"Play is the work of children. It's very serious stuff."

Opeie hasn't been himself since he had the sickness bug last week. He's been agitated and has been getting upset easily. Yesterday he had a little screaming fit for no apparent reason but rather than scream at me or Seth he just sat on his own and cried (very worrying). I eventually managed to calm him down but because I didn't know why it started it was really difficult.

Today I thought I'd do my best to keep him entertained all morning, no cleaning the house just me and Opeie time. One of the moms from Opeie's toddler group had mentioned a ball pit in Bridgnorth I'd not heard of so after dropping Seth at school we headed in that direction. It was still early though so first we pottered around the Bridgnorth charity shops looking for new reading material.

If you're a regular reader them you'll know that I'm always wary of going to new soft play areas because of cleanliness, most of them are filthy. I was assured that Millie meerkats was fine though and when we got there I was pleasantly surprised.

When you go to some soft play areas the soft colourful mats are more of a brown colour, ripped and shabby. I'm not being a snob I just don't want my boy crawling around on that. Millie meerkats was definitely the cleanest soft play we've been to and everything was the colour it was supposed to be.

Opeie Instantly made friends and was chatting away so I left him to do his own thing for a bit. It's not the sort of play area where little ones need supervising which is great although I'm the type of dad that always wants to join in. Opeie ran about for a while and came out looking concerned "daddy owl!" He took me by the hand and marched me into the  play area. I looked about on the walls at the meerkat illustrations expecting to come across the owl picture he had spotted. You can imagine my surprise when I passed a padded mirror and saw an actual owl staring at me...

Turns out they have a room out back with animals in that opens at different times of the day so while it was open we went in to investigate. There was lots of creepy crawlies...

...and I was quite suprised that opeie wasn't scared of the snake or bearded dragon (which he happily stroked both of) and the tarantula.

We had a good chat with Julie the lady that runs Millie meerkats and the owner of the two owls and found out about her new business venture Owls on the prowl, something I think me and the boys would definitely like to join in with sometime soon. 

The meerkats didn't want to pose for a shot but Opeie was more than happy watching them eat. Then it was back to the play area to burn off the last of his morning energy but not before riding a donkey he had been eying up since we had walked in.

We will definitely be going to Millie Meerkats again soon it's just a shame it's not nearer. The afternoon passed (meltdown free which was nice) and Opeie seems to be back to his old self again.