One word? When seven would do…

Well, it got better, then worse, then better again. Currently it’s fair to middling 🙂

TT was okay in the end. Scarlett fell asleep on my lap and I put her down on the floor and she turned over and went back to sleep which seemed to refresh her a little. Davies was not really up for going but I think he realised he was testing my absolute limits today so he did it. Scarlett and I stayed for the songs then left the room and he did really well – so the right decision 🙂

Scarlett and I took some Monsters Inc cards with us – nine different pictures with four of each design with the characters on them – we played a matching game, a sort of snap game, then tried to make a house of cards with them. For some reason the time went really quickly there today and just as she was starting to pine for Davies so we went in to watch for a bit he was collecting his ‘well done’ sticker so that was that! Obviously won’t be there next week and the week after is half term so we’ll have to see how the two week break effects him, but he again said he was glad he had been and he enjoyed it.

Round to Dad’s where he clearly felt very sorry for me as Scarlett was sitting on my lap the whole time demanding ‘cuddle Mummy’ and Davies was either baiting her or demanding a cuddle too. He has had a bit of a rough deal this week as she has been whiny and horrid but cuddly whereas he has been trying to get attention by being naughty – easy to know why, not so easy to deal with appropriately – glad of the change of scenery and Ady on the scene next week, I think we all need a bit of a break from each other!

The kids were both asleep really quickly enabling Ady to clear the car out of excess seats and other tat, me to pack up many, many bags, Ady to hoover and tidy up while I finished a report for his work for him, both of us to bath and have alcohol before a chinese takeaway arrived! Shortly followed by Scarlett getting up, shortly followed by Davies 🙂

Scarlett is currently back in her bed – we were talking about bunk beds and so she took me into her room to show me her bed and stayed there – but she is still chattering away so the chances of her staying there are slim! Davies is sat beside me on the sofa watching Who wants to be a millionaire with rapt fascination on Challenge TV 🙂

There is a huge pile of stuff sat waiting to be loaded in to the car in the morning, dressing gowns either tumble drying or draped over radiators and surprisingly little else to do 🙂 Clearly no one will be getting an early night tonight so I hope our anticipated departure time will still be achieveable!

This will probably be it for me ’til we get back, so for those going to Melrose I’ve already met – I’m looking forward to seeing you again, to those I have not – I can’t wait to meet you and to those not going at all – Missing you already 🙂

This morning is NOT going well. 🙁

Davies has been shouted at so many times I am fully expecting Social Services to be calling any moment alerted by the neighbours that his life is in danger. Scarlett is following close behind and I will offer to throw her in for free if they do come a-knocking. Which will solve the problem of packing for tomorrow, dealing with them both on the car journey and the newly realised (and no, I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before either) worry about bunk beds.

I had this vague and fanciful notion that this morning would be an oasis of pre-going away calm. I have been diligently ticking off stuff like ‘cancel milk’ and ‘cancel papers’ off my to do list all week, I have filled the car up with petrol and bought various toiletries bits we will need. All that was left to do today was meander round the house collecting together anything which I want to bring for the bring and buy, gather together any resources I was going to bring, get Scarlett’s clothes out of her bedroom so that I can pack when she has gone to sleep tonight without disturbing her, get the holdalls out of the loft space, collect together various things which won’t go on the holdalls but need to go in the car such as nappies, wipes, loo rolls and so on and find a suitable home for them until later tonight when Ady loads the car, print off route finders for getting to Karen’s tomorrow via Jax’s, then onto Melrose from Karen’s and back again via the Travelodge we are staying in on Friday night next week. Oh and do some baking too.

Not sure where I thought the children were going to be during all this. Not sure that I can quite believe myself that I have been screaming at them all morning to sit on the sofa, watch TV and not move (isn’t that what ‘normal’ parents are screaming at their children not to do?) but what they have been doing is slowly cocking up everything I do in a stealth manner directly behind me. They have been co-ordinated in their destruction efforts moving quickly, silently and in perfect harmony with each other. They have employed distraction tactics, disarmourment in the forms of asking for cuddles and telling me they love me, sheer cunning in their timing of nappy filling and arse wiping requests oh and this blog was just interrupted while I cleared up the cheese spread dip which was being smeared into the carpet. Scarlett has also surpassed herself by begging to sit on my lap for a cuddle and pressing the reset button on my pc!

