1.  Resistance

2.  Inertia

3.  Flow

On days like today I need a Positive Blog. We are, all four of us, knackered.  Son 1 aged 5 goes deaf when he’s tired.  My voice gets louder and I repeat myself, repeat myself.  Son 2 aged 2 grizzles and clings.  The Man lists faults. Out loud. We are worried about Son 2’s Godmother, who is on a drip in hospital with a kidney infection. And Granny is coming to stay for nearly a week tomorrow, so there has been some mad tidying, and a rather ill-timed attempt to Improve Your Children’s Table Manners In 24 Hours.  However. Digging deep in the day…  Son 2 wanted to lie down in Son 1’s bed. With Mummy.  He pulled the cover over his head, pressed his soft little face close to mine, and dozed off with snuffly little snores.  He had about 20 minutes’ sleep before Son 1 woke him by throwing toys around.

I got the boys’ hair cut.  After lunch, piled Son 2 into the Big Pram, ignored Son 1’s attempts to get in it, and strode off for The Town.  Son 1 whined every step of the way. He wanted to ride on the Pram. At the bottom of the hill I gave in. He stands on the axle and holds on to the handle, in a sort of makeshift buggy board stance.  I take the weight on my back and arms, and tell myself I’m burning calories.  This time he has perfected his technique.  He rested his bottom on the nappy bag so he had a seat. At the hairdressers’, Son 1 just stared, exhausted, in the mirror and didn’t bother answering any questions. He could barely keep his head upright for her. Son 2 was Perfect Child, sitting in a car in the window watching The Wiggles on their DVD.  People passing pointed and smiled. I hope because my child is so beautiful, and not because they were saying “Why doesn’t that mother just cut it herself?”  They both look great.  Son 1 misbehaved all the way back.

While we were out, The Man changed some of the water in the Fish Tank, so it looks better.  We switched on the skull and treasure chest bubbles, and Flossy and Coupon seemed to play quite happily.   We had a Fishkeeping For Beginners moment earlier.  I asked The Man to turn up the heater because the water seemed to be getting cooler - it’s meant to be 25C, and was barely 20C.  He kept turning it up. Nothing happened. And then… we… er… realised the heater wasn’t on. The water was at room temperature and was getting cooler because it’s getting cooler.  Still.  It doesn’t seem to have bothered Flossy and Coupon, who after 10 days with us are still alive and seem to be having a good time. Excellent. That means 1 in 3 members of our family has in fact enjoyed today.  I knew this Blog was a Good Thing.

1.  The snooze

2.  Swimming

3.  The new train

Son 2 aged 9m just about made it to 6am this morning.  And Son 1 aged 3 and a half trailed blearily round the door while I was feeding him.  The Man is almost comatose.  A week away and the pace is beating him by length after length.  I sent him upstairs to watch Power Rangers with Son 1.  By 9am Son 2 was ready to collapse, so I lay down on the bed in his room with him, he cried a bit, arched his back a bit, and then off he went to sleep.   Lying beside a sleeping baby is just very nice.  Even now writing this I think I should have just stayed by him for longer, instead of going downstairs to play with Son 1 (= Working Mother “I must play with the other one while the baby is asleep so he has some quality one-to-one time.”)  We divided his jungle animals into meat-eaters and vegetarians.  The vegetarians are the goodies, the meat-eaters are the baddies.  Son 1 is a baddie, and I am a goodie.  Then he steals animals from my line.

Took the boys swimming in the hotel - which lets you go in with two children if there’s only one adult.  I was very keen to take Son 2, who loves it, and Son 1, despite all our efforts, wanted to go again, even though he was exhausted and had his swimming class yesterday.  The Man decided against going.  The hotel pool is ok, a bit cold, but there were plenty of families there, and both Son 1 and Son 2 seemed to have a good time.      It’s harder for me doing both… seeing me with Son 2 just drives Son 1 mad, so I tried very hard to do games that all three of us can play.  I’m getting there though.

Back home The Man was pottering and put a worn out Son 1 in front of a DVD.  I had Son 2 downstairs, playing with the new train we got him yesterday.  Fisher Price, multi-coloured plastic.  Son 2 loves it.  He loves pressing the button, sticking his fingers in the holes in the cubes, eating the cubes, shaking the cubes and making the music play.  Yes we know he’ll be out of it in three months’ time  … but even though we have Chinese container shiploads of toys, we haven’t really got many that are the right age for Son 2.  First time round we borrowed everything, gave them all back as Son 1 outgrew them, and they’ve all been loaned out again to someone else.  Son 2 plays with Son 1’s toys, and he’s got some presents from when he was born… but we seem to have arrived at a little gap in stocks at the moment.    The new train is 6m+ and brings Son 1 in to play with him.  Which is certainly helpful for Mummy… if less so for Son 2.