I'm sure that I've never said that this was going to be easy.
I'm sure that I've never looked at multi-child households and thought: "Pah. I don't know what all the fuss is about".
I'm sure that I've never looked at childminders and thought "I could do that job"
In fact there was a period when Tal was 4 months old that I wondered if I wanted to do this stay-at-home thing with 2 children at all!
Emma seems to be taking great joy in my struggling today though.
It was my mistake. I broke routine.
The day normally starts with Tal waking at about 0600. I take him downstairs and give him a bottle. We then sit and play for an hour until Emilia wakes at 0700 and I hear "Nun's up. Nun's up" on the monitor (We've given her a Gro-clock for her room that stays dark - with a picture of a star - until a set time and then lights up and changes into a sun, she can't quite say sun yet).
From there it's organised chaos involving Emilia playing with her toys, Tal being put somewhere where he can entertain himself or strapping him to my chest while I feed them, dress them, brush their hair and her teeth before putting them into the buggy and going to whatever morning entertainment we have in store. Occasionally I'll get dressed too. Very occasionally I'll shower!
Yesterday I got all ahead of myself and thought that today I'd go food shopping with Emilia and Tal. I thought it'd be a fun little trip out...
The day didn't start as planned. After waking at 0610, Tal went back to sleep at 0830 until 1030 by which point we had missed most of this morning's group. Because I had put him down in Emilia's room (she had woken at her usual time) I couldn't get her dressed. There was a certain amount of rushing about when he did wake up.
At the end of group Tal was very upset because I'd forgotten to feed him and I hadn't warmed a bottle. Luckily I had the components so I just stuck a cold one in his face and found a quiet place to sit while he drank it. He was less than happy, but hungry enough to drink it!
I persevered though. Off to Sainsburys we went (other supermarkets are available) and I realised that I'd not changed his nappy since he woke 6 hours earlier. It was bulging so we all piled into the baby-changing room (trolley and all) and I realised that my bag was void of nappies because Emma had knicked them for her bag the day before. Back to the car we all went; collected the spares and back to the baby-change!
As you can imagine, Tal was wet, Emilia was getting bored of going backwards and forwards and I was starting to feel a little frustrated (and foolish)!
So we got the nappy changed (I was going to change Emilia's too but in the end I couldn't bring myself to sort that - and it wasn't
that wet anyway) and went to the fruit and veg aisle so that Emilia could choose some healthy foods. I thought it would be an interesting thing for her to do and help connect the food that's on her plate to the shop it comes from. At some stage we'll go to a PYO and she can see where it grows... but that's a whole different adventure.
Anyway, I soon discovered a flaw in the trolley design. It was one with a baby-seat and a child-seat next to each other. Unfortunately the positioning of them put Emilia's hair directly in grabbing range for Tal so all he kept doing was yanking at Emilia's hair! I told him to "Let go, Dude" the first time he did it (Not because I expected him to listen but just to add some verbal association with me taking stuff from him) and immediately Emilia repeated "Lego Doo". Every time he grabbed hair after that, I heard Lego Doo. Lego Doo. Lego Doo. - She'll be saying it for weeks.
Anyway, Emilia got bored of looking at veg and having her hair pulled; Tal got bored of me stopping him from pulling hair, I got bored of stopping him pulling hair so we bought some potatoes and peppers and walked home.
Disaster! Maybe Emma was right with that one when she insists she goes shopping when they are in bed and I am home.
