Party at the T

I live in a small community - we have a block of 4 old huge flats in the inner city of my city, and friends live in the other three. About 16 years ago the first one of us, Dr M moved in, and he has been installing friends ever since. I moved in the first time about 13 years ago, then out, then I took one of the ground floor flats over 10 years ago, and the Wookie moved in with me not long after. A few years later a girlfriend of mine moved in with Dr M as a flatmate, and then the flat above me became available and she took that - and another friend of mine, B moved in as her flat mate. B still lives there today. A few years ago the final flat was advertised and K and her daughter Rio moved in and that is our household. We don't live totally communally, although K and I are getting there, but we do live a more communal lifestyle than most. Enough so that every few months you need to go through Dr M's kitchen to reclaim your stuff!

Anyway, once a year our city has this big running event, and it goes right past our flat. So we have a bbq breakfast and watch the fit people go by. We invite friends, but it is mostly just the household. Today was that day, and we had a blast.

Atti attempting to join the marathon

People wear costumes and run 12kms

Dance party 

We also had an arts and crafts component that turned into the kids simply slathering themselves in paint. Going to take me quite a while to get Atti totally clean!

The race both starts and ends with a motorcycle cop!

There are always some people who get pissy about the road being closed

And then there was this

It's ridiculous how happy this made me this afternoon.

Welly win

I love gumboots, wellies, whatever you like to call them. And even though I live in an inner city flat, when it rains heavily we get a lot of mud and puddles around our car port and back entrance - we call it the moat. I basically have to step into a reasonably deep puddle to get into and out of my car - so I like wellies for the wet days.

And wellies on kids are so utterly cute - but Atticus is not a fan. I have bought pair after pair (mostly because I kept getting the wrong size) and he wasn't having a bar of it. I ended up with five pairs - one utterly gorgeous bumble bee ones we were given when he was born, one pair of glow in the dark pirate skull and cross bones pair in size 7 I bought second hand, one pair of dinosaur ones I bought second hand, and two pairs of daggy ones picked up for a dollar each at an opshop. Not one of these would he wear for more than 10 seconds. 

Until yesterday. Yesterday, during a 'its wet, we need to play inside' day, I hosted a playdate here, intending to do crafty stuff. Which we did, but when one mum took her son off to change his nappy in Atti's room, Atti went too, and the two boys came out carrying wellies each demanding they wear them. So we put them on them, then I went and got more pairs for the other kids. We ended up, with 5 kids outside in the carport, running through puddle and catching the boys running around in the rain. It was brilliant. Well I thought it was brilliant, I think some of the other mums, not so much.

But now the wellies and being outside in the mud is the go. Which I am FINE with. Now I just have to get him to wear the dinosaur ones….

Daycare is a magical place

Atti's daycare is an amazing place. He has always been so happy there, and I really love them. But this week they have blown my mind.

He was graduated to the next class up - no more baby room. This means he has to sit at the table for meals and he sleeps (not every time yet) on a mat in the room with the big kids, not in a cot. Ha ha said I when the idea was first mooted - that's not going to work. 

You see Atti rolls around like a sailor in the perfect storm when he sleeps. Also, how are you going to get him to stay still enough on the mat to fall asleep? I can't get him to lie still and be quiet in bed with us at 5am, how on earth will that work at noon?

Today they sent me a photo of him asleep, on the mat, surrounded by other kids asleep on their mats. I love it. Sleeping on a mat in a room full of big kids, and he will sit at the table for all of lunch. Our daycare is a bloody amazing place. 

Sleep dramas and wins

Sleep is not a barrel of laughs around the H&G homestead at the moment. Atti is waking before midnight most nights, crying for milk and to be picked up, to have his nappy changed (because that gets him picked up, lights on, etc) to 'be kwi-yet' (come into bed with Mama, where he does NOT go to sleep)… and when it is occasional, I will pick him up, give him a cuddle, sometimes even give him milk, but tonight is about the 5th night in a row, so we just had the come-to-jesus session, where he got a fresh dummy and offered a sip of water, and told to lie down. Thankfully the crying didn't even last through the first 5 minute leaving of his room, so maybe that is fine.

