Every so often someone asks me what we do all day. Saying ‘All day’ like that makes it sounds like the days are pretty long and hard to fill. They’re not, let me assure you, the day usually whizzes by and I often feel by evening that my feet haven’t touched the ground. Some days seem full of educational content and if I had boxes to tick I’d probably have to make more for all the ticks we’d have yet other days seem to provide no ticks for hypothetical boxes.
Yesterday we had our weekly supermarket shopping to do. Master R had been up since about seven watching Cbeebies but Ms R didn’t wake up until eight. While they ate cereal in front of Cbeebies I did usual stuff like washing and tidying. They dressed themselves with a bit of prompting from me and then we were ready to go. We dropped Buzz off at my Mums house and went forth to shop. Shopping always inspires questions, I think we talked about how to tell if different fruits are ripe and compared prices of similar products. The R’s have a bit of choice over what we buy (things like cereals, crisps, tins, fruit), they like to help load things on the conveyor belt and Ms R usually chats to the cashier. It would never be our first choice of activities but we get through it.
Our next visit was to our local charity shops to source some material for a tree that Ms R wanted to make, we also visited a shop for some large pieces of card. All this took us up to mid-day and had given Buzz a couple of hours at Mums house so we went to collect her only to find that she hadn’t got out of the cat carrier. She was pleased to see us though and followed us into the lounge so we thought we’d stay for a bit. We bounced on the trampoline and then we noticed that Buzz had disappeared into the overgrowth so I went looking and calling her. Ms R settled down to a colour-by-numbers in a puzzle book and Master R played with the little kitten. I caught Buzz and brought her in where she sat and growled at the sleeping dog and playing kitten. By the time we got home and made lunch it was two o’clock and Ms R was eager to get started on her tree. She drew a trunk shape on some material, cut it out and stuck it down and made a card leaf template for me to cut leaves out for her. Master R had fallen asleep on the chair. It seemed to take all afternoon and inbetween cutting out shapes I transferred some washing from machine to line and other little jobs. Once the tree was finished Ms R wanted some photos printed to stick on so we sat together and selected some for printing. Eventually the tree was finished and Master R woke up.
While I cooked dinner the Rs rode their bikes up and down the path out the front and chatted to some of the neighbours. Daddy came home and the R’s sat down to eat and watch Cbeebies. Afterwards they played in the garden together, looked at the computer with me and chatted to Daddy until seven o’clock when we went upstairs for stories. Master R keeps choosing a Spot book because it has lap-laps (cat flaps) and I’m reading The Great Glass Elevator to Ms R. Ms R fell asleep quickly but Master R couldn’t sleep thanks to his afternoon nap so got back up and sat with Daddy.
Today Ms R was first up. Master R didn’t wake up until nine. While they ate breakfast I did some housework, organised some recharged batteries for Baby Annabell and helped Master R find his favourite trucks. They played in the garden while I bathed and then despite having been told more than once that my grandparents were on holiday this week we still drove over as fast as we could in anticipation of biscuits and creamy coffee. On the way over we talked about considering other peoples feelings, or at least thats what I talked about. After a few minutes of ringing the bell and thinking of various scenarios why their car wasn’t in the drive I remembered so we left again and visited my Dad instead where the Rs had ice-cream and we all bounced on the trampoline. Master R played with his trucks and counted them. Mum came home and we chatted to her and shared cherries and blueberries. The Rs were eager to visit a park we’ve driven past, Ms R and Master R practiced their recorder and tin whislte on the way there. I settled myself down with a book and the Rs played hapily for two hours. There was plenty of other small children there, Ms R pushed toddlers on the roundabout and chatted to their Mums, Master R got scared by a boy who said ‘Poo’ to him despite him usually thinking that word is hilarous. Ms R is very sociable and found a boy to play with, Master R played with them too but also spent quite a bit of time on his own climbing and jumping.