Year 3 - April

April 2007

Emma's Entry

Evan's favourite toy at Nanny's is her fridge magnets!

We had an interesting start to this month when we visited Caroline's mum for the Easter weekend. She'd been planning a little visit to a public garden that has lots of flowers and special gardens for the public to come and see. I hadn't really thought too much about it until the actual day. Usually when we go out with Evan, there is two of us on hand to deal with him as he does have a tendency to wander and get upto general mischief. Today was going to be slighty different as Caroline's mum now requires a wheelchair when out and about for long periods of time so I was given the task to handle Evan, the pushchair and all the bags whilst Caroline handled her mother in the wheelchair. This day could have been a sketch out of Benny Hill because at one point Evan had me running round the gardens chasing him and abandoning the pushchair. Evan is definitely showing his independence at the moment, he wanted to be in control of pushing the pushchair even when we were trying to squeeze between groups of people and ponds! I was beginning to wish we were at home when things took a turn for the worse. We'd just navigated down this woodchip path when Caroline had the wheelchair wheels stuck and I was behind them with the pushchair. Evan slipped out of my grip and walked passed them and I got the pushchair stuck trying to follow him. Everything happened so quickly, one second I shouted for Evan to stop (which he totally ignored), then I ran but before I could get to him he just stepped straight into the baby pond (luckily for us it was only the baby one). I caught him just as he slipped on the plastic base, he fell in up to his waist and my foot slipped partially in too. I screamed and everyone around us gasped in horror too as I pulled out this drenched baby. He response was "Oh dear, wet" - yes no kidding!

Can you see us?

We didn't have anything with us, nappies or spare clothes as we haven't really found the need for them now that he is much older. We were just removing his wet clothes and debating the next action we could take when a lovely lady wandered over to us to ask if we had any clothes for him. She gave us a spare pair of jogging bottoms to use as her son was of a similar age. I couldn't thank her enough, we were able to stay for a little while longer and Evan was quite content to stay in his pushchair as he had no shoes or socks and his nappy was fat and wet because it had absorbed the pond water.

The deadline to get the annual passes for Legoland was the end of April, so we went to Legoland again this month. Evan is now at the next height range, so he can go on more of the rides. We only had two minor incidents that day, both around the same time. Once again Evan slipped out of my grasp and I thought he was with us, when suddenly I realised that neither one of us had him. I can't explain the feelings I experienced for the next few minutes, my heart was in my throat and I just panicked. I ran back the way we came shouting his name and fortunately for us, he'd not wandered far and he did come when he heard me shout. I don't think he realised he was lost and if he had then it may have been a worse situation for us all. I don't think I recovered from this incident all day. The second incident slightly more embarrassing for me was on the ride we were queuing for when he got lost. When we reached the front there was only two spaces left. Caroline took Evan on and I stayed in the queue because he could then get a second ride with me free. This seemed like a good idea until I got in and Caroline transferred him to me. When she left, Evan just cried his eyes out calling "My mummy" and pointing to Caroline as she wandered off. I couldn't console him and in the end we had to leave the ride. The ride assistants were saying "Oh I guess he wants his mummy", I just smiled and said "yeah, I guess so", thinking to myself I AM HIS MUMMY... I have no idea why he cried and Caroline was equally puzzled when she saw that we weren't on the ride as it went round :).

We've just been spotting dinosaurs!

Evan has been going through a phase lately that I can only describe as him trying to push us to see how much protesting and refusals he can get away with. The main issue has been at the dinner table when it comes to food time. He's not too keen on meat at the moment especially mince, he'd rather eat pasta and ham every day if he had his way. I served him up a meal that is probably not his favourite but it's not horrible either - Chilli and rice. I'm not going to cook any more mince meals for a while but I didn't want to waste them either so he has to finish what is in the freezer. He just refused to eat this meal and we had tantrums like I have never seen before. I think he spent 2 hours at the table that day before finally eating his meal and all three of us were exhausted afterwards. He hasn't tried that since so I think it was worth enduring the pain as it showed him that he wouldn't rule us.

We finished this month with a BBQ at our friends house. We had a great time, Evan was well behaved and we all had a nice time. The last time we were there, we spent the whole time chasing him around because he was still a bit wobbly on his feet and we were worried about him hurting himself in their garden. This time round, he was fine. We played football with him and they also have a new dog that is much more friendly, so he would play with her and leave the other dog alone. If only I had the digital camcorder handy when we'd just packed up outside for the evening. Evan was standing in the kitchen asking to go outside to play football. I said it was too late and that it was time to start getting ready for bed, Evan however, decided he had other ideas. He wandered into the utility room and stood by the back door, so I left him. I only investigated when I heard this clattering noise and when I glanced in, I just screamed in shock as all I saw was a pair of legs dangling from the dog flap. I grabbed his legs and pulled him back in, how was I to know that he'd be that sneaky in finding a way outside! Cheeky monkey... :)

Emma