We’d planned to go in to town this weekend to watch the Lord Mayor’s Show and fireworks but the boy got invited to a birthday party and was much more taken with the idea of going to see Fantastic Mr Fox and eating pizza.  Unfortunately for the husband, I saw the boy’s absence as the perfect time to shop.

But, before we could shop, we had disasters to deal with.  After the previous night’s torrential rain, one more bout was all that was needed to get the conservatory roof leaking.  We don’t have a particularly nice conservatory; it’s a haphazard attempt at extending the house and consists of some shoddy brickwork, some wooden beams that can’t be considered beams but thin bits of wood purchased from Homebase and a bit of manky plastic stuck on top.  The last bit of heavy rain had managed to make its way through the join between the plastic and the main bit of the house and was coming down on to everything.  Everything generally being the husband’s studio equipment that he’d stashed in there.  So we had a bit of a mad panic trying to clear as much junk out of the room as possible and hoping that the rain wouldn’t get any worse.  We were lucky though. The next showers, which weren’t as bad, didn’t cause any more leakage and we can hope that we’re safe for now.  Still, it’s another reason to call and pester our landlord which we can really do without.

We started off the shopping by getting baby stuff as I’ve still not packed my just in case hospital bag.  At least the husband got off lightly by nipping next door to hide in Game for a while.  Then, with the possibility of having to pick the boy up soon, we stopped so the husband could finally get his first Starbucks red cup and ran through the supermarket too.  Now I’ve only got two presents left to buy and can even start writing my Christmas cards.  If only I could be so organised with the baby stuff!

Once the boy was home we headed over to Ikea.  Now anyone who’s been to the Croydon branch during the day on the weekend knows that the place is hell on earth so waiting until 7 before we left was definitely a good idea.  The boy was disappointed that it meant he couldn’t go in the kids play place, but soon cheered up at the thought of getting to look for a new bed. 

Of course we didn’t find a bed (although the husband thought the single bunk with space for storage underneath that was about six feet high was suitable for a five year old) but we did manage to pick up the chest of drawers I was after and a dirt cheap baby bath.  So yeah, the kid’s got no clothes to wear when he’s born but at least he can have a bath.

When we’d started we’d picked up a supermarket style trolley.  The boy might be one of the bigger ones in his class, but we can still jam him in that trolley seat until he starts complaining.  After that it’s going to be duct taping him to the side of the trolley!  The drawers came in two packages, neither of them small nor particularly light.  Despite my wonderful idea that we should pick up a flatbed trolley, the husband insisted he could get the two packages into the trolley.  Well he did, but it would have been much much easier if the boy hadn’t insisted on helping.

Sunday saw a lazy start to the morning but I did at least manage to start packing that hospital bag.  All we need now is some baby clothes!  Eventually we go out to do a run round of a couple more shops.  Nothing interesting to report, but I do now have an entire case of Irn Bru.  Nothing like the stuff. 

Once we got back we attempted to put up the chest of drawers.  Once again, the boy insisted on helping, and I insisted on being present because I don’t entirely trust the husband’s DIY skills.  Once he put up two shelves in the corner of a room and I spent two years having to look at them both slanting in different directions!  Needless to say that the boy’s brand of help wasn’t exactly helpful but he did seem to enjoy being part of things and we managed to get the outer frame built in time to watch Doctor Who.  The only trouble was, we halted once we got to the drawers because despite being in a completely different aisle to the same set in a different colour, we’d managed to come away with drawers which were a different shade to the outer.  I’d call that a shelf stacking fail.  So today, one of the husband’s tasks is to call Ikea and convince them to send across the right parts. 

So at least I feel like we’ve had a reasonably productive weekend and I’m glad we didn’t go out for those fireworks.  They were cancelled because of the high winds in the end.