I have discovered that while it is nice to spend some time with the family, two weeks with a toddler is almost more work than work is. A full day at home with Ingrid has us all climbing the walls by the evening. (Perhaps it is just a phase… but I suspect it’ll turn out to be a long one.) She needs new places and ideally other children around her.

So during our two-week Christmas vacation we made sure to get out every day and give Ingrid some place to burn all her restless energy. We cycled to big parks and playgrounds (Victoria Park and Southwark Park). We took the tube to Bramley’s Big Adventure and to Zoomaround and to Discover Story Centre. We made several visits to the two child-friendly museums near us, the Museum of Childhood and the Museum in Docklands. We went to the local children’s library. To put it briefly, we kept Ingrid busy.

Then came the stomach bug. Bah. And then came the two days after the worst symptoms had passed but we didn’t dare take her to nursery, or to any place where she’d get too close to other children. Argh! Two days of enforced idleness at home plus the “hangover” from a stomach bug was an awful combination. On Tuesday, out of desperate boredom, I actually went shopping with Ingrid, and I hate shopping.

I think we were all happy to go back to our day jobs.