Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

The Greek God(zilla) flooded our kitchen on Sunday morning.

He’d called our local handyman over to the house because the water in the dishwasher had not been draining properly.

Between the two of them, they managed to pull out every pipe from both the dishwasher and the washing machine; fail to locate the problem; type ‘dishwasher not draining’ into the internet; drink a cup of coffee; on advice of internet put both machines on a rapid spin cycle; fail to locate the problem again; google the name of a professional engineer and have another cup of coffee before finally putting both machines back together again.

Obviously, if this last part had been done correctly I would not have started this post with: The Greek God(zilla) flooded our kitchen on Sunday.

But I did not know that at the time.

The first clue I had that something was awry, was when I returned to the kitchen to prepare Zachy’s lunch and found the Greek God(zilla) ankle-deep in water, furiously paddling a mop against the tide.

It so did not look like something that I wanted to get into.

‘I think I’ll take Zachy out for lunch today…’

So, I packed up Zachy and one of his Lightening McQueen cars and drove us to the Cafe Rouge in the village.

I like it in there, they have a good kids menu and it is reasonably priced.  On this particular occasion, the service was a little bit shoddy, but I reminded myself where else we could be at that moment and decided that waiting a few more minutes to give our order was infinitely better than listening to the Greek God(zilla) cursing in the kitchen and asking me to constantly pass kitchen towels/buckets/bits of discarded pipe over to him.

After lunch, I took Zachy to Dulwich park.  It was such a beautiful sunny day and after the recent run of bad weather we have had, I did not want to miss the opportunity for a bit of playground fun.

I have so many fond memories of Dulwich Park.

It is where I spent most of my maternity leave; the place where the Greek God(zilla) and I go to discuss important life decisions; and where I taught myself to run (with a little bit of help from the Couch to 5k podcasts).

Zachy loved running in and out of the trees and jumping in muddy puddles.  He didn’t have his wellies on and his shoes were getting wet and filthy, but I took a deep breath in and let it go.

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We headed over to the children’s playground and onto the swings.  As I was pushing my little boy and he was throwing his back and screaming FASTER MUMMY, FASTER! I noticed the sign on the swings said from ages 0-4.

It struck me then how quickly my little baby is growing up.  I’ve been pushing him on those swings since he was 6-months old and he will turn 4 this year.

In 7-months time, he’ll have to start using the swings without the safety bars.  He’ll want to start climbing the big adventure frame that scares the bejesus out of me, and I will have to let him.

It seems like I blinked and he went from being a tiny little being who depended me for absolutely everything, to a little boy who insists on doing absolutely EVERYTHING for himself.

One more blink and it will be September and he will be starting school.  Another, and he will be 18 and I will be waving him off to university.

The Greek God(zilla) and I will be hobbling around Dulwich Park deciding what to do in our empty nest.

The rain threatened to come down and quickly snapped me back to the present day.

As we walked out of the playground, we noticed a group of people looking up at the sky so stopped to look up with them and witnessed the most magnificent rainbow.

I told myself it was a sign of brighter days.

We would get home, the dishwasher would be working again, the floor would be dry and the Greek God(zilla) would be cheerful.  I would go back to being 35 again and 3-stone lighter.  Zachy will start school and I WILL be ready.

Hand in hand, we strolled back through the park.  It was a beautiful moment.

I looked at my son and bent down to give him a big kiss on his cheek. 

‘Mummy’  he cried ‘there’s a big poo coming out in my pants’

*****

Nominations are now open for the 2013 MAD Blog Awards.  I was thrilled to be a finalist in the 2012 awards for Best Family Fun Blog and would love to be there again this year.  Obviously, I’d be chuffed to bits to be nominated in any of the categories, but think I stand the best chance in Best Family Fun, Best Family Life or Most Entertaining Blog.  You can click here to nominate and will need my blog URL – http://grenglish.co.uk

 

4 Comments

  1. January 29, 2013 / 4:55 PM

    You really are the mistress of the one liner – you can always rely on a poo to ruin enlightenment! Very, very funny. Dish washer all sorted? X.

    • Grenglish
      Author
      January 30, 2013 / 3:54 PM

      we had a PROFESSIONAL come round to sort it out last night… throw money at the problem is always my solution 🙂

  2. Angie
    January 29, 2013 / 9:37 PM

    Oh Zachy, I heart you! Very funny xxx

    • Grenglish
      Author
      January 30, 2013 / 3:53 PM

      It was not so funny when I had to carry him back to the car with the smell of poo wafting up under my nose…

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