… life would be just perfect!
I’ve just had the most loveliest of afternoons with my two girls, and felt compelled to share how perfect it has been, as a reminder on the tough days that it really is all worth it!
The day didn’t start too perfectly – it was Isla’s second lot of jabs, and to top that off, I forgot to take her red book (bad mummy!) Luckily, the nurse wasn’t too bothered and Isla was pretty brave – wailed a lot for the second jab, poor thing, but who could blame her?
However, on the bright side, both our children slept pretty much all night last night – Isla’s been sleeping through now for nearly two weeks – and Lilly’s sleep is a little bit better (only one minor wakeup last night). I also tried out my new cafetiere, which was a birthday present from my mum, so started the day with a gorgeous cup of real coffee… yum!
Once hubby had gone to work I decided to take the girls out to the park and get some fresh air – much better than being cooped up in the house. We spent a good hour in the park, most of the time we had the whole place to ourselves and Lilly had taken her cuddly Nok Tok (a ‘Pipling’ from CBeebies programme Waybuloo, for the uninitiated), and had great fun taking him on the slide, pushing him on the swings, riding with him on the bouncy horses and swinging him round on the teacup roundabout! Isla was asleep most of the time, but woke up towards the end of our visit and was contentedly looking around before having her bottle while Lilly played.
On the way back to the car, Lilly and I hunted for pretty autumn leaves of all different shapes and colours and collected them to take home. As she had been so good I decided to risk taking her to the garden centre just up the road for a cake and to see the pets.
It was a gamble as Lilly has been known to be hard work at the garden centre – running off and having tantrums because I’ve made her put things back on the shelves! But I decided to risk it as she seemed in such a good mood.
We went in and first of all went to change Isla – Lilly was very good throughout and then we headed to the cafe. I managed a cappuccino and Lilly and I shared a cookie. The three of us sat on a comfy sofa – Isla was quite happy lying down and kicking her legs while Lilly and I had a lovely chat about nursery and the day we were having.
After that we went to look at the pets – Lilly was super good and didn’t run off, so I carried Isla and she was able to look at all the brightly coloured fish in tanks, which she seemed to enjoy. We then watched while a staff member fed the rabbits and we admired the baby hamsters.
On our way out Lilly had another little treat for being good – a ride on the Postman Pat van! And, when the music stopped, she asked for another turn, but she just accepted it and got out nicely when I said no (we have had so many full scale lying on the floor tantrums when the Noddy ride comes to an end in Mothercare!!)
Back home Isla dozed in her car seat while Lilly and I had fun making autumn leaf pictures with the leaves we had collected in the park.
After that, Lilly had her tea (homemade chicken nuggets with ketchup to dip – another ‘treat’ for being a good girl) with rice pudding for afters. Meanwhile, I was changing and feeding Isla. To add to the unbelievably good behaviour, Isla fell asleep easily and I put her to bed upstairs in her basket at 6.45pm.
I let Lilly watch Humf (her absolute current favourite programme) while I changed the steriliser, washed the bottles and tidied up (jobs I usually have to do once they’ve gone to bed). Then she went up to clean her teeth without any fuss, and, after her current favourite bedtime story, Maisy Goes to Hospital, she has gone off to sleep like a dream.
What a fabulous day! The kind that makes you feel anything is possible. We didn’t do anything particularly massive but it’s just the simple things working really well that give you so much joy as a parent, I think. I love my girls so much!
Now I’m off to make us a toad in the hole with mash for dinner – yum yum yum!
More days like this, please!!!!
