To the Thames, on Wednesday, for the sproglet’s fourth birthday. His favourite thing ever in London is the “big wheel” (aka the London Eye) – he is seriously excited whenever we spot it from the window of a train, or see it in a photo. So, as a birthday treat, we took him on a circuit, preceded by a river boat trip along the Thames. It was raining and grey and I got terrible boat sickness (must be a pregnancy thing, as I’ve never suffered before), and couldn’t talk or move for an hour after the boat trip. But all that aside, a fun day in the centre of town!- His birthday present from us was a scooter. I know, I know, seriously late to the game, most kids are on them from birth these days, but I’ve been wary of them since a friend’s son broke his thigh bone falling off one when he was three, years ago. He was in a full leg cast for a month and couldn’t move from the sofa. It was a stationary fall. But I’ve finally given in to pressure, along with the realisation that in a few months I will be carting three children up and down the roads on the school / nursery run, and it would be handy if one of them at least could get along under their own steam power without constant whining about being tired or the need to hold my hand. So far, it’s been a great success; he scooted off to nursery with glee the past few days.
- Said scooter is red. Another slight bone of contention. For me, anyway. The sprog requested a pink one because, well, pink is his favourite colour and his best friend’s scooter is pink. (She’s a girl.) For the past four years, I’ve been railing against the ridiculous gender stereotyping of pink vs blue. If I ever encounter some item which for absurd reasons you can only buy in pink or blue (from fuzzy memory, I have been in shops where you could only buy sippy cups, bath mats or cutlery in those two colours) then I always buy pink for the boys because I think the whole thing is so insane. And yet. And yet. With the sprog starting school in September (and already very young in his year, quite shy and very small for his age) I had all these horrid thoughts of him getting teased by much bigger boys for turning up on a girl’s scooter. So we bought him a red one, which went down fine, but I was very aware that all my ideals had been completely compromised in the face of some imaginary bullying from a five year old. Is this how it goes from now on? Ideals are all good and worthy, until you worry they might stop your children making friends?!
- His party, joint with a friend from nursery, is on Sunday. It’s going to have a bug theme. I have purchased a gazillion wind up bugs and finger puppet mini beasts to hide around the park and we’re sending them on a bug hunt, with mini magnifying glasses. There will be up to 20 children aged four and under. I am feeling slightly apprehensive about the whole thing. But, actually, there is little time for apprehension tomorrow, as my to do list is as long as your arm, starting with making a bug birthday cake. Maybe next year, we’ll do a quiet day trip with one friend…
- In non-sproglet related news, we are on tenterhooks today, waiting to hear back if our proposed new house has been signed off by the mortgage company. If you can’t remember all the convoluted details; in short, our mortgage was turned down last month because they said the house had serious subsidence, though the structural engineer told us he thought it was perfectly mortgageable. It was the day after Brexit, so we wonder if uncertainty about the future led to a clamp down on lending. We’ve now applied for a mortgage through a new company and yesterday was the survey valuation. We wait to hear their thoughts on the (only slightly falling down) house we’ve fallen in love with…
So, that’s my week! Hope you’ve had nice ones. Joining in with Amy and Five on Friday.
Wolves in London 
It makes me cross that girls have hijacked a whole colour all to themselves as well. My youngest has always been quite fond of pink too. But I know what you mean about worrying. I’ve heard remarks made about things which are purple in fact! Scooters can be quite lethal, but boys are usually falling off of something or other, so I tend to just keep my eyes closed and my fingers crossed. My eldest fell off of one in a skate park and broke his knee cap a couple of years ago when he was 10. He had a full length cast on his leg and ended up missing his Year 6 camp. But it all healed fine and he ended up a little wiser. Had he been wearing knee pads (and a gum guard – he hit his mouth too) it probably wouldn’t have been as bad, but then he might have been teased for it… Good luck with the house, I have my fingers crossed for you. CJ xx
Our eldest granddaughter (5) chose blue as her favorite color long ago, and was followed by her cousin (4) who chose green. Now that the two girls have chosen “boy” colors, our grandson (2 1/2) has fixated on pink. It’s high time to let go of these stereotypes, yet I fully sympathize with the need to protect one’s child from possible bullying.
Hope the mortgage and house comes through. Sounds like a fun day in London with your little ones.
A belated Happy Birthday to your son!! Oh I get the gender stereotyping thing too, we always moved away from pink for both our girls but it ended up being their favourite colour at different times. Good luck with the party and an even bigger dose of good luck with the mortgage, these are very strange times we are living in at the moment. Have a lovely weekend xx
Happy days! Enjoy 🙂
I hope your new house has been signed off, or will be shortly.
It is a weird thing that pink and blue gender stuff, not something that I was aware off before moving to this country. I like all the colours of the rainbow and always made sure there was no colour bias in the house, difficult when all the girls clothes seem to be pink! I remember my oldest boy wanted purple pants and there weren’t any for boys. He happily wore girls knickers during this purple period (pre school). It is difficult though because not all parents are like you and I and I would not be surprised if you oldest was teased for being the proud owner of a pink scooter. Children are not very subtle unfortunately. Happy Birthday to the wee man! Glad he likes his red scooter and his birthday adventure sounds like fun. Have a great weekend. x
I hope that all goes well with the mortgage, they do seem to like to make things difficult don’t they. Happy Birthday to your son, I hope the party was great fun and that everyone had a good time. I think that your choice of red instead of pink was a good one, close enough as far as your son is concerned, but it will allay any of your worries when he is at school, and it still isn’t blue! I mean, how great is that! Hope that you don’t suffer from any more seasickness! Thank you too for joining Five On Friday. I hope that you have a great August and I look forward to seeing you again in September! xx