Is it Friday the 13th?

I have had a couple of crazy days!

First of all, the car developed a fault with its suspension – I think after going over too many horrible speed bumps on the way to Nostell Priory on Saturday.
Thus Tuesday afternoon was spent in a local garage with some very kind men, who pin pointed the problem. However, I ended up having to take the car the main dealership yesterday. After sitting around for an hour, they told me exactly back, what I had already told them was wrong with the car. The lovely man kindly offered me a dinky little car, to pick Master BB up from nursery in whilst they fixed my car for me. Master BB thought he had won the lottery because I disabled the airbag, and strapped him into the front seat. I don’t think he would have actually fitted in the back! He was laughing and squealing and chatting all the way home. He thought it was hilarious. I will confess that I was not quite so happy to have a manual gearbox back, and I spectacularly stalled the car at a junction, when I completely forgot that I needed to apply the clutch before stopping!! Silly me! I was glad to get our car back, all fixed although at cost.

This morning, everything went wrong. I have a horrible cold which took a turn for the worse. I was worrying because I had to get a message to someone, and I didn’t know how to. We were late getting up. Little Miss BB is slightly deaf with her cold. Master BB did not want to do anything I wanted him to do. So getting dressed took twice as long. I had back to back appointments all day, so I had a packed lunch for Master BB to sort out. Little Miss BB gathered up her bags as normal – book bag, lunch bag, booster seat and medical bag. Master BB picked up his Bee rucksack which contains his home-school diary and his glasses – he insists on carrying it which really tickles me. I picked up my handbag, the lunchbag and some parcels to post. We walked out of the door as usual. I shut the door, and then had that horrible moment where I realised that I didn’t have the house or car keys on me, and the door had locked itself :\
Arrrrghhh!!

Master BB can barely walk – he needs my support. I was having to juggle all the bags, and Master BB. I then had to go and ask for a spare key to get back into the house. With the house unlocked again, I sent Little Miss BB upstairs to look for the keys, whilst I looked downstairs. They were absolutely no where to be seen. At that point Little Miss BB tumbled at least half way down the stairs head over heels. Bless her…she was sooooo upset. Thankfully she seemed ok apart from hurting her little finger. We had hugs and wiped away tears, but we had to carry on. School was due to start within 20 mins and we had no keys! I had a mini panic that I had left my handbag and Miss BB’s medical kit – with her life saving insulin pump handset – in the middle of our drive unattended. So I took Master BB out to the car to bring the important bags back in. As I came back in, I spotted the keys in the middle of a bush!!! Little Miss BB must have got the keys caught on her bags or coat as she left the house, thus I didn’t pick them up as normal, and they fell off as she walked to the car. I was very lucky to spot them!

With keys in hand, I had to bundle the children and 101 bags into the car, whilst our kitty tried to jump in too. I suddenly remembered that I had no pushchair in the car (because we emptied the boot to have the work done), so I had to put the Easywalker MINI stroller back into the boot, along with the YoYo and the Bugaboo pods which we use as changing / feeding bags. We eventually set off to school. We were 20 minutes later than usual, so there was nowhere to park the car. We ended up miles away which always makes things fun and games with Master BB. We use a pushchair for long distances, but not for school, lest he is seen as babyish. Anyway we took a short cut through school which saved us having to walk all the way round, which was great.

I tried to run quickly into the post office, but there was a queue a mile long……
By this stage, I was completely exhausted and it was barely 9am. I stood in the queue for what seemed like forever and eventually posted all my parcels. I had to do a quick dash back home to drop something off, and rescue the cat from spending the day outside, before heading back to school for a Speech and Language Appointment. The SaLT was late which gave me a blissful 10 mins to sit and take in the great child art work around me, and to calm down after all the running around. Phew!

Master BB impressed us today. He is starting to be able to say a number of letter sounds including ‘m’, ‘o’, ‘u’, ‘s’ and he even had a good attempt at ‘dog’. We did animal signs and Master BB does a fab ‘pig’ where he makes a grunting noise whilst doing the sign. I had no idea he did this! He does a great bunny too with very waggly ears!

I stayed until the end of the nursery session and then Master BB and I headed off to the Mamas and Papas Factory to do some consumer research. Master BB fell asleep on the way, so I decided to do a quick detour to my dad’s house. He was surprised to see us, but he was pleased. Master BB woke up as I changed him. He ate his lunch – although he wasn’t very impressed that his usual cheese sandwich had been replaced by meat ones! He insists on pulling each sandwich apart thus they take twice as long to eat!

After lunch, we headed off to the Mamas and Papas factory. I can distinctly remember passing the Mamas and Papas shop on the edge of town when I was small. I loved seeing all the nursery products in the window. We pass the Mamas and Papas factory a lot. We even stop at the factory shop from time to time and buy various bits and pieces – including pushchairs! So, it was very interesting to cross the road and to step inside the main factory site. From here, I can say no more. I had to sign a non disclosure agreement about what I was doing, although it is no secret that Mamas and Papas have set up a Consumer Research group on Facebook.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon. I did what I love most, with the products I like the best.
The hosts at Mamas and Papas were very welcoming and they listened well. I hope that some of what I had to say had value and can help them. However, I have to confess to feeling rather envious at the fabulous jobs which our lucky hosts have…..