The first day of me and Boy Lacer on our own and Boy Lacer is not having much fun of it. Our morning routine has become by necessity a lot more rigid; woken up by 7am, get dressed straight away, eat breakfast, brush teeth, then if we have time only then do we have CBeebies on TV, our old routine could afford to be a lot more leisurely, get up when they want (normally around 7.30am ish but that half an hour earlier seems to make all the difference, breakfast in front of the TV and then get dressed, what ooh, just before lunch sometimes if we weren’t doing anything. So although Girl Lacer is a breeze (currently, touch wood, etc. etc.) to get ready in the mornings, all the battling is with Boy Lacer.
But we managed to get to school on time today (I took the pushchair, which gets to me because at nearly 3 he ‘should’ be able to walk that very short distance reliably, although I know of course he can’t yet) and after drop off, me and Boy Lacer went to the supermarket (Sainsburys, which currently has alot of rather good half price offers I noticed, food price wars, please!!!) which was so nice and quiet first thing, I could get used to this being out and about early thing. We then got the bus (also quite quiet) to Kew as we were going to a Tumbletots trial today (to those who don’t know what Tumbletots is, it’s a sort of toddler gym). We got to Kew, I knew we’d be early, so we made the most of my Kew Gardens season ticket and went for a wander for 40 minutes, I let Boy Lacer decide which direction to go in, asking which way everytime we got to a junction and we ended up by Sackler Crossing, which I’d never seen before (and I go to Kew quite a bit), so we said hello to the ducks.
more photos on my photoblog here and here.
After Kew we went on to Tumbletots, Boy Lacer seemed quite excited whilst waiting outside but I’ve learnt whilst he’s excited outside somewhere, that doesn’t necessarily equate when he actually gets inside. Once in he tried to escape after 10 minutes and had more screaming fits in 45 minutes than he’d normally have in a whole morning. In between screaming he did have a go on some of the apparatus with my help and actually enjoyed it and that sort of thing is perfect for helping with his mobility. However when I got the paperwork with the amount for the rest of the term, shudder, we can’t afford it basically, a term of Tumbletots is more expensive than a term of Girl Lacer’s twice a week dance lessons (ballet and modern / tap). I feel guilty, Girl Lacer has had and still does go to far more activities than Boy Lacer ever has done (although she only does dance now, most where when she was an only child) and the Tumbletots would have helped with his mobility problems but we just don’t have the money. We’ll be applying for DLA at the end of this month when Boy Lacer turns 3 (we’ve waited so he can be assessed for the mobility component which he needs the most, at the same time), if we get that, then we’ll reconsider but until then we’ll have to make our own ‘tumbletots’, we’re lucky enough to live in an area with lots of good playgrounds, now it’s just me and Boy Lacer, we’ve got more time and won’t be rushing everywhere.
It makes me think about an article I read recently about rich city types having very large families, sort of as a status symbol, sort of “look at me, I’m so rich I can afford to have eight kids, a stay at home wife and a team of nannies”. And here’s us counting the pennies with two, but one of the other mums in the article who had a large family but wasn’t married to a city trader said how we’ve been caught in a two kid trap, we’ve limited ourselves to two kid families, so families spend more money on them because they can and then they think they can’t have anymore kids because it’d be too expensive because we’re used to spending lots of money on the children that we have. Do I really need to spend £10 a session on your kid climbing up some (albeit well designed) climbing frames, with a bit of singing and music in between? I can get that for free in the park, including the singing and music, when we’re not singing sometimes the council will put on free kids entertainment in the parks.
PS I would really like four kids (Mr. Lacer would prefer three), so better get used to this.
PPS So we’re all still here, we’ve survived the big switch on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it was pretty obvious we would but the whole thing has been running like an X-files story in my mind, I can just imagine Mulder and Scully running the miles of underground tunnels chasing after some extra-dimensional breach after the LHC has been infiltrated by meddlesome aliens. I bet there’s a script for some sort of sci-fi movie involving some sort of LHC type experiment in development within Hollywood as I type, if not can I write it? Doesn’t have to have Mulder and Scully in it, I vote actually for the ‘sexy’ physicist who presents those TV physics programmes who works there.
