1.  False Alarm

2.  False Hope

3.  False Words

The Man needed to get up at 6am to leave on a Business Trip.  Son 1 aged 5y 2m was in the Big Bed with us. I heard The Man get up.  I got up too, thinking 0530 would give me chance to get everything ready in good time.  I padded downstairs to put the kettle on. And looked at the clock. 0245. I went back up. The Man had just headed down for the Double Bed because Son 1 was kicking him in the back and he wanted to sleep.  At 0530 proper we got up again.  The Man went off. I made lunches, cleaned, cleared up, got the boys’ breakfast out, made coffee, ate breakfast.   Not a sound from above. I put the washing machine on and had a shower.  Nothing.  I went into our bathroom, dried my hair and used my electric toothbrush. I put Milkshake telly on. Son 1 remained, still, in the Big Bed. Finally I took him up a tray with a bowl of Frosties, some strawberries and a cup of milk on it. He very slowly stirred. “Why don’t you ever do this on a Saturday or a Sunday?”  I asked. He laughed at me.

The atmosphere at The Office was grim as we heard from the Colleague whose daughter was taken so desperately ill. It’s now even worse than on Saturday.  We can think and speak of little else.  I managed to get out to get some presents for Wonder Nanny.  Photo frames, candles and chocolates.  I picked Son 1 up late, so we were way past Wonder Nanny’s leaving time when we got back. Son 2 aged 2y 3m waved from the window as I parked the car.  I had a hunt for a photo of the boys to put in one of her new picture frames. Couldn’t find the school photo pack. But I did manage to find the birthday cards. 

After Wonder Nanny had left, Son 1 got out his Hama beads.  Son 2 tried to join in, but again got frustrated and hurled beads on the floor. I went upstairs with my paper - a sure way of getting them both to come buzzing near me.  The Man is the same. “You do too much,” he says, in a critical tone. “You can’t go on like this. You have to rest.” Then if he ever catches me sitting down and reading a paper he comes up with a dozen things I ought to be doing instead.  The boys were a delight. I read to them, each had a shower and a bath, each had their teeth done and then I put them to bed. Son 2 took ages to settle. “I want my DayD,” he cried. When I at last got downstairs I found someone had picked up all the Hama beads Son 2 spilled on the floor and put them back in their tub.  Son 1, being an angel. He’s going to be so cross when he realises I’ve been doing this rather than ironing his picture.

1.  Sunday Morning

2.  Bathing Beauties

3.  Beady Eyes

Son 1aged 5y 2m  is lice-free. Yes I know I go on about Head Lice too much. But I am jumpy every time I see Son 1 scratch his head. I conditioned him, parked him on a chair in front of Ice Age 3 and combed and combed. He’s fine. Then I went off for a run. I’m getting there. Walking 2 mins, running 8 mins, x 3. I’m still looking at my watch too much. Yesterday, running through the crowded Town, I bumped into a woman. I got to the bottom of our Hill with the watch saying 27:30, not looking forward to running up it for 2 min 30.  I got as far as the Posh Bread shop and looked at it again. 27: 30. In the split-second bump, the woman had pressed the “pause” button on my sports watch.  Today, out before 10am, there weren’t many people around. I went out to the Rockpool Beach, ran down and ran along it.  Just a few dogwalkers, and a well-wrapped up family of four with two under-fives, out on the low tide rocks with fishing nets. Sheltered from the prevailing Arctic wind, the sky blue, the air clear and the beach clean, it was a fantastic place to be on a fantastic morning.

At home, I put Son 1 in the shower to rinse off the conditioner. And then ran a bath for Son 2 aged 2y 3m and me. Son 2 always used to sit in the bath at my feet while I had my morning shower. And then one day he started watching telly with Son 1… and that was it.  In his only child days, Son 1 and I used to bathe together all the time. I can’t remember the last time Son 2 and I had a bath together. All I know is he must have been a lot smaller. It was like having a post-marathon yoga session as I tried to fold up my legs so he could fish Nemo toys around with a three-pint jug. He is lovely, with his shining blue eyes and his perfect skin.  ”Oh no! I’m stuck in the jug! Who’s going to help me?” I threw his turtle in and rescued him with Dory.  Son 2 played on: “Who gon’ ‘elp me?  Where Nemo?”  He helped me wash my hair, he squirted me with bath toys,  he emptied great big jugs of water on me.    He didn’t want to come out.

We walked down to the Town for pies for lunch. Son 2 had fallen asleep in the Big Pram before we got to the bottom of the hill. Son 1 bought Hama beads from the Discount Store with three weeks’ pocket money. We came back and made some pictures.  He is unstoppable if he’s doing well… when he realised he’d got a row wrong he just stopped and sulked till I sorted him out.   “It’s good when we have problems because then we can show how clever we are at sorting them,” I said brightly, knowing I am supposed to Leave Him To Find His Own Solutions. Nanna came round. Son 2 wanted to make a picture. He picked out a few beads and tried putting them on a board. Then he pulled out great handfuls and dropped them on the floor. We sent him upstairs with Nanna to watch CBeebies. The Man fixed Sunday lunch. I ironed Son 1’s pictures, and finished off the lunch. We had Scooby Do crackers from the Discount store, which both boys adored. After the meal Son 1 put his Santa suit on and danced madly with Son 2. There was a banging on the windows and catcalling outside. Son 1 opened the door. Friends from far along The Terrace, on their way back from Church. They came in and drank wine. Their two girls raced around with the boys. Son 1, already exhausted, wailed “I want some quiet time now.” The seven year old disappeared into the dishwasher-box playhouse well done mummy and Son 2 was allowed in with her. All the visitors left… we got the boys upstairs and told them bedtime would be shortened. Son 2 still insisted on doing 4 wees on the potty, for which he got 4 dolly mixtures. As did Son 1.