I will be thrilled however if the 5am wake up doesn't happen. I cut down the amount he had to drink in the hour before bed, and I am hoping we might get to sleep though til morning tonight. Please please please because I had to cook til 10.30, then deal with him, so I am not getting any extra sleep tonight - and tomorrow I will need to clean when he is down for his nap, not sleep.

Anyway, some there is some good news on this front. On Monday Atti was moved to the next class up at daycare, and at that level they sleep on mats on the floor. I was a bit amused by this, as I figured this wouldn't happen. He rolls around ALOT in his sleep and I couldn't see how they were going to get him to lie there and go to sleep. But on Monday it all worked, apparently. He slept for over an hour, on a mat on the floor, apparently like a tin soldier. He didn't get up or anything, just lay down with the other kids and went off to sleep. 

Today however it was too busy or crazy or something for that so he slept in a cot. I am impressed they got him to sleep at all - so I am looking forward to seeing how that pans out. Can't see where I would put a mat down here for him to sleep on, but I could try naps on my bed I suppose if it works out for them. 

He is going in on Friday for his last Friday… well probably not ever but for this year anyway, as I have heaps of work to do. Typical - I cancel Fridays then get some work… but I wonder if he will sleep on the mat then. I will be picking him up that day so it will be interesting to see how he goes.

Meh

Damn you Huggies! 5am wake up for a wet through and no one was going back to sleep.

Dance parties and vacuum meltdowns

Another 5.30am wake up. However today only Daddy was of interest. Har har! So he got away from me and woke Daddy up about 5.45. Tee Hee.

It was raining, so I had to leave Atti on our Tuesday morning Skype call with his 'twin' who now lives in another State and her mum while I ran out to get everything off the line. It also meant that I wasn't going to be able to walk to toddler gym. So I figured if I was taking the car, I had an extra hour in the house, so I decide to clean.

Mostly it was a success. Atti hasn't seen me do a lot of cleaning, and I am determined to change this. So we cooked breakfast together (french toast!) and watching me crack eggs into the bowl was the best thing he has seen in a week! Then I sorted laundry, and finally I vacuumed the hall, lounge (around him playing with trains) and the bathroom (don't have a broom, so vacuum it is). This is where it all went a bit pear-shaped. He wouldn't get out of the bathroom, but the noise was upsetting him. Eventually he started to melt down so I had to stop. Dammit - I was intending to get into the kitchen too.

I also tidied the dining room table (which has become the repository of all the craft things in the world) and took out the rubbish and the recycling, with Atti's help. And we took a little walk round our block and picked up the mail too.

Then there was a bit of a dance party in the lounge room. It might mostly have been me, as he isn't much of a dancer yet - he can do some twirls, but that is about it. Fun but wow I am out of shape.

Also managed to get some potatoes on to boil for mash - and my lovely Father-in-law did that for me after I ducked off to work.

My charming son had a lovely long nap for his Opa (who also seems to have done the few dishes in the sink and cleaned the bench top) then they went off with him and Oma and had a lovely day. His Dad and I got home fairly timely, and it was a babysitting Rio night, so the kids had desert together and a bit of a play and a story together then off to bed, little one, then off to bed less-little-one. All very nice night.

My afternoon at work was another story however…..

Need sleep.

This 5am wake up (due to bowel movements) is not making for a happy Mama. I have tried taking him back to bed with me (and the Wookie was woken yesterday morning at 6.30 by me shouting 'stop bloody hitting and kicking me, stop it stop it stop it - get away from me' - not my finest moment). I have tried chucking him back in his cot and plugging my fingers with my ears (neighbour probably not very happy with me today, also, ear plugging doesn't work well enough to go back to sleep or anything), I have tried getting up (and then I am very grumpy and just say no to everything).

I am really over this. 

But the real problem is not Atti and his early mornings, although I really wish we could go back to an afternoon of soiled nappy after soiled nappy til bedtime - I know I am not getting up early then! The real problem is that I don't get my act together and go to bed early enough. And it is freakin killing me.

Last night I didn't use the computer, or knit - both activities that lead to me still being up at midnight. Nope I took a book I have read heaps of times before, that is not in any way intellectually taxing - and still I managed to not get to sleep before midnight - at which point Atti woke up (lost dummy) and tried to tell me a) he needed a nappy change, b) he wanted to come to bed with me and "be kwi-yet" and c) he needed his trains. A short cuddle later and he was falling asleep in my arms so back to bed, and I finally fell asleep.

