Chez Spud

Bunting at the Regatta

Despite a grey and drizzly start to the day, which involved frantic head scratching Chez Spud about ‘what do we do when the weather is rubbish?’, things brightened up pretty quickly and by lunchtime it was glorious.

Just as well as it was our town’s annual regatta today…think: loads of boats, boat racing, nautical types, pink shirts, collars up, Crocs by the million, poor sound systems, tombolas, hog roasts, bad live music, warm beer, ice cream, bouncy castles, carousels, candy floss, children pumped on sugar and parents on the edge etc etc. All so quintessentially English. And all so delightful; it even involved a successful ice-cream ‘in public’ attempt which is always a bonus.

Two of Diggy’s biggest EVER tantrums have been over ice-creams ‘in public’, more specifically him letting his ice-cream melt too much and thus dropping it on the floor and then totally losing it. One of them was so bad I ended up having to shoehorn him back in to his car seat by effectively elbowing him in the stomach to get him to bend -  he was totally rigid with fury and had been for 20 minutes whilst a small crowd of JudgeyPants gathered and tutted  at me(thanks guys, your reward is in heaven..remember that). He was 16 months old…you can imagine how we feared the ‘terrible twos’ given that he was a seasoned pro by 16 months.

Moments before the first, monumental ice-cream droppage tantrum..it set the standard..

It’s been a year since an ice-cream related tantrum occurred, but the memory of them is terrifying enough that ice-creams ‘in public’ still bring me out in a bit of a sweat. The main issue is that he never stops talking (hmm, now where does he get that from?) and thus the ice-cream melts whilst he is chattering away. A previous tactic to avoid ‘the droppage’ has been for either parent to swoop in and lick the melty bits before the entire structure gives way. Such a mistake, he has a tantrum about that too – he hates it if you take his food, even if he has no intention of eating it (clearly not the case with ice-cream) and has been known to attempt to take food out of your mouth if he thinks it’s ‘his’. Thus, by deploying the ‘emergency licking’ technique to avoid a tantrum, you actually end up causing one.

Tip: ALWAYS take the tub option over cone...NB ice-cream on the beach in mid-winter

So ice-creams ‘in public’  now involve ignoring any of his attempts to engage you in conversation and constant ‘KEEP LICKING!’ orders, barked at him in a slightly shrill tone. It takes an age, and by the time he’s finished we’re normally running late so he has to take a ride on MrSpud’s shoulders to override the default toddler walking speeds of dead slow/stop/reverse to examine every leaf on the path. That works out well; we get where we need to in good time, and Diggy saves me the job of clearing up the post ice-cream aftermath by wiping his sticky hands on MrSpud’s hair. What’s left of it…

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Completeness
• What’s in a name?
• I win! I win! I wore them down and wore them out
• The one where MrSpud gets it wrong
• Sweet nostalgia