Our Hot Evening in the Park Tonight

I don't want to forget today. It was freezing in the morning. But then something happened ...it got warm.... and I mean really warm. I didn't leave the house between school runs so I have no idea when it even happened and very unlike me I didn't go near the BBC weather app today so I don't even know how high the mercury rose but it was HOT and we were in the park for........ drum roll........ FOUR HOURS after school.

Lottie was in one of these for the 1st time:

Except it didn't belong to us and although the Dad gave us permission to use it his son did not and the second he saw Lottie he had a melt down but it was NOTHING compared to the melt down that Lottie had when I tried and then when I successfully, got her out of it........ he then took it away and she chased him and the car around the park with her arms out-stretched whilst wailing. It was tragic but also almost funny to see this child chasing a boy and a car (Benny Hill style) and she didn't do it for a few feet and then throw herself down. Oh no, the crying did not slow her down. My girl is more strong willed than that. She chased him round a whole climbing frame, not once, but twice. I swear if I could drive, I would have gone and bought her one right there and then. You see Lottie is a cheerful soul and this is VERY out of character for her. She's quite easy come easy go - her brother has helped with that - so that's why I was in shock to see this Lottie, but although I have digressed into discussing this, this is not what this post is about.

It's about what a GLORIOUS evening we had in the park. It was BLISS. But before I go onto describing the very fun parts of the evening, whilst we're still on the subject of the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, this was my Lottie sadly trying to reach the car when it was put in solitary confinement out of her reach *cries*

Let's talk about the lovely parts of the evening. Like the fact that Lottie kept giving me flowers. Yes they were weeds, but to her and to me they were flowers and they represented so much. Aaron was playing with a boy from school and they were picking the weeds and throwing them at each other interspersed with pretending to sword fight with them. Lottie kept taking them from the friend and getting great delight in giving them to me. I thought I'd have to wait at least a decade before I'd be receiving flowers from my baby girl :-)

Because I liken myself to a weed that flowers (in the online world) then this was particularly poignant and the flowers WERE/ARE dead pretty.

We go to the park quite often so she is becoming scarily confident on the equipment now. If I even look away for a split second this is what I see *gulps* and then I am behind her immediately with a protective arm behind as she doesn't always understand the steps are for going up and not down...

There are 3 places where you can fall off this climbing frame, so Aaron is protectively waiting at the other end should she decide to crawl through the tunnel but she is captivated with the tubular bells that bounce to make music.

They are musical poles, not to be mistaken from musical Polish people ha ha:

Spending the evening in the park with these two is SUCH a pleasure.

In case you wonder how we can possibly stay there for as long as we do/did, it is because I always meet Aaron from school with a full packed lunch. It's something we started when he was in reception and he's now in year 2 and we're still doing it except the contents are greater as Lottie likes to eat when he does. Suffice to say even though they had a large bottle of drink each it was ALL gone by the time we left. THANK GOD for breastfeeding. I hadn't packed a drink for this Mamma, yours truly, but it was okay as a Mum who lives in the flats bordering the park went home and made me a coffee AND brought it out to me. I was thrilled. I've been quite low in recent months so that gesture was HUGE. I really appreciate acts of kindness however small. In fact I crave them. My Mum and my Dad and my Aunt and my inlaws, 4 separate parties, have all promised to visit in recent months and as of yet, none have so far, and I've been craving company and good times. Daddy has been very busy and me and the kids have had one illness after another after another for months. It's literally only now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it seems as though the light is now......... THE SUN! I hope this is the turning of a corner and the signs of a lovely Summer 2017 to come. If tonight at the park was anything to go by, Lottie has similar stamina levels to what Aaron had at that age, so looks like I will be busy keeping her busy and entertained. Thank God my CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) did a disappearing act during pregnancy and hasn't made a return.  It means that despite being 44 years of age I can, just about, keep up with her. I had a few sit downs in the park but not many and oddly enough the fresh air and fun GAVE me energy rather than took it, hence I have just put 4 bags of laundry away AND I'm now blogging at gone midnight and I can't remember the last time I did that.

Because we had SUCH a lovely evening I even bought Aaron a fidget spinner on the way home. You have never seen a happier boy. I don't think it's a real one. We got it in a local convenience store as I wasn't about to spend £4 on the bus to get to Toys R Us. He was AS excited as he does be on Xmas Day. Literally! Look:

Anyway in the old days, if we had a lovely day, the second I'd get Aaron to sleep I'd have an urgent NEED to come online and blog about it. It was like a muscle. Like an itch I had to scratch. It was just something I did, with no ulterior motive. My first few years of blogging I didn't even do reviews. I wasn't in it for any gain. I was on a good salary and didn't even do sponsored posts back then. I was quite a purist blogger doing it purely for the community and diary side of things. I want to regain some of that lost ground. I wanted to do posts like this when Lottie was born, but as we had received a few bits for her to review I kept thinking "I can't write THAT when I SHOULD be writing THAT (i.e. a review)" and the more behind I got with the reviews the bigger that blogging constipation got. I only hope that now, if I get myself back in the routine of blogging like someone getting back into exercise, I can then get back on top of things. 

Anyway.... nice talking to you... if there's anyone still there....