Anyway, I now finally have the kids reference books in order which will be great for one day but was probably not the best use of my time this morning, a small pile of books ready to bring to add to the several bin liners full sat in the garage already, all of Scarlett’s clothes piled up on my bed ready to pack later, a list of stuff I really must not forget written on the white board, routeplanners and directions from Karen and Jax printed out along with the Travelodge booking details and two very docile children after an enhanced shouting session. The sum total of the baking is cooling in the kitchen, but as it is just a dozen jammy rock cakes I don’t forsee them lasting the journey or even the day here! I am tumble drying the last load of washing and our bathrobes are swinging merrily on the line ready to come in and finish off either in the dryer or on the radiators. Frankly we are as ready as we will ever be!

Ady is at a big decide where the job goes from here type meeting which may or may not buoy up my mood later and Davies is still baulking at going to Tumble Tots this afternoon despite his T shirt and other bits arriving in the post this morning. Can’t decide whether I will get angry with him, shout and scream or simply cry with him if he starts when we get there – will report back on that one later!

With some good bits and some bad ones really;

Bad bits –
Scarlett is very gunky eyed – I have put more cream in them and they don’t really appear to be bothering her too much but I hope they improve tomorrow as I will feel awful bringing her all weepy and contagious 🙁
She is also fairly moany and whiny – swaying between being quite happy to play with Davies and being mortally offended if I so much as breath when she is sitting on my lap clinging to me 🙁
Davies and I had a bit of a falling out (although I would imagine he has long since forgotten it) when Ady got home as he got all cheeky and answered me back a couple of times. I don’t want a stepford child and I welcome him questioning me and challenging me to a degree but I will not accept a four year old saying ‘no’ or ‘well I’ll do it anyway’ to me. As I said to Ady I over-reacted within context of what he did but I see so many children who clearly have no respect for their parents and routinely defy them for the hell of it that I never want to be going down that road. I hope that by retaining some level of being the boss we will be saved from it at least for a while.
Not sure whether I slept funny (or as Ady said slept at all – hah!) or if I have pulled something with all the incessant coughing but my back is really playing up – it’s fine if I assume the walking position of a hunchback but otherwise it is very stiff.

Good stuff –
Davies is doing really well with his 100 easy lessons. We seem to have fallen into a pattern of doing it in bed before his story and although more often than not I end up growling at him to pay attention and get his hands away from his mouth (something he does a lot which really bugs me) he is really joyous at the fact he is able to read a few words and that he is actually finding it a fairly easy and managable task 🙂 I imagine it will fall by the wayside a bit next week but at last I really do feel we are on the way to learning to read – hurrah!!
Saw Julie today – we normally have a twice a week get together but I hadn’t seen her since last Friday so we had a good old catch up which was nice. Have promised to ring her next week to let her know how we are getting on 🙂

This morning was spent tackling the pile of monthly cheques to credit cards and so on, dealing with the post and holiday stuff like cancelling the papers and the milk, then just as we were loading into the car my Dad arrived and seemed quite upset to find out we were on out way out. I arranged for him to come back this afternoon.

Then off to soft play where the kid played pretty well – Davies loves it there now we go regularly and normally Scarlett does too, but she was clearly not herself and really wanted me to go round with her which was not an option as far as I was concerned 🙂 She also needs watching more than Davies as she is not above simply shoving smaller children out of her way – she is not malicious about it, or intentionally spiteful, just used to playing with older children and perhaps a bit too heavy handed. She has a determination that other kids seem to defer to and respect too which means even slightly older or bigger kids might back down, which TBH is probably not what she needs 😉 Maybe some of those other two year old fellow little madams will bring her down a bit next week! Anyway she decided she was hungry after about an hour so we had lunch there and had planned to go back in for a bit but I just thought Scarlett had had enough so we came home and Dad came back over.

I feel horribly unprepared for going away on Saturday – but in the way that you can only start preparing for the night before you go if that makes sense. Tomorrow morning I am going to start getting stuff ready to load the car up with, maybe get some baking done if time and childrens’ frame of mind allows, then Tumble Tots (which incidentally Davies has decided he doesn’t want to go to anymore grrr!) , then round to Dad’s for a bit then home to start loading the car up (after Ady has taken two seats out of it, hoovered and otherwise excavated it!) ready to go on Saturday.

