Knowsley Safari Park

Saturday started off with me surprising H with a new Kylo Ren Lego set and a trip to Knowsley Safari Park. He made his Lego men first and asked if he could take them with us, I said no (I always say no to Lego going in the car...) his Dad said yes just to get him out of the house! 10 minutes before we arrived O fell asleep. We woke him up when the first animal (some kind of deer type thing) came up to the car and then we stupidly unclipped his belt and let him free in the car. This is where it all went downhill. The wildest thing in that safari park was our baby/chimp hybrid. He was in the boot, pressed up against the windscreen, sitting on the gears, pushing his dad's hands off the steering wheel, whacking the radio volume up to full, knocking the gears into reverse as we were driving... The only time he stopped was when he saw the monkeys which he loved, not surprisingly, he clearly recognised them as long lost family. 

These are the bits where it looks like we had a perfect day...

All Lego men still present and correct...

This was him being really interested in the rhinos...

And this was him loving the lions that were walking right next to him and infront of the car...

(Watching a film- hilariously it looks like H is asleep, he wasn't!) 

And this is when he saw a pigeon. A sodding pigeon...

We headed to the carpark to use the loo and after a big tantrum he ran towards the rollercoaster in the pouring down rain. H hates rollercoasters (as do I) but agreed to go on because it was only a baby one. As the guy was about the hit the button to set it off Oscar had another tantrum whilst trying to climb over the top to come and sit next to me instead of Chris so we apologetically swapped places. Now I know it was only a baby rollercoaster but in my defence it was really fast and flingy, my heart sank when I realised it went round twice, Oscar on the other hand was screaming one of his few words 'again!!!' Even Harrison liked it!  

When we came off the sea lion show was due to start so we went and queued up (still in the rain) got seats right at the front, Oscar was bored of sitting after about 30 seconds so Chris walked around with him until the show started and then miraculously he sat still for about 10 minutes of it but Chris eventually had to take him out about 5 minutes before the end. I want a sea lion. 

We left right after the sea lion show as Oscar had gone way beyond, the second we got back on the motorway we heard the fateful words 'I've dropped my Lego men!!!' Doom. 

We went straight to B&Q to make a busy board for Oscar that I'd seen on netmums a couple of days earlier and decided it would be a great thing that he might actually play with since he doesn't do conventional toys. Oscar was asleep again at this point so Chris went into B&Q but as he slammed the door he woke him up. Harrison went into full meltdown mode because he couldn't find Kylo Rens hair. I decided to get them out and into the shop. Cue more screaming because the hair still hadn't been found and now I had the audacity to ask him to leave the car. Oscar wreaked complete havoc on the shop, there were hooks, wires, plug sockets, doorbells etc chucked all over the place with me running behind trying to clean up the trail of destruction. He came out with red marks all over his face and head where he had fallen over and run into things!  Back in the car to more meltdowns over the Lego hair, back home to even more tantrums over the Lego hair. I looked for it, Chris looked for it for a long time to no avail. (Probably because the car is covered in golden nuggets cereal and pasta that have been chucked around it over the last few days!) 

I'd told Harrison at B&Q that because he was being so 'challenging' we wouldn't be building his Lego set today and he'd have to wait until tomorrow, when we got home I stupidly backtracked and agreed that if he was good for 1 hour then we would build it. I didn't think this was an unreasonable request for a 6.5 year old, he is good for 6 solid hours at school so surely 1 hour at home was doable? WRONG!!! He cleverly went upstairs to play for half an hour of the hour so that he could stay out of trouble but then I called him down for dinner. Oscar was sitting watching The Wiggles on my laptop, Harrison stormed in and shouted that he didn't want to watch that, pressed the mute button and pushed the laptop away, Oscar then screamed because he couldn't see it and Harrison pushed him across the bench. I, very calmly, told H that we wouldn't be doing his Lego because he hadn't lasted the hour, we then had a full hour of meltdown madness. You know, that hyperventilation  state they get themselves into and can't get out of? He said it was my fault because I'm annoying. Bahaha! Chris and I ended up having to feed him his dinner between sobs once he had calmed down a little but I refused to back down and told him we could do his Lego tomorrow. He turned into angel child for the next 45 minutes (clearly in the hope I would change my mind) getting his brothers pyjamas out on the bedroom floor ready to put on, bathed himself, took Oscar to brush his teeth etc. I thanked him, told him he'd been very good but that it didn't change anything! What would you have done? Would you have backed down or stuck to your guns? I know I'm a stubborn old boot and probably take it too far at times but in the meltdown hour he was hitting me and his brother etc, he has to know there are consequences to his actions and that we will follow through on those consequences. Needless to say we both turned to alcohol during all of this and now wish we'd bought some chocolate beforehand! 

I haven't even told you about the hour and a half long meltdown that Oscar had this morning before we'd gone! Let's just say it was a day of meltdowns and leave it there! 

(I built the Lego once he had gone to bed so he has it in the morning when he wakes up. I'm a soft touch. They're just so damn cute!!)