, forget the picnic and banish the weather blues with a nice, greasy sausage butty!
...although obviously without the attractive rural backdrop!
"Great!" I thought. "We're not at Playgroup today and there's nothing else in the diary. We'll go to the far away park with all the animals."
I don't know why I bother thinking these things sometimes.
Of course, our house being what it is, there was a full two and a half hour hiatus in getting the plan going while I fed them, dressed them, fed them, mopped up milk vomit, changed them, prepared packed lunch, changed nappy, changed clothes again (those last two are connected), prepared bottles, packed massive emergency supplies bag, searched all over the house for pram rain cover, waited for boy to put on coats/wellies, gave in and did the coats/wellies thing myself, and loaded the car. And all the while, the sky was ominously getting greyer and greyer.
By the time we were all safely strapped in, the first drops of rain were just beginning to sprinkle the windscreen.
"No matter," I thought optimistically. "We're not made of sugar. A little rain won't hurt us." I had a cunning plan to use the spare pram rain cover (I always bring both as I can never tell which is which until I'm actually trying to manhandle the thing onto the pram!) as a protection against wet swings.
Ten minutes into the journey, the rain was coming down pretty constantly. I broached the subject with OB.
"I think it might be too wet to go to the park. Shall we go to the soft play centre instead?"
This suggestion was not popular to say the least. No. I had promised the park and to the park we must go.
Ten minutes later, we were looking at something rather like this:
I made an executive decision, turned the car around and headed towards the soft play centre. By this point, the weather was so miserable that even OB didn't put up much of a fight.
In fact, within a few seconds, he was fast asleep.
At this point I gave up and just drove home through the sheets of rain. Parking on the drive, I struggled into the house with the baby before going back to get all the bags. It was when I went for the pram that OB woke up and cried because we were outside our house and not at the soft play centre.
Determined as I was to make something decent of the day I dutifully went back in the house, got the bags and the baby and headed off to soft play.
Of course, eating food you've brought yourself is not allowed in the soft play centre (for health and safety reasons apparently!!) so we ate our picnic parked up in the dreary industrial estate car park to a depressing soundtrack of rain beating against the car from all directions in a pretty fierce wind. Idyllic.
Having said all of that, OB had an excellent time at soft play - there's a really good slide there that I'm pretty partial to myself! Maybe next time we'll just head straight there, forget the picnic and banish the weather blues with a nice, greasy sausage butty!
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