From the moment I woke this morning until the moment they fell asleep this evening, I have spent the day with the children - it’s the first time I have done it in months, and it was wonderful.
We packed quite a lot into the day; a bus journey into a big nearby town (for some reason the children think going on the bus is the most exciting thing in the world), new shoes for each of them, a new set of clothes for each of them, lunch at Nando’s (their favourite eatery), a DVD each from the bargain bin in HMV, and a small pocket money toy each. Quite why the younger two chose to buy Playpeople circus elephants is anybody’s guess.
Arriving home, W had been busy building flat-pack IKEA units, and sorting through clothes, toys, dressing up costumes, and various other assorted brickabrack. Little Miss 5 very proudly showed off her new party shoes (which will inevitably become her school shoes at some point very soon indeed). They are black patent, shine like a mirror, and the heals light up when you step - she demonstrated by dancing like a 1920s vaudeville act.
I made dinner today too; pizzas all round. While this might sound like the easy option, it never is in our house because our eldest daughter is Coeliac (gluten intolerant), meaning I have to make the pizza base - and given the pecularities of dough minus wheat, it’s damn hard to make it just right. More by luck than judgement it worked, and she ate enough for a small football team. One of the more strange effects of being Coeliac is that she never really feels full, so we have to also watch how much she eats too.
It has been tiring, but it’s also been good to give W a well deserved day off. She’s out now with her brother, having a drink and some grown up conversation. Hopefully they will be arriving home soon with Indian food. I’m starving!