It’s that sort of time again, here it is- 24 hours in my life, this is Wednesday 23rd June 2021….

23:40- Ok this is actually Tuesday night but this is the time I crawl into bed after work, and accidentally wake Clara in the process, to start my 24 hour diary. She comes in the bed next to us and has a couple of feeds during the night. At some point Polly bundles in the bed too.

6AM- I wake up thinking it’s time to get up, it’s not. The same thing happens again at 6:49!

7AM- Alarm goes off. We have some cuddles and a chat.

7:12- Out of bed, let’s go and get Seb.

7:15- Make the kids beds and head downstairs.

7:18- Discover the washing machine didn’t go off over night- great! Set it off immediately.

7:19- Bye bye Daddy, off to work he goes.

7:23- I head into the kitchen and make up Polly’s lunch while getting breakfast ready, it’s honestly like being at work as the breakfast orders are all different and these little non-paying customers are prone to last minute changes of mind. Today is chocolate spread waffles all round but Polly would like some coco pops too.

7:35- Sit down for breakfast. Seb gets a maths lesson from Polly counting out pieces of waffle. I Discover someone has biro penned all over the table and a book- no one is owning up.

7:56- Everyone dressed. Get pjs ready for later for everyone.

8:04- First tantrum of the day- Seb after arguing with Polly over who gets to throw Clara’s nappy in the bin (can’t wait to remind them of this stuff when they bring partners home).

8:08- All clean teeth. Polly sun tan lotion. Polly hair in plaits.

8:20- We read one of Polly’s story books from school.

8:30- I impulsively hoover downstairs as Clara keeps finding bits to eat that are not edible (I swear I’m hoovering every day at the moment!).

8:36- Shoes on, Clara in the carrier, Seb in the pushchair.

8:40- Out the door for the school run. Hear from Polly about her 101 bunnies stowed away in her book bag who are coming with her- all with their own book bags and lunch boxes that she’s packed up for them.

8:54- Home. Little play with the little 2.

9:05- Clear the draining board in the kitchen from yesterday’s washing up.

9:07- Trip on a toy that’s been hurled across the room by the baby- curse and wonder if I’ve actually broken a toe.

9:12- Set Seb up with babysitter Blippi and head upstairs for Clara’s nap. Read while sat on a pillow while she settles down.

9:25- Head downstairs now she’s asleep.

Get Seb a snack. Wash up, clean the cat’s bowls out, give the fridge a quick clean, recycling outside, wall paint tub away from yesterday (long story involving Polly and non washable paint and a hot air balloon!), go on a sticker hunt after these jokers emptied a sticker book round the house, the stickers are everywhere- the TV, windows, the sofa.

9:56- Sort out the girls birthday cards. Tidy the table- a major task on its own!

10:16- Washing on airers and outside as it’s actually sunny!

10:30- Cuddle and a chat on the sofa with little man ❤️

10:41- Seb asks to play with the oats and his trucks.

10:49- I pick up my book so naturally Clara wakes up. She comes down and finishes Seb’s cheddars while he carries on with his oats and I can sneak a bit of This Morning in!

11:13- Do a shoddy job of clearing up the oats so the hoover comes out again! Seb ‘helps’ with the toy one.

11:22- Sun tan lotion on, hats on and off to Lidl we go. We walk through the byes, play Pooh sticks, watch the bees at work, Seb blows a dandelion in Clara’s face which she finds hilarious. Seb picks out a pink donut and is a bad influence on me too, we head to the park to eat our treats and have a play.

12:38- Home. I get straight in the kitchen to make some lunch.

12:54- Sit down together for lunch.

13:15- Seb is doing some etch a sketching and Clara is crawling around destroying everything!

13:28- Time for another Clara nap. Seb is still etch a sketching. She’s a monkey going down so I end up finishing my book while popping down to give Seb a ‘please be quiet’ snack.

14:10- Sit with Seb, we have a little play and take turns drawing on the etch a sketch which seems to be the ‘toy of the day.’

14:48- Clara awake. Bad nap. Needs a breadstick to adjust to being awake as Seb jumps all over the sofa!

15:01- Shoes on again, school run time again.

15:16- Home and an immediate declaration of starvation- snacks are provided.

15:20- I start cooking tea.

15:24- Polly reading time.

15:44- Bluey makes an appearance, so does a second snack while I try and get rid of the Picasso masterpiece off Polly’s leg curtesy of her friend.

