Yesterday Big and Small went on their first ever school trip. They went to Ponderosa. Apparently, despite the extreme heat, a jolly good time was had by all, mainly because A and co planned ahead, and rented a classroom to use as a shady base.
And then they spent some money in the gift shop. Big bought a strange gecko in slime in an egg, and a small rubbery frog creature that flashes if you press its backside. Small bought a train.
The frog creature was named froggy doggy. No, I don’t know why. He travelled to Jan’s last night, where we retreated from the heat rather than driving the hot way home. And he waited in the car today, for them to come out of school again.
Small got to him first. This was a bad thing. There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and somehow, froggy doggy was separated from his foot.
This was a worse thing. Much wailing and shouting ensued. Big was distraught. Loudly. For quite a while. Demands that I fix froggy doggy (remember that at this point I’m attempting to drive us home, and not really equipped for on the move rubber frog surgery). I did try to explain that I didn’t really know what, if anything, I was going to be able to do, but it was quite difficult to make myself heard over the noise.
Then, from the back seat, a voice.
“Hey, I got a good idea!”
“What’s your idea?”
“We could use sellotape to fix froggy doggy. That would make Big happy.”
“That is a good idea. We’ll see what we can do.”
He was terribly upset that froggy doggy got hurt. Big was not in a forgiving mood. I tried to be supportive of her pain, but a very large part of me wanted to tell her that it’s a cheap plastic toy, and she was really over reacting. But she was hot, and tired, and upset, and I tried to remember what it was like to lose something new when I was that age, and refrained from telling her to be quiet. I did tell her to stop blaming Small – it was an accident.
So that was our journey home. And now I’m going to bed – it’s been a very long couple of days, and I’ll get up early in the morning and crack on before the offspring wake up. I’m hoping that they are going to sleep in a bit and catch up with themselves – they’ve had a couple of late nights due to the heat.
At least there’s no commute tomorrow.
Comments
7 responses to “The sad tale of froggy doggy.”
Yes, they often seem to over react. But from the time I read that children (however young) want/need to have a stable understanding of the world, I can see how and why such small things can upset that.
Yeah that would have tipped either of mine into hysteria too 🙁 Nightmare when driving though.
Lol to the expectation of frog surgery though, a very similar sounding frog toy got damaged here and S & D spent ages suggesting ways in which I could fix it including knitting, sewing and sellotape!
Oh dear 🙁 I’m notoriously unsympathetic in those circumstances theses days, having excelled myself it daftness over Erica the Barbie, so i think you were very restrained!
World War 3 while driving is never pleasant. Have you considered (Big) making up a story to explain Froggy Doggy’s state, a bit like the book Tatty Ratty?
Oh poor Big. I cried over breaking the last of my nails today LOL! She has my full sympathy 🙂
Oh yes, been there too! Unfortunately, for our elder any mending activity would just make it all worse. We would have to keep creature and severed body part and always remember the terrible crime…
I never understood those car stickers that announced the presence of babies/toddlers/children on board until I started driving with my own progeny. Now I realise that the yellow diamond Mothercare things don’t mean “please don’t ram my car because I have an extra special cargo”. What they actually mean is “don’t come anywhere near this vehicle because it is very likely to veer suddenly all over the road for no obviously apparent reason.”
There will of course be very good reasons for veering all over the road, like the driver hasn’t slept properly for several months, or is trying to reach for an irreplaceable toy from a diametrically opposite corner of the car, but unless you tell other road users…who would know?