Magic Moments: Weekend Shenanigans

The past few weekends, I feel like I've been a bit of a lazy parent. One or both of us has been ill for what feels like forever, and I feel like we've wasted a lot of our time together by just doing boring, every-day things.

So this weekend, I decided to do something about that!

At the moment our normal routine for any day off is to have a walk into town, see the Christmas trees and lights, maybe buy a few bits and bobs, and then come home and pretty much spend the rest of the day playing, colouring or watching Peppa Pig or something equally as soul destroying.

On Saturday morning though, my sisters were heading to Tesco to do some shopping. I know that sounds fairly boring to most people, but we don't often go to the big out of town Tesco, and S loves to be pushed around in a trolley. Plus I needed supplies for the rest of the day! So I bundled her into the buggy, and we walked across the park and up the main road to Tesco. We spent a couple of hours wandering up and down the aisles (my sister was doing a full weekly shop, and is very indecisive!). S did get a little bored toward the end, but for the most part I think she had fun.

On our way home, we popped into Homebase and bought a roll of lining paper for drawing on, and the minute we got home I rolled it out across the floor and gave S some pens. She was as happy as Larry for ages, enjoying moving up and down the paper to draw. 

Once the novelty of drawing had worn off, we tried out the "pipe cleaners in a colander" game I've heard a lot about lately. It's supposed to help with fine motor skills... I think perhaps S is a little young for that one yet though, as she mostly just removed the pipe cleaners from the holes and put them in her ears! It was fun though, and she did seem to enjoy herself!

After that, we made some mince pies, which was a little messy but fun. Predictably, S ended up spooning the mixture straight into her mouth! Luckily I had employed a little forethought, and we were using shop-bought mincemeat, not the booze-infested jars I still have in the corner of my kitchen! 

Mince pies for dinner, nom!

On Sunday, I had a bit of a hangover having been out for a friend's birthday. My sister (chief babysitter) was going out with my mum to somewhere they'd never driven to before, in order to choose a new bike helmet... so I thought, what the hell, why don't we go too!

So S and I got ourselves all dressed and ready, and two hours later my mother turned up (she is late for everything). Off we went to a bike shop on the side of a busy road, where we spent a large amount of time looking at different helmets... Well, my sister and my mum did; we spent that time walking up and down a dotted white line they had on the carpet to make a fake road, and playing peekaboo with their mirror. Then we went to KFC over the road for lunch. S has never had fast food before, and I would have preferred we go somewhere else to be honest; but it was past lunch time, we were in danger of a meltdown, and since my mother has an uncanny ability to get lost anywhere and everywhere, within moments, I didn't fancy getting back into the car to find food.

After a half-hearted attempt at chips and pop corn chicken (while I was secretly pleased to see she really wasn't interested in it) we got back into the car and proceeded to get very lost on a very basic ring road. We went around the same roundabout approximately four times, and drove through the town centre from various directions at least three times. Then we eventually ended up in a neighbouring town, where we went for a little wander around the shops.

This was the first time I've ever taken S out somewhere other than into Salisbury without the buggy or a sling. I was a little worried about how that would pan out, but as it turned out it was mostly fine. We had a couple of hairy moments when she didn't fancy wandering around Primark, but to be fair I think that would have happened whether she were in the buggy or not! I'm proud of my little chicken for coping with a whole day out and about!

All in all, a great weekend was had. This is S's last week at nursery before they break up for Christmas so I'm busy planning all sorts of mischief for the next couple of weeks now... Feel free to comment with ideas of how we can have the maximum amount of fun possible!