I was punished for my brash behaviour with a downpour on the way home. I hurriedly made a makeshift cover for Florence with a blanket whilst watching other unsuitably clothed people dashing for cover. However, for once the rain has been welcome! The last few days have been on the warm side. Great for improving the tan, not as much fun with babies or children to keep cool when as a country, we're so unprepared for any type of extreme weather. These are the best bits about a heatwave when you have children:
1. Applying suncream
We know why we apply suncream, I'm more than grateful for its existence but WHY does it need to be so sticky and awkward? The morning suncream application is left until a few minutes before we leave for the school run to avoid greasy marks on the doors. After a day outside, running around, making dens, playing hide and seek, you are guaranteed to find the suncream you applied has gathered in creases. Neck creases, arm creases, along with perhaps some stray hair, residual food and dirt. Just lovely.
2. Sweat
Adding to the lovely layer of sticky suncream, just what you need is sweat. Clammy, wet hands clutching yours to cross the road and wet hair clinging to the nape of your baby's neck make cool baths before bed essential!
3. Cuddles
Why does hot weather make children more clingy?! I love cuddling my girls but a heatwave makes it difficult to hold your children and not perspire furiously. Florence is especially clingy wanting to feed more frequently. I've actually had to wipe my arm with a towel as if I had spilled water there!
4. Fighting for the fan
The hot weather can bring out the irritable side in all of us and petty bickering can be brought about when deciding who is the hottest person and should have the fan first.
5. Pram parasols
Bane of my life! You get the shade at just the right angle as you go out, excellent. Walking along and you take a turn, left or right; bam, full on sunshine right into the pram! Argh! Time to stop and twist and turn the parasol, tracking the sun to work out where it should go. It ends up sticking out of the side of the pram taking up the whole pavement.
6. Insects
"Mummy, get the moth! I don't like moths!" "Mummy, I saw a flying spider by the window" Having all the windows and doors open in the hope a non existent breeze floats through comes a price. That price is bugs! Sometimes I have to remind myself I'm the adult and I'm responsible for the reassurance and capturing- even though I hate moths too!
7. Mealtimes
Seriously, who wants to cook during a heatwave?! Without children, it doesn't matter so much. You can eat what you like, when you want. However, children need meals and trying to come up with nutritious, minimal effort/no cooker dinners in hot weather is hard! We seem to end up grazing and snacking throughout the day and eating a lot of Isabella's favourite thing, sandwiches- horray!
8. Bedtime
"But it's hot and sunny still!" Yes, yes it is but it's still bedtime!! Once we've bartered and finally agreed on an additional half an hour of playtime, it's into (or onto- who wants a quilt on in the heat?!) bed with the fan full on. After managing to stay relatively cool, the fan is sacrificed to of course, keep our darling children cool whilst mummy and daddy sit downstairs staying as still as possible to avoid overheating!
And then just like that, summer ends with a downpour. After moaning about the heat, we lament its passing and wish the rain would stop again after once agreeing "oh yes, it's good for the garden". Thanks summer 2017, it's been a blast- now, where's my woolley jumper?
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