Honies, I'm home
May. 25th, 2006 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radegundI meant to rattle off a post before we left home on ... um, when was it? ... last Friday week, but what with one thing and another (notably in this connection, Oisín spilling porridge on my keyboard*), not only did I have no time to post, but we also managed to miss our flight to Heathrow. Fortunately, the nice man at the ticket desk was able to sort us out without too much difficulty (a bundle of cash - it works), and we arrived a mere three hours later than expected.
It was a two-pronged holiday. First, we went to Harpenden, where some friends have recently moved, and some other friends joined us and we played table-top games all weekend. (Well. While the Oyster slumbered we all played. While he didn't,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
niallm and I swapped in and out. It worked better than I'd feared.) Second, Niall flew to the fabled land beyond the western sea - Hy-Brasil, some call it, although others claim that it is just another part of the Indies - and O and I repaired to Reading, where we stayed with ailbhe, rrc and their incomparable daughter (and A's burgeoning bump, come to that, which made its presence felt to varying degrees).
There followed a toddler-tastic ten days, which were fun and action-packed and fun and exhausting and fun. For Oisín there were balloons (intensely desirable) and sharing (fraught) and painting (squishy) and swimming (slightly worrying) and softplay (slidey) and baths (tidal) and a rocking horse and a pink buggy and a big wooden train and hundreds of plastic balls and a sand table and a watering-can and a swing and walks and shops and buses and trains and cats and a toddler group and a playground and a modicum of CBeebies and a trike and dozens of new words and some glimmerings of co-operation, towards the end, with his fascinating young hostess. For me there was all that plus tea and talk and Doctor Who and talk and talk and talk and that Holy Grail of toddler parenting, the unaccompanied loo break.
A&R have three cats, and the absolute best thing in the house, according to the Oyster, was the Tiny Cat Door (nah-nee-gah-daw). Whenever O sighted a cat, he'd attempt to chase it to the back door and urge it through the cat-flap, with cries of "tiny cat door! Tiny Cat Door! TINY CAT DOOR! TINY CAT DOOR! TINY CAT DOOR!!!" and giggles of pleasure if it complied. As with the dog in Belfast, although less dramatically, he got gradually more comfortable with the cats throughout our stay, eventually being able to pet them and even touch their noses. (There was one speculative smack on the nose, too, but I didn't see it repeated.)
Our flight home was delayed by about an hour and a half, but fortunately O was in a lovely mood, so that hardly mattered at all. He grabbed a quick nap at the boarding gate, and then sat up and chatted for the whole flight. There was another child behind us who got quite upset on take-off (ears, I presume). O said "poor baba" and asked me to draw crying babies for a while. As we left the airplane, a woman remarked on how lovely O was, and how good he'd been - and how good I was with him, which felt slightly odd. My impression was that she meant my conversing with him as an equal. Which, well, yes.
Oisín has talked a lot about A, R and L since we got home. Before he would go to sleep on both nights he requested an assurance that Neh-Neh was asleep too. This afternoon he asked me to draw a series of Neh-Nehs in many colours. (He also did a drawing today that I absolutely must scan and post.) It's clear that he had an utterly fabulous time, and I hope we can do it again before too long.
London-dwellers on my friends-list, I'm sorry I didn't organise a meet-up. We had two trips to The Big Smoke during our visit, finding it to be very big indeed: big and expensive, and also tiring - particularly if you are not yet two. I tried to convince myself that the Oyster and the wallet would stand a third visit, but I couldn't quite manage it. Next time.
* I rinsed it and left it to drain while we were away; Niall resurrected it and it's working fine now...
It was a two-pronged holiday. First, we went to Harpenden, where some friends have recently moved, and some other friends joined us and we played table-top games all weekend. (Well. While the Oyster slumbered we all played. While he didn't,
niallm and I swapped in and out. It worked better than I'd feared.) Second, Niall flew to the fabled land beyond the western sea - Hy-Brasil, some call it, although others claim that it is just another part of the Indies - and O and I repaired to Reading, where we stayed with ailbhe, rrc and their incomparable daughter (and A's burgeoning bump, come to that, which made its presence felt to varying degrees).There followed a toddler-tastic ten days, which were fun and action-packed and fun and exhausting and fun. For Oisín there were balloons (intensely desirable) and sharing (fraught) and painting (squishy) and swimming (slightly worrying) and softplay (slidey) and baths (tidal) and a rocking horse and a pink buggy and a big wooden train and hundreds of plastic balls and a sand table and a watering-can and a swing and walks and shops and buses and trains and cats and a toddler group and a playground and a modicum of CBeebies and a trike and dozens of new words and some glimmerings of co-operation, towards the end, with his fascinating young hostess. For me there was all that plus tea and talk and Doctor Who and talk and talk and talk and that Holy Grail of toddler parenting, the unaccompanied loo break.
A&R have three cats, and the absolute best thing in the house, according to the Oyster, was the Tiny Cat Door (nah-nee-gah-daw). Whenever O sighted a cat, he'd attempt to chase it to the back door and urge it through the cat-flap, with cries of "tiny cat door! Tiny Cat Door! TINY CAT DOOR! TINY CAT DOOR! TINY CAT DOOR!!!" and giggles of pleasure if it complied. As with the dog in Belfast, although less dramatically, he got gradually more comfortable with the cats throughout our stay, eventually being able to pet them and even touch their noses. (There was one speculative smack on the nose, too, but I didn't see it repeated.)
Our flight home was delayed by about an hour and a half, but fortunately O was in a lovely mood, so that hardly mattered at all. He grabbed a quick nap at the boarding gate, and then sat up and chatted for the whole flight. There was another child behind us who got quite upset on take-off (ears, I presume). O said "poor baba" and asked me to draw crying babies for a while. As we left the airplane, a woman remarked on how lovely O was, and how good he'd been - and how good I was with him, which felt slightly odd. My impression was that she meant my conversing with him as an equal. Which, well, yes.
Oisín has talked a lot about A, R and L since we got home. Before he would go to sleep on both nights he requested an assurance that Neh-Neh was asleep too. This afternoon he asked me to draw a series of Neh-Nehs in many colours. (He also did a drawing today that I absolutely must scan and post.) It's clear that he had an utterly fabulous time, and I hope we can do it again before too long.
London-dwellers on my friends-list, I'm sorry I didn't organise a meet-up. We had two trips to The Big Smoke during our visit, finding it to be very big indeed: big and expensive, and also tiring - particularly if you are not yet two. I tried to convince myself that the Oyster and the wallet would stand a third visit, but I couldn't quite manage it. Next time.
* I rinsed it and left it to drain while we were away; Niall resurrected it and it's working fine now...
