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Saturday 25th January 2020

6248/19178

I let my wife have a nice long lie-in and got the kids their breakfast. I woke up before everyone and so was ready for my son rousing at about 6.15am. He was rubbing his eyes and so I asked him if he’d had a dream. He’s only 2 and a bit so I wasn’t expecting much, but he said “flying”. 
"Where we you flying?” I asked him.
“Outside,” he said.
Could there be a more delightful start to the morning than imagining this sleepy-eyed 2 year old flying around outside the house. And having the imagination to envisage it.
I can’t get over that being a dream he would have and be able to recount, if only in two words. What was going through his mind as that was happening? My tiny flying son.

But both kids are full of surprises and this was a pretty good day of them both at the top of their game. We sat and chatted at breakfast and then they coloured stuff in on their iPads whilst I caught up on my blog. We had nowhere to be for a good while so there was no rush and we played it cool.
My wife emerged at about 8am, which would once have been early, but these days is a lie-in of Rip van Winkle proportions. We finally got them dressed and took them to Phoebe’s gym class and then on to Woodside farm. Ernie had really wanted a ride on the real tractor there, but sadly it turned out it had broken down, but they got to sit on it which was probably better than being dragged in a trailer behind it. The attraction is ramshackle in places and could do with a bit of a makeover, but we go pretty regularly and the kids like it and there’s lots to do even on a cold day like today.
After some llama feeding and crazy golf (and how can you not love a place where you get both of those for the price of admission) we went to the cafe where there’s a nice soft play area and for pretty much the first time ever we were able to leave the kids to fend for themselves whilst we had a cup of tea. My nearly five year old shepherded the two and a bit year old around, keeping him out of trouble, helping him if he got stuck and coming down the slides together. She was a marvel and also an unpaid baby sitter (though I gave her a few goes on some of the rides and games so she wasn’t actually free). I still hovered around on the periphery just in case but only went in once to pull them out of the ball pit when they were basically playing at being stuck. It was worth it to watch my daughter caring for my son. They aren’t always such a team (and later in fact when we asked her if she’d like to praise Ernie for doing a poo on the potty she rebelled a bit and questioned why she always had to care about him) but I hope they will look out for each other over the years. 
They are a lot of fun. Apparently when he’s 4 and she’s 6 that will be the absolute sweet spot of cuteness combined with not being too much of a handful, but I am loving my sassy daughter hitting me with zingers (some of which actually work) and my son who flies through the night. 
They saved me. They’ll kill me. I am glad for both eventualities. Thank God they turned up.

Great news - the brilliant Lolly Adefope from Shrill, Ghosts, Taskmaster and much more is going to be my guest on RHLSTP on April 6th. Book here.


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