The Toddler Diaries

Another crazy Monday morning. Success in the charity shops, found a Toy Story puzzle for Josh and a white handbag for Bethany, actually quite stylish. Her philosophy is, you can never have enough bags, shoes, hair accessories or really anything pink. After the shops we decided to make fairy cakes, good fun to make and nice to eat. Unfortunately Josh cracked the eggs by the squeeze and crunch method, moving on from the more traditional and probably less messy, tap on the side of the bowl method. Consequently we had to spend ages fishing out eggshell. Then Bethany tipped the whole bag of sugar into the bowl, so we had to add more ingredients to balance the whole thing out and make an impromptu fruit cake rather than have 300 fairy cakes. I think we’re winning the cake competition now Wendy. (Flapjack, fruitcake, fairy cake and banana cake.) In the middle of the cake making frenzy the Tesco man arrived with the shopping, Josh did a wee on the potty in the middle of the kitchen, I made lunch for everyone eating mine on the hoof and predictably Caleb woke up for a feed.

As I sit here typing this I observe the Carnage around me. Bethany has rearranged the porch. I’m sure she is quite pleased with the rearrangement but I have to disagree, as you can’t get to the front door. The hoover is still out where I started hovering but got waylaid in the middle. There’s a bag of rubbish to take out the front and another bag of recycling. The wet washing is waiting to be hung out and there are cakes and the debris of cake making and lunch all about the kitchen, not to mention all the toys, dressing up clothes and books that cover every available space. I remember when I used to hoover once a week, now it’s more like three times a day. The depressing thing is it doesn’t matter how many times I clean and tidy up in a day it doesn’t make any difference. Trying to explain this to Daniel I reckon it’s like going into the office everyday to find the set of accounts you did the day before had all been undone and you’ve got to start again. There’s a reason women don’t get paid to stay at home with kids, they could never pay you enough.

Having finally hung the washing out it now looks like it’s going to rain, but Caleb has chosen this moment to have a long feed. I haven’t finished cooking the dinner so it won’t be ready before the other two start climbing the walls. It’s one of those annoying recipes that you haven’t read properly, so when you come to make it it says marinate over night. A couple of minutes marinating was as good as it got. I’m just hoping the potato wedges will cook really fast because I haven’t managed to make them yet. I actually managed to tidy the hall, but I’m now watching Bethany put all the books on the floor and someone has tipped out the toy box. Realise I’m rambling, but it’s quite therapeutic to bang it out on the keyboard.

Remarkably Josh has taken off his Mr Incredible suit. He spent some of the afternoon with a fireman’s hat playing with the hosepipe in the garden but the rest of the time I think he was being himself. Daniel will be pleased, I think he was beginning to worry about this obsession.