Yesterday after probably a year of "shall we/shan't we" we finally got up the courage to go camping.
No big deal to most and it never used to be to us. The last time we camped was at Glastonbury 2007. Pre-children and pre having a worry or care in the world.
Last night I lay in the tent (more on the tent in a future post) listening to every cough or shuffle, wondering if my daughter was too cold or if my son would wake up screaming from a night terror and wake the whole site. Wondering if by some freak of nature they'd both wind up with hypothermia over night and I'd wake up to critically ill (or worse) children in the morning. Over kill on the drama for most but when it comes to my children and keeping them alive I'm a bit tetchy (if you've been reading this blog for a while you'll get why). Fast forward past a lot of tossing and turning and not sleeping to about half three when we heard Dominic and the inevitable "I need a wee". We checked in to the kids "room" to get him out to see Eve totally out of the sleeping bag curled up tiny as could be, I was horrified. While Alan (my husband) took the boy out for the necessary I sorted a dithering Eve back in to her sleeping bag. After Dominic got back in we settled them both back in and zipped the compartment up to let them sleep and got back in to our own sleeping bags. On my part now even more worried about the baby (who is two now and no longer really a baby), when I suddenly hear Eve shout excitedly... "I'm two!" Since her birthday she's been fascinated by this info. Another excited shout "I'M TWO!" - cue Dominic giggling. "I'm like a FISH!" - no idea why this came to her but at this point all of us were giggling. A couple more "I'm two"s and "I'm a fish"s and Dominic got out of his sleeping bag, went over to Eve and gave her a kiss goodnight and got back in to his own bag almost as to say "there-there dear". Touched by this and still giggling to the point of crying now somehow things didn't seem like quite such a worry.
Now we are planning our next trip. Learning from the first and honing our experience. Planning adventures and looking forward to the next lot of 3am giggles. Learning how to be the family we always dreamed we would be.
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Do any of you have any tips on camping with small ones to share? Would love to hear about them...
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