Hi 🙂
I had a slow start, after seeing in the small hours last night. I breakfasted up in ‘my’ room, looking out at the harbour. Lovely Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and tea!
I wrote a wee poem about it, in 5 minutes; following the 5 – 7 – 5 Haiku syllable rule:
Halting hunger here:
Sheltered harbour for my thoughts.
They leave on gull wings.
I like the double meaning of ‘gull’ 😉
The kids were in high spirits again, then Eldest decided to refuse to go out after being repeatedly 
asked to calm down. I took him into the single bedroom (moving my crockery out of the way) and let him survey the comings and goings on the jetty. We watched a large boat have people file onto it, saw it round the corner, and waited patiently for it to emerge from behind the buildings opposite us, to go under the Skye Bridge. Hubby came to find us and had a squizz at the harbor with Eldest. Youngest was apparently passing time at the locked front door downstairs (one can tourist-watch from the porch windows).
Us parentals got hugs from a newly-zen seven year old. Our day then got back on track a bit 😉
The plan was for us all to go to Portree, and for me to mooch about the craftshops for an hour or so while the boys went off in search of more boats, and side streets to explore. It was quarter to eleven when we set off, and we unfortunately didn’t get very far before Eldest’s high-backed booster seat’s cover decided to come loose and flap about its occupant’s ears!
I had adjusted the back of the booster to make Eldest more comfortable yesterday, and it now appeared that the seat cover does not like to stretch to the full height the back support can reach…
We turned into the first carpark that we saw in Broadford, and there was actually a gorgeous yarn shop! The kids were not happy with the dismantling of the seat I did and the time it took me to eventually admit defeat and realise that without tape we would definitely need to find a new booster somewhere (Eldest is not quite tall or heavy enough for us to discard the back part).
I had to walk into that yarn shop with no time to browse!
Heartbreaking 🙁
The lady behind the counter did not sell any kind of tape, but she knew where the nearest DIY store was, and gave great directions! I mournfully looked around me one last time and left, promising to return to buy something before our week on Skye was over. Oh the hard things we mothers do for our offspring… 😉
I sent hubby into the DIY place with the manual for the seat, so that his predicament could be quickly understood from gesturing at a nice neat diagram. Sure enough, he came back promptly with a kind of fabric tape, which even coordinated with the cover!! Eldest remained fascinated with the apparent nonchalance of the shop’s dog, who was lying in the sun right in the path of vans and cars entering the grounds.
I got to work on the chair, and it may not have been too neat, but the tape did a turn 😉
We still have no definite idea how it happened, but just before we drove off with Eldest’s seat sorted, we realized that Youngest’s (5-point Brittax) was no longer attached to the car 🙁 we removed the stuff from between the children on the back seat (a likely culprit), and I held (a now awake and very grumpy) Youngest while Hubby secured the seat properly and tugged on the strap etc. Scary stuff, good thing I regularly check!!
We were more than half way to Portree when we discovered Youngest’s Thomas hat was missing.
It turned out to be wedged between the car’s backseat and the child seat, but we didn’t work that out until we’d driven back and looked under other vehicles and asked if it had been handed in at the aforementioned DIY store (and had a heated argument ensue in the back seat: Youngest defending his right to ‘a go’ of the red toy snake, whereas Eldest felt slighted as it was obviously his due to red being his favourite colour. They both got yellow snakes handed to them, then hated me)
We were doing well, heading back in the Portree direction, when Youngest complained of a sore tum and looked pale. I walked him around a large layby for a while, trying to also surreptitiously be in easy reach of the puke bucket (one never knows). We deduced that he was still hungry(he’d snacked earlier), so I fed him a sandwich and an oat bar; and his colour returned. Yaay!
Eldest was beyond bored by this point, and not being quiet about it. Despite it being well after midday, he didn’t want any food. I turned up Skin’s album for the rest of the journey. The first track resonated with us all by then 😉
I was DESPERATE for the loo by the time we got to Portree (about 2.15pm…) and there was a preposterously long queue for the public convenience on the high street. Not an experience I wish to relive any time soon! The boys ate more sandwiches in the car, and I got some lunch once I’d returned from my loo escapade; but failed to eat fast enough for our (now demented) children.