I am also admirable! Email below received from insult flinging grandmother….

It was so great to see you on Monday = the children are just lovely, I only wish I could see them more often, You really would be so welcome any time you would like to visit , even if you think you would only stay for a short time. However I do want to say how much I hope you all enjoy your trip to Scotland, you really do live an interesting life = = here = there = and = everywhere, I admire you immensley = a bit envious too!!!!! Do have a wonderful time and make many new friends, as you say, it is so good for the children.
I will look forward to hearing about it next time I see you all = till then, my love as always to you all ==========Granny ==

🙂 🙂 🙂 Get me, I’m admirable!

Many a box ticked today I can tell you. First thing I had a filling at the dentist. Now I don’t actually mind the dentist, but I am not keen on feeling unprepared or late, so leaving the house with one child screaming hysterically about me going while the other looked scared at the noise level and uproar and my Dad simply looking scared, sitting at the top of my own road for over 15 of my alloted 20 minutes to get to the dentist (should have been half an hour but smaller child running off with my shoes then attaching herself limpet style to me and wiping snot down my top took ten of my minutes too) and arriving 15 minutes late, dishevelled, concerned at how my father and children were faring back at the house and with now dried crusty snot smeared all over my top I felt less than prepared!

Luckily when you go to a dentist where you handed over in excess of a hundred quid last week and are about to hand over a further £75 for ten minutes in the chair for a filling you are treated like royalty no matter how late or scruffily dressed you are! The filling went fine and I returned home to find peace and tranquility with two happy children and a Grandad who had even managed to have a coffee!

Dad then stayed for most of the morning until he left at about 11.30 and we went off to the Wizard store (factory outlet /£ shop type unit on local industrial estate) as I was bringing playdough to group but realised I only have enough cutters and tools for my own two children. We picked up three packs of tools for £1 each (and as they came with playdough that saved me making any too!) and a few other bits and pieces, then home to collect some lunch for the kids to eat in the car on the way to group.

We arrived half an hour early but as Tarly had fallen asleep in the car and me and Davies were happily singing along to the cd we stayed in the car until 1pm. Jenny arrived shortly after we got out of the car and so did the lady to let us in. After a brief panic about whether anyone was actually going to come this week people started to arrive, including two new families and four of our regulars so we had 8 families with a total of 18 children with a good age mix. Jenny had brought a science kit and connect 4, I’d brought the playdough and some books, Ellen brought and did a session on origami (which I never got to sit in on but looked fab!), Nikki brought stacks of stuff including tissue paper flower making and tins of yummy homemade cakes and doughnuts and we ended up with six different tables set up with activities which was all fab. We have also decided to hire the hall fortnightly instead of weekly with an alternate optional activity arranged for every other week – either soft play, nature walk, (hopefully) discounted trip to local places of interest such as zoos, roman villas etc which I think will take the pressure off everyone to do something every week and me and Jenny fretting about ending up footing the cost of hall hire too! So feeling very positive about all that 🙂

We did however have one small incident at group involving a sink, a tap, a plug and lots and lots and lots of water on the bathroom floor, the hallway floor and spreading! Cue half the parents and several carefully selected children on mopping duty for about an hour! Despite some of us panicking (myself included!) about calling the fire brigade to pump it out, whether the floor would be damaged, contacting the hall lady to see what their insurance was like and so on it was a finite volume of water once we’d turned the tap off and taken the plug out of the sink and luckily they seemed well equipt with towels and mops 🙂 Scarlett refused to be parted from me so she came and paddled for a bit shoes and socks off to prevent them spoiling, Davies was actually pretty handy with a mop, as were some of the older boys and by the time we left it looked like we had simply been very diligent with our cleaning up and left the floor slightly damp after washing it 🙂

There was talk about us having to change our name from WAG to get any other local places to rent space to us and us needing to perhaps enter some sort of Home Ed group relocation programme where identities were changed to protect the innocent but I think the kids involved thought it was all quite good fun and as a bonding experience I think it was quite a good (if unorthodox) ice breaking activity 😉

