Last week I was cursing Mr Tumble as he climbed into his rocket constructed with cardboard and tin foil as my 23 month old daughter has recently developed an obsession with the moon.
This began in the garden when I pointed out the bright crescent shaped object high in the sky one evening. Cue lots of coaxing to bring her indoors as she stood pointing at the moon, trying to reach it, jumping in order to get closer.
Now Mr Tumble had taken it a step further and made little Percy believe she could go to the moon. So off she trotted into the garden and the procedure started all over again.
There was only one thing for it, we had to build our own rocket. So via Tesco’s I ordered over 50metres of foil, brought cardboard boxes out of the loft and spent Saturday afternoon building a rocket as tall as myself.
I let Percy loose with the paint as she customised her rocket as I struggled with the end as I tried to make a triangle top that would rival Mr Tumbles. The end result was shiny but not half as impressive as the one on “Something Special” I’m guessing they didn’t have toddlers knocking about when they made theirs!
Now the rocket was ready, Percy couldn’t wait to fly it to the moon and so we made a control panel, a steering wheel, poked out a circular window and threw in a cushion for comfort. I was now fully prepared for tantrums as I knew she’d soon discover her rocket wasn’t operational so I had to think fast.
I turned off all the lights and pinched my son’s laptop, while bringing my older daughter in to help. Putting button moon on the laptop, we placed it against the round window, while my iPhone showed pictures of shooting stars from the peephole on the door.
We shook the rocket a little and even lifted it off the ground all the while telling Percy she couldn’t go outside without a spacesuit. Heaven knows how much she understood but ten minutes later she received a welcome home with as she proudly believed she’d been where no toddler had been before.
