One word? When seven would do…

Can’t believe it’s Friday again already – where do the weeks go?

A mad night last night after they were both asleep early. I was about to go up to bed at 11ish when I realised I had not written Scarlett’s name on her Tumble Tots T shirt which arrived last week. So I got out the fabric pens and did that and then Davies woke up crying (really, snotty sore nose 🙁 ) I told him if he was still awake in a little while he could come into our bed and he ended up doing so.

Scarlett woke a few times and as Davies was curled around me Ady had to go to her and so he ended up bringing her into our bed too – which left no room for him! As my back was starting to ache I left them all to it and went to sleep in Davies’ bed. I was woken at 8.25am by Scarlett pulling back the covers and saying ‘Found You Mummy’ as though we were in the middle of some game of hide and seek! (I found out from Davies shortly afterwards that we sort of were. Ady had gone off to work leaving everyone still asleep and in Davies’ own words: ‘Scarlett and I woke up at the same time in your bed and there was no one else there. We looked everywhere for you and thought that we didn’t have a Mummy and Daddy to look after us anymore, but then we went in the lounge and Dora was on so we watched that instead’. Great! So they believed themselves to be orphaned but a spot of joining in with ‘Swiper no swiping’ was enough to soothe and distract them 🙂 )

Kids sat on the sofa looking at books together – they have this new thing where Tarly brings books to Davies, he looks at the pictures and makes up a story about them and she thinks he is reading to her – excellent as it frees me up to do other stuff, is very creative for Davies and I’m sure is helping with pre-reading skills and he likes an appreciative audience like Tarly, and she gets to practise sitting still and listening win, win, win! I got a text about Best Friends Day urging me to pass it on, so I did and probably freaked Merry out by sending it to her without realising she didn’t have my number so it would be anonymous! Sorted that out by identifying myself and reasuring her I was not an anorak wearing weirdo, but me, Nic 🙂

Then out to TT1 – the first of the later time sessions for the older ones. Funnily enough as I was sitting there last week trying to work out exactly who of the children would be old enough to be in the group and wondering whether there would be additional new people to make up the numbers. There was not! There was Davies, Scarlett and two other children, both boys, both about Tarly’s age or slightly older. It really worked well though as there are two group leaders so we had 5 adults and 4 children which was way better for some of the dancing about stuff. We all commented on feeling happier about not having to stop the kids being boisterous and worrying about the smaller babies. We did singing and action songs and they started to do some rhythm and beat stuff which was much more what I anticipated it being about when we signed up, then some dancing about and this time when they got the instruments out and Davies did his usual trick of dressing up like Bert being a one man band in Mary Poppins and marching around the room with the drum we all got up and spent about 15 minutes going round the room in a procession bashing drums, clashing cymbals and shaking tambourines – all very enjoyable 🙂 Then they got the parachute out and we played with that for a bit which the kids all loved, then the bubble machine and then that was it. Nessie – the leader came over to ask me about my two starting nursery / playschool so I bit the bullet and explained about HE and asked whether she would want Davies to stop coming when he reaches 5 in September. I don’t think she grasped the idea of HE at all but she has no problem with us carrying on coming for aslong as he is enjoying it so that is all good 🙂 Because there was only 3 families I also spoke to the other 2 mums quite a bit today which was also nice for me as I usually just lurk and don’t do much more than smile and nod at them. It’s strange really because I’m not shy at all and I am quite happy talking to new people but I’m always cautious of going over and finding we have nothing in common other than similar aged children and then struggling from there on in. I know that I am the only mother there with more than one child and as even Tarly is one of the oldest even kids in common won’t be much of a bond if their’s are all still at toddler age. TBH I can hardly remember what it’s like doing all the baby-baby stuff, my two are just getting to what I think is the interesting age 🙂

We don’t have time to come home inbetween so today we
went to the Co-op which is nearby and bought a few bits there which we drove to TT2 and ate in the car.

Tarly had TT2 first and once again did really well again, she is so agile. She does not like the sitting down in the middle of each activity and listening to what has to be done much and I have to restrain her for that bit and there is no way she is hanging around at the end to get a sticker (which she always views with complete distain, if you are wanting to buy my child you need to be offering a bit more than a self adhesive circle of paper with a tumbletot on it 🙂 ) . Davies sat outside playing with his leap pad.

Then Davies went in while Tarly and I sat and read The Sneetches. Another mother asked me where I got her ‘lovely Dora outfit’ from so I was able to hand over one of Jules’ business cards and recommend the summer Dora outfits as lovely too 🙂 I think she would have talked a bit more but Scarlett was having a bit of a moment so I carried on reading to her. She then ate a banana and had a fit when I peeled it down a bit more for her to eat the last bit. She yelled at me and then chucked the banana across the room 🙁 Bearing in mind I was sitting in a large room with parents of all the 4yolds doing their TT session witnessing all this I dealt with it in a very SuperNanny sort of way. I remained completely calm and just kept insisting over and over again that she had to pick the banana up. I offered to do it with her but she was having none of it. She ran around screaming, she hid behind some chairs, she did the classic ‘I don’t like you’ routine but I stuck with it and by the time Davies came back out she had recovered enough to pick it up and give it to him so he could put it in the bin. I got at least two ‘urgh, I get that with my child’ comments and sympathetic grins from every parent in the room! I try really hard to avoid public tantrums and if it had happened at home she would probably have been shouted at and sent to her room but I was proud of myself for staying calm with her.

Davies is now playing with his lego and Scarlett is playing with a potty filled with water (nice!). They are both really tired after a crap night, having colds and doing both classes today but I quite like having a packed Friday to end the week and start the weekend. Quiet weekend planned – Ady is working on Monday 🙁 so tomorrow we are seeing my parents and on Sunday we are going here with Chris and Julie. So expect some photos 🙂