1. Sleeping In My Bed
2. Banana Cake
3. The Play Den
Midnight. A stir in the air which means Son 1 aged 4y 4m is heading upstairs. Son 2 aged 16m started roaring. I sat up. Son 1 crawled into bed behind me. I waited to see if Son 2 would settle, but he wanted someone to come, and he was doing his shouting-so-angrily-you-can-hear-his-throat-strain thing. “Did you wake Son 2 up?” I asked Son 1. “No.” “Did you peek in his room at all?” “I didn’t go in his room.” Son 2 was using everything he had, heels upwards, in his yelling. I went downstairs to him. The quilt of the bed in his room was turned back. Son 1 had obviously got in the bed, snugged across unsuccessfully looking for a parent, padded away upstairs… and set his brother off. By 0130 Son 2 was back in a deep sleep. I plopped him in the cot, and went next door to sleep in Son 1’s bed. I was freezing and needed an extra blanket. Ah. Son 1’s broken nights have coincided with this cold snap. We are indeed Terrible Parents.
In the morning I told Son 1 that someone had, indeed, been into Son 2’s bedroom in the night and woken him up. Son 1 laughed. “It was me.” Son 2 wanted food. I took him downstairs while I made drinks and snacks. He stood on dining chairs propped up by the worktops. Direct line of sight to the tub containing banana cake made by Wonder Nanny on Friday. “Aahhh,” points Son 2. I don’t think it’s possible to deflect Son 2 from a food mission once he’s got an idea in his head. He ate two pieces. And another piece for breakfast.
Son 1 had an invitation to a joint Nursery party at a Tourist Attraction 30 miles away. The day was planned. Son 2’s sleep. Lunch. In the car and off we go. Son 2, bunged up with banana cake, wouldn’t eat an atom of lunch. We walked into the Tourist Attraction. “You know Mummy, this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” said Son 1, taking in the slides, the soft play, and the Big Uns’ playstuff. Half the size of the Bird Park play area, with four times as many children. He sat on the sides, swinging his legs, and trying to get me to ask his Nursery friends to play with him. He got there in the end. Son 2 loved it. Ball pool, play with the air jets. Slides. Climbing over the Big Uns’ playstuff. 90 minutes of heaving Son 2 up and down, round and along… sometimes checking on Son 1, sometimes playing with him, and it was time for Party Tea. I tried to get Son 2 to eat a ham sandwich. He settled for a chocolate doughnut. At last I could go and get a cappacino. The coffee machine was out of order. Twenty minutes later, an announcement. The loos were also out of order. Tea over, more play, and then we rounded up our balloons and headed home, listening to Peter Pan and (one of us) munching cake and eating lollipops all the way.
Tags: ball pool, balloons, banana cake, birthday party, broken night, crying, disturbed night, loud crying, midnight waking, Party Tea, peter pan, Play Den, problem sleeping, soft play, summer quilt
