Nicky will be going back to school next week and I thought I’d write a post to record a bit more about how we have been handling lockdown and the little adventures he has been having with his fluffy toys.
He recently did have two weeks of school and then school was closed again. During this time I really dashed around trying to get things done until we were grounded again.
I’m not trying to be ungrateful. We just have to go with the rules of what has been decided. I also appreciate the time I am having with Nicky. It’s just that I also need a break. Room to breathe. And he needs a dose of normalcy and to be with kids his own age rather than mom who isn’t always the best playmate.
Nevertheless this creative little soul has been playing out some games with his fluffy toys that I thought I would share. Often when he gets into bed with me in the morning he plays a game called “Nicky Airlines.” All the fluffy toys come with as well.
“Nicky Airlines” has not been doing so well these past few months. Every time something seems to go wrong. The passengers are left behind. The co-pilot is left behind. A safety check wasn’t done. He goes on the wrong runway. With many giggles Nicky has fun being a really bad pilot.
I’m always the Control Tower lecturing him about what he forgot and it is rather funny.
Recently “Nicky Airlines” has been getting better and now the Fluffy toys are involved. Dinosaur is the co-pilot. Cat is the air hostess giving out food. Elfie and Bear are passengers. This time it is Dinosaur who is misbehaving breaking the toilet or the landing gear.
The other game Nicky likes to play with this is giving them each turns to be their own pilots. So we had “Cat Airlines” but she was very bad bashing into things so I took her pilot licence away. She was most indignant about this but she got it back after two days of incident free flying. She also taught other flufflies how to fly.
And added to this game was a rivalry. I had better not say that Cat was the best pilot or another fluffy toy would get upset. Or I could not say that Elfie was the best pilot or cat would really get upset with many “meows”!
This is what happens when you have an only child in lockdown with no friends but his fluffy toys. It’s Fluffy Rivalry instead of Sibling Rivalry. Go figure.
The other game Nicky has been very busy with is on his XBox and it is called “City Skylines.” He has played many games that normally end up in bankruptcy or some other disaster. Recently we started watching some YouTube videos about what people were doing to build a successful city and from then on he has kept building the same city.
There are many problems that keep on cropping up in this game but we try to figure out solutions and search for answers.
Every time Nicky gets better and better. In a previous city loads of fires broke out and he did not have enough money for a fire station. Poor kid. But he got it right next time and it was such a job to see the fires getting put out.
Nicky has been building this same city for quite some time now and he was hovering at a population of about 55 000. At the 60 000 mark he could unlock an airport and he was super excited about this. (We already had a harbour and he named a cruise ship “Mommy Cruise Ship” after me – so sweet!)
Then disaster struck. A Death Wave. Loads of people were dying. Poor Nicky was so upset. I promised him I would google the heck out of it and try and help. And I started doing some research. Apparently you need “mods” which I couldn’t figure out how to install on the X Box. One to make the people enter the town at different ages (so they don’t die all at once) and another for a nursing home (so that the old people are grouped together and the dead bodies don’t pile up and have bad effects on the neighbours). In the end Nicky decided to just leave things and they seemed to sort themselves out. He built more cemetries and eventually most of the skull and cross bones disappeared.
And wonder of wonders, he reached his 60 000. Nicky got his airport and he got his “Nicky Airlines.” I am so proud of my boy for not giving up and staying the course through this.
We have also taken a much needed break from Monopoly and are now playing chess. I am starting to beat him at last. He is good.
Well that’s all the news about my little boy. Myself, it’s been challenging through this time. It definitely has not been easy. But I keep going. I have the opportunity of a new job but it hasn’t started yet, and I need to see how it’s going to pan out before I get too excited. But I’m hopeful that this will be the start of some stability for me, along with Nicky spending more time at school, which will really help (even though it is on alternate days). My mom will also be helping out again which will really help us too.
How have you been handling things lately?
I hope things pan out with the new job opportunities.
HB does exactly the same thing with his soft toys. His gets a little crazy, because I have seen some teddies tied up too.
Lol that’s funny because Nicky seems to put fluffies on time out or get them into trouble but he didn’t tie them up yet!