Nothing beats the joy of spending a weekend learning How to Train Your Dragon with little Toothless

Columnist Hayley Kay entertains us with the life of Toothless, the stuffed dragon
Freddie snuggles with ToothlessFreddie snuggles with Toothless
Freddie snuggles with Toothless

So this weekend was pretty stressful, not that it should have been, in fact as I left the office on Friday I was feeling pretty relaxed and enjoyed the drive to collect my little boy from pre-school.

As usual I spotted him through the glass in the door, his glasses smeared with goodness knows what and his little jumper covered in whatever they’d dished up for lunch.

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I watched him for a minute or two, busily playing with his friends and shrieking with laughter, totally absorbed in their game.

As I entered the room, he spotted me and shouted ‘Mummy!’ racing over with his little gang of pals.

I promise you, it is truly is one of nicest experiences having your child rush over for a big hug and a kiss, genuinely delighted to see you.

He went back to his playing while I did the handover chat with his keyworker.

She told me he’d had a

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really great week and he’d been rewarded for his efforts. She went on to explain that staff had seen Freddie being kind to his classmates on several occasions this week.

One time she’d witnessed him notice that there wouldn’t be enough chairs for everyone to sit together for an activity, so gave up his chair and went in search of more chairs.

I thought my heart would burst with pride when she told me.

There’s lots of attributes I’d like my son to have, but being kind is pretty much top of the list.

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Anyway, as we were leaving nursery, his keyworker handed over a black dragon, when I enquired what it was for, she told me it was Freddie’s reward to take him home for the weekend.

Toothless is the star of the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon and he leads a charmed life, spending the weekend at various pre-schoolers’ homes. He came with his own overnight bag, containing his toothbrush, storybook and DVD of his film as well as a letter explaining how Toothless likes to spend his weekends.

So instead of spending the weekend relaxing, we spent our time entertaining a blooming dragon.

Freddie loved it, obviously. He got to tell both sets of grandparents and anyone who’d listen that Toothless was staying with us, because he’d been a good boy.

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So how do you entertain a three-year-old and a dragon on a rainy, blustery March weekend? Let’s just say, the pair of them ate like kings. They managed to squeeze in a meal out on Friday night, Freddie had noodles and shared them with Toothless, on Saturday they went for afternoon tea with my sister with plenty of tea and cakes, then on Sunday we took them for lunch in Lytham, followed by a couple of hours in a soft play centre.

Freddie went to bed with a huge smile on his face that night and I, too, had a huge smile on my face when I handed Toothless back on Monday morning.