Which means I got about 4.5 hours sleep. Awesome. On top of a week of maybe 6 hours a night.

Aside from feeling not even slightly capable of dealing with an enthusiastic not-quite-2-year-old this morning, I have paid work this week and I didn't need to feel this crap.

I did manage to cook a roast last night that was ok, and I knocked up some pasta sauce for the kid(s) and froze a bunch - it has lots of sneaky veg in it, this pasta sauce. Interesting to see if they eat it. Mostly mine picks the gnocchi out of it, but I can put it over couscous too and he seems to like it.

Well I haven't tried this recipe before.

I am going to sign off as I clearly have no coherent thought process.

Bath time bonding

Most nights it is the Wookie who does bath time. But recently I felt so tired one night when I was running his bath that I ran it for me, basically and chucked Atti in with me. 

It has been, maybe a year since I had a bath with him. I generally shower with him each morning, and the slow start mornings I will put in the plug, let the bath fill as I shower and will sit for a little bit (and wash him) in the tub with him once I have finished, and wash him. Then let him play in the bath while I dry and dress and then get him out.

But it was so nice and Atti loved me having a bath with so much that I am trying to do it once a week. So we had a bath together last night, and it was so great.

We don't do much (other than stop him tipping cups of water over the side) - tip cups of water over each other, 'wash' the ducks, lots of wet squelchy cuddles, and we are usually visited by the cat while we are in there (totally going to end badly one of these days). But it is such a nice half hour or so, fairly calm and relaxed, for Atti, kind of quiet (quiet isn't really one of his settings, although he claims he will be 'kwy-yet' very often….) and generally a lovely thing to do. 

Definitely planning to keep it up. Next I might look into making some bath crayons for us to draw with.

22 Months

So Atti is 22 months old yesterday. Seems to have gone astonishingly fast. I know, I know, soooo original eh? I must be the first blogger to say that kids grow up so fast.

Atti killing time waiting for the bus by collecting trash and putting it in the bin. So proud

His language skills are astonishing, at least to me. I doubt it is anything medical science would find unique, but his daycare workers are certainly impressed.

He is good with names - and hilariously he has recently noticed that other people call his father, his grandfather and myself (only yesterday) by other names. Everytime 'Rio' calls the Wookie by his name, Atti takes up calling him that for the afternoon. The other day while shopping he combined them, calling Wookie 'Daddy Wookie' the whole time. 

His Opa also gets his name as well. And yesterday, for the first time, he called me by my name too. Just the once.

He has a few three word sentenced down pat. The most used one currently is 'oh my goodness' - his Oma taught him that one, complete with a dutch (south african more like) accent.

He has worked out that adults speak in long sentences, but he can't do that. So he currently fills in the gaps with gibberish. Which is kind of funny.

He also sings. Mostly the alphabet song, but also Old Macdonalds farm (by calling out 'eee iii eee iii ooooooo') or row row row.

He has recently taken up backwards walking. He loves to walk backwards around our house or at the park saying 'Look out! Careful Atti, careful. Look out!' He is also getting pretty good at kicking a ball now. Not so great at rolling that same ball up our hallway for bowling, instead wildly chucking it then racing down the hall to push all the bottles over.

He is nuts about any kind of vehicle, but currently Thomas the tank engine trains are the big thing. He just loves them. And he can identify then really well too. He can identify about 20 by name, which astonishes me. And can differentiate between ones that I have to look at the number to work out which one it is.

He is learning to come shopping with me and not run off, he is learning to help me clean the house. He does not like nappies and clothes, and will try to avoid having them force upon him. Except his Thomas jacket - that he will wear, even with the hood up.

And here is the weird thing - and before I say this, No, I don't think he can spell. But tonight, while his grandfather and I were giving him dinner, I called out to the Wook that one of the trains was in the rolled up Ergo in my bag - but I didn't say train. I spelled out D…U….C…K. One of us must have said the word though, because Atti got very excited and ran about shouting 'Duck, duck'. But I know I didn't say Duck, and his grandfather nearly fell off his chair because he thought he just understood the spelling…. Must have been the Wook.

