I started today by writing a list of housework that needed doing, the fact that one of the points I listed was "incinerate bedroom and hope that clears most of the mess" should tell you how long the list was and how much it all needed doing.
I've done nothing. Nothing at all on my list. Here's what I've done instead:
- Nursery run x 2. The first time with a crying Moobles "I don't like nursery *waaaaiiiillll*" and VB who was wearing a coat over his pyjamas, the second run was much more pleasant thankfully.
- Sung Old McDonald countless times. VB is just getting the hang of talking and now requests "E I O" with whatever object he'd like you to sing about. We started with animals, today I was singing about the shoes, bees and hair Old McDonald has.
- Read many, many books
- Watched Shrek (or Far Far 'Way as Velcro Boy calls it)
- Made cards with Moobles
- Made finger puppets with Moobles
- Done ceramic painting with Moobles
- Cleared up the aftermath of all 3 activities
- Refereed the on-going brother/sister wrestling match. Actually, today hasn't been a bad day, we've only had one time out on the stairs and Moobles has only had her hair pulled a couple of times.
- Cooked dinner - no mean feat when you have small children demanding refills of their hot chocolate, wrestling in the other room or hanging from your trouser leg. We had Spag Bol tonight and Moobles actually voluntarily ate some, which is marvellous as we usually have to resort to bribery or threats of immediate bedtime in order to get anything that isn't cheese, crackers or a strawberry yoghurt into her.
- Did a food shop. Moobles was in the buggy as she claimed to have no energy in her legs for walking so VB was happily wrapped up on my back in a gorgeous wrap called Hoernum Fish by Didymos which is my current favourite. Getting there was fine, doing the shop was fine (except I lost count of how much I'd spent halfway round so had to go to the self service counter for fear of having to admit to the checkout lady that I needed to put stuff back - I didn't as it happened, hurrah!) Getting back home was, er, fun. Moobles decided she wanted to get out of the buggy, having rediscovered the energy she'd been lacking earlier, I said no as I had neither spare hands to hold hers nor the inclination to run after her with the buggy. This resulted in a monumental banshee shrieking style tantrum. Marvellous. She wailed and screamed all the way home and I perfected my mummy poker face and stared at a point in the distance, trying not to laugh.
- Provided a seemingly never ending supply of snacks; hot chocolate and crackers for Moobles and Wince Loddet (translates: drink chocolate aka hot chocolate) and Peed It (Peel it aka clementines) for VB.
- Had lots of kisses and cuddles and conversations about princesses and parties and nonsense and all sorts of very important things.
- Bathtime. On my own. Yikes! It wasn't too bad we even managed to wash hair although the bathroom is now decorated in crayon and covered in 1/2 inch water.
- Bedtime. On my own. This took forever, but was actually quite nice. I sat in between their two beds and listened to Moobles singing "Away in a Manger" and rolled my eyes at VB who spent well over an hour rolling, crawling, standing, sitting, doing headstands, jabbering away, laughing, demanding more songs, cuddling me and then poking me in the eyes because I'd dared to shut them for a second. He finally fell asleep thankfully, hopefully the next time he wakes the husband will be here to deal with him.
So, I feel less of a failure now. I did no housework, but I did lots of nice stuff with the kids and we all managed to get up, dressed, fed and back to bed again with minimum aggravation so it must have been a good day.
Anyway, Gadget Man is due home at 10pm (but he's going to the pub, so it'll be closer to 11pm) so I have a little while to some of the stuff on my list, I might at the very least hoover up the grated cheese in the front room and try and rescue the kitchen a bit.
