Soggy

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm really struggling with the weather at the moment. Maybe it's the unpredictability - bright sunny skies one minute, torrential rain and hailstorms the next. Or maybe it's just the unrelenting rain, the pointlessness of checking a weather forecast when you know that recent history suggests that it's going to rain every day. It's really limiting our ability to get out and about - I don't want to risk getting caught out in a thunderstorm, and besides the playground is too wet to play in anyway. But of course anyone that spends a lot of time with young children knows what it can be like, especially at that point in the late afternoon, when everyone is fed up of being cooped up indoors.

This afternoon, Mia had been awake from her nap for a little while, and Harry was getting fed up as she crawled about and threw his toys about. The kitchen table was covered with pens and glue, and the living room floor was hidden under scattered Duplo, cars and milk bottle caps. I looked out the window and decided that although it was raining hard, it was steady rather than torrential and a quick trip out wouldn't do any harm.

I packaged us all up, Mia safe under the rain cover and Harry in his boots, raincoat and carrying his umbrella. Lured by the promise of some big puddles to jump in, Harry bounded eagerly along the road and I trailed along soggily behind with the pushchair.

I think we all felt better for some fresh air. Another bonus I've found is that if you take a small child out somewhere, when you get back they are more likely to amuse themselves for a short time, thus enabling you to get on with other important tasks like making dinner (or writing blog posts).

Also, there is an important date looming upon the horizon - this Sunday will mark one year since my husband took Harry away for the weekend, leaving me with a six week old baby that still slept most of the time and so a second dependent was born - this little blog!