He loves playing chasey with Rio or the other little kids or me, or airplane (where me and the other mums in our mothers group run around on a lawn being aeroplanes and the kids copy us giggling, he loves games with his dad or the other dads in our parents group throwing the kids up in the air, or swinging them up. He loves big squishy hugs, and the best pre-bedtime game is to run between me and his dad, flinging himself into our arms for a hug, then racing off to the other. Lucky for me, Mum tends to get a few extras where he runs around his dad and back to me.

I am pretty much loving 22 months.

Hanging at the urban orchard

We spent the afternoon in the city with the Wook's parents. Went to the dry good store to stock up on dried fruit for the lad, and some spices I had run out of. Went for a yum cha lunch. Atti and I were done before everyone else, and Atti was done, if you know what I mean, so he and I headed off to blow off a bit of steam in the urban orchard.

The city I live in has some really wonderful inner-city kids spaces. There is an urban orchard, the State library has a wonderful kids space, the museum has a fabulous playground and a couple of huuuge dinosaurs outside to boot. 

Anyway, while Atti and I were playing around I took this photo, which I just love so much.

Wow, he is growing up so fast.

And not long after this, visiting the dinosaurs was demanded. 

Midnight secret snuggles

Atti woke up for some reason last night after midnight. Not sure why, probably just a dummy lost. I went in, gave him a new dummy, he was standing so I cuddled him over the edge of the cot for a bit but he was desperate to get up into my arms, so I picked him up and sat in the chair and sang to him for a little while, as I do now and again. Then popped him back in his cot and left the room. He was fine til the door closed and then he started crying out.

I went to the loo, and listened, and he didn't settle down in 6 or 7 minutes so I went back in. He generally does got right back off if this happens at night, and every now and again we need to let him stay up with us for a half hour or so before we put him back to bed. Last night was like that.

I was intending to just stick him next to me in bed and let him watch some west wing with me (yeah I know, stupid to be up that late), but I had been faffing around with him long enough that the laptop had gone to sleep and the room was dark, so I just got into bed with him and we had some quiet snuggles. 

I love those moments. They don't come very often for us. Lots of snuggles and cuddles and kisses and so on, don't get me wrong, but the quiet moments, the still ones. Atti isn't a still kid. Even sleeping he rolls around and changes direction in bed and so on. Only once (since he has been sleeping in his own room) in the last year has he fallen asleep while snuggled up in bed with me. It was a glorious early morning wake up and he fell asleep in between the wookie and I and slept til 7am. Glorious and never repeated, sadly.

I think he nearly fell asleep last night though. Once or twice it was so close. He fights it as a kind of automatic reflex. He starts to drop off and jerks awake and changes his position, starts furiously playing with my hair or stroking my face or mashing his face into mine. And he relaxes, and it all becomes rhythmic and he starts to drift off…. ad infinitum. Well as infinitum as I can deal with it, because at some point trying to stay awake makes him crawl all over me or his Dad and I get fed up with it and also recognise he now NEEDS to go to sleep and for him, poor thing, he has to be alone for that to happen. 

He will fall asleep and stay asleep (though not as long anywhere as in his own cot in his own room in the dark with his white noise and teddy) anywhere. In the carseat, in the pram, on the couch - so long as he is alone. I don't think he has fallen asleep on me in nearly a year. Maybe when he was sick - but I still think it was at the other end of the same couch.

I am a bit sad about this. Last night, as he was lying with me, breathing in that lovely slowing way that means he is falling asleep (and I am holding my breath and hoping so hard this time he will tip over the edge and go to sleep) I was hoping he would fall asleep and sleep with us again. He co-slept a bit as a baby, when he would wake and feed and roll over and go straight back to sleep. Then about 6/7 months he started to toss and turn and fight going back to sleep - and he had to be kicked out of our bed  for everyone's sake. He flipped himself out of the bed twice. My sleep was going to hell. His sleep was going to hell. His father had been dubious about co-sleeping and now he was really worried that he would get hurt. So we moved him to a cot next to the bed.

He still fought falling asleep. I used to have my arms through the sides of the cot to help him - and have the same breath-holding and hoping as his breath would slow…. and he would roll over and babble and kick his legs and do everything he could to wake up.

How I didn't move him into his own room earlier I don't know. Well I do, I was a first time mum and I didn't want to leave him alone at night if I didn't have to.

