Garage Band

Hehe. Sort of. Not really :) We took the car through an automatic carwash a couple of months ago, with Ben in the car. (We've not done auto carwashes for a long time, not since he was a baby really; we get the car washed by hand instead.) Ben was freaked out properly. Screamed and screamed, had a nightmare that night, and was talking about it for WEEKS afterwards as we went through it saying it couldn't hurt him, that none of us were hurt, and it was just cleaning the car. But yes it was a bit scary.

Carwashes since then have figured quite prominently in his play - things get put through imaginary carwashes, a lot of stuff gets put in the washing machine and the drum spun round and Ben calls it the carwash. To see him playing with his garage this morning putting cars through the carwash bit of it was quite fascinating, he's never played with that bit before! Didn't quite get a picture of him putting cars thru' (well I did, but I was playing with the flash at the time and it's an awful picture, I dislike straight camera flash hugely) but we had fun together taking pictures of him playing :)

He's done so much today that I've been hugely proud of. Memories to treasure, proud mummy moments, heart-swelling moments. Can't write all of them down, but this will help me remember them :)

Last night I woke up at 4am having a hypo. Ben and Steve were fast asleep. Before going to bed (for the final time) Ben said he wanted to sleep next to daddy (normally he only wants mummy, and daddy is barely tolerated in the bed) so after feeding himself to sleep he'd evidently wriggled over to daddy and had snuggled up next to him. It melted my heart as I was sorting my blood sugar levels out!!

This morning he had a bath to sort his feet out after running around barefoot in the garden yesterday - I didn't think the swimming teacher this afternoon would appreciate muddy footprints around the pool! He lined all his ducks and frogs up on the side and was saying "ready, go!" with each one before jumping them into the bath and swimming them across to the other side... The enjoyment ended when he decided it would be a good idea to run from one end to the other, slipped, and bashed his bottom on the floor of the bath... ah well. Still, it meant he was happy to get out!

After a good lunch of ham slices (10) cheese pieces (many - and he was trying to play his own version of chubby bunnies with the cheese... I didn't think that was a great idea) and a couple of hash browns, we went off to the supermarket. He rode his balance bike to the car, which was parked a couple of roads away.

We saw a fire engine at the supermarket!

It wasn't doing anything except sitting there, maybe they'd come for a late lunch and got meal deals, who knows... Ben was quite excited.

We shared a chocolate muffin and a mug of hot chocolate in the cafe after going round the aisles: finally a relaxed and chilled out cafe experience with him after so many stressful ones recently!! No spillages, sat happily to drink his drink and eat his cake, crawled under the table and played boo, told me all the colours on the mural next to us. Almost fell asleep on the way home but somehow didn't. Rode his bike back and forth between the house and the car as I unloaded, and by then it was too late to try and get him to have a sleep before swimming.... hmmm.

But we unloaded and tidied up and he rode his bike in the garden a bit and then it was time to go swimming finally. He nearly fell asleep in the car on the way, but managed to stay awake aided by a piece of twix :) He wasn't keen on swimming to start with and once the previous class had been through the shower area and it was safe for me to venture round I went and sat with him while he did his sitting and jumping entries into the pool. Once he was actually off swimming he had woken up and stopped shivering and was fine!

Proud mummy moment was when they did their completely unaided swimming bit. The two teachers stand in the pool, one by the side, one in the middle, and they take all the floats off the kids and basically shove them thru the water to the other teacher. Normally Ben lets the force of their push move him, and doesn't do any actual swimming motions. Today, he did. All the way from teacher to teacher. Twice! My heart was bursting with pride! My baby swam by himself!! Ok so it was underwater, he's not yet got the strength to stay above water, but 2.5m under swimming by himself without panicking, actually managing to propel himself from teacher to teacher - wow. My baby can swim. So what if he's still in nappies. So what if he can't do some things that other kids his age can do. So what if he still hates being dropped off at preschool.

My baby can SWIM!!!!!!!!!

How ace is he. I am so proud of him!!

He almost fell asleep on the way home but woke up enough to fly/run to the surgery so I could sort out a prescription before heading home properly; and then he decided he was awake enough to ride his balance bike to the chip shop and back :D Which he did! All the way from our house to the railway bridge where I carried it over, to the chip shop where he waited like an angel for our chips, back to the railway bridge, back from the bridge to our house. (I'd forgotten that the little bit from the bridge down to the road is a bit of a decline and he totally FLEW down there, wobbling a bit just as he was trying to stop, I managed to catch up and caught the bike and steadied him and it just in time!) He flew on that bike!!! My goodness but this is going to get me fitter, chasing that little tearaway on his bike. It's certainly faster than walking with him or pushing him in the buggy! Not sure if I dare go to the shops with him on his bike yet though ;)

I'm so pleased that this balance bike thing has taken off with him. He loves his big bike and to see him gaining in confidence so much on it is fantastic! Considering a month ago he still preferred his scuttlebug over the bike, this is just wonderful :D

Now we're all shattered :) Steve and Ben are in the bath, I'd better go up and relieve Steve of duty in a bit but Ben sounds like he's happy so I'll give them a little while longer :)