Postscript

Now I know this might seem a little ridiculous, but I don't normally reflect on my day until after Team O'Toole are safely tucked into their little beds. So today's early blog was simply a result of my blog-fast this week, and as a result I have found myself with more to say about today! Put simply, there were a few incidents this afternoon that I really want to remember...and some that I hope I might be able to laugh about one day. Perhaps you might be able to laugh at them a lot sooner than that.

When the kids woke from their naps (Jack didn't nap, he lounged in a chair and whinged about the girls being asleep and WHY couldn't he go outside and ride his bike, WHY Mummy, WHY Mummy, the girls would be ok if you left them to come outside with me, PLEASE Mummy, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEASE), I decided we needed to get out of the house again. So soon, I hear you ask? Well yes, I know we went out this morning for our lovely playdate, and on any normal day this would have been more than enough activity, thank you very much. However, it was warm and I was a bit restless, so I slicked sunscreen (or scun-scream) on them all, went down the high street, bought icy poles (yes, I am the best mum in the world, I know!) and went to the playground. Maisie had a ball screaming with laughter at the kids, Jack and Pheebs burned off plenty of energy, and I was not in the house staring at the unfolded washing. Score.  (I was also not hanging out wet washing in the abnormally hot weather. Oh well.) As we were leaving the park, Jack chose this moment to depart from his position next to the pram and ran about 100m ahead, straight towards a road. I yelled like a banshee at him to stop, and eventually he turned around and came back. Ironically enough I think he expected praise for coming back - the strips I tore off him for taking off like that didn't seem to make an impact! A little shaken, we returned home, and I put Toy Story on just to calm my nerves and keep them all in one place for a while.

I shouldn't have been surprised at the mess Maisie created at dinner time, as her newest trick (which she is inordinately proud of!) is to shake her head when you say 'no'. She also shakes her head when you don't say 'no'; basically, she shakes her head whenever it pleases her, but particularly when you are trying to feed her. Last night I introduced her to avocado, which she enjoyed immensely, along with her vegetable mush and some bread. Trying to get spoonfuls of food into Maisie's mouth while she shakes her head and sways with glee in the highchair is like trying to throw shovelfuls of mud into a hole the size of a 20 cent piece that is 100m away. While the hole moves constantly. And you have a bad throwing arm. You get the idea.

After feeding time at the zoo, the kids were wrangled into their jarmies, Maisie feel asleep on the boob, and the big kids waited for Daddy to get home. Now they are asleep (or pretending - it's hard to tell) and Daddy has gone down the street to get a DVD to make us laugh at the end of a loooooooong week. Perhaps I should have just videoed the kids this week, and my attempts at keeping house? That would have been funny enough I'm sure!