Which is hilarious, because he is so much like me and my family in personality, and I love sleeping alone. Adore it. Never get to do it anymore, and occasionally plot ways for it to happen more.

Actually, I quite like being alone. Not always, but I try to have some alone time every day. I love not being responsible to others. I like not having to consider others. I can do my own thing. Not share my stuff (including foot space in the bed - I really hate having my foot space invaded), not have to listen to anyone else - the absolute physical sensation of luxury I find being alone. Like sliding into a freshly made bed with really good bedlinen that has been ironed. That kind of feel of absolute sensory luxury.

That having been said, middle of the night little love ins with my Atti - that is pretty nice too. You are so tired when they are infants, waking at night to feed - but I remember in one way liking the quiet one on one time with him, and loving the peace and the physical sensation of the actual bond we had. Hands patting my face or playing with my hair - just wonderful.

I really hope this isn't the beginning of that 'must have second baby' desire I have heard about!

What else can this do

I haven't even thought about whether this blog can post pix. Lets see.

Atti at 8 months

This is our little Atticus, at 8 months I think. This is him being wide awake at the airport before we boarded a flight, instead of asleep like he was supposed to be! He used to quite love it when he could be awake when he was supposed to be asleep. This is also one of the few photos of him with a hat on! I made that beanie and that might be the only time he wore it for more than a few minutes.

Spoke too soon

Whoops! So much for the 'sorted the wetting through the night nappy' issue.

Nup. nup nup nuppity nup.

I was woken at 5am this morning, by a little boy who had soaked through all the pyjama layers around his bum. bugger!

I am going to hope it was one nappy, not my whole system that is shot. I will have to see how we do this week. Otherwise I am going to have to start figuring out what cloth nappy covers will work with it, and maybe still have to buy those thin maxi pads to insert for extra absorbency.

And if I have to do that too, I am not bloody paying for Huggies, let me tell you. I could have fixed this problem that way with the cheaper Woollies brand nappies we use for the daytime.

It was funny in one respect though. Actually funny is the wrong word. I changed him, changed his clothes, put him back to bed and he was asking for a train. I went and got it for him and he was fine. I could hear him talking to the train and singing to himself and it was fine - for like 45 minutes. Then he shouted and yelled for the next 15 til the alarm went off.

And I got grumped at by the Wookie for that 15 minutes. I tried to point out that at some point we have to teach him that he has to stay in bed til morning - if I bring him into our bed he a) doesn't go back to sleep* b) it is stressful for me as I am the one who has to deal with him wanting to party in our bed with a sleeping Wookie next to him and c) he will just wake earlier and earlier if we do reward him with a trip to our bed.

I don't like the few mornings where we get the shouting, and I certainly don't like knowing it has woken our neighbour - but I am at a loss what else to do. I could give him a bottle of milk, but I don't know that that will actually get him back to sleep and when I occasionally do use this option for daytime naps it is when he desperately needs sleep (usually to go back to sleep) and I still have to let him grizzle a bit before it works. Not much chance of it being a good option at 5.30 in the morning.

*he does usually go back to sleep for a bit in the mornings. Sometimes for over an hour.

Splish splash

I had a pretty grumpy Atticus this morning - on and off. I have never seen him sit off the side at toddler gym being sad instead of running, jumping, swinging, rolling etc.

He might be a little sick - he had a two hour nap today (unheard of without some swimming and the chlorine involved). He was fine with the grandparents this afternoon, but a bit whiney and cranky again after I got home.

So I ran a bath, and got in it myself. He was tickled pink. It has been ages since I had a bath with him, although we generally have a shower together in the mornings, and on slow start mornings I sometimes put the plug in while we shower and sit in the water for a bit after I have turned the shower off.

But having a bath together was wonderful. We had so much fun. And he was soooo thrilled about it. I must try to do it more regularly.

But, I need to have Wookie on hand for when it ends, because without warning he wanted out. And I was wet and cold and trying to dry him and me and he started asking for milk and …. meh. Prior planning if I am going to do it again. And having the Daddy-Wook on for drying duties is not a bad idea either!

