Nothing new to see here – cross-posted from my el-jay for ease of reference.

E took the car to work today so he could pick up two second-hand office chairs he had rescued from work, so we had a quiet day at home. B remembered the existence of her workbooks and spent the morning ploughing through them, interspersed with playing LinCity and watching episodes of Ranma 1/2 on YouTube. I spent the morning ploughing through the laundry, reading to the littlies, and reading The Folklore of Discworld. Mum picked up the girls at around 1:30, and I made a cubby house for H out of a sheet and some chairs, which he lay down in for approximately thirty seconds then ignored for the rest of the day (it was a hit with K when she came home, at least, so it wasn’t totally wasted effort!). He was slightly more interested in the basket of model animals I brought in, and even played with two together for a few moments instead of just chewing on them. From giraffe to allosaurus, they all say “grrAHHHrr!”. He also liked making the crocodile’s jaws go snap! snap!, but it palled as entertainment pretty quickly.

We ended up going back outside, and I actually did something about the abysmal state of mess in the garden, other than whinging and cringing. Now that the weather has cooled down I’m going to try to spend some time outside each day this week, with the aim of making it look slightly less reprehensible. B has taken over the front garden but has refused (very sensibly) to have anything to do with the back garden until it’s actually tidy and she can just start planting. Given how much weeding and planting she’s done out the front, and how signally little of either I have done this year, I can live with that. When E came home he did some more tidying up as well. It needs some serious mowing and whippersnippering which I can’t do while supervising the littlies (at least that’s my excuse), and will have to wait til the weekend when we’re both home.

After K returned, she and H played together very companionably for most of the afternoon. I don’t believe they actually destroyed anything in the process either, which is a nice change. My very favourite moment (and one which made me curse that we have no camera!) was when the two of them were sitting in the dining room together, looking at a Dr Seuss book each. It was so adorable to see H turning over the pages and pointing at the pictures (the characters all say “grrAHHHrr!” too) in imitation of his beloved big sister. Not to mention that he actually sat still for ten minutes without having his bottom glued to the floor. In less agreeable news, he has also figured out how to open the kitchen gate – a whole year earlier than did – and is so strong that the only way to keep him from opening it is to adjust it as tightly as possible every. single. damn. time. you go through, which is already getting old. I think I’m going to have to accept that he can get into the kitchen now, which will mean finding a way to lock the cupboard under the sink, and maybe finding a new place for the bins to live. Given that the kitchen is the size of a shoebox and the adjoining laundry is less than half that, there ain’t many other options, dangnabbit!