What a day! :)

Thank you for the comments on my last entry! :) Jemma, how funny that our "to do" lists were the same!

I did better today with my five things! I decided the 5th one should be "Take boys for a walk" because the day was sooooo clear and sunny and crisp and beautiful, but sadly that was the one goal I didn't make. I DID make a yummy lamb casserole, which two-thirds of my children refused (sigh), and finish clearing the clean clothing piles from the stairs, and get washed and dressed this morning, AND I read a couple of books aloud to each individual boy today, yay! I felt soooo happy for doing that, and they seemed calmer after story time too. I decided today that I seriously need to ditch the TV. They watch incredibly too much TV and it's on for most of the day, and I can't fathom how it's come to this, when I originally did NOT want my small children watching TV at all!!! Also, Arthur is more aggressive and "nutso" after a block of TV, which I used to be as a child too, so my parents limited my TV quite a bit. I was older than Arthur though. Anyway. I'm nervous about what to do if it's not on! It has (embarrassingly!) become quite a coping mechanism for me...

Anyway, I got 4 out of 5 off my list done today!!! Four out of five = very good! Yay!

Neil ended up working till 10pm or so tonight, and the ringer was off on the phone (my fault entirely) so he left messages but it got so that dinner was running late and it still wasn't quite ready, and I was hoping Neil would watch the boys who were getting tired and hungry and cranky, while I cleared the kitchen enough for us to EAT in it and served dinner. I kept thinking maybe he was stuck in traffic, and then wondering aloud where he could be, and then I thought to check the phone, and there were two messages about working late tonight! Oops. So, then it was not easy getting all 3 fed and ready for bed, and INTO bed and sleeping by myself. Nathan was asleep for 8pm, but that's when I like them ALL to be asleep by, if not earlier really. If I'm on my own they just have to go in order from youngest to eldest. Arthur would not go to sleep because he missed his daddy, so I let him get up to phone Neil at work and chat to him for a few minutes. He went to sleep pretty fast after that, but it was 9.30pm by then.

Also, today we had a "monkey moment", the likes of which we (thankfully!) haven't seen in a while! I went up to put Nathan down for his afternoon nap, and made sure the boys had something to watch on TV (urgh!) that keeps them entertained and thus quiet. Apparently it wasn't entertaining enough for Matthew, who did this instead:



Yes, folks, it's the Sudocrem again. Nappy cream that does not wash out of anything! ;) I had no words when I saw him, as I felt exhausted and was TOTALLY not expecting trouble at that point in time! I think I just said his name a lot, and couldn't find words to follow that, and then grabbed the camera as it seemed like the only vaguely sane thing to do! ;) His face was a picture when he realised he was busted!



But he was very pleased with his "cleaning" - apparently that's what he was doing. He told me he even cleaned his hands and feet. He did a very thorough job - not a speck of cream-free skin on his feet, including inbetween his toes and the soles and heels! Here he is showing me his "clean" hands:



Ohhhh it was everywhere. The carpet was covered, and then he'd walked around the room looking for toys to "clean", and so there were white greasy footprints everywhere. He did a great job cleaning Arthur's car transporter:



My skin is actually cracked from the amount of detergent I used under the hottest water I could bear to clean that car transporter in the kitchen sink! I washed endless tiny little dress-up doll clothes (which they got for Christmas and LOVE) by hand, and scrubbed the carpet like crazy. It still is yucky and greasy and somewhat white though. I made Matthew clean the wall with a towel after I stripped his cream-covered clothes off, and clean the side of the merchant's chest with baby wipes (which at least cut through the stuff), and he was very willing and diligent. He was very quiet! I think he knew he'd been properly naughty!





Arthur hadn't even noticed what Matthew was doing, and gasped in a sort of horror/delight sort of way. He ran for the camera while I was cleaning Matthew up, as he takes dozens of photos on my camera every day at the moment. Lots of them come out blurry if he's too excited about the subject, haha! ;) Here's me somewhat huffily cleaning the cream off Matthew's feet!





The photographer (we have LOTS of photos like this one, as Arthur likes taking them, and pulling as many different faces as possible! In this one he's waggling his tongue to make a silly noise!):



And, so as not to leave him out, my sweet little one-toothed wonder, taken by Arthur the other day!



I can smell Sudocrem even now. And it's so late! I must go to bed!

Tomorrow's Five Things:

* Get washed and dressed

* Wash the cream out of Matthew's hair (it's blotted and wiped as best I could, but yeah, the poor boy has had to go to bed with somewhat creamy hair tonight!)

* Do 2 wash loads and dry loads - the need for which is evidenced by the BULGING portable safety gate behind Matthew's monkeyness - it's all dirty laundry in the kitchen doorway, yuck! I am SO going to wash it all tomorrow.

* Read aloud at least a couple of books to each boy

* Go for a walk? I'll try!

I'll be back tomorrow probably! :)