A side note: On Tuesdays I spend the morning with Atti, and often 'Rio' the nearly 5 year old girl who lives upstairs. We go to a toddler gym, or a park or do some activities at home. And then his grandpa shows up after he goes down for a nap, and I head off to my part time job. When I got home today he said "Mama here. Mama work all day". Lovely son. Glad I put all the effort in this morning!

Maybe…maybe

We have been having a little problem with sleep around here. It was pretty good, not so long ago, Atticus goes down at night no problem, but he has always been an early riser. 

We had just gotten him to a point where he slept til 6 at least most mornings, with a couple of days a week where he was woken early by… *ahem* well poo. He woke himself up doing a poo about 5am. I would go in, change him and pop him back in his cot. And he would go back to sleep if it was before 5.30, but not if it was after.

Then I made mistake number one. I let him come into bed with us in the early mornings. He would ask so sweetly by saying (while he was being changed) "qwiiiiii-yet mama, qwiiii-yet". So I would bring him into our bed for the 20 minutes or so before the Wookie's alarm goes off.

Now once this has worked beautifully. I played some music softly, he lay still and quiet and listened, and fell asleep again and everyone had a lovely sleep in (must have been a weekend). For a while at the start, it went fine, because I would play music quietly on my phone, tuck it under the pillow, and he would lay quietly listening to the music, until the alarm when off. When he would have a dance party on the Wookie's head.

But, then it all went pear-shaped. My new iPhone cover (which is necessary due to my ability to take it swimming) makes it hard to tuck the phone under the pillow and quietly play music. Atti lost his slight ability to lay quiet and still in bed, and became a holy terror in the bedroom. And all of a sudden it wasn't a couple of times a week, it was every morning at 5. And if I put him back in his cot he would shriek and wail about it.

I should note here that we live in a small block of flats and that we are friends with the other occupants. So we know that the neighbour who's room is above Atti's is woken by him if he is loud. And it seemed a bit rough to wake him before 6 with a shrieking small.

The neighbour went away recently for a few weeks and I was determined to get this sorted out. Shriek away son, I don't mind. However, the best laid plans… etc etc - we had a new problem. Atti was wetting through his night nappies. I was considering attaching a menstruation pad on the inside front as extra absorbency, when a friend told me she solved the problem with a different brand of nappy. And gave me a couple to try. It worked a treat and I immediately switched.

But he was set in his pattern of waking between 5 - 5.30. And the neighbour is back home. Urrrgh.

But I have bit the bullet this week, and been putting him back to bed if it is before 6. He really needs more sleep, and so do we. And aside from one morning which involved an hour of shrieking (impressive because he has never done it that long before) it seems to be working. I don't want to jinx myself, but hopefully his problem is dealt with for a while.

Because it is never really over - and it is winter here…. which I hope doesn't mean lots of flu, but he does tend to cough a lot when he gets sick, and that sends sleeping straight to hell.

Another week went well.

I started a new part time job - getting the experience I will need to have any chance of being hired once I finish my degree, that that is good. Less great is that it is working with domestic violence victims, but that is the job I got, so that is what I am doing.

And of course once I accepted this one, I got two more emails offering me places. Of course.

But it started well enough. Lets see where we are in a month or two.

With this new job my schedule with Atti has changed a little. Mondays I am not home til after he is asleep, Tuesdays and Wednesdays he is with his grandfather for the afternoon, and I come home with his dad. In time to finish dinner and do bath and bed time, but we maybe spend an hour together in the evening. The other four days I basically can spend the whole day with him - but other people like his father and his 'Aunty J' also need some time to bond with him (and at this age there is no bonding happening if anyone else is there) so I don't really spend the whole day with him.

So Fridays are more important than ever. This one went pretty well. We went on a water playdate with a dad and boy from our parents group. That was mostly fun. We came home for lunch and a sleep, then did a quick market shopping trip and met up with the rest of our playgroup at a science experience centre near us. Great place to spend an afternoon with the smalls. They love it. And a quick park visit after, because it closes earlier than we like to finish up on Friday afternoons.

I am pretty close to calling it on Fridays and pulling him out of daycare. I hesitate because I can't see that I have any other time free at home without him underfoot. I am talking to the Wookie about him organising plans for weekend mornings so I can get some things done at home.

