Stomping away the January blues

I'm not sure blue is the suitable description for January, grey seems much more appropriate. It feels as though that's all there has been for the past three weeks, grey skies, grey clouds, grey shadows. I don't know anyone that isn't thinking about booking their 2018 holidays, ourselves included, and with that in mind I can slowly feel myself wishing away these days as if they're not meant for anything other than to fill a space in a calendar. It's wrong, and I mentally scold myself every time I sense I'm doing it, living for tomorrow, or the next day - but can you blame me when everything seems that little bit more dull?

So, we've been trying to combat it. It's surprising how much can be ruined when the weather when it comes to making plans, as soon as we saw the weather forecast this weekend, we knew outdoor adventures were off the cards. No farm visits, no collecting 'treasure' in the woods, no trips to the park, you catch the drift. Suddenly after a long discussion with John about what we actually could be getting up to, we were faced with the possibility of soft play on a Saturday, I think we all know the only thing worse than that, is soft play on a rainy Saturday. No thank you. Not tempted with the idea of electric shocks from static slides, mediocre coffee and the smell of sweaty feet, we decided to just toughen up and head outside. What's the worse that could happen?

Well we discovered that quite quickly, the worse thing that could happen is your toddler thinking puddles are some form of outdoor bath. And while the allure of diving face first was hard to resist, we managed to coax him away from a muddy dipping. Patrick always has been the wilder of our two, he's not backwards in coming forwards and I just know he'll have us turning grey in his teenage years. Heck, who am I kidding, he has us turning grey now. That's what makes him Patrick, and for a few swift moments he was lose on a bridge over water, not exactly troubled water, but very icy cold and he ran like the wind - though his little legs couldn't quite move as fast as Johns and he was captured once more.

This little ford is our favourite place, hiding in plain view on the edge of our village, it's so beautiful and peaceful that we often find ourselves wandering down to play pooh sticks over the bridge, skim stones or marvel at 4x4's trying to make it through the deep waters. Today there was endless puddles, just the right depth so the boys could splash till the hearts content - or so we thought, Noah was of course the more cautious of the boys, standing on the edge for a few moments before realising the puddle wouldn't swallow him whole and believing my reassurances that he could get puddle stomping. Patrick on the other hand was straight in, into the middle of the puddle with not a second glance, he found it hysterical because he knew, that we knew, he was a little bit in too deep. Exactly what the boy thrives on. Me and John were foolishly not equipped with wellies, thus meaning one more step further into the puddle from Patrick would result in one of us having soggy toes trying to rescue him.

A couple of hours later, we were back home, snuggling under blankets and watching our favourite Disney film, but the boys were exhausted. While we were spared the glare of soft plays squishy foam surround, we had way more fun than we could have had in our two hours time slot there. And I have to admit I felt quite smug that nobody ended up covered head to toe in puddle water, even a change of clothes wasn't necessary. Though on second thoughts we probably will invest in some puddle suits for the boys, it means that we can really let go with them next time and if the worst happens, it's not endless amounts of washing and heads in hands. We enjoyed our Saturday, even if it was wet and cold, it certainly wasn't miserable in this household.