Boots for Boys

The rain has arrived, and with it, hours of joyful play for the wee man.

Yes, he has discovered puddles.

Marching to his wardrobe, he held up his wellies triumphantly and - shouting 'these shoes, Mummy' - insisted that I help him put them on. Which I did, and which then unfortunately led to howling as it turned out that (as I probably should have realised, being as he got them for Christmas) they were a bit on the small side. Not to worry, said I, rooting around the cupboard - for I recalled that he had also been given a pair of wellies as a random Easter present.

BUT NO! Those wellies were two sizes too big!

So, following ruination of a pair of canvas shoes and several pairs of trousers due to his enthusiastic need to thoroughly explore *every*single*puddle* in the local vicinity, we decided to go welly shopping.

First stop - a large, well known supermarket, which I recalled as having had an impressive array of children's boots. And I was correct, but with one small problem - the impressive array of boots consisted only of boots for girls. 'Noooo, noooo' shouted the wee man as he looked upon row upon row of pink spotted boots, ladybird themed boots, purple and pink stripy boots and camouflage (but pink of course) boots.

So, on to Next, who I also recalled as having a comprehensive footwear section and who therefore must surely have boots.
Of course they did. And of course, once again, they were all for girls.

Second supermarket - no boys boots.

Marks and Spencer - no boots at all.

The Factory Store - hooray, boys boots. But wait - no size 6's! In fact, they seemed to only stock ridiculously large or small sizes. Clearly, toddlers with average sized feet have either already raided the boot supply, or do not require boots. I am not sure which.

And this trend continued. Rows and rows of girly boots, more girly boots, girly boots coming out of your ears!

Eventually, being that the weekend had ended, and there was unlikely to be a further need for boots for a few days, exhausted and weary, we gave up.

And then, passing Mothercare on my way to work, and seeing a display of raincoats, I thought 'one last try'.

Of course, there they were. The rows and rows of girls boots. Of course, there they were not - the boys boots. Despairing, I was about to leave when a shop assistant asked if she could help.

'I don't suppose' I said, pessimistically 'you might have any size 6 boys wellies in stock?'

'Oh!' she said. 'I think we might have a pair in the stockroom'. And they did!

But why, I ask, were they hidden there? And why, given that from my experience, all small boys seem to demonstrate a massive affinity for water, mud, water mixed with mud, and any liquid or gloopy thing that generally might cause them to become filthy in the quickest time possible, are there no boys wellies out there? It's not because they've all been bought, as most of the shops said they didn't have them begin with. Its a mystery!

And don't get me started on the hunt for the boys summer raincoat!

Daddies Club

Saturday mornings - one of my favourite mornings of the week.

Much as I love the wee man and his early morning antics - currently the building and re-building of the wooden multi-parted 'ni-nonk' (thats the Ninky Nonk, for those of you familiar with In The Night Garden out there) accompanied by several 'nooooo's' when I try and put something in the wrong place, and squeals of delight as I've finally finished constructing it and he immediately pushes it over (mummy it's 'crashed') - it is nice to know that he is off to spend some quality time with his Daddy, while the bump and I get a couple of hours to ourselves. And with the weeks passing quickly and the emergence of bump to baby growing ever more imminent, I'm savouring it while I can!

Daddy and the wee man negotiate the 'big step', before grabbing the tricycle and trying to avoid the cowering, terrorised cat (well Daddy tries to avoid it, anyway) on the way out of the garden, on their way to the local children's centre. This week Daddies Club is at Little Oaks, and since its not raining there is every possibility that there may be garden play - the wee man's favourite. The Children's Centre has the cosy coupe cars which are his current obsession (albeit the fact that he has,as yet, only figured out how to 'drive' them backwards), a climbing frame and slide and a play house with mini kitchen, all of which the wee man currently loves. There is also the opportunity to visit the sensory room, a dimly lit cavern of fibreoptic lights, flashing bath ducks, UV sticks, lava lamps, a hanging mosquito net and bells, sticks, whistles and bashy things that are guaranteed to result in hours of fun.

Then later, refreshed and hopefully with a bit more energy, its time for us to tackle today's task - procurement of wellies for all that puddle splashing the wee man seems to have taken to.