My Perfect Day

Chapter 2
My perfect day part 2

Chapter Description: part 2 of 3. I get to go to the supermarket. Playing in the creche is fun!

I open my eyes and just as you promised you’re still holding me, watching the tv and taking a sip from a cup of coffee, you dont notice i’m awake and quietly I stare up at you enjoying the fact that you dont know i’m looking at you. I just watch you being you and I feel content. I can feel the fact that i’m soggy again, which doesnt surprise me at all, its very rare for me to wake up from sleep and be dry, even as an adult. You look down at me to check that i’m still sleeping and see that i’m awake.

"Hello sleepyhead"

I grin groggily up at you. You manouver me easily into a position where im sitting on your lap facing you.

"How are you enjoying your birthday so far."

Knowing that I cant really speak I just nod my head really hard and fast. and say "YAY" You laugh. "Do you want to go out." I nod again and accompany the nod with a yes please which comes out as "PEAS" You pick me up by the armpits again and lower me to the floor, its then that you notice i’m wet.

"Well I’d better change that soggy bum of yours or we’ll all be sorry and get your jacket and things and then we’ll go" I stand there and watch you get up off the sofa, still feeling giddy by the fact that you seem to tower over me like a giant. You scoop me up and then place me at the bottom of the stairs. "Can you climb the stairs poppet? Can you do it for daddy?" I look up the mountain before me. We play this game all the time, but this time I really am a two year old and the task looks daunting. Undeterred I pull myself up onto the first step, first one knee then the other and pull. You’re standing directly behind me so I know I’m safe. I manage the next step and the next one. This takes a long time though and by step number eight im flagging. Seeing me slow to a stop you pluck me up off the step and carry me the rest of the way. "S’okay poppet, one day you’ll do it, when you’re bigger"

I smile as you say this and bury my head into your chest embarrassed. I love being little. I love it when you say that one day i’ll be big enough to do all these things when we both know that as sammy I wont. I love protesting that I am big enough. I love being adamant that I can do stuff that clearly is too advanced for sammys age. I love trying to be bigger and failing, only to hear you encourage me and that one day I’ll manage.

I cling to your t-shirt and gurgle unintellegible words into your chest as you walk into the bedroom, and pop me down onto the changing table for the second time this morning. A few minutes later with me now clean, dry and giggling happily you’re pulling on my tiny little pink trainers, they have flashing light up hearts up the sides of the trainers, identical to the ones I have as an adult. Carrying me back down the stairs you plop me in the playpen "I just need to get some stuff ready, you play with your toys" I watch you dissapear and look around the pen. It’s the same one we use sometimes when i’m being sammy as an adult. But this time the bars tower over me. When I was actually an adult I would beable to climb over the top of the bars should I really need to, but now that i’m so small theres no way I can get out. Even the simple pull lock on the playpen gate looks complicated and too hard for my new fingers to unlatch. Theres a strange kind of reassurance knowing that I’m trapped. I think its the knowledge that you’ll come and get me. There are blocks in the pen and I grab one, instantly plugging it into my mouth. Its then that I see Pea. Pea is my dragon. A very vibrant shade of green with primary colours splattered everywhere crinkly wings a squeaky paw, a mirror on one of his feet, a bell in his tail and a squeaky head. One of those sensory toys designed for 6 month old children. Discarding the block, I make a beeline for Pea. I spend the next fifteen minutes chewing on Pea and banging him off the floor and bars giggling infectiously at the squeaky jangling noises that he makes. Every so often you pop back into the room to check on me but other than that I amuse myself I feel myself slipping even more into infant mode, forgetting about bills and jobs and all that stress of life. It’s just me and you. Thats my world. You appear again carrying a small puffy pink jacket. Lifting me up out of the pen, You place me on your lap and thread my flailing arms through the holes as quickly as you can as well as stringing a pair of white mittens through the back of my jacket and through each arm hole. Putting the mittens firmly over my hands you then zip up the jacket. The mittens come with a matching white bobble hat which after brushing my red hair you pull onto my head

"There all done, ready for our adventure" you beam down at me and I squeal happily back "Venchure"

You pull on your shoes "Thats right poppet adventure, but before we can go, daddy needs to get a few things from the supermarket, so we have to go shopping." I clap my hands, noticing the muffled noise they make now that theyre all mittened up.

You sling what I can only guess is a changing bag over one shoulder and scoop me up. You open the door and I’m glad you’ve wrapped me up so warm because its cold outside. Really cold, so cold we can see our breath puff out in clouds. You start making chuff chuff noises like a train as you close and lock the front door and carry me down the path. I giggle and make the noises too and together we’re two choo choos puffing down the track towards the car. Once there you easily strap me into the baby seat and I amuse myself with the car seat toy, a primary coloured caterpiller with different bits to pull on and chew and in next to no time we’re at the supermarket.

