7852/20793
A lovely Saturday with a kid-free morning and a kid-full afternoon and evening, meaning I could really appreciate both what it is to be free of kids and to be with the kids. Both are excellent states to be in, but the former only if you get to have plenty of the latter. Plenty of the latter is what makes the former so cool.
There was a big village celebration day at the local pub so we went there in the afternoon. I never thought I'd get to the point where I could relax with the kids out of my eye-line, and it still gives me a tiny bit of anxiety, but time passes by and you have to trust them a little bit and cross your fingers that there are no child kidnappers in the vicinity. Some local bands and youngsters played some music, a man made balloon animals, there was face painting and just as I left with Phoebe to walk the dog the local Tory MP, Bim Afolami turned up. He must be desperate to secure the votes of the villages around Hitchin as this will be the first election in this area where the Conservatives are in real danger of being ousted. Put Bim in the bin.
No don't. That would be mean. Just vote him out.
He didn't stay at the party for long apparently. Typical Tory, showing their face and then bailing. What an affront to the man who was going to be singing songs from Richard Curtis films. Did he die for nothing?
The mum of one of Ernie's friends said he could come to their house to play and have tea, which meant I actually got three different states or parenthood today - no kids, both kids, one kid. Again great to experience all of these. Phoebe and me walked Wolfie and then I drove Catie to the station as she was heading into town and I got a couple of hours of daughter/daddy time. It's a much different experience having one kid as you don't spend all your time telling the kids not to fight and argue. We went to Wagamamas where I guess I looked like a divorced dad getting weekend access to his kid (I certainly thought that about the other dads there with kids and no mum present) and though we had to get back to collect Ernie, Phoebe also persuaded me to head over to the bowling alley to play on the video games to see if we could win tickets. It was lots of fun. We spent a tenner and won four chew bars and a crappy plastic car. So took the arcade for everything it was worth.
We got home, Ernie returned having had loads of fun playing on the Slip and Slide, but I got him into the bath and then to bed fairly efficiently, with a quick look into Ernie's mind. I stayed up with Phoebe who has me wound round her little finger. When I finally persuaded her it was bed time she tried to remove the beautiful flower design she'd had painted round her eyes at the fete and ended up with a completely green face. We laughed to begin with and then she got upset because she thought I was laughing at her and then got more upset because it looked like we weren't going to be able to get it off. But I stuck her in the shower and she finally ended up looking less like the She Hulk and more like a little girl with a faintly greenish tinge.