16:05- I decide I want to wear shorts to work so realise I need to get rid of my bear legs in the sink. Get dressed for work.

16:15- Get the washing back in and fold it up.

16:30- Sit down and eat my tea while fending off a rascal baby who wants to eat whatever she can get her hands on.

16:43- Henry home. Quick catch up chat.

16:49- Shoes on and off to work I go. It’s a food running shift tonight so plenty of steps.

23:35- I get a lift home. Henry’s awake after a nudge so a quick chat on the sofa. I shove my apron and cardi in the wash- there was an unfortunate ketchup incident just before I left work.

23:53- I jump in the shower and decide to wash my hair too but I can’t be bothered to dry it so plait it up out the way.

00:05- Check on the big 2 and give them a kiss. The other day Polly asked me to make sure I always do this even when she’s asleep, I told her not to worry, that it’s part of my bedtime routine.

00:08- Crawl into bed and of course hear Clara wake up 🤦‍♀️

Well oops, it’s been a little while since my last post. We’ve been getting back into the swing of juggling work and children and life in general so writing has slipped my mind the last few weeks. The kids have been amazing with the new adjustment as we’d all got very used to being together as a family for meals and bedtimes etc so it’s been a bit of a shock to the system for all concerned! Polly has been a helpful big girl doing little things like strapping Seb into the pushchair for school runs or tidying up the toys at bedtime which has really helped. She hasn’t lost her Polly sass of course but these little moments are helping make the sass more bearable!

We had a relatively quiet half term with a couple of beach afternoons and a few plays at the park. To be honest we’ve all needed the week to have a bit of downtime too so we’ve watched a lot of Bluey and had a lot of sofa cuddles too. Bluey did provide a heartwarming moment the other day though- we were watching ‘The baby race’ where the mum reminisced with the kids about the baby milestones and by the end both Polly and I burst into happy tears and had to have a little cuddle and chat about her baby years.

The weather seems to have finally realised it’s June and not October though which is a bonus, although it did change very abruptly so one minute Polly was asking for a hot chocolate after school and the next day I was frantically trying to find all the sunhats out.

We’ve also had the week of cake and birthdays thanks to the girls. I still can’t believe Polly is now 5 but I also can’t believe Clara is now 1.

On Polly’s birthday we worked back to back so it meant presents at 7AM in bed which was a hit. We ventured to the park to have a play with some friends and eat lots of cake. I also had some explaining to do as silly mummy realised at 11:30PM the night before that she’d bought age 4 balloons by mistake. Luckily Henry made up some story that it was a way of saying goodbye to her being 4, only trouble was she asked every hour afterwards when the 5 balloons would arrive.

Instead on Monday morning they were greeted with more balloons as the littlest baby isn’t a baby anymore. We were both off and Polly had a non-pupil day so we headed to the zoo for our first proper family day out as a complete family.

We had a blast and picked up a couple of hilarious anecdotes. The highlight being when Henry tried to take a selfie of himself with a peacock sitting on a fence, the peacock didn’t think much of this and turned around, bitch whipping him with his tail in the process. The look of horror on Henry’s face as he thought he was about to be savaged is still making me laugh!

At the cheetah enclosure Seb expressed his concern for the animals inside- “oh no they trapped!” Not sure yet how to explain the workings of a zoo to a 3 year old! Polly then got into an argument with a random 10 year old on what the cheetah could eat and how it probably wouldn’t be too fussy about eating birds or people given the chance. After the zoo we headed for a cheeky McDonalds where Clara was treated to her first happy meal- most of which she threw at us while staring at Henry daring him to tell her no, she did also discover and then devour my banana milkshake.

When we got home it was time for another bout of happy birthday singing. The big 2 helped Clara blow out the candle and then her first instinct was to stick her face in the cake and take a bite!

So we had a busy end to the half term week and Henry also squeezed in having his first covid jab (such a relief to be getting these now- I’ve been able to book mine this morning)- before we headed off to Roadford lake for a walk with Nanny and Pops on Sunday. The kids are very taken with their new puppy and spent the evening pretending to be Rosie which obviously gave us a nice relaxing evening before the zoo trip!

Well that’s all I have time for now as I’ve got to go and wake up Clara bear as it’s time for toddler group- so excited to be back at these now and they’ve definitely helped her get used to the fact that there are more than 5 people in the world.

I’ll try not to leave it so long next time!