We had two possible plans for today, weather dependant. If it had been fine we would have gone for a walk round the lake at Arundel, if the weather was poor we were going to Fun Junction. I was hoping for the lake, the children were hoping for FJ and the rain decided us on FJ.
In the morning I had some online stuff I needed to get done so I was impatient with the children who looked at me intelligently, nodded in agreement and repeated back what I’d said to them to demonstrate they understood that I needed them to give me some peace for an hour so that I could get stuff done and then we could all go out. And then promptly interupted me every few minutes. 🙄
When they weren’t doing that they played with the kliko stuff which is a load of triangles and squares with connectors to fix them together and some wheels which have cogs on them. Davies built something with a series of cogs turning to make the end bit move (which I suggested he try and do something similar with the gears! gears! gears! stuff next time) and Tarly was making mosaic style pictures with the shapes. I made a picnic lunch and we headed off to FJ.
We were there first so while D&S went off to play I sent a couple of text messages to people I am long overdue catch-ups with and then Lucy arrived. Julie was not too far behind and suddenly we had five BIG children (trailed by Richard) running around being Very Loud Indeed in sharp contrast to all the little toddlers who were the other patrons today. They all just looked too big and were so loud and it just didn’t feel right at all. I don’t really know why it bothered me so much, noone else seemed to mind, they were not doing anything wrong and the staff were only too happy to take our money but it had the same feeling as a gang of teens in the kiddie area at a playground. The fun for them was no longer in just going round the climbing stuff and sliding down the slides though, that’s lost it’s challenge, their games have become more involved and things like climbing up the slides and finding new ways to use the equipment. Maybe I was just having an odd day though…
We came home and the children carried on with their game with the kliko stuff and the toy animals while I got on with some work and then did their dinner. Ady is right in the middle of his busiest period of the year so is working 14 hour days most days which he is finding tough and for once I am managing to pull off the supporting wife role rather than my usual ranting lunatic piling on pressure at home aswell as work. So he didn’t get home in time for Badgers but as Tarly had actually asked if she could come with us anyway that worked out fine. Davies went in and Tarly and I went for a walk down to the beach. On the way she amazed me with her feats of athletics, her running is really very fast, she is a super climber and today she was showing me her ‘superjumps’ (long jump) which to me uneducated eye at least looked very impressive. As she is not a particularly dancey girl and I think even gymnastics wouldn’t be her thing I wonder whether there are such things as athletics groups for little children. I know we did athletics at school in the summer (hockey in the winter!) and did long jump, high jump, javelin, shotput, discus, hurdles, sprinting and distance running, all of which I think she’d enjoy – I imagine she is way too young and it is something she would do from senior school age though, must look into it as that’s the sort of thing that might get picked up in school but could easily go unnoticed by such a physical ignorant as me :oops:.
We had a lovely walk along the beach, the tide was high and there were plenty of interesting washed up things to look at including crabs bits, dead fish, clams, barnacles, cuttlefish aswell as shells and a wide variety of non natural stuff too. We stopped at the fishermens boats, looked at their nets and then looked at all the fish they had for sale with him very kindly telling us what each one was. Then Ady rang to say he had arrived outside Badgers and could take her home while I waited for Davies. She was not going to give up the treat of two parents all to herself that easily though and demanded to go back down to the beach when we met Ady so she showed him all the ‘treasure’ we’d found and told him all about the fisherman. Ady and Scarlett threw lots of stones in the sea and then we all walked back to Badgers. They were playing outside by then and Ady stood in amazement watching Davies playing and shouting just like I do every week while we stood and marvelled about where our little 2 year old had gone and how much he had changed. Then Ady took Scarlett off home and I waited for Davies.
Once home they helped to tidy up before going off to bed, we watched The Apprentice and I am now falling asleep as I type so I’m off to bed ready for a full day’s work tomorrow :).
That’s the point of the soft play places surely 😉 Imagine what it looks like when my lot go!
Athletics are normally older, about 8 I think when we looked into it for Pea but we ran out of days in the week which is a shame as she is very good.
Comment by Roslyn — 26 April 2007 @ 7:51 am
Lol Ros, yeah I was reading that thinking “big? That’s not big!”
It really annoys me when people climb up the slides though.
Comment by Alison — 26 April 2007 @ 8:24 am
There are loads of boys in C’s gym class – it is mostly strength & flexibility work – lots of running on the beam, bar hanging, leaping, acrobatics etc no dainty dancey stuff lol. S might enough it – or maybe a gym & tramps class (that’s C’s newest Iwanttodo)?
Comment by layla — 26 April 2007 @ 10:36 am
Oh I remember climbing up slides when I was young – never one to do things the ‘proper’ way 😉
Yeah, we need to only go to soft play places with older children and I’ll be fine then. They just looked huge next to all the 2yos.
Thanks for athletics / gym info, will look into gym class then but I guess that’ll probably be from 5+ too.
Comment by Nic — 26 April 2007 @ 5:22 pm
But it’s fucking irritating for other people. Annoying at normal slides at parks because other children will be waiting to have their go and then some git (you) climbs up and jumps the queue, and stupid and dangerous (for you and some unsuspecting slider) in bendy tubes at soft play places because you have no idea who’s coming down if you’re climbing up.
Basically that’s my answer to your “how to be good” post below – show a bit of respect for other people, and don’t do stuff that will cause them harm.
Comment by Alison — 26 April 2007 @ 6:24 pm
Well clearly I was talking about empty slides with full visibility rather than pissing off people or causing danger to yourself or others. I might encourage non-conformity but I’m unlikely to be condoning sheer lunacy!
Comment by Nic — 26 April 2007 @ 8:08 pm
Hmm, C says I just called you a git. Didn’t mean to, so sorry about that!
Comment by Alison — 26 April 2007 @ 10:08 pm
Pmsl! I can’t believe how ‘nice’ your friends are to you Nic, serves to remind me why I try not to have any. Our big kids weren’t irritating or endangering anyone by pulling themselves up the slides (and actually one of them does have a rope next to it) and they quickly stopped once the big burly bouncer shouted at them.
Comment by Lucy — 27 April 2007 @ 5:29 pm