Distraction and Escape

 Right now we have a stand off in my house. It revolves around the bookshelf and my willpower. Wriggles is a book obsessive and will spend all day calling me to attention and shoving books (normally the same ones) under my nose to be read. She gets Very Cross if this does not go her way. So far, any attempts of mine to distract her for more than two minutes have failed miserably and we are back to the bookshelf being emptied and screeching if I am not reading Each Peach, Pear, Plum right now. I have before hidden the most irritating offenders and tried to rotate things but now Wriggles can get around quickly she has morphed into Sherlock and so far foiled all my plans. 

So for my sanity, I try to leave the house daily to do something Exciting and Distracting. 

Thankfully, my city is full of free places.

So far this week we have done a science-type museum with a water play area, hall of mirrors and soft play type area (although it has a poster claiming it is not soft play but a place for children to "freely interact with the furniture." Could have fooled me....)

We have been to an art gallery too. Main interest: the stairs, which we climbed up and down and up and down and up and down and then got stuck. We also bumped into another exhausted exasperated mum of an energetic single minded toddler which was a welcome relief. This gallery has a dedicated under 5s area which is full of things to play with, gigantic blocks and unfortunately some books. 

When nap-time failed miserably (WHY Wriggles, WHY?) we rounded the day off in the city library. Bizarrely when truly surrounded by books, Wriggles has little interest in them and instead prefers to terrorise the steps, the lift and any poor adults trying to concentrate. She also likes to climb into a cubby hole where a window is and bang her head on the glass. Approximate need of rescuing: 20 times this afternoon.

I am slightly running out of ideas for the rest of the week, but have one free musuem up my sleeve still to go! Who knows, I may even break the curse of the bookshelf or find some miraculous toddler-absorbing activity at home...