14 weeks! 14 weeks?!?!?! It’s a scary amount of time which has now passed since I first packed up and headed home to start my #RemoteWorking. I swear the kids have both doubled in height during the intervening period and certainly have grown in other ways too. We dance every day, we make sure we laugh and tell jokes to each other every day and we try and make this whole experience as positive as possible. It’s been a pleasure to be able to spend so much time with them – so much more than would have been the case without coronavirus! The irony is not lost on me.
As work continues to ramp up big time, I’m having to force myself to take breaks and make sure I get that quality time with the kids. Today it took just under 3 minutes before I was looking to escape back upstairs. I have no idea how my wife does it!! The terrible twos bouncing off against a five year old, going on 15 is just a nightmare combo!
Anyway, enough of my moaning, what made today’s top 5?
1. Regular readers may have noticed that after a glut of top 5 positions for the GroClock earlier in this diary, I haven’t mentioned it for a while. It’s still been a fantastic buy but the novelty has worn off a little and E is looking for ways to rebel (when is she not?!) I’ve discovered that she actually is always wide awake well before 7am and just sits on her bedroom floor watching the stars on the clock and counting down until she can come through. Think counting sheep but in reverse. She’s somehow messed with the settings however and it isn’t counting down correctly, so she wandered through to our room this morning and prodded me saying “Daddy, what does it mean if my clock says 6-3-1?” Mammy answered on my behalf with a sleepy “it means you’re too early and you have to go away. And whatever you do, do not wake up your brother!” Like that was ever going to work!! 🥱
2. I’m really impressed that in her amazing way, Steph has managed to not only home school E but also teach M! He proudly showed me today that he can count to 10. The words might not all be perfectly formed but you can definitely tell he is counting up. When I told Steph that this was definitely going to make my top 5, she rolled her eyes and said “actually, he can count to 13!” I thought this was a strange number until I realised that we have 13 stairs and with his hyperactivity and climbing up and down the stairs at least 68 times a day, he gets plenty of practice with his numbers! When we want him downstairs he goes up and when we want him upstairs he goes down and when he’s only half way up… 💂🏼♀️
3. As usual, my lunchtime walk with the kids is a real highlight of the day, and with the weather picking up again it’s even more of a joy. M was flat out today and slept the whole way through, leaving E and me to have a good chat and play a few games. She wanted to play the “guess what I’m thinking with only 2 clues” game again but today there was a twist. She decided that everything we were thinking about had to be a fruit or a vegetable. So we started with an easy one (it’s orange and starts with “O”) and followed that up with apples, bananas, carrots, potatoes etc. All very simple. Things took a bit of a turn when the clues she gave me were “it’s brown and it is my favourite food for tea.” I was really very confused but went with my gut – it turns out I was right and apparently chicken nuggets are now classified as a fruit (or are they a vegetable?) 🍉
4. The return journey for our walk was even more eventful as E was on FaceTime with her Grandma. I’ve no idea what was said but suddenly she took off at a run. Now she sometimes does this during our walks but it never lasts. I was happily pushing M in his pushchair when I realised she had kept going so I picked up the pace. And she was still going so I started to run after her. She seemed to still be chatting on FaceTime but that wasn’t distracting her as I couldn’t catch up (I’m blaming the pushchair rather than my running ability!) Unbelievably she ran the whole way home with me struggling behind. She even stopped when she had to cross the road and held up the phone so Grandma could look and listen with her to make sure it was safe to cross. Perhaps she was inspired by Steph who went out for her latest C25k run this morning but whatever the reason I need to work on my speed because she’s only going to get better as she grows! 🏃♀️
5. Something I have definitely learnt during lockdown is what an appetite my two darlings have. They just eat constantly and when they have finished their meals they complain they are still hungry. I have no idea where they put it all! So tonight, after having snacks all afternoon, they sat down for tea and E wolfed hers down. M wasn’t so keen for a change so was just picking at it. Steph turned her back and when she looked over, there was E stealing a bit of his. Waste not want not I suppose. Steph then came upstairs to talk to me and E shouted up “we’re finished now so can we have pudding now?” Steph shouted back down “has M finished or have you eaten his?” There was a bit of a delay as E pretended she couldn’t hear before finally confessing, “we’ve finished together. I just gave him the help he needed.” Gannets I tell you! 🍽
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