Archives

Long Distance Peekaboo-ing

Sep16

This time last week we were on our way to our first long distance trip with Baby Boy. It was only to Center Parcs but at 5 hours it was going to be a fairly long trip with a baby in tow.

Our cunning master plan was to keep baby very awake during the morning and try to get him to forsake his morning nap. This would obviously (hmm) mean that baby would then drop off the minute we set off and sleep a good couple of hours. We would then stop for a break, feed baby, have a good play for an hour and then set off again. This would obviously (hmm) mean baby would then play peacefully in the back and eventually drop off again. Our secret weapon (the iPad with In the Night Garden on it), would be pulled out should we need it. Easy peasy!

The execution of our plan was delayed from the outset. Mainly due to trying to cram 300 loaves of various bread and breakfast foods into the boot of the car without squishing anything. You can read more about why we actually had 300 loaves in one of my previous posts.

It took about an hour to finally get clothes AND baked goods into the car and the boot shut. Once we’d loaded the rest of our baked goods and clothes into pockets of free space in the car and shimmied our way to our seats we were ready to go. Baby Boy also looked like he was ready for a long nap. So far so good! What Baby Boy didn’t tell us was that he’d decided to only have a power nap on this particular day.

About 30 minutes into our journey Baby Boy woke up, bright eyed and full of energy, and wanting a playmate. My own secret hopes for a two hour nap went the same way as baby’s nap.

The next few hours were spent like this:

Trying to entertain a baby with a string of toys. This lasted about 5 minutes each before they were (usually) chucked out the seat on the other side. Where I can’t reach

Trying to get baby to watch Iggle Piggle on the iPad. This had to be abandoned quite early when baby found it was much more fun to kick the iPad instead.

Playing Peekaboo for one whole hour. This was actually a lot of fun for half an hour when Baby Boy discovered he could do it himself. By the end of the hour I felt a bit hoarse.

Trying to feed baby in a moving car. This inevitably means food will go all over the carseat, seats of the car, on Baby Boys clothes and on himself. He fed well though. Success!

Realising I hadn’t packed a spare top for baby in my changing bag and everything was packed away in the boot, barricaded by 300 loaves of bread.

Stopping at a service stop with a baby (delighted at being freed and screaming this to any passer by) covered in food. We decided he may as well stay in them for the remainder of journey as the thought of unpacking 300 loaves wasn’t too appealing.

Watching the overtired but utterly excited baby eventually have a small nap and arriving at Center Parcs with a huge sigh of relief; we’d made it!!

Laughing at the other half when he said “I’ll never judge a parent again by the state of their baby”.

The journey back was smoother somehow. Probably because Baby Boy slept most of the journey!

Listography – Things I want to do this Summer

Jul5

This week the theme for the Listography is Things I want to do this Summer, guest hosted by the Reluctant Housedad whilst Kate Takes 5 takes a break.

There are LOADS of things I would love to do this summer and usually you’d need to tie me down to the sofa to keep me still.  I’m not someone that can sit indoors much.  Since baby has come along though, things have had to change a teeny bit.  Like being home for his naps.  And feeds and other things that basically mean you need to be indoors somewhere.    Soooo…here goes:

1.  Look after baby and watch him grow.

This summer Baby Boy will be going through some of his major milestones, hopefully, as he learns how to sit up properly, unaided and makes a complete mess of himself discovering all the messy and yummy foods out there.  Will he learn to crawl soon? Will he pull himself up? Is he going to cut those bloody teeth quickly?  Is he ever going to sleep through?  I wonder if he’ll say Mama (oh pleeeease!) or Dada first.  Basically, tope of my list is to wake up each day with baby, after hopefully some decent sleep, and watch my baby grow in all sorts of amazingly perfect and utterly cute ways.

2.  Go on Holiday…

Somewhere…Anywhere.  It just needs to be a nice break away.  I initially started off with the idea of a long haul flight with baby.  That would not be crazy right?  Some nice hot sun, all his baby stuff packed; fully prepared.  The more I thought about it the more (I stress, reluctantly) decided it might be wiser to holiday closer to home.  So Europe?  Somewhere very modern where baby facilities are plentiful and the overall hotel is family friendly.  Not such a long flight.   Hmmm…but what if?  So now we are thinking about a holiday somewhere in the UK.  Where baby facilities will be plentiful.  Maybe in August or September sometime.

3.  Visit Witches

I live in an area that has a history of Witches.  Ever heard of the Pendle Witches?  In the 1600′s, during the reign of James 1, black magic and witchcraft were the most heinous crimes of the time and amongst those tried were a bunch of women from the Pendle area.  They were tried and hung for their alleged evil ways and ever since, the area has become famous as the home of the Pendle Witches.  There is a Witches trail that is still in existence and even a little shop dedicated to all things witchery called Witches Galore.  I keep meaning to visit the shop and check out the little town of Newchurch and never get around to it.   It is a stones throw from where I  live and is something I will be going to this summer.

4.  Attend the annual Family reunion.

We always have one BIG family function in the summer.  Usually it consists of a BIG sit down meal and a massive amount of organised chaos.  It’ll consist of about 12 adults (my parents age),  their combined total of 28 children (including moi!), 8 children under the age of 16 and 6 babies / toddlers (including Baby Boy).  That equals a hell of a lot of noise.

5.  Clean the Garage.

Well, more, direct the hubby to clean the garage.  Imagine a clean garage with wall to wall storage areas and a place you can store all your spare luggage and never-ending of shoes.  All neatly arranged into shoe racks.  On the opposite wall there are utility cupboards for all of hubby’s DIY junk.  And of course, the car is parked neatly in the middle of all of that.  Now imagine the complete opposite; that’s our garage.  Filled from bottom to top with all manner of junk, cardboard boxes and stuff we’re not even sure belongs to us.   The door just about shuts if you manage to shove stuff in far enough.  It does really need a good clean.  But its been two years.  And counting.