Over the long weekend the Boy celebrated his 5th birthday. I still find myself double taking- he’s 5 years old, where has the time gone? It seems like a matter of moments ago I was changing his nappies and making sure he wasn’t covered in puke. Although, come to think of it, I may be getting him confused with Danger who is currently smelly of nappy and has a decided whiff of sick about him.
In the last month or so the boy has grown up mightily. He seems more articulate, more thoughtful and more clever than he did a scant few weeks ago. Perhaps it’s me getting all mushy and sentimental while remembering that long Easter weekend in the QEII hospital where, after a very long labour, he was accidentally born to the strains of Megadeth’s Symphony of Destruction* (thanks a bunch shuffle feature, I didn’t even know that was still on the MP3 player).
How did he want to celebrate his 5th birthday? Camping. That’s right, camping as the longest dry spell we’ve endured for years (and saw a hosepipe ban come in a few days before) came to a dramatic end with days of torrential rain. We pitched the tent in the garden and spent a couple of nights camping out in the wind and the rain.
We’ve been camping around Halloween with the kids before, so it shouldn’t have felt quite as cold as it did, especially as we had a 13.5 tog king size duvet, a 12 tog single duvet, two sheepskin rugs and three throws. Still the first night I had my longest uninterrupted sleep since the boy was born- I was asleep by 8pm and slept through til 7am. So obviously I felt groggy the next morning.
We had a tea party with family on the Monday, he went to soft play with his mates on Tuesday and we rounded off the celebrations with a trip to my parents Tuesday evening. A full weekend of birthday related activities that saw us all bushed. Oh, and we also found the time to strip the wallpaper off Danger’s bedroom and repaper it with toy race car wallpaper. As you do.
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