Youngest only wanted to hold my hand, and was bent on buying something from a gift shop. Eldest declared that “booooooe-wing” and wanted to “find somewhere to explore, Daddy!”. We did go to a nice gift shop (Cullin Crafts) that the boys liked the smell of (there were lots of soaps on display) and I managed to keep the boys from smashing any of the trinkets. Eldest bought a pack of cards with Skye scenes on it, the boys agreed on a magnet displaying Armadale Castle, and Youngest went for what he thought was a penguin, but is actually a cuddly puffin.
He’s called it: “Penguin da Puffin”.
Hubby offered to take the boys as planned, but I could tell the kids were not in a receptive mood, so instead Youngest elected to come and browse in another yarn shop with me, while Eldest went down to look at the harbour with Hubby (divide and conquer, heh heh heh…).
Youngest had plans for nearly every ball of yarn we saw, but finally plumped for “a sunset one” to make “a froggy”. He also chose a bead that he liked the look of, and cajoled me into buying two packs of safety eyes instead of one.
Eldest shouldered into the shop just as we’d finished paying, so Youngest told him what we bought and exactly why, which the lady who served us seemed to find endearing.
The boys were intent on going back down to the harbour, and we all did, but Eldest was very restless by this stage and started to display some dangerous behaviour, so we headed back to the car. I had to offer piggy back rides in order for us parents to look less like we were holding the kids against their will, as both boys were screaming as we came upon the town square and everyone’s eyes were drawn in our direction…!
On a lighter (my poor, poor hips) note: on the way back to the cottage an aphid made friends with Youngest and rode on his clothes for a while before jumping out of the open window 😉 Eldest also fell asleep, enabling Youngest to monopolize the red snake for once. He was very happy.
It may look like a crumb, but the fly is on Spiderman’s chest…
We broke with our usual protocol and had a pizza dinner even although it is not Friday (gasp). While the yum was cooking, the boys had another wave of nonsense seize them; so I took them up to their room, stowed all the breakable lamps etc away inside the spare duvet in their wardrobe, and inflated two light-up balloons (yes, I brought them and a pump with us) so that they could play their usual version of volleyball with them. They loved it!
After dinner, Eldest played me at chess. He is getting pretty good, and I talked him through any mistakes either of us made, etc. He asked me not to let him win, but there were airborne pieces when he lost. The poor love (muhahahaha…)
He then happily went back to teaching his brother, and I loved listening to his little explanations. Youngest furrowing his wee brow and backtracking to try another piece, or asking for clarification, was immensely cute too! They soon went back to draughts, however.
I managed to publish my first Skye post while the boys played another round of balloon mayhem with Hubby. It takes so long to edit photos on this infernal laptop!! I love the spacing of its keys and the blue and white aesthetics – but URRRRGH…
Today’s poem was penned too, while I thought about how I often feel like the party pooper around here: with my eye constantly drawn to clues about what will happen next, while plans whirl in my head that detail how I’ll fix the fall out!!
It was a Jimpix concoction, so I struggled a bit. I think the result is passable, however:
Touch Wetland Flousers Crax Horologium Boomer Mobile Cheery Coyote
They like to kick up their shoes
Touch any wetland
(Flousers that they are)
And I follow,
Hoovering up their enthusiasm
Like some Crax;
With my beak stuck into
Their playtime.
Keeper Of The Cranial Horologium
Boomer Of The Rules
I’ve my mobile poised
To take the ‘perfect’ scene
And freeze it;
Capture those cheery little faces
Happily ignoring my clucks.
Wiley as Coyote
I consume myself;
Figure out their next move
And counteract it from my bag.
I’ve stayed up late again after my boy cuddles and songs, followed by chat ‘n’ cake with Hubster. It may not be good for the wrinkles all this candle burning, but it is fab for the whirring mind. Wish I could take this room and view home with me! The week is going past far too fast…
[Click here for the rest of the posts about our Skye holiday]
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August 2nd, 2017 at 7:44 am
I really enjoyed all of this
August 2nd, 2017 at 10:16 am
😎 x