H got up with me at sparrow’s fart (well, actually it was about 7:30-8am, poor me *sniggers*). I was very grumpy with him because I had tried to get him to stay asleep for the preceding hour but every time I tried to move away from him he would demand booby. Aargh. I’m practicing my new mantra – “I don’t have to be angry every time I feel anger” – but it was too early in the morning for sustained success. We lit the fire and snuggled together in front of it for a while, then I brought in some more wood, made breakfast and coffee, and put Playschool on for him so he would leave me in peace to drink it… He was also playing with teddies and Duplo while watching. K slept in until after 9am, then she and H sat right in front of the fire building “a Huonville” out of blocks, lol. They helped by suggesting meals for the menu plan I was writing.

After a while, they joined me at the table, and K decided she wanted to cut the pictures out of an old travel guide to West Africa which I picked up at the tip shop on the weekend for this purpose. So I dismantled the spine for her (curse Lonely Planet and their extremely sturdy bookbinding!) and she cut out various pictures she liked and pasted them into a scrapbook. H wanted to do some drawing, which translated in practice to demanding that I draw him pictures of different animals. I checked our loans, renewed some, requested some more holds and generally tidied up our wishlist to reflect ongoing themes and discard some which the kids are no longer particularly interested in.

I made sure to ballast the two of them with as much almondy porridge as I could get down them, having finally learnt my lesson about shopping with melting-down kids! Since Playschool hadn’t lasted long (H kept coming out of the room and doing other stuff so it got turned off at some point and nobody noticed), I didn’t mind putting Labyrinth on for them so that I could finish my plan and lists, and find and wrap up beads for a friend’s blessingway, which have to be posted today to get there by the weekend. H still spends most of his DVD time coming in and out and occupying himself with other things. This morning, as well as the continual Duplo pottering, he asked me to write him a list of yummy things: strawberries, mandarins, pears, bananas, apples and sweet chilli sauce, LOL. K is watching, tho, so it will be screen-free time this afternoon, I think! ‘Bout time we had some of that… Plan and list are now finished, so I’m off to have a shower and get myself and H ready to go (K already is).