Monday morning had lots of disturbed sleep, which resulted in a very grumpy, slow-to-get-started mummy. We didn’t get out of the house to go to HIP til close to midday, and since the kids hadn’t had lunch and I keep forgetting to bring nibbles to the meet, I stopped at the IGA just after the bridge and got hummus, crackers, celery and olives. We had a nice time at HIP, including meeting another h’sing mama from one of the boards, and after we all finally headed off, I took the squids into Hoonville to do the supermarket shopping. We got home around 3:30ish, and Mr Bat successfully motivated K to clean their fruit detritus from the car after I failed miserably. Need to take more deep breaths and remember that obedience training is for dogs.
We generally pootled, Mr Bat read stories. I brought in all the clean laundry off the line, and Mr Bat and K sorted them. After dinner, K did some of the washing up, and Mr Bat made a caramel apple pudding of incredible nomminess. Because the kids were waiting for the pudding, they got to bed really late, but then the bonus was that they actually went to sleep quickly. K had two long chapters of Farmer Boy, and we made The PlanTM for tomorrow.
Oh, and I’ve noticed that H is just starting to become aware of environmental print, and recognising letters. I forgot to mention the other day that he was playing with sticks in front of the fire, and made an arrangement of one or two crossed twigs then proudly exclaimed “That’s a A!”
Tuesday
H and I woke up around 7am and Mr Bat had already gone, for his first day at his new job. Poor Beloved. And poor me, since now I have them, unrelieved, til 6:30-7pm for the first time since the end of March! K got up around 8:30. The PlanTM was mentioned, but the fact that we needed to do some tidying (suggested as the first thing on The PlanTM by K last night, without prompting) before we could start the stuff that they wanted to do wasn’t thrilling anyone. Sigh. But the payoff of ignoring them instead of bickering over it was that they ended up playing happily together in the living room while I finished my to do list.
I decided to start off with a big burst of energy directed at the housekeeping, so K and I made all the beds and put away the laundry in the kids’ bedroom (she helped me sort it while I put it away), and I put two loads of washing through the machine. Considering that the load I left out overnight was still frosty at 10:30am, that meant it was back to the tumbledrier and clothes airers. K got into the dress-ups, so Queen Katy and I picked up and vacced in the kids’ room. The we did a quick pick up in front of the fire, and K vacuumed it so that she and H could lay out the car mats and play cars, and using the blocks and Duplo to build a city. That collaboration didn’t last long, but then they ended up in their bedroom playing Duplo, before K heard me complaining that I don’t like washing up, and came out and told me SHE did, so she was taking it over. I ain’t arguing.
After lunch, K ended up in her room watching Bolt on her computer. It was finally sunny, so I had hoped to entice them outside, but although I got as far as putting H’s shoes on, they stayed inside. After a bit more pottering and housework, I got on with my aim to inventory the craft cupboard, so the kids sat at the table and did collage. After I’d done my inventory I showed K how to make paper snowflakes, so she made a bunch of them out of purple tissue paper and mounted them on construction paper. She really got into the snowflakes, but H got bored sooner and helped me make choc chip muffins instead. Then I made apple muffins, and while they were cooking I read books to both of them.
K was still intermittently crafting til I tidied everything away, then I washed up and got dinner on. H was getting tired, after waking up so early, and ratty. K amused herself in her room but H hung out in the dining room and annoyed me. Mr Bat got home later than I was expecting, so the kids and I had dinner together, and then I read more books til he got home. I read K her chapters of Farmer Boy while Mr Bat was having dinner, and then he attempted to put them to bed – an attempt which ended with both of them still wandering around the living room, so we ignored them to sleep instead.