How much sleep do you have?

I woke up at 4.30 this morning, to toddler-daughter's cough, which appeared out of nowhere yesterday.  A quick nappy change, and a suggestion of water, but although she was in the mood for a cuddle and a back rub, no water was touching her lips. 

D was fast asleep and TD is a two-person job when cough medicine is needed, as she's so lopsided, crashing into her cot bars because she's too tired to co-operate.  Besides, I lay in bed for half an hour listening on the monitor (in between stereo snores) and both were sound asleep. 

So I came downstairs for an online potter, reading blogs and newspapers.  Logging into Facebook I see that a lot of my other parent-friends are online, too....what did parents do in the morning before 1997?  Before Channel 4 arrived? 

In another half an hour D will tread the floorboards and not long after that TD will wake for milk and Shreddies and my morning routine will consist of getting us all out of the house on time. 

Just enough time to read the Huffington Post UK and another coffee.  

Good morning to you all.

Clever toddler-daughter?

In the bath tonight, and toddler-daughter couldn't get the roll-soap, that her lovely Auntie bought her for Christmas, to work.  So she must have absorbed that neither could I, as I resorted to writing on the flannel for a bit of fricton, which resulted in a spot of colour appearing (couldn't draw on the bath or skin very well).

Tonight, with this in mind, she lifted the flannel and hung it over the side of her bath and began to draw.  The things children remember, eh?

She also discovered physics this evening, by holding on to the drawstring belt on my dress for as long as possible, while I pulled back, delighting in the resistance this created. 

Latin, tomorrow, as she advances her vocabulary?  Or astronomy as she continues her search for stars (she loves the shape, I've yet to introduce her to the night sky, it being baltic outside at the moment)?

Toddler energy

Where do toddlers find all their energy from? 

Toddler-daughter woke about 7.30, and slept for a couple of hours this afternoon (as normal, waking about 3).  D popped her into bed about 8.00 tonight and at 9.30 she was still wide awake.When I went to check on her she laughed, said 'sock' and took the offending object off, then pointed her finger at her lullaby machine so we could switch it on again for her.

We need to find an energetic toddler-dolly that will wear her out, because clearly nursery is not exhausting enough.

Illness and quitting work and holidays

So, sickness finally grounded my mind and all I could do was stare at the TV and follow toddler-daughter in her wake of chaos, kicking her toys to the side to clear a path between sofa and kitchen.

But I'm halfway through the course of antibiotics so back blogging!

And for the third time, a January has brought a massive change to my life and I've handed in my notice at work. Previously I met D in a January, after handing in a job notice, and was also due to meet toddler-daughter in a January.

Jan 2014 and I'm ready for some changes, really ready. And to celebrate/reflect we've booked a long weekend in a Butlins (first timers) for Feb, the month of toddler-daughter's 2nd birthday. Have some cake ideas from clumbsycookie.blogspot.co.uk too, so will no doubt post baking stories in the next few days.

To tidy up, or not?

D rang me from work this morning whilst I was on the bus going into town.  Initially I was terrified as this is a rare event and it could only mean trouble.  Then I remembered that I'd just left toddler-daughter with her Grandparents five minutes earlier, so I breathed again.

But he did have alarming news - he mentioned someone coming to look at the garden fence (which has been battered for four months prior to this weekend's wonderful weather and now is horizontal across our lawn/mossy patch).  A gardener would need need to wander through the house?

Now, I left the house at the same time as toddler-daughter had been at her playtime zenith, and I ran out of time to attempt to wash the breakfast dishes (and the bowls holding last night's snacks).  I planned on doing it five minutes before D came home tonight, utilising the maximum chance of it remaining presentable by popping TD in her high chair just before I started tidying: when do children actually help with tidying up, instead of mucking in enthusiastically and ultimately spreading the chaos?  It's all karma, I know.  My Mum will verify within five minutes of my presence I can make any room look like a hurricane has popped in for a quick coffee.

As my mind raced for excuses to justify not tidying up before I left, a few of D's words seeped into my consciousness.  Wednesday and morning.  Two days away?  I can have the house tidy by then, will just put TD in front of the yellow teddy (Sooty) five minutes before the gardener is due to arrive. Maybe twenty; she does have my DNA.

Now to stop writing and turn my attention to the kitchen.  After I've finished my cup of tea, of course. 

Mummy time

I've just enjoyed a lovely bath bomb bath, full of marigold petals and those vital moisturisers. Told D that I'd be about 40 minutes, and after six years he knows that's code for at least an hour, and shut myself away with Karen Brady's autobiography.

And she is shocking! She revealed, amongst her forthwright and inspirational words of wisdom for women everywhere, that she can't spend more than a few minutes in a bath without thinking she needs to do something.

Yes, run the hot water tap a little longer, love, and sink back down. Bet she also struggles having another hour's sleep after waking at the weekend.

Be good, scrap the diet resolutions of January and reconnect with yourself in the bath- you'll use all those smellies lurking in your vanity cases and spend an hour away from the snack box.

M&S sales vs M&S staff

Enjoyed a few quiet minutes tonight pottering through the remnants of the Marks' winter sale, to pick up clothes for toddler-daughter. Pyjamas, check (the tick not a print), onesie (first-time buyer, will let you know if sleep is possible), summer shoes, winter boots and, because it was looking at me, a frying pan.

Of the five items only one was priced correctly (frying pan). All other items were marked lower than The Computer believed them to be. Abandoned the pyjamas as I wasn't really sure about those, just swiped them in a half-price sale frenzy. Onesie & footwear were authorized by a rather charming Manager who tutted and declared a customer probably marked the items down to collect later. What, and I thwarted their plans by taking them off the shelf in the meantime? Felt charmed by the woman's under-optimism.

Bet there's a disgruntled temp somewhere chortling over leftover Christmas cake about how their stickergun ran amuck on their last day at work.

Much appreciated, temp, much appreciated.