One word? When seven would do…

I’m considering today a success!

There have certainly been elements of it which could have been dreadful but I’m going to be all about the spin and view them as learning opportunities and take credit and pleasure for the good bits of the day too.

My tooth is now well and truly better – as I type I am washing down my last antibiotic with a swig of wine but my throat is very sore. I am therefore considering myself living proof of that curled edged poster in every doctors surgery which tells us antibiotics don’t work on coughs and colds 😉

My Dad called round this morning which was nice, we’ve not seen him since we’ve been back from Helmsley. He only stayed an hour or so but it was lovely. 🙂

Davies has had a succession of late nights and early mornings and it all finally caught up with him today. He spent three solid hours this morning playing X box – a Were Rabbit game, he normally plays the Project Zoo game (both W&G of course) but today he started to crack this game too. Amazed at how much he’s picked these things up really – and when he finally put it down he just slumped. So he was moping about the place being all wet while Tarly and I had a massive series of run-ins. It was a mammoth effort to persuade her to get dressed, to put shoes on, we compromised on coat wearing and I brought one ‘in case’ but then she flatly refused to get in her car seat. It’s not walkable to Home Ed group (infact it’s a 20 minute drive!), I cannot allow her to be in the car not in a car seat (which is what she actually wanted, to sit next to me in the front passenger seat), we don’t have the money to buy her a new car seat at the moment – and actually weight / height / age wise she is fine in her current one a while longer anyway, she is inbetween the crossover and if she didn’t hate her car seat so much because it’s a ‘baby seat’ according to her then I would happily leave her in her five point much longer. So I had Davies in the car, not really up to going to group but we’ve not been for three weeks and I wanted to go and thought it would do us all good to get out and mix and have some time with other people. Scarlett and I spent nearly 20 minutes with visits from two of the neighbours 🙄 😳 before I finally got her in her seat. I tried reasoning, asking, firmness, alternative option of her staying at home and me getting my Dad back to look after her. I so don’t want to physically force her into a car seat and then strap her into it, aside from anything else she is now too big and strong for me to do it much longer and even if I did manage it I risk hurting her. Eventually I got sterner and with only slight resistance I got her into it and off we went. She was asleep within five minutes of leaving the house. Much though it was an unpleasant and tiring episode I was pleased with not losing my own temper and remaining calm whilst not actually giving into her – couldn’t manage that sort of thing every day though so I hope car seat refusal is not about to become a new issue. I think that would quickly fall into zero tolerance area if it does…

We arrived at MM about half an hour late by which time she was fully restored by her nap and in good general humour but Davies had utterly slumped. He sat on my lap for a while but I left him to go and do some painting with Tarly. She did her usual trick of holding the paint brush with perfect precision, appearing thoughtful and considering of what she is planning to paint, making various confident brushstrokes on the page and creating something recognisable and good before remembering she is 3 and smearing the whole thing with as much brown paint as possible, finishing off with lots of water 🙄 She then disappeared to play with the other children while I made a cup of tea and watched some marble experiments, childless for a brief time. Then I went to seek out the children and found Davies being all aimless and self excluding so I brought him back in again and we sat and did drawing together and made our poster. He sat quite happily chatting to various children and adults who passed by and commented on his poster and explaining it to people while Scarlett came back in and made another brown, very painty creation. I did a bit of clearing up, managed to avert a meltdown at removing the brown paint and brushes from Tarly (I was so expecting one it was quite a shock to have them handed over happily!) and then we headed off slightly early. One of the other mothers who’s son Tarly had been playing with told me she was ‘so beautiful and wild, like a wood nymph or fairy or something’ which pleased me. 🙂

Once home I bit the bullet and made two phonecalls both of which the prospect of have been keeping me awake at night. Good results on both 🙂 One being finances related and the other being to request that I work a different day to start work next month instead of Tarly’s fourth birthday. Several people have suggested that I just tell her that her birthday is the day before or something which I know full well would work just fine, but *I* would know and as I blogged last week it is probably more my issues surrounding me starting work and leaving them than theirs so I don’t think doing it for the first time on my baby’s birthday will do me any favours really. My new boss was fine about it, totally understood and said that of course if it wasn’t my first day then I’d have swapped shifts accordingly so it was no problem. I offered to work any other morning that week instead if it helped and she agreed we’d sort something out nearer the time as soon as my CRB check came back clear. Next I need to do a big spreadsheet detailing childcare plans for the next couple of months and start coordinating that properly – this denial is no good! 🙂

I then had a phonecall from the Badger leader asking if Davies was coming to Badgers tonight. Then asking if I would be sitting in the car – as usual – tonight and then when I agreed I would be asking if there was any chance I would come and sit in the hall instead as she was going to have to cancel otherwise as the child:adult ratio was not enough to hold Badgers. Which was a bit of a bugger really as I was debating not taking Davies tonight anyway as he was so wiped out and actually I value that hour a week sitting in the dark in my car reading my book by the internal light and hoping it won’t drain the battery very much. It is the only hour a week when I don’t feel there is anything else I could be doing instead. It is the only hour a week I know nobody expects anything of me and I don’t have to keep half an ear open incase someone is calling ‘Nic’ or ‘Mummy’. I value that hour of freedom quite highly!

As is happened it was fine – I sat in the corner and watched them play games, enjoyed seeing how very different Davies is within that group to how he is within the Muddlepuddle group, the Jack, Maisie, Richard and Rebecca group and how different he is without Scarlett at his side actually. Lisa, the Badger leader adores him and has told me before he is her favourite and I could see why today – he is such a little old man, full of logic, literal arguments and comments, super helpful and frankly such a credit to his mother 😉 Bless him I was very proud to be ‘Davies’ Mummy’ tonight. 🙂 They wouldn’t believe it was the same child who painted Chris and Alison’s house with charcoal or engaged six children in tomato fights at Merry’s – he is so the child I thought he’d be when he was two 😉 🙂

A really nice day, lovely to have both my children in all their differences talked about to me by others highlighting the very things which I so celebrate about them individually. Hurrah for good results on my phonecalls and woo hoo for having a day at home tomorrow with nothing planned other than finally sorting out the HomeSchool Shoe box swap to America I have been putting off for weeks – which should actually be quite fun if the three of us work together on putting something interesting into it.

More days like this one please – I am reminded again why I want the life I have :-).