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The Rocket’s been through some pretty heavy usage lately, not from too many miles under the wheels, more like a lot going on inside. Some kind of viral bug’s been doing the rounds and as anyone with children knows once one has it, they’re all gonna to get it. In our case the timing was quite close together with most of the throwing up and sore heads happening around bedtime or in the worst cases the middle hours ot the night. However the little one was last to succumb and we were out in the car when the explosion happened. We’d just had a snack and a play at a park before the assault on Babyworld in search of a potty and wondered why she hadn’t eaten much when we pulled into the mall. The ashen face should’ve given it away but it was the pre-projectile whimper that did it when all of a sudden there was a gurgling noise and a great plume of multicoloured vomit erupted from the poor little soul sat in the centre of the rear seat. Followed closely by similar eruptions of uncontraollable laughter from the siblings and a chorus of,
“yeeuukk!”
Helpless little Lottie sat and readied herself for the inevitable second wave – why is there always a second, more comprehensive go at it – and up it came!
Quickly, I searched for a parking place anxious first of all to get her out of the situation but also to contain the liquid damage to her car seat and not further enhance the patina on my rear seat. The other two were by now in hysterics, giggling at her misfortune as we stopped the car and leapt out to extract her from the seat. Aren’t children cruel little buggers? As fortune and bad planning would have it one of the other things we’d come to Babyworld for was a re-stock of baby-wipes, so Mum rushed off leaving Dad holding the baby, quite literally.
Once out of the seat I sat her on the rear of the open tailgate and whipped off the humming clothes using the dry bits as much as possible for a clean-up effort. Luckily her spirits were up and the contagious laughter from Bonnie and
Clyde even twinkled a smile across her face. A few moments later and we were cleaned up enough to get back in the car up front with Dad while we waited on Mum’s return. The jokes had now started and they were even daring each other to sit in the seat full of poor Lottie’s breakfast! By the time Mum came back with some sweeter smelling wipes we were all infected by the giggles.
Precariously lifting the seat clear I managed not to spill anything through the seat strap slots so the damage was limited, well, to no damage at all really, it had all landed in Lottie’s lap and stayed in the seat. If there was any spillage on the rear seat then it merely blended with some of the other colourful “history” left there over the years.
A thorough strip-down of straps and buckles let me clean the thing up enough to go back in service, and despite the astonished looks from passing people in cars as I emptied the last remaining contents swilling around in the Britax, Lottie was happy enough to go back in the seat. Just to be on the safe side all further plans for the day were annulled in favour of a return home.
And as I said before no damage done to the old back seat!
Last night Ted came to me with a surprise. He climbed up to the table and from his schoolbag excitedly pulled out a small blue book, dropping the bag to the floor. It was his very first official school reading book. As quick as a flash he opened it at the first page and began to read aloud his very first English words, pointing them out as he went along the sentence;
“I have a mother, I have a father, I am a pup”.
His face was a picture and although he stumbled a couple of times on the longer words he’s got the idea. Whether the text was entirely suitable for a first time read is questionable but it was a lovely sweet moment indeed. When he finished the few pages in ‘Baby Animals’ we moved on to his reading record book and filled out the first day of his log. One of us writes the date and book being read, Ted writes in the number of days he’s clocked up reading and there are little incentive milestones to reach for the eager new reader.
What a little moment for us all, in fact a much bigger moment if I stop to think about it, I can’t actually remember my first read (perhaps my Mum will step in here and enlighten me) but this moment will stay with me for quite a while. Ted too has realized very quickly that his little world will now open up as begins to put some kind of sense to the hundreds of strange scripts he sees everywhere. The questions he endlessly asks about what the words of books, magazines, advertisements, billboards and TV screens, not to mention the toy catalogues he picks up say, can now begin to be answered as he embarks on the rocky road to understanding the power of the word.
We will find more suitable first reading material and practice the skills needed for a solid grounding in reading and writing, the school will do their bit but this is something we can help out with a lot at home and something to make very enjoyable too, even if he is a little reluctant at first, for our home is filled with all kinds of books. He clearly seems to be very excited about the whole business, as I am too and with his attitude I’m sure if he’s half as good at the words as he is at the pictures he’ll make a fine little reader indeed.
