Thank goodness for sunny days

This weekend's beautiful sun could not have come at a better time. I've often marvelled at how parents manage in small apartments or cold climates. I am absolutely hopeless when we are stuck inside. It's bad enough when the children are all healthy but had we not been able to get out this last few days with sick and whingy babies, I think I may have been driven to insanity. 

I appreciate that many will say that sick children should be kept home. In theory I completely agree with this. My husband was immune suppressed for years and still has a pretty useless immune system. I would love for him and my children to never be exposed to germs but I just think it's impossible. If we didn't go out each time someone had a runny nose, I wouldn't have been out of the house in months. I'm completely onboard with not visiting newborn babies when sick or not going into confined spaces, but I simply cannot just stay at home. I would go crazy.

I also come from a school of thought that fresh air and some extra sleep is good for you. So on Friday when the when both L and S were particularly unwell we went to the zoo. J has a half hour lesson there every Friday and it would have been a shame for her to miss out because of the sick babies. I was a bit nervous at first but it turned out really well. The boys stayed in the pram the whole time and just napped on and off. It was really quite perfect. I expect if we'd stayed home they would have whinged all morning, not napped at all and we all would have ended up in tears.

We did skip swimming for the babies on Saturday. I'm not sure if all the chlorine kills the bugs but indoor swimming pools don't seem like the healthiest of places. Instead, I walked the boys to the markets and Ed and J met us there after swimming. The boys were whinging terribly while at home and I was cursing that I hadn't taken them to swimming as well but as soon as we got out of the house they were fine. Then the sun came out properly and it was amazing. We grabbed some coffees and croissants and sat down on the grass while the three children played happily. I loved it.