Short lived excursion

Today I decided that we would have a little excursion to the park! I knew that it would be a cloudless, sunny day and despite it being cold, I thought it would be a good idea to get out and about. So after much faffing about and watching one episode too many of Sex in the City while getting dressed, I eventually managed to get us out of the house around 11:00. I am trying to lose weight, so I thought that as I have not been able to go the gym all week, I would walk to the park with Emmeline in her pram. Great idea as it is a 45 minute DOWNHILL walk – fab! I decided to take the camera with me as I really do need to start to get in the habit of taking more pictures. The problem is that whenever I get the camera out in the middle of the city, I feel more like ‘dorky tourist’ then the desired ‘cool photographer’ image that I was going for! I really must get over that! I don’t know why I am so hung up about this one!

The day was lovely and not as cold as I had imagined. Emmeline drifted off to sleep as I was walking down but unfortunately woke up 20 minutes later when I stopped in a baby shop to look at plate and bowl sets as she will be starting on solids soon. Way overpriced so we quickly left before the shop assistant could come over and spot my cheap skatedness (seriously though, 32 euro’s for the admittedly gorgeous plate, bowl, cup and spoons?).

As we got there, Emmeline very dramatically started to arch her back and wriggle around and screw up her face, ever so subtly trying to say “MOTHER, PICK ME UP NOW!”. I obliged and then had to do the whole baby in one arm whilst trying to push the pram around the gravely park floor with the other hand – not easy or cool! We stopped by the lake and I managed to get a few pictures of us together and both looking at the camera! And standing there in the sun, by the water with the swans waddling around and my daughter in my arms lovingly (or more like curiously) looking up at me, I felt blissfully happy!

We found a nice little spot on the grass and set up camp; blankets, toys, cameras, the works. I felt all mother earth and totally in control of me, my baby and my surroundings! Emmeline happily chewed away on my phone while posing for photos and then it all went downhill.

She started to get irritated so I offered her the chewy keys. That didn’t work. So I went for the backup trick – I touched the button on the keys that played the music. That kept her occupied for about 2 nano seconds. Then the crying began. I started to furiously shake her favourite toy in front of her face and put on my high pitched sing son voice. Didn’t work, the crying got worse. I went for the emergency option and whipped out a boob in the middle of the park and stuck that into her mouth hoping that she was either hungry and the boob would then settle her for a few hours, or if she was tired that she would get sleepy on the boob and I could then put her down to sleep while I played camera camera. NOPE. Not one or the either. She spat out my boob after 3 minutes and screamed even louder.

Damnit, she was tired and couldn’t fall asleep. I started to feel embarrassed, what if people could hear her wailing. I decided ‘stuff them’ I am a mother whose baby is crying. I have every right to sit there and wait for my baby to eventually stop crying without feeling guilty. Then Emmeline decided to up the volume by about 10 decibels. People started to look at me as though I was throttling her. I will admit it; I looked down at Emmeline and just went ‘seriously, you have to do this now don’t you? We were having a perfectly lovely time, and now you are trying to deafen me and half the park and ruining the whole day!’ so I packed everything back up, put her back in the pram and went walking. She kept howling, but mostly only when I would stop pushing her pram to take a photo – demanding little miss! Eventually she fell asleep and I was left with a loud ringing in my eardrums but with a huge sense of relief. Ready to start to journey home. Oh dear, 45 minutes (UPHILL) pushing Emmeline in her pram! It was hard work, but so worth it, especially when I rewarded myself with chocolate when I got home!

All in all a lovely day and thankfully my eardrums have almost returned back to normal!