It's a hard life

So, another Monday begins. And for my daughter it'll be something of a comedown. She's had the weekend of her little life!

It all started Friday. Her usual friends unavailable, she went to Monkey Mates. An indoor playground with lots of scafolding wrapped in foam and bright colours, big toys swinging around, climbing nets, and, of course, slides. She had a great time. And my wife got a work out!

Nothing out of the ordinary there though. She's been to Monkey Mates before.

On Saturday however, a new experience. We drove for an hour, down to near Portsmouth, to a place called Paultons Park. It's essentially Alton Tours for the under 9s with most of the rides for the under 4s. She *loved* it! It's a one off fee to get in (and children under a metre are free), then all the rides are height restricted with 85% being for those over 90cms. My daughter is 92cms. She's free, but able to go on pretty much everything. Win.

We spent the day on ride after ride. Rollercoasters, pirate ships, things the go round, up, down, huge slides (no, bigger than that), and every other fun way of moving your body. My daughter was into everything. Even taking her hands off at daring moments and waving them in the air. Usually giggling like something demented. Best of all, there were hardly an queues. Toddlers and queuing don't go well together, so that was a real bonus. We generally had to wait one turn before our go.

She even had her first ice cream (just like Daddy's) and managd to eat it cleaner than most 6 year olds I've seen with ice creams. She, of course, loved it too. (Most of the other food she ate during the day was brought with us, and healthy!)

She fell asleep on the way home, and went straight to be when we got back.

We followed that up with a whole day in the garden with Mum and Dad. This may not sound huge to you, but to her it is. Usually when we're at home, one of us (or both) is busy doing jobs. Yesterday, the time was for her. I did a BBQ which she enjoyed (lots of shrimp), and we spent time in her ball pit, playing football, and just being near her while she played with sand, or bounced on the trampoline.

Another fun day, and another early night.

Now she's back to normality. Poor girl. She'll just have to put up with play dates, trips out to parks, and more playing in the garden. Tough life.