This afternoon me and Boy Lacer went shopping without (insert drum roll here please) his pushchair. We obviously got the bus, which was a feat in itself as last time Boy Lacer was on a bus without a pushchair he was hysterical (he has issues with the bus being ‘wobbly’). This time we found a seat (although of course the bus started moving again before we got a chance to sit down, so me and Boy Lacer were left initially clinging to a pole in the middle of the bus), Boy Lacer held to the bar in front of his seat (when we eventually sat down) for dear life but he had a great time looking out the window, something which is normally a bit difficult if you’re in a pushchair.
I just needed to go to three stores, a bead shop, John Lewis / Waitrose and Wilkinsons. The bead shop was easy, the walk to John Lewis which was at the other end of a not particularly long high street was a little arduous, with Boy Lacer insisting on following the lines of the drainage gratings and detouring for the man hole covers and he still walks quite slowly. In John Lewis he continued his following lines theme by following the lines between the tiles on the floor and in the haberdashery department insisted for a while on walking on his knees. Then it was downstairs to Waitrose where we got into a great debate about whether we needed croissants, I wanted croissants, he didn’t, so lots of anguished “I don’t like croissants, I don’t like food”, he’s having some real issues around food at the moment, for the record he loves croissants and after we got home and he saw me take the croissants out of my bag, his eyes lit up and he wanted one then and there. Then it was a quick sit down outside John Lewis, I don’t know who was more tired, him or me, it is certainly easier to watch him when he’s sitting in his pushchair and he’s less likely to get stroppy. We then made our way back up the high street to Wilkinsons, where by now Boy Lacer was most definitely flagging and I had to carry him part of the way. Then a very . . . slow . . . walk through Wilkinsons to the gardening section where we had another debate about whether we needed any spring onions seeds (me for : him against). And then back towards the bus stop, which was such a slow walk (over a short distance) we watched one bus pass us by and nearly missed the second, me in encouraging tones: “Come on, bus here!”, Boy Lacer walking slower and slower. Luckily the bus waited for us, although this time getting on and off the bus with Boy Lacer was harder as he needed lifting over the large gaps between the bus and pavement and I had my hands full with the shopping.
So, is it bye bye pushchair? No way! Although I am slowly increasing the school runs where Boy Lacer is walking, if we’re running late (which we normally are) he needs to be in the pushchair as he can’t walk quick enough and you can guarantee when you want him to walk quickly he won’t and he’s more likely to melt down. So we need the pushchair for that, we also need the pushchair for the walks to the hospital, as that’s a long walk. As for shopping trips, sigh I wish I could say that’s it, no more pushchair for shopping trips but just the extra supervision required when he’s out the pushchair on this trip alone feels like it could bring on grey hairs. But I’ll try and do it more often, if anything because he does like looking out of the window on the bus!
(For the record I can’t actually wait to get rid of the pushchair because until then we can’t redecorate our mud smeared front hallway)