It is funny how fast he is growing and learning. He isn't quite two yet, but he is singing the alphabet song in the car if I don't put on a cd. And in the pram. And he is pretty close to right with it. He picks things up so fast now, that if we say it twice, we will probably hear it back at some point. Recently he picked up 'oh my goodness' from his grandmother, complete with european accent. It is hilarious, but whoosh - this is going so fast.

The start of the battle of wills and tantrums I could live without, but there are so many things about this age that are adorable. Especially the hugs and snuggles. My kid isn't a still child, very often, but lately he is all about the hugs. Me and other kids. And the sitting next to me and wrapping his arm around me - tangling his fingers in my hair. So sweet. Pulling my face down to rest agains this. Running over and throwing himself into my arms if another kid is giving me a hug. All so sweet.

Fridays together

I am experimenting with pulling Atticus out of daycare on Fridays and spending the day with him. This week was my second Friday.

I really considered dropping him off at daycare though - if only for a few hours. I had only had about 4 hours sleep, and I was stuffed. I was going to have my first try at taking him to the market stalls with me to do the fruit and veg shopping on Friday morning, and I honestly thought with me so tired it would all fall apart.

In the end I didn't, but only because I was so slow at getting things together that it just would have added more time to a schedule that wasn't going to handle the stuff I needed to do already. 

So we walked to the supermarket and got nappies and a couple of bits and pieces, then off the the market stall. Found a good place to park the pram, and headed to my favourite stall. Before I got very far though I ran into my friend from parents group, and her son. She is the woman who made me think I could do this in the first place. Our little boys (who see each other at least twice a week) decided to act like long lost brothers and ran in circles round each other and cuddling each other and generally holding  up all the pensioners and mums who were also there, and she suggested she take the two boys to an open area for 15 mins or so to let me do a quick run through the stall. Atti came looking for me when I was in line, and we decided to let him stay with me then, which was nice because the fruit stall lady loves him and got to have a little flirt session with him. Also we taught him to 'help' by putting the fruit and veg on the scales, which he loved doing.

Then we went to meet that same friend and son at a local park on our way home.

I was supposed to be home at a certain time to Skype with my mum, but Atticus feel asleep in the pram right as I got home, so we put that off. He had a decent enough sleep, and then a Skype to mum, then we were off for our whirlwind of afternoon playdates I had organised. The highlight was a ride on the carousel at the zoo with 'Rio' - he has been on before, but never smiled or laughed on it before - and they both did the whole ride. It was great - and very lucky. I had forgotten the time, and the ride shuts at 4 - we ran gasping up to the carousel at about 5 minutes to 4, lights turned off, quite sure I had stuffed it all up - but the lovely lovely man turned it back on for us and gave the kids a ride. I really must flick an email to the zoo telling them he is an absolute treasure who saved my afternoon - the 5 year old would never have forgiven me if she had missed it!

So how did I go? Well it was bloody exhausting - I was shattered when I got home and seriously grumpy at the Wook when he wanted me to help with bath and bedtimes. I just wanted to climb into my recliner chair and act like I was in a coma. I also got less done that I would have liked - so a bit better planning for the day is probably in order. And there were some bumpy bits - taking the 5 year old as well makes the day a bit harder in parts. But easier in other parts. I definitely need to think about how to get them round the zoo better - the bike is a bad choice. I need something they can both get into when they need it.

Shopping seems viable - if I am organised. I will definitely need a list thought - dealing with a toddler and trying to think about menu planning won't work at all. I had to send the Wook back today to get a couple of things I forgot.

I also need to  keep better track of what is going to happen on the weekend. The Wook had plans that meant I was also mostly on my own with Atti on Saturday, although I did get a two hour sleep in which was lovely. It is a loooong stretch when it is two full days on my own. But again, better planning.

Mostly I need to get my act together when I am at home. There is too much tv watching happening when we are at home. I want to do the dishes or the laundry or bake something, and the only way I can manage is if the electronic babysitter is on. And then, if we are home, that is what he asks for. Loudly and persistently. I can distract him, but it requires me giving him a lot of attention. I need to get him back to being able to play by himself or alongside me when we are at home. That will require a bit of thinking.

I am not sure if I will be using daycare next week or not - I start a new job two days a week, and that might mean I really need a half day alone at home to get on top of everything. We shall see. I would prefer to keep him with me though, so I will see how I feel Thursday.