Doesn't Time Fly When You're Having Fun?

I've been home almost a whole week - not sure where it's gone, but there have been several "firsts" this week.

On Thursday, MPLST was in the office, and had heard on Radio Fit Like that Bob The Builder was playing in town. There were tickets left, so I took the chance and treated the boys to an afternoon show. I was slightly apprehensive about the 1 year old, but it turns out he will sit and watch anything for longer than most 3 and 4 year olds.

On Friday, MPLST and I celebrated the 4th anniversary of our wedding but taking the kids (plus the biggest one) and leaving them at gran and grandad's whilst we treated ourselves to some much needed time together. Gran on the other hand, decided it would be good for all the cousins to play together, so had my brother kids over too. Nutter! That's two 1 year olds, a 3, 4 and 6 year old too. Mayhem......

We got back to them on Sat, and my brother and I took the eldest 3 to a fun house. BB struggles to keep up with the older two, but didn't seem phased. All three had a great time. On Saturday night, it was just the 3 to look after - a dawdle by comparison.

Another first on Sunday for BB was a trip to the flicks. Having noted that BB could sit and watch something without being a major pain in the arse, we decided to take SS and BB, leaving LL (and my mother who was nightshift last night) to get some rest. SS has been "hundreds of times" so it was old news for her. We watched a 3D cartoon, so I just hope he doesn't expect a nice pair of dark glasses every time he visits the cinema in future!

And there we have it. I'm already 25% of the way through my leave, and still haven't shaken the nightshift body clock - this was not helped by 3 kids sharing the room next to ours at my mother's house, and then BB turning up at 4.30 this morning to tell me he had "snot."

The next few weeks will see us prepare for Santa's arrival, and it has to be well organised, because daddy is away this year.

How Not to Endear Yourself to Your Mrs

MPLST did indeed return on Friday - my absence from the world wide web has (rather unfortunately) not been because she has pinned me to the bed and has been making up for lost time. No such luck, we're just trying to squeeze in some family foursome time before I go back to work.

I didn't do myself any favours tonight though. We were returning from a shopping trip and a visit to Grandma's for the boys when, I got caught out by one of many floods on the way home. We aqua planed before blowing out one back tyre, and the rear bumper is hanging off. On the bright side, the lads slept through the whole, albeit brief, drama. I even managed to move the car 3 times to find a suitable place to jack it up, got the wheel changed and was home before either of them woke.

Now that we are all home and in one piece, we can of course laugh about the whole thing -ok, maybe a wry smile is as far as we'll go at the moment. So the car (her car!!) is a bit worse for wear. It definitely needs a new wheel and tyre. We'll assess the damage to the back end in the day light.

Safe to say though, that I don't think I'll be getting pinned to that bed any time soon......

Bad Cop Bad Cop

MPLST was due to return home today. BB had been excited to get as far as one sleep to go on our way to nursery yesterday, so it was with great care I broached the subject of mummy being delayed for a few days. As I carefully explained that mummy needed to stay at work for a few extra days, and that it's ok to miss mummy, because daddy misses mummy too, he calmly said "Ok, daddy. I wanna watch TV" and ran into the living room with some expectation that his wish would be granted.

Hence, no blog yesterday as I was busy feeling sorry for myself. None of this was helped by your eldest (yes YOURS) being up 4 times in the night. However, I am pleased to report that he has taken on board some clear and concise instructions from daddy, and last night I got a whole 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Bizarrely, I'm still cream crackered though.

All we could muster today after nursery was to play in the garden. All rather uneventful - the highlights included LL standing at the end of the chute getting BB's left boot in the cheek as he arrived at the bottom. Unfortunately for LL, that was also the same cheek I (rather clumsily) caused him to bang against the wall as we left for nursery this morning. BB was also rather willing almost all of the time to "help" his brother down the chute with a gentle wee nudge at the top. See the pic below.

What I have noticed over the last few days is that all this full time dad nonsense that rendered the normally ever so assuring voice of daddy as useless. What I mean is that under normal circumstances, when I raise my voice, the kids generally stop, listen and then do what they are told. I suppose that only works when you are bad cop. So far this week, BB has laughed in my face when I boomed a lecture at him, and today when asked "BB, how many times have I told you not to do that?" I got a rather smiley "Three daddy" with the wave of 3 little fingers and a toothy smile. It may be in his interests that mum gets back on Friday at the absolute latest....

There's a Pond in the Park Daddy

BB is getting excited, he's counting down the sleeps. Not so much counting, but getting visibly more upbeat as the number gets lower.

For the first time since I got home, it wasn't chucking down this morning. The troops were ready to fall out at 0830, and BB cycled his way to nursery for the first time. I can see me dropping the BF bit if I keep carrying LL and trying to keep up with Valentino Rossi.

So on the ball were we this morning, I was at the butcher by half nine. It's a brave man who does it, but since the wife was away, I gambled on a liver casserole for the boys tonight. She hates it. I don't mind it. It's good for them, so that was the reasoning. I thought BB would be hard work, and although I got him to help with the cooking, he really wasn't going to eat it. In fact, he described it as "yucky" whilst pulling a contorted face worthy of winning any gurning competition. LL on the other hand, couldn't get enough of it - finished all of his in double quick time, then most of his brothers. 2 portions of that in the freezer. Well done me!

Before that, we did find time to sneak in a visit to the park. It's still pretty much flooded in areas, which is unfortunate, as BB had wanted to wear wellies, and I talked him into wearing shoes. We were there about 5 mins by the time he had waded through a muckle dub and soaked his feet. Since we were only 5 mins from home, and he was already wet, I figured I'd let him go for it, and see if I could get a really cool pic, but he wouldn't play along. Besides, it was proving hard work just to keep his brother dry.

Stripped of all Testosterone?

This single parenting malarkey thing is doing weird things. I can almost feel my penis shrink by the day, as both other men and woman question why I am left with the kids. I'm almost frightened to admit that I can do it any more. On one hand, I am making a rod for a the back of each and every man we know, as each ones missus berates him for not being able to have the kids for even a single weekend. On the other, I'm being further drawn into conversations with other mums about toddler groups and the associated politics. I really can't be arsed with all that.It got even worse today. In an effort to keep BB amused, we went to the park, but it rained on the way, so we baked some Mr Men cakes when we got home. Baking??? WTF? I don't mind cooking - cooking is manly. The best chefs are blokes. Maybe even the best bakers are - but they are all failed chefs, so that doesn't count. So far as I know, only Ainsley Harriot slipped through the net - the rest are men's men, are they not?.
It's not as though I've not tried to man it up a little this week. I've ignored the ironing. I've watched football Tues, Wed and Thurs, boxing on Fri, and football and boxing on Sat. On Sat, I even drank beer. But still I fear I'm only just short of having my man breasts fill up with milk.Anyways, BB enjoyed licking the bowls. I've not been able to get LL far enough away from me today to get a picture. He's fine though. We're looking after him.