The difficult second date

So the first date was a success! We pumped ourselves full of reconstituted chicken and gave birth to a fireman teddy bear. Pretty perfect, but difficult to top.

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Last week we finally managed to find a window of opportunity to get out on our own again and this time i was eager to take Little F to the cinema for the first time. Over the last 6 months he has actually started to enjoy watching a bit of television and on discovering the Disney Cars film he actually sat and watched it all – amazing!! Over an hour of sitting! Just sitting, not moving, SITTING! I was gobsmacked.

So anyway – we drove into town, yes get me i passed my test a few weeks back and it’s still very novel to be able to drive. The car park i had planned to use was full so i had a mini panic about having to go in the multi story but it was pretty ok – apart from bumping the front of the car on the wall. I hardly even noticed myself but F piped up ‘OOOh mummy you crashed the car didn’t you’. Shhhhh don’t tell daddy! Luckily it was free of proof marks.

First up we did the Maccy D’s thing again, yep sorry Jamie Oliver but it’s a treat and the kid digs it. Then we went to the shop and bought chocolate, sweets and popcorn – or weapons of bribery as i like to call them. I had wanted to take him to see Disney Planes but it had finished at all the cinema’s near us so i opted for Turbo – a film about a snail who wants to be a racing driver. It was a cute film, not in the same league as Toy Story, but definitely watchable for adults too.

I had expected one of the main issues would be that F would get ants in his pants but actually he just got scared and asked a couple of times to go home. It was the darkness and the volume that he didn’t like. I ended up just sitting him on my knee and reassuring him; he was fine for the most part, just not for the very loud bits but they were short lived.

By the end of the film he was really into it so i was glad i had convinced him to stay – we played racing snails all the way back to the car ‘I’m Turbo mummy and you can be the black one – come on lets race! neowwwwwww. Oh no my spoiler got broken, Fix it, FIX IT NOW MUMMY!’. Then we walked back through the shopping centre to the car park and he had a bit of a meltdown because i would only let him have one go on the bloody Thomas the Tank machine. I hate those things! I managed to rescue the situation with a go in the photo booth and the promise i would let him press the buttons.

Anyway i would say that overall it was a success. I think he would like to go to the cinema again but we will just have to be careful over what we pick and sit near the back so it’s not too close up. Oh and bring lots of sweets to stuff in his mouth and not bring popcorn as the strangle little boy didn’t like that and not walk through the shopping centre with too many appealing money grabbing ride on machine things (what do you even call them?!) and not bash the front of the car and move the cinema closer to our house. But yeh, apart from that it was great :)

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P.S. I have a new book OUT NOW! You can nab it on Amazon here or in your lovely local bookshop :)

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20 thoughts on “The difficult second date

  1. Dean B

    Love the idea of a date with your eldest! We are actually also thinking of taking T to the cinema again. Her first time was with her best-friend F and it was actually okay too. They were both really well-behaved. So I’m not as worried as the first time, but let’s see :) Congratulations by the way for passing your test! I have yet to take lessons here. I’m terrified of the very small Cornish lanes, not to mention huge tourist buses and caravans! xx

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  2. cariemay

    That sounds like a brilliant second date – and you just know he’ll be dining out on telling everyone you bumped the car for weeks! I’ve not taken Kitty to the cinema yet, I think she’d find the dark too scary and there’s no hurry but I love the idea of taking her to a photobooth – she’d be in seventh heaven with all the buttons to press!

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  3. muffinmummy

    What a lovely idea! My eldest is four now but we still haven’t taken him to the cinema – I’ve never been able to get him to sit still through anything other than Mr Tumble! I remember when my husband and I took his daughter (my step daughter) to see Kung Fu Panda when she was four though and she was also scared of the dark and the noise (it was her first time in the cinema too). I’ll have to try with JJ soon though – our local Cineworld does “Movies for Juniors” on Saturday mornings which only cost about £1.50 I think so it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work out. (The films are not the most recent releases but they are favourite Disney films, etc.). I did take JJ out on my own for lunch at Nandos last Saturday and it was really nice – four is a great age as he’s a lot more manageable in public!

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  4. hodgepodgecraft

    OOOOH, congratulations on passing your test! :D

    LOVE your photo booth pics – too CUTE! I STILL haven’t taken Pickle to the cinema yet. He can’t sit through a whole film at home, so I can’t imagine keeping his bum on one seat for well over an hour…. Maybe a huge pile of sweets is the way to go! ;)

    P.S. Those ride-on machines are fine until they find out that they can actually move. Before that, they have a lovely time just sitting in them not going anywhere (for free)! ;)

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  5. Thao

    Hurray! Glad you both had a successful 2nd date. Will have to store those tips for future ref, love the photo booth idea! I’m trying to be in more photos with my little one…x

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    1. hurrahforgin

      I’m hoping that when my littlest gets bigger the boys will get on much better so the one on one time won’t be quite so important – it’s mainly due to a massive jealousy issue that we do it!

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  6. 3yearsandhome

    Cool pics! We haven’t braved the cinema yet because children under four aren’t allowed in them over here. Booooo! CK is partial to the odd Old McDonalds though – trouble with flying a lot is that there’s very little else to eat in airports. I quite like them too though so it’s no hardship. We have a fantastic ice cream parlour close by that we have our dates in. It’s divine.

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