Kirsty's Blog: It's firework time!

Autumn has well and truly arrived and alongside the wonder of crunchy leaves under Carmels hilarious, stamping feet, we have the added bonus of an extra hour.  We’ve managed to get her to bed by 7.30pm giving us a whole evening to ourselves. 

Of course this means I see less of her on my return from work, but it also means that Pete and I actually get some time to hang out together and prepare for Carmels next day. 

We now have a pop up tent and play tunnel, which she loves, and I relish preparing it for the following morning so she can get up and find her toys having a tea party inside and numerous other delights.  But as November arrived, our relaxing evenings went up with an almighty BANG!  Yes Guy Falkes has a lot to answer for.  Forget plots to overthrow parliament, our baby can’t sleep, won’t sleep.   

I’m sure lots of parents out there are feeling it, that urge to storm down the road to the offending neighbours house with a screaming, overtired baby in tow, to stop their party immediately or call on Gordon Brown to ban fireworks all together.  Or is that just me?

I tried to enthrall Carmel by standing by the window with her to show her the cascades of colour that accompany the bangs, but that only seemed to frighten her more.  She finally went to bed at eleven.

At 3am I woke up to the smell of burning.  I jumped out of bed and ran around the house checking that everything was safe before realising it was the residue of fireworks seeping into the house, another reason to ban them, I decided. Carmel relived the whole experience over and over again at breakfast “BANG!”  She repeated, throwing her little arms around my neck.  She must think that we are in some sort of danger.  Thank goodness we’re not.

We must remember, remember that this is not over. We have Divali (The Hindu festival of light) coming to our neighbourhood very soon and then there’s the firework sales at the local shops after November 5th and then Christmas and New Years eve to celebrate with as many loud bangs as possible. 

It’s like teething, just as you get one out the way, you remember there’s 20-something more to go!   But I must look on the bright side, by the time Carmel has all her teeth she’ll love the fireworks and we’ll be able to join the neighbours at the party.  I wonder if I’ll remember, remember to keep the noise down!