I wave bye bye to the caterpiller as you unstrap me from the seat. Carrying me up to the trolley bay you stop dead and look around for one with a seat. All that are left are the shallow trolleys, the ones that dont have seats. I notice what your looking for and scan the rows myself, dismayed that the only time I can actually fit into one there arn’t any. "Oh poppet im sorry" You say. Despite myself I start to cry. Its a silly thing to get upset about and I try to mentally chastise myself for being so stupid, but the infant emotions in me now are hard to control and I just feel myself wailing. You shoogle me up and down trying to shush me. A few people walk past and give you a sympathic glance. You fish around in the changing bag and produce my binkie, pushing it into my mouth. I shush for a moment start to cry for a few seconds more and then fall silent. You also hand me flump. Flump is a small fuzzy elephant and I hold tightly onto him with one hand while my other hand rhythmically clenches and unclenches one of flumps ears. "We could go to another supermarket" I say but what with the dummy in my mouth and my inability to say very much the whole sentence is lost to you in a stream of baby babble. You simply jiggle me up and down gently.

"It’s alright daddy will figure out something"

You are now of course in a conundrum, You can’t put a baby in a trolley without a seat and carrying me and a basket would be a little too much. You speak out loud your thoughts for my benefit. "We’ll just go to the next supermarket" I grin but you cant see because of my dummy and the fact that you now have me propped over one of your shoulders lightly patting my butt. "Hang on a minute I have a better idea"

I watch things move in reverse as my view is over your shoulder, so I have no idea where you’re heading. You walk into the supermarket. You stop and speak.

"I’d like to put my daughter in the creche"

"Yes sir, just fill in this form, do you want me to take her while you do so?"

I feel myself being lifted off of your shoulder by a second pair of hands and suddenly im staring at you while being held by a blond slim woman. You grin at me as the lady coos at me with the usual sickeningly sweet sort of stuff "My arn’t you just adorable." I feel really embarrassed but your smiling at me so happily that I grin as well

"i’ll be no more than ten minutes. Heres her stuff, i’m sure she’ll be no trouble"

You hand over the changing bag, Im still clutching flump and sucking my dummy, you lean over and give me a kiss on the forehead.

"be a good girl for daddy sammy"

I’m not entirely sure about this idea. I want to go with you and so I reach out my hands indicating that I want to go with you. I whimper a little and I can see a momentary flicker of doubt in your eyes. The lady holding me manouvers me around so I cant see you and i’m now facing her. Shes mouthings the words "Just go, she’ll be fine" at you and I sense you leaving.

"Its okay sammy your daddy will be back soon." She says in that happy go lucky voice reserved for childrens tv presenters of cbeebies or other younger channels. I look at her with my eyes wide, unsure if im going to cry or going to grin. I never thought i’d ever beable to go into a creche, but I was a little scared about playing with other real children. The lady carries me through a set of double doors and I stare in wide eyed wonder at the bright colours and cool things to see and do, Theres a large jungle gym complete with climbing frame and tunnels and ball pit. "YAY" I wriggle when I see the ball pit and the lady laughs as she carries me right past it. There are children running around playing tag and playing make believe games and suddenly my fear vanishes. I want to play. "PAY PAY" I say excitedly and the lady simply jiggles me on her hip. We seem to be moving away from all the bright coloured balls and she lowers me gently over the edge of what looks like a giant cushion. She lays me on my back and I can feel myself sinking ever so slightly into the flooring, as she undoes the velcro on my shoes and pulls them off. "My what pretty shoes you have sammy, I wish I had shoes that pretty, yes I do Yes I do" the lady tickles me as she picks the trainers up and removes them from my reach. "now you go play with the other children, and I’ll be right over there watching okay?" She undoes my jacket and takes off my mittens and hat then leaves.

I flip myself over and look around. I seem to be in a giant primary coloured marshmellow, everything is padded. Theres a plastic seesaw and a large foam cube with a tunnel cut out of the centre , More large blocks of brightly coloured foam and lots of age appropriate toys. There are a few other babies in here with me crawling around, chewing on things and I suddenly realise that im not going to get to play on the jungle gym. I AM actually 2. Being an adult sammy could pick and choose certain aspects of different ages, but to this lady I am actually a 2 year old baby girl, and as such it was doubtful I was going to be allowed anywhere near the helter skelter or rope ladders. Even if by some miracle she did let me, I doubt I would beable to use them, what with my diminished motor functions. I’m not sure whether I like the idea that I cant play on the things I want to play on, but I consol myself with the fact that I wanted to be real and this was as real as it could get. I try and push myself up into a standing position but the padded floor makes things more difficult so I resort to crawling to get to where I want to go. I clamber over the floor and head for the padded box of bright coloured things. im still holding onto flump and still sucking my dummy. Getting to the bright coloured foam box I pull myself unsteadily up on it and look inside. I see what I want and pull it out. A large spider on wheels. I had this toy as a real kid and cant believe they have one here in the creche. I pull it out and go to play with the wheels when another baby girl crawls along and pulls it out of my grasp. I look at her for a moment a little shocked as she shouts out "MINE" I smile nervously at her then pulling myself back up onto my feet using the box edge I pull another toy from the box this time a large fluffy smiling dinosaur, same again the kid snatches the toy off of me and claims it as her own. "MINE!" I get the sudden feeling that this is going to be a trend so I pick up flump and go to crawl away from this baby when she snatches flump off of me.

