This post is sponsored by WaterWipes
It’s been a pretty crappy couple of weeks. We’ve both been working crazy hours. The baby has been sick, my husband had been sick… yes you know where this is going...
Mammy down, repeat, mammy down!
It’s not often mums actually get to the point of having to wave the white flag and admit they are sick. We’re a tough bunch and tend to just get on with things, sick or not. To stop us, it has to be bad… I mean leg-hanging-off or collapsing-in-a-heap bad.
In my case, it was the biblical boils… well what I like to call biblical boils. In truth, it was an epic allergic reaction to something, possibly an insect bite that brought me out in what looked like the actual bubonic plague all over my body. I felt as though I needed a bell and a cloak and should be shouting ‘unclean, unclean,’ in a Game of Thrones style procession around the house.
I also felt horrendous. So needless to say I had no choice but to take myself out of the game this weekend. Which was such a pain in the neck, because as I said, we’ve had a pretty yucky couple of weeks with sickness and being up to our eyes in work that we had been looking forward to a relaxing weekend actually spending some nice time together in the outdoors.
So it was up to Daddy to entertain our extremely active 20 month old monkey for pretty much the whole weekend by himself… a regular day in my world, but all the same, I know how exhausting it can be.
Killruddery House & Gardens it was!
We’re lucky enough to live around the corner from this place and my God is it like toddler heaven. Full of stunning, expansive gardens, ponds, chickens, forests and homemade ice cream, it allows us walk the legs off the little dude, while we get to enjoy a gorgeous coffee and cake in the beautiful surroundings of this the 17th Century estate on the outskirts of Bray... there's also a farm market on a Saturday morning and plenty of activities through the summer like their Teddy Bears Picnic and Groove Family Festival.
Hubby and toddler were all set for their day out and truth be told, part of them were happy to have some ‘man time’ together without my fussing… but of course, being the mammy that I am, biblical boils or not, I had to make sure daddy had all the essentials in the changing bag…
Hoodie, drink of water, Liga, raincoat, change of clothes, nappy, cream, powder, suncream, hat, nappy bag… WaterWipes?
‘Er… where are the WaterWipes?’ I enquired.
‘Oh are they not in there? Ah sure I’ll just use a napkin if he gets dirty.’ He said nonchalantly.
I sometimes think dads live in another world to mums… I know it’s partly because I spend most of every day with my son, but my GOD the child is a moving dirt magnet and going out without the wipes is just a recipe for disaster… I’ve done it and I vowed never, ever again will I be wipeless! They are the greatest bloody invention since the wheel and an absolute necessity when you’ve got kids!
‘What?’ I replied, my voice raising several octaves. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, do you know how dirty he’s going to get? He’ll probably pick up stones and start licking them, he’ll get Ice cream all over his face and clothes and his hands will look like he’s a professional potato-digger-upper! Not to mention what if you have to change him? You need wipes, you can’t use a napkin on his bum!’ I took a breath… I was ranting and I knew by my husband’s face that he’d been joking about not bringing the WaterWipes.
‘Sorry…’ I mumbled, looking sheepish and blaming the cocktail of antihistamines, antibiotics and steroids I was on.
He smiled, picked up the WaterWipes and off he went for some daddy/son fun time.
Let’s face it, patience of a saint that man!
Anyway, I collapsed into a drug fuelled haze and stopped worrying.
I woke up a few hours later to my little dude’s happy, semi ice-cream filled face from a fabulous afternoon, running around the gardens and forest of Killruddery House & Gardens.
‘Well how was it?’ I enquired to them both, looking less like the elephant man at this stage thanks to the drugs.
‘He had a ball, we checked out the Fairy Village in the forest, didn’t we little dude? And you got dirt all over your handies didn’t you?’ To which the baby held up his hands as if he was under arrest.
‘Then we went to the pond and threw stones in…’
‘Shhhhones’ the baby chimed in.
‘Then we went to the tea house and daddy had a LARGE coffee and then we had some ice cream and he even wanted to clean his own face with the wipes!’
‘Icshhhhhhhh’ the little dude shouted as he recalled his cone, which by the looks of it ended up all over his hoodie.
‘Did you have to change him?’ I asked.
‘Yep, massive poop! I was going to use napkins… but then I thought nah, might as well use the wipes you threw in!’
This time I laughed instead of taking the bait and was thankful that daddy did actually have everything under control despite my mammy worrying.
