The Half-Term Rollercoaster!!

Last week was Little Bean’s first half-term holiday from school, and boy, what a week that was. We had highs, which were excellent, and lows, which weren’t so great!

I never know whether you should explain the good stuff first and then go downhill or whether it’s best to get the rubbish out of the way first and end on a high. I think it’s best to end on a high, so let’s try that. . .

The Lows

Little Bean has been a little ‘challenging’ of late; it started out being horrible to Grandad, which I have to say really gets my goat. I was especially close to my granddad, and even though he has been gone for 15 years now, I still think of him at least once every single day. I happen to think that grandparents are very special people who should be treasured and treated with respect, so it has hurt me very much recently when Little Bean has been less than friendly to her granddad. She has always had a good relationship with her granddad, until one day when he shouted at her because she attempted to push Beanie Boy down the stairs right before granddad’s eyes.

Naturally, Grandad was frightened for Beanie Boy’s safety, but Little Bean didn’t take kindly to Grandad shouting at her and so has since told him on several occasions that she didn’t like him. Perhaps if I had thought about this a little more, I would have taken the same tack when the occasional naughty word slips off her tongue: I ignore it, and most of the time, I never hear it again. But like I said, I think that grandparents are special, and I miss mine terribly, so she touched a nerve with me, and each time she was horrible to Grandad, I would have stern words with her. This backfired somewhat when last week, on what was supposed to be a nice afternoon out just me and the tiddlers, she turned to me and told me, “I don’t like you, and I don’t want to go anywhere with you,” because I told her she couldn’t bring a bunch of wet leaves into the car.

So, being 6 months pregnant, full of hormones, and feeling a little under the weather, I still did what any self-respecting mother would do: I burst into tears and rang Hubby, saying we had big problems. I acted like a child; I turned the car around, came home, and told her to go to her bedroom until she could learn to be nice whilst I sat downstairs on the sofa with Beanie Boy and curled up to watch Madagascar.

The following day, we had a trip to London with Daddy, Curly, and Beanie Boy, and whilst Little Bean and I were alone, she put her arms around my neck (I was sitting down; she’s not that tall just yet!) and said, “I’m sorry I was mean to you yesterday, Mummy, I love you lots really.” Mummy’s heart melted, and peace was restored in our relationship. In the afternoon (when the children were getting tired and crabby), it was Curly and Little Bean’s turn to spat with each other; there were lots of “she said this, she did that” and “he said this, he did that.” Hubby and I were tired of this very quickly and told them both to pack it in, reminding Curly that at 11 years old, he didn’t need to revert to being a 4-year-old like his sister and ignore her.

Throughout the week, we had many incidents where Little Bean was violent, mean, and overly bossy with Beanie Boy. This didn’t sit well with Beanie Boy, who decided to take it upon himself to stand up for himself by using any heavy toy he could find to hit her about the head, which resulted in more tears and tantrums from both sides.

On Wednesday evening, after a particularly uneventful day where the children and I vegged out and did nothing, Little Bean decided it was Daddy’s turn for the rough treatment and told him she didn’t like him anymore, only Mummy. He was better at handling it than me and said, “Okay, that’s nice; I love you, sweetheart. Goodnight.”.

On Friday evening, after a lovely day where both of the tiddlers had been the perfect little twosome, we collected Nanna from work, and I sang their praises, only for them to start playing up less than 10 minutes later. We planned to take them to the local fireworks display, but as we prepared to leave the house, Little Bean told Nanna, “I don’t like you; I’m not holding your hand; I’m going with Mummy,” which upset my Mum. The little madam was on a roll, let me tell you!!

And then, of course, the weekend brought fun and games of Hubby’s pneumonia—but that’s a different story.

The Highs

Yes, there were some highs too. As I mentioned, we spent the day in London on Tuesday. We had been invited to two events on the same day, but rather than attending both, we decided to go our separate ways. I took the tiddlers to Disney HQ, and Hubby took Curly to Warner Bros., as the two events were geared more toward specific age groups. I had a great time catching up with my friend Sophie, and Little Bean hit it off with Sophie’s daughter Pixie; they were almost inseparable by the end of the day!!

Hubby and Curly said they had a great time at Warner Bros., and Curly is a big Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fan, so he was in his element. Afterwards, we all met up to let the children loose in both Hamleys and Disney Store, finding the nearest golden arches to fill our tummies and starting the long journey home.

On Wednesday, the children (and Daddy) all dressed up for Halloween, and even though we didn’t have a party this year (I was too tired to organise one), they still got to go and knock on a few of the neighbours’s doors for Trick or Treat. They loved that Daddy dressed up, too (I’m not sure he loved it, though!!).

On Thursday, Hubby took the day off work again (yes, his 7th day this year!!!), and we all (minus Curly) boarded the train at Peterborough Station bound for Kings Cross on our way to John Lewis on Oxford Street to meet the one and only Poppy Cat. The tiddlers were super excited to be taking Daddy on the train with them and were keen to tell him where he needed to stand and sit and what he needed to do whilst on the train. Sleeping was certainly not an option!!

After spending a really fun couple of hours at John Lewis with Poppy Cat, the day was ours for the taking, so we popped into M&S for some lunch (we didn’t fancy anything on the menu in John Lewis) and asked Twitter for their recommendations on what to do for an afternoon in London with a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. Good old Twitter didn’t fail me, as we received suggestions from the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum within minutes.

Funnily enough, I had thought about taking them there many times before, but I was unsure if they were too young. Rather than travelling on the underground, we decided to walk the 1.8 miles across Hyde Park because the sun was shining and you get to see so many more of the great sights in London when you walk it. We hadn’t considered how Hubby and I would cope with the cold air and frog-marching across London with our coughs, especially Daddy, who had to carry Little Bean quite a bit, but we took it steady and only had a few coughing fits each.

We arrived outside the Natural History Museum sooner than anticipated and hadn’t even thought about the queues to get in; they reached the end of the street. Hubby and I were all for calling it a day and heading home, but the tears from Little Bean began, and she said she wanted to wait in the queue. I must say, for a little girl who typically moans something chronic if we have to queue, she was brilliant. She waited patiently, had a couple of snacks, and within 20 minutes, we were inside and ready to begin our adventure.

I had tried to describe to Little Bean what the museum was like, and the best I could come up with was like the DVD “A Night at the Museum,” thinking, of course, about the dinosaur skeleton in the main lobby, and so this was where Little Bean wanted to go first. Despite the bustling museum, we could navigate it quite quickly, even with the pushchair, and both tiddlers LOVED it. There were many ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as they spotted the different exhibits. I nearly fell backwards when Little Bean exclaimed, “Oh look, Mummy a Dodo.” We still have no idea where she learnt about Dodos from—perhaps Curly?!?

Since we needed to get back to our train, we only managed to spend about 90 minutes at the museum, but it was enough to see that coming for a day with Curly and Little Bean would be a good day out, so we promised that we would return soon with Bro.

On Saturday, our world pretty much turned upside down as Hubby was taken into the hospital with acute pneumonia. My plans to take Little Bean to the Peterborough Museum, which she loves so much, had to be postponed until Sunday, but I stuck to my promise.

On Sunday, we had a ‘girls only’ afternoon out to a couple of shops that Little Bean likes to look in, followed by the museum, and then finally a visit to see Daddy in the hospital. Little Bean was an absolute star for me whilst Hubby was away; she really did her best to help me around the house and take care of Beanie Boy. I finally got to see the real Little Bean again for a few days, and it was very precious to me.

So what did you do over half term? Is there anything exciting?