Kids managed a long overdue (as in they have not had one since about Friday!) bath tonight to wash snot and eye gunk out of Tarly’s hair and church hall water from her feet and playdough from under Davies’ nails and smeared snot from his hair, so they at least look less like refugees from a flooded HE group now 🙂 They have both been better in themselves today – although Scarlett appears to be a day behind Davies in her recovery but at least I feel confident that we will all be better by the weekend. Karen has emailed me to say snow is expected which as long as it does not effect our travelling is fine by us 🙂

Tomorrow we are seeing Julie and the twins at the soft play place and for lunch, then I think Ady is working from home tomorrow afternoon. Friday is Tumble Tots and then Saturday we are off 🙂 I’d like to do a bit of baking to bring with me if we get a chance on Friday morning so I might look at the kids’ cookery books with them tomorrow to see what we can make. I have not been joining in much but I have been avidly reading the camps yahoo list and am really starting to get excited about next week now, I can’t wait to meet the friends I have met over the last year and get to know the few I have already met properly, it will be nice to have some time off as a family as well so aside from the Dynamic Earth trip we will probably not go to much else and either spend time with others at the hostel chatting or perhaps go out just the four of us a bit too.

Anyway, a poor start to what ended up as a good day 🙂

Off now for a quick bath before Desperate Housewives – and I might have to watch next weeks episode on E4 afterwards too so I don’t miss out if I don’t watch it next week while we’re away.

It was a close thing as to whether I would fit under the bed and although I did the kids had to help me to get out 🙂 Took them ages to find me though! Then we all hid under there and Ady had to try and find us!

Apparently they were on their way to a hotel and were being Mr and Mrs Pan (as in Peter). The buggy Scarlett is in belongs to her dolly 🙂

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I really like B&W shots. These are both nice and natural. The one of Scarlett was taken while she was sitting in the baby bath I bought her last week for her dolly!

Another truly crap night last night. I put Scarlett back into her bed after calpol (well pretend own -brand Calpol which was all sticky round the bottle cos I am that bad a mother for some reason we had no real calpol in the house!) and she lay there all dazed so I decided to go to bed anyway – I had heard Davies call out about 15 minutes earlier but assumed he had gone back to sleep – wrong! Ady was sitting on the floor with him but as soon as he saw me he only wanted me. I sent Ady back to bed (he’d been there since 9.30pm bless him) and sat on the floor to do some knitting. After a further half an hour it became plain he was not going to let me leave the room so we both went and got into our bed with Ady – Davies went straight to sleep. It was about 1am. The next thing I knew Scarlett was coming into bed too but crying which woke Davies up and Ady went downstairs – I sent them both with him and went back to sleep for an hour. Feel tired and crap 🙁

Kids have alternated between sort of okay and really whiny – they won’t play nicely together and both want the same things at the same time which is very annoying to listen to 🙁

We had to get a few bits today including a birthday card for a friends’ son which I then had to put through their letterbox so we went to Littlehampton. I got a couple of vests to wear under some of my jumpers and a pair of very cool jeans for Davies, paid in some Christmas and birthday money that has been waiting to go in their accounts for ages (D’s birthday was September!!), got a card for the little boy and also bought some geomags in Woolies. I have been quite reserved in buying of stuff like that really (given the age guide is 6-99 I guess not that restrained though 🙂 ) but they are doing buy one get one half price so I got a pack of rods and balls and a pack of panels both at £14.99 each normally. Already of course decided we need loads more – all you Geomaggers out there where is the best place to get ’em? Both kids have played with them loads and although they can’t be persuaded to construct any real shapes with them they are enjoying the magnetic-ness of them and taking them round the house testing what else they ‘stick’ to as well – so all quite educational! They have also had out the cusinere rodss this morning again – not really doing anything other than building shapes and towers but good to see them being used and discovered.

I had wanted to do a trawl of the charity shops in Littlehampton – there are about 10 and they are always filled with book bargains, and I also wanted to get some more playdough tools as I am bringing playdough to group tomorrow and have realised we only have one small rolling pin and a couple of dinosaur moulds! But Davies was fading fast and wanted a wee, Scarlett was awake and grizzling and I was feeling pretty wiped out too so we have up and have come home. They have both had some real calpol which seems to have perked them up a bit, I am ignoring the siren song of the DayNurse cos it is evil! And after yesterday’s tantrumming about group we have had several emails today from people who are coming and offering to do stuff so more foot stamping if it gets results!

Off to sit on the sofa and moan quietly to myself…