The ‘Planned Fun’ kind of day…

Do you have them? Those kind of days that you’ve planned in your head and they’re going to be fun… I mean they are GOING to be FUN! We had one of those days today. It started at 1.30am with screams. After rushing in to the bedroom unsure of what I’d find and being met with sobs and tears and screams about a runny nose, I swiftly found ‘something’ to wipe it on, snuggled him back in and returned to the land of nod.

At 4am the screams came again, this time a loud voice demanding “JUICE NOW”. I explained, gently, quietly that it was night time and not juice time. The little voice got louder and then another little voice crept in asking if it was “get up time”. It most certainly was not. After 30 seconds (it felt like 30 minutes) of trying to reason with him I gradually came round to the fact that – who am I kidding –  it’s 4am and whatever he wants he can jolly well have (1:0)

At 5.30am a little voice was calling freely on the landing “hello, hello”. Quickly hushed into our bed the reasoning of sleep, daddy sleeping, mummy sleeping, not daytime, still night-time started.

6.00am: 2-0 to the wild one. Cue hour of ‘delight’ with Daddy before handover at 7am with crying and real tears, something about wanting ninja turtles that happen to be in bedroom where brother is sleeping – no go – and not acceptable – cue more tears and demands of “I need them NOW” “I want them NOW mum”. That’s it, Cbeebies in bed (but he obviously can’t be expected to hold the phone and play it on his own can he…) then comes the dreaded ‘10% battery signal’. We had to get up.

I was using my best mummy tone, jolly, happy, ‘really sorry you’re sad but don’t punch me’ voice. Calm, patient and really, really trying. After an hour it would appear that sticking all of his dinosaur stickers on a stool was the only thing that could calm the upset. That and when mummy finally cracked and very loudly QUACKED! That’s right I actually quaked out loud; because despite the wonderful, amazing highs and joys of parenthood and the love that motherhood has brought me and despite the fact that I really wouldn’t change any of it for the world, there comes a point sometimes where you want to scream totally inappropriate words that as a person you don’t even say, to a toddler who would not appreciate them and definitely doesn’t need to hear them and who would then undoubtedly use them against you in public (and we cannot be seen to be struggling at all with these little beings in public can we). So I resorted to quacking…

The ‘planned fun’ started with dancing and after one uppercut (3:0) and a clonk on the chin (4:0) we made it out of the house and arrived ON TIME! On time I tell you (4:1). When I told them we were dancing this morning number one said “Ooo I love dancing. My favourite bit is running around the room and fighting with B” – I guess one persons running and fighting is another’s interpretive dance… right? We were focusing a lot on squishing and squashing today…cue excited calls for BUNDLE…. well it would have been rude not to, we were given permission after all. Then come the sponges – soft, squishy, can’t really go wrong – unless, maybe, they are thrown with great force in your face several times (but we’re trying to manage that whole emotion/breakdown/my kids are wild thing in public aren’t we, so it’s ok…right? 5:1). Then… oh yes… then come the noodles, you know, the long bendy things you’d use in a pool to keep you afloat. Well now, you’ve basically told them that they are in fact ninja turtles and here’s your weapon to do as you jolly well like with (cue Donatello with stick down his back and Leonardo sporting a great sword). Ok, so actually they were meant to bend them and bang buckets with them and be swung by mummy with them, but come on, who doesn’t want to be a ninja turtle with your very own weapons. After two full on whips to the face (7:1) and actual watery eyes I thought the whole ‘managing in public’ was about to go sideways. Miraculously we pulled it back and became turtles in the buckets instead (8:2), shell on back and everything (go us!).

 

We (the royal ‘we’) actually love this class and the freedom it gives them to be creative and move and do in their own way. It also brings on the hunger pains (because two breakfasts and two snacks before 10am is definitely not enough to keep us going).

On to soft play. A successful ‘planned fun’ day is having a range of activities planned which suit your children’s interests but give you lots of scope to tire them out all ready for that all important nap time. Soft play also gives you the opportunity to feed them out and therefore less mess at home (8:3). I survived soft play (it really is the battle of the fittest) and arrived home with two beautiful sleeping boys who napped until they were woken (8:4).

All in all, a successful ‘planned fun’ day was had by all and I am eagerly anticipating the excitement of what tomorrow will bring with the wild things (well actually tomorrow is a ‘work day…’) but on another day, planned or not, I’d say the the chance of some fun is 50/50 – I’ll take that thank you very much!