Lost property xx

Okay, I have a confession, I lost Harry, but only for about 10 minutes and whilst he can push my buttons it wasn’t intentional.

The boys have been poorly, again! This virus really attacked them though and it’s been around for a good week. Fever, chills, loss of appetite, sore throat, all over body itchy rash, nausea, extreme fatigue, the works!

The Twinkles have been in and out of school, but I’ve finally admitted defeat and kept them home for a few days to really restore them back to good health.

Struck with a case of cabin fever yesterday I decided to take them to the woods for a bit of exercise and fresh air. Oh and also because the day before within the 10 minutes they did feel well and have energy Harry managed to push Ollie face first into the lounge door resulting in a bump the size of an egg on his forehead. Luckily I’m first aid trained, I think it should be a prerequisite for all parents! So I laid him down with a cold compress and gave him a dose of Calpol! He was up dancing in no time bothering Harry who had gone back under with a fever! I didn’t actually say out loud are you kidding me, but I sure thought it and may have slightly expressed it with my eyes!

So, we were down the woods and for a jolly game I allowed Harry to take the left fork and Ollie and I took the right. If I’m being really honest I thought we were at a fork further on which results in a quicker entry to the main path.

One minute we could see Harry, the next we couldn’t. It soon became apparent he wasn’t going to be meeting us at the rendezvous, there was also the possibility we hadn’t discussed a rendezvous, hey, give me a break, I’ve had minimal sleep with all this illness going on and surviving on fumes and caffeine which I would take intravenously if possible, heck through my eyeballs at this stage!

So we started calling for Harry and instincts (always trust those) told me to walk back down the main path. Then I started to whistle. Not a jaunty little tune, but a blaring siren of a fingers in the mouth blast. We walked past an elderly couple and the chap decided to tell me I had a very manly whistle so I informed him it was the whistle of a mother with a missing child!

Shelly Wilcox taught me to whistle on a Fifth Form trip to the Opera. My mum was a few seats behind and I’m thinking it wasn’t her proudest moment! But I tell you that whistle has got me out of a fair few scrapes and something I’ve already started trying to teach the boys! It has only got me in to trouble once and that was a misjudgement on my part. I was at the airport, just returning from somewhere and it was very early in the morning. We were just going through security and the chap in front of me left his bag behind and carried on walking. The guard couldn’t get his attention so I gave him a whistle. Okay, whistles and airports don’t mix, people get jumpy, my bad!

So, we whistled and called and then started hearing other voices in the woods. A lady called out to say he was that way because she could hear him, once I could hear what he was saying I made out that he was making his way back to the car. We soon caught up to him! His first words

“Let’s not do that ever again Mummy”

A dog walker came towards us to say what a bright boy he is! I’ve got to say I’m very proud too! It’s one of the reasons our car is covered in bright flowers and rainbow butterflies so it stands out for them. That and I keep bumping it on stuff!

So how come we’re allowed to chip our dogs but we can’t chip our children? They could get it removed once they turn 16 or something? I bet in years to come parents will be telling their children that it was only their pets that used to get security tagged!

So we’re going to settle with a watch with a gps system and not splitting up.

Lee didn’t feel the need to tell me off, he could see I’d already been traumatised and he tried to tell me in the morning he had a sore throat and I’d pretty much told him to do one because all my sympathy had already been used up.

Right, well I best get back to the Twinkles.

Love and hugs, kisses and wishes.

I didn’t feel like writing today to be honest, but I wrote this in tribute to an extraordinary man, my Uncle Dick who lived to 100 and received his letter from the queen. He was a real life hero, a family man and a gentleman and when he gave me the thumbs up for Lee, I knew he was the right one for me.

His memory will live on and if either of our boys are half the man he was I’ll be even prouder than I am already xxx