Well we survived storm whatever her name was, sadly my work shoes didn’t, but the muddy puddles it generated have made for a very happy toddler keen to soak everyone in her wellies. There were moments I felt like I wasn’t going to survive the last two days though! Yesterday morning was the sort of morning where Seb thought breakfast needed livening up by smashing a Pyrex jug in the kitchen while I tried to sort out who wanted toast and who wanted rice crispies. Then Polly took advantage of the clean up mayhem and drew a masterpiece on the wall. She’s also recently discovered the trick of white lies, “it wasn’t me mama” would have been a lot more convincing had she still not been clutching the offending crayon! 
This evening then threw up another parenting delight after Henry took himself off to the gym and I tackled tea, bath and bed. Polly isn’t too long out of nappies (it’s been a delightful ‘journey’ to get the little rascal into big girl pants!) and unfortunately tonight 5 minutes after doing a poo she let off a fart that came with a terrified little face and an “oh no mummy!”. Cleaning up what Polly has christened a ‘fart-poo’ while serving up tea comes with challenges when there’s an arsehole cat on the loose too. He used this opportunity to size up the plates then when Seb decided he too needed to do a poo during food time the cat took his chance and swiped half of Seb’s chicken! Safe to say everyone in Sidmouth probably heard my feelings towards the cat after that stunt.
But here’s the thing about parenting- it can literally flip in the space of a few minutes. So after a spot of cleaning and several tears and cuddles we decided a YouTube dance party would lighten the mood- watching two toddlers dancing and attempting to sing to ‘Dance monkey’ will definitely achieve that!
Polly is now at the age where she asks ‘why’ in response to pretty much anything I say, she is also coming out with some absolute crackers to other people’s questions. While watching Paw Patrol the other day I wondered aloud why the cats didn’t speak… “because they don’t have strong mouths mama” came the reply from the well informed toddler.
She might seriously test my patience at times (like when I found out she could open the kitchen stair gate, climb onto the counter and raid the treat cupboard for herself and Seb in the time it took me to run a basket of washing upstairs!) but she’s also giving us priceless memories- like reading us a story last night involving a very hungry caterpillar who ate an owl before turning into a butterfly (it was a puppet book so we had actions and sound effects!).
Seb is coming out with several words now that range from ‘tractor’ to ‘chocolate’ but the funniest is the simplest one- ‘no’, as it comes with a frown and a firm hand in the air too.
He’s such a little munchkin and loves copying his big sister. When she puts on a princess outfit he goes and gets himself a tiara and wand to join in the fun which is making for some great photo opportunities that I usually miss because I’m being transformed into a princess too! 
On that note I’m going to finish up, get a cup of tea and watch the last part of ‘another stupid murder programme’ (quote husband) while the baby kicks the living daylights out of my belly button- clearly it likes haribo just as much as the bigger kids!