Train Driver!

We joke in our house that a day out for Jimmy doesn’t really need to be much more than a ride on the tube. It’s almost true really as he loves the experience and enjoys going in and out of the tunnels. I think it’s a boy thing?!

When it comes to the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) even Florence could spend all day going round and round on it. Heck, why not! It’s awesome and I love it too! It’s a bit like a fair ground ride and whizzing round bends high up is fascinating as well as fun! No wonder we love it! And we’re not the only ones!

The race to get to the front of the train and those sought after ‘driver’s seats’ is one I take on every time we travel on it! You’d think the competition would be between all the parents with children and while it is a little bit (the other day I secured a front seat only after tempting the people next to us to stand on the same part of the platform as us by showing authority that the doors would open there – of course I knew they wouldn’t and was on my toes ready to make the sprint in the right direction for where they would stop, seriously, it’s THAT competitive!) it’s mainly between adults on their own!

Now you’d not warrant it would you but I’ve seen grown men jostle each other out of place to get in that front seat and then grumble outwardly when asked to move by the real driver should he or she appear! I can see why it’s fun, as I mentioned I am a fan of the train too but I’m not sure I’d bustle past another woman or man when I am on my own in order to get the trump seat! But they do… daily… And I guess if that’s what makes them happy on their way to work then let them at it, I don’t have a problem!

What my beef with the fighting adults is, is when they knowingly shove past a child to get to the front before nonchalantly sitting there ignoring the disappointed sighs of a toddler! Or, in Jimmy’s case the massively loud crying and wailing that HE WANTED TO DRIVE THE TRAIN! C’mon commuters how can a seat at the front be more important to you than a little boy or girl?!

I have many complaints with fellow travelers of the London transport system and this is yet another of them! Adults who HAVE to sit at the front and ‘drive’ the DLR! If there’s a little one about then have a heart and offer your spot at the front (and don’t push them out the way in order to secure it in the first place)! I can guarantee they don’t get to go on the DLR as often as you and the opportunity to get the front seat will surely come up for you again on your commute tomorrow!

These two ladies might have been hard of hearing I suppose but they’d have to have been stony deaf in order not to hear my and other children wailing that they wanted the front seat! It wasn’t in rush hour and the train was pretty empty, they could have sat anywhere but I guess it was important for them to ‘drive the train’!

MY LIFE WITH TWO!

As if a switch went off when Jimmy turned two, he has hit the ‘terrible’ stage with gusto! He has started screaming when he doesn’t get his own way and doing a fake cry at times too. He knows exactly what he’s doing and because he’s the baby has worked out he can use that to his advantage!

With this too has come him wanting to use the toilet and talking more and more! Having a proper conversation with my boy has become every day! He’s interested in the snails we see on the way to school and stops to talk to them; Florence, who has been learning all about them at school, has been explaining to him how they see out of one eye and hear with the other – who knew! He is a real boy, a boy of two and he’s using all his two year old powers to his advantage! I must stop babying him and remember when his sister was the same age I was much harder!

I re-read a diary update from when Florence was the same age as Jimmy. I was trying really hard to encourage her to self wean and had stopped feeding on demand. With Jimmy I am pretty much just feeding him as and when so I must stop as it is ridiculous! I want him to stop feeding through the day and night and just have one before bed and one in the morning like his sister did till she was 3 years and 8 months old (so it’s not like I’m going to make him stop altogether). I’m not sure how he’ll take to that?

He is also properly playing with Florence now and it melted my heart hearing her saying to him in soft play the other day ‘C’mon Jimmy, lets go back in and have more fun’. They want to be together and he is no longer just a baby to her, they have a pal in each other and I LOVE it!