Sometimes I have days that are so eye opening and almost life changing. Saturday was one of these days for me. My little boy showed me what I **should** be doing on a weekend with him, as opposed to what we often do, do at weekends!
As a Mum, it can be hard to keep the fun going all week, every week. Especially if, like me, you spend a lot of time ferrying your child to various after school clubs to keep them active and healthy! The weekend comes and I’m zonked! I pass the parental control to my husband, who is an incredibly hands on Dad and makes weekends so much fun for my boy. But it’s me that’s missing out.
So, it tends to be me that takes my son to the birthday parties. Hubby isn’t the biggest fan of kids parties, but he does them when he needs to and I’m fine with that. After all, it’s a few hours and a nice amount of time to ‘just be’. I’m a big kid, so I usually love going to the parties. Growing up was never my thing, lol.
Anyway, we went to a birthday party on Saturday and we had a great time. I caught up with people I hadn’t seen in a very long time and my little one was, for once, an absolute angel. So much so, I was brimming with pride as we left and the first thing we did when we got in the car was to call my husband to tell him how great our Boo had been.
So, my boy asks to go to the park. My husband is about to jump in the shower, so I tell him to go ahead and I’ll take him to the park. Boo chose the bigger park with the woods, rather than our local playground park, which I didn’t mind, apart from the parking. We walk in together, hand in hand, having one of our silly conversations. Just as we get to the park, he runs off, straight to the zip wire. Queuing, isn’t his thing, so I get nervous. But there was nothing to be nervous about. He stands there patiently waiting for his turn… Result! After he has his go, we head off for him to have a run around on the big pirate ship. I hear someone talking about the lake, which I had no idea there was, so I suggest we go on an adventure to see the lake and the ducks and swans. I know of some fairy doors are scattered in the woods and so I take him on this magical quest.
It’s this little idea that changed how I thought about weekends. As we walked through the muddy field, I see his imagination go into overdrive. He picks up his imaginary map off the grass, which he’s managed to rip, somehow. He magically fixes it and makes it plastic so it won’t rip again – excellent. We follow his directions and with a little prompting, we manage to navigate to the lake. The sun is starting to set but there’s plenty of light left for our walk.
We take in the view of the partly frozen lake, the ducks, coots and swans gliding in the water. As we walk around, it’s a moment I need to capture. I get out my phone and and not to break our tradition, we pull funny faces snap some silly pictures. I take a picture of my lovely boy by the lake and realise that he’s growing so fast. A tiny bit of sadness hits me.
We keep walking and we meet some people on the other side of the lake feeding the swans. ‘If only I thought about this outing in advance’ I think to myself. My excited boy says hello to them all and after looking at the elegant birds, we finally make it into the woods. I’m wearing my favourite boots and the ground is soft and muddy. Boggy in some places. I couldn’t care less about us getting muddy, in fact I welcome it on this walk. As we trudge through the muddy woods, my boy is talking about the fairy doors and we discuss who might live behind the tiny doors. We talk about so many things on this walk, not only am I brimming with pride, I’m exploding with love for this small human being I made. I MADE THIS AMAZING HUMAN BEING!!!
As we pass a dog walker, he says hello and excitedly tells him we are looking for fairy doors. The kind man tells us we are close and his eyes light up. The magic is reignited and he’s on a high. “Mummy, we will keep walking until we find it. It’s not far now, I just know it’s not! Then we can say hello to Ben and Holly!” he says certainly. His excitement warms my heart! We finally find the door and he’s beside himself. He approaches the door gingerly and softly knocks. “Hello?” he calls. I tell him they’re having dinner, not to spoil this magical moment. I take his picture – He stands there proud as peacock and when he’s finished looking around, we make our way back to the car. The sun is going down quickly and he’s almost skipping through the mud. We see a group of 5 or 6 people and he proudly announces to them all “We found a fairy door! It’s number 36 and it’s just down there on the left!” I grin at him and the people. They warmly thank him for the information and tell him they’ll look out for it. He puffs his chest out and says “I shared my information, Mummy!”. We make our way back to the car and we finally get home.
This may not mean much to some people. But this was the moment I realised that if I blink, I’m going to miss it all! It’s this moment that it hits me, smack bang in my face! Every moment is precious. Create moments to remember forever… Make the most of this time with your little ones. I feel like I have missed too much already, I won’t be anymore!
Gorgeous post and it is so true it flies by so quickly. I’ve always loved time with my boys and now they’re 10 and almost 12 I’m making the most of it before they get to the age where they’re embarrassed to be seen with me 😉 Thanks for linking up to #PicknMix
Stevie x
Aww this is such a lovely post and one that I can really relate to. They grow so quickly and its so easy to get caught up in the every day rush. Looks like you had a really lovely time. Thanks for linking to #PicknMix
What a lovely adventure the two of you had! I love how children are so imaginative. When did we lose all that!?x
Aww, this is really cute! Hope you have a lot more adventures like this together! #stayclassy
Reading this made me excited for when my little one is a bit bigger and we get to do this. I love the concept of fairy doors-I had such an imagination as a child and I can’t wait for Piglet to be old enough to see things like this and have his own imaginings. We were in the park today and an older lady told me to enjoy Piglet, as they grow up so fast. These years really are to be cherished. Thanks for linking up to #StayClassy
This is so, so so sweet. You’re absolutely right, it’s these small moments that make life such a miracle (cheesy, but true). He looks so proud in the photo that he found the door! Such a sweetie. Thanks for sharing with #StayClassy!
Aw thats just beautiful I do love how their little imaginations work!! #anythinggoes
we’ve been going to the park every Wed after I pick mine up from school. Its the one night a week where I’m not working in the afternoons. We also tend to go for a lot of hikes on weekends. Of all the movies, zoos, and other stuff that we’ve done together, I know that it is these walks and picknicks that are the ones that we will remember. Not each moment, but the collective time that we spent together. Great post #anythinggoes
I loved this post. You are right, they are growing so quickly. We need to take the time to make lots of precious memories with our children. I have shared your post! #AnythingGoes
This sounds like a lovely day out, kids imaginations are fantastic and I love listening to them describe what they are thinking
Thanks for linking up to #AnythingGoes
Debbie
Hi, visiting from the anything goes link up. So nice to read your day with your young lad. You will be so glad to have these memories documented. Documenting current events and memories is becoming very popular with blogging family historians.
Fran @travelgenee from the TravelGenee Blog
aw lush post and this resonates with me too. I have every Friday off with my boy and I like just doing something, the two of us. I will miss him so much when he starts school. he is my little dude, my little buddy – and I love it 🙂 #stayclassy
Ahh, we found a little fairy door in a tree recently on a walk on Dartmoor, it really captured my daughters imagination too.:) #stayclassy
Ah this sounds like such a lovely day! A really great reminder to cherish the moments we have with our children as it goes by way too quickly. : ) Love that there are fairy doors in the woods, where are you? Is this in Ireland? Your son is absolutely adorable and sounds like he is very polite and respectful…waiting in line and saying hello to the people walking by. : ) Such a nice story to read. Thank you for sharing with #StayClassy!
This is a really nice post. I wish we lived near a park with fairy doors, it would be really fun to go around my son and find them all! Sometimes the best days out are the ones that you didn’t plan and are just simple #stayclassy
Lovely post, sounds like a special day. I realised recently that sometimes its ok to follow them, and let them guide the day, rather than always barking at them about what we’re going to do and getting stressed when they dont agree with me!