Our little Clara-bear is one month old today- a whole month! I have no idea where that month went but it’s given us some idea of what to expect when the kids outnumber the adults, here’s a few thoughts and anecdotes from the last few weeks.

There are some really heartwarming moments. Polly loves holding her baby sister and one of those recent cuddles came to an end when Clara started crying, except it didn’t come to an end- Polly instinctively pulled up her top and tried to feed the baby.

Then there are plenty of disgusting moments. Henry went back to work last week so I’m learning to juggle the kids and the housework, on Sunday I learnt the hard way that the big 2 cannot be left alone to clean their teeth even if that did seem like a good opportunity to put some washing away. Seb thought this the perfect chance to dunk his toothbrush down the toilet and I could only look on in horror from the landing as said toothbrush then went straight back into my feral child’s mouth!

Talking about Henry going back to work, the kids gave me a glorious start to solo parenting. In the first half an hour Clara did a full scale puke takeout while in the carrier resulting in a full outfit change for her and myself, while this was going on Seb was following me around crying as he was doing the biggest poo of his life. Polly could be found sat on the sofa singing to nursery rhymes. A good start.

Of course the world is still pretty topsy turvy so normal things like us going food shopping as a family have been on hold. Thankfully last week Henry did take Polly along for the adventure though as Seb went down with a 24 hour sickness thing so I got to spend 4 hours swapping between feeding a baby and holding a toddler over a bowl to stop him taking out more cushions. The pretty side of parenting that Instagram doesn’t show you.

The pandemic also means lots of appointments have become telephone ones, including our first one with the health visitor the other day. Yes it is easier not having to venture out to these appointments but the kids sense these important conversations and go into their ‘cause mayhem’ setting- on this occasion they emptied the ball pit everywhere while I juggled a baby in one hand and a very baffled caller in the other.

I’ve found It’s impossible to take a photo where everyone is- awake, looking at the camera, smiling, clean & photo safe. So you get gems like this, captured earlier this morning, but I do quite like the ‘real photos.’

Also, there is always a load of washing either in the machine, on the airer or waiting to be put away- and the next load is sitting by the machine mocking you for thinking you’d got on top of it all.

The kettle needs to be boiling every hour to make cups of teas with the intention of getting some caffeine, but half of them will sit undrunk where you forgot you left them.

Being awake at all different hours again means that while reading online posts from sleep deprived mums you get a good giggle reading responses from first time mums bragging about their sleep trained 3 week olds knowing that one of the many sleep regressions/teething stints/separation anxiety sessions will bite these smug individuals in the arse at some point in the next year or so.

Going out solo with 3 makes you wish you had 6 pairs of eyes and 4 pairs of hands! You also feel this way about giving 3 of them a bath by yourself- and give up trying to keep yourself and the floor and the curtains and the ceiling dry.

Then there’s bedtime, oh the fun of bedtime. For starters Clara was not impressed with the Moses basket so Seb was evicted from the cot and given Polly’s car bed so she then got a new frozen one. This then led to 2 weeks of bed swapping and sharing from the bigger monsters.

‘In the night garden’ has been employed as a ‘calm the feral big ones down before bedtime’ tactic. If you’ve never watched it then be warned it is fairly mental which I’m guessing is why they are transfixed by it, trying to work out what is going on. Personally it resembles a fairly accurate picture of the scene in my brain at the moment.

Then there will always be bad nights, like last night. Henry was at work and Seb decided he didn’t want to go to bed. Every 20 minutes he just threw his pillow on the floor and then cried about it. This meant several trips in and out their room which in turn upset Clara. Finally at 10pm he gave up and went to sleep on the pillow instead of starting a fight with it and Clara conked out after I frantically downloaded the sleep sounds app- the same one that saved our sanity with the first baby and filled the house with the sounds of the womb.

It’s been a whirlwind month that has given me several more grey hairs but that’s also filled my heart with even more love so here’s to more crazy moments with our crazy little rascals.