An unexpected day

And I decided that I would savour it.

So I hereby apologise in writing to Tim – there’s so much I could have (in all probability should have) done around the house. I did do washing. Lots of it, when I discovered the reason Claude got kicked out of his last home. The duvet’s almost dry, the cover is yet to be draped 🙁 I cleaned the bathroom sink. How does somewhere where you get clean get so dirty?

Then I decided that I had children who were really rather more fun to be with. 😀 We started the day well, they were very happy to find me still in bed (back in bed, I got up and made sandwiches for Tim 😉 ) and clambered in with me for assorted cuddles and chatter. We had a leisurely breakfast, and I struggled some more with VPNs and IPSec policies and tunnels. Yup, I still don’t understand that at all.

Sarahthespeechtherapist left a different set of stuff for Small and we all did that together. He’s really breaking out into words – but only if you ask him. I’m guessing that sooner or later he might start dropping them into conversation, but right at the moment, I’m just thrilled to hear sounds.

Big did some more drawing, and somewhere along the way, sat down and read a book, Not now Bernard. She was pretty impressed when she realised what she’d done, and so was I. Tim was extremely impressed when she sat and read it again to him tonight.

Day didn’t stop there. We did some work on nutrition, mainly using a site linked from the excellent Muddlepuddle site (if you haven’t come across it, you really ought to :lol:) Big did a painting game that allowed her to colour in various members of different food groups, and we talked a little about what foods you need in what sort of quantities and for what reasons. Then I wanted to print out a chart for her so she could keep track of her fruit and veg, as I’d found something the other night on dltk that I thought we could customise together. Would also give her another in to keep track of the days to the weekend, as she does struggle with that. But the printer is attached to the machine in the dining room, and for some reason, it couldn’t see the network, and therefore, not the internet either. Grrr.

Having argued with networks for more hours than I cared to count up over the last 24, it was a real low point to my day. Even lower than finding what the cat had done with my bare foot. I think. And Big was disappointed – on other days that would have been the end of it as she fell into meltdown, but somehow, not least due to a timely phonecall from Kirsty, we pulled it together and went out to the shops, with a list that Big had drawn up. (And I do, quite literally, mean drawn 😉 ).

They were both well behaved in Morrisons – Small has now pretty much given up on trolleys, but he didn’t run away either, which was a pleasant change.

Then we came home and made shepherds pie from some recipe folder I’d had kicking around for a while, and you know what? It was pretty good. So even if we were so late I didn’t manage to get them bathed, I didn’t really care. And we made Barbie mini muffins too.

Part of bathtime was taking up with Big’s second rendition of Bernard (it’s a really good book, did I say that already?) and then there was the oligatory chasing about upstairs. We’ve finally found a toothpaste that Small likes, although it’s obviously going to take some work to get him to rub it all over his teeth, rather than just eating it (sigh). He wanted me to read Blake’s 7 to him, which amused me rather, and I told him he would have to learn to read himself, so he opened the book up and started pointing out words for me to explain. Cute wasn’t in it.

Couple of pages of Ellie’s Chance to Dance, and I left them to their own version of the dance, jumping in and out of each other’s beds. It’s all gone quiet now, and we’ve been watching tv, trying to work out how many sci-fi series are now represented in the cast of Stargate SG1 (Series 9, Avalon in case you were wondering).

Got to go excavate the kitchen at some point. And the bedroom. And the living room table. Work tomorrow.