"HEY THATS MINE" I shout at her, although its comes out as "Ay smy"

She just giggles and pulling herself to her feet toddles off with flump in tow, clearly shes used to this creche cause she can walk on the soft bouncy flooring, or maybe shes slightly older, I dont know or care at this moment cause shes got flump and I need him back.

"Gib fump bak" I crawl after her and she just giggles more finding the whole thing funny. I start to get frustrated and as I crawl around and around trying to catch up with the girl she just runs circles around me.

I sit back on my bum and give up. I start to cry and the lady hearing me cry comes over and picks me up into her arms. "hey hey hey whats the matter little one" I point over at the girl "FUMP!" The lady looks at me confused, lifts me up higher and sniffs me. "You dont smell like you need a change, are you hungry?" I look at the lady, realising she doesnt understand "Fump. I wan fump!"

"i’ll get you some juice, would that be nice?"The lady carries me away from the soft play area and I panic. What if that little girl gets collected before I can get flump back, then flump would be lost forever.

The lady gets a bottle of juice from the fridge and hands it to me. I dont want it and so let go of it. She gently picks it up and tries to put it in my mouth. I dont want it so clamp my mouth shut. After a few more attempts she gives up. "FUMP I WAN FUMP" This whole unable to communicate thing now has taken a bad turn. Its frustrating that I cant say what I want to say and I know that if you were there, you would understand the word fump in an instant. "Maybe you’re just cranky because you’re tired". And with that she starts rocking me. I struggle. I struggle with all my might, because rhythmic motions do actually put me to sleep, you’ve used it to your advantage numerous times, a natural off switch, and already with her patting my back and rocking me back and forth I can feel myself beginning to lose it. My high pitch wailing has already subsided to a murmur. "Fump" I manage before my eyes start to get heavy and I close them.

I wake up and im laying in one corner of the soft cushioned play area covered by a bright coloured patchwork blanket. I look around for the girl with flump and can’t see her anywhere. How long have I been asleep? Didnt you say you would be ten minutes? Surly it’d been longer than that now? I half push half kick the blanket off of me and crawl over to the tunnel. There’s no-one in it so I crawl in to roughly the halfway mark and begin to sob quietly. I dont know how long I cry but the first time I hear you say poppet I ignor it, not registering the soft sing songy way your saying my pet name. The second time you say poppet is louder and I stop crying and sniff back the snot. I look up and look both ways down the tunnel.

"Dadee?" I’m not sure if its just wishful thinking on my part that your out there. "Sammy, come to daddy poppet, come on you can do it" Spurred on by your words I crawl towards your voice out of the dark tunnel and as I crawl out into the light you whisk me up into your arms and hold me close "oh oh Oh poppet what ever is the matter" You say at me as you wipe away the tears in my eyes. "Its alright daddys here now" I sniff and now that you’re here relief swamps me and I cry some more into your neck . You hold me for a few moments before asking again "poppet, whats the matter come on tell daddy" I look at you and then wail "FUMPs gon"

You look around the soft play area and search around, looking into the toy box you rummage around for a moment and produce a rather squashed looking fluffy elephant. The girl must have put the toy back. My tears vanish "Fump" I grin through my tears as you hand it to me, making flump kiss me on my nose. "Its okay sammy, flump was just sayin goodbye to all his new friends"

You give the lady a friendly smile as realisation dawns on her as to what Fump meant, but everything is all okay again, like my shining knight you’ve swooped in and saved the day and as you collect all my things redress me in my jacket and mittens and carry me out of the creche I wave goodbye to the lady. She waves back.

With my binkie firmly in my mouth and flump clutched tightly I have my head buried in your shoulder as you carry me back out of the supermarket and back to the car, before you’ve even gotten me strapped into the car seat i’m already asleep. I can vaguely hear you saying "Aww poppet" and I feel you brush some of my fringe out of my face, I feel safe and content again now that i’m back with you. You gently readjust flump in my hands so that I dont drop him on the car floor and gently close the car door.

I dont know where we’re going for the adventure but I dont care, so long as i’m with you I know things will be great.