Thursday 24 July 2008

Its sooo late but I'm online again - Jay!!

My broadband and telephone was off most of this week (BT problem) but nobody phones me anyway so this was not a huge problem! But I did miss the Internet, and checking up on my (non-existing) Ebay sales. I made a huge profit for a few weeks selling 'Acrostic teacher poems' as teacher gifts for the last day of school, but school is out now and business quiet. Which is just as well as I have to entertain my 2 girls and today was not a good example of how to keep kids busy on summer holidays:

1. I try to sleep a little longer as I don't have to take Mieke to school. This is interrupted at 2:00 am when Silke wants to bf (breastfeed - I know she is two and much to old but what can I do). I get up and make her another bottle of milk. At 5:00am she wakes up again (just as Werner gets up to go to work) and wants to bf, which she does, we sleep a little bit and then she is up again. I tell her to go wake her sister so that they can go watch tv. This helps a bit but at around 8:00 am Silke jumps on me demanding a biscuit. I get up and get her some cereal and make toast for Mieke.

2. I realize there is no milk so I mix some baby formula for Silke's cereal and my morning coffee. It's a beautiful day and I decide to take them to the park and then go to Sainsbury's for my weekly shop even though I have both of them with me. But we are out of milk, fruit, bread and most important - biscuits.

3. I made the beds and packed the dishwasher and get us all dressed and brushed and organise hats and shoes for everybody. We drive to the park and have a nice time especially on the new swing which is like a huge rope seat where both kiddies can lie on and relax while I swing them - this nearly put them in a trance for 10 minutes which was also nice for me. But it got really hot (probably only like 25 degrees but I am acclimatising so this was too much for me). So I loaded them in the car and drove across the road to Sainsburys - which was extremely busy - why people were shopping on such a nice day in the middle of the week is beyond me.

4. I put Silke in one of their wandering trolleys (all the uk trolleys are uncontrollable - wandering all over the place instead of where you want to go) and she is already moaning because her feet are sore because of the shoes she had on at the park (we always wear shoes here - bare feet are not allowed!!). I won't elaborate but the shopping expedition was long and hard with fighting, crying, and consuming half a tub of meringues.

5. At checkout Silke insisted on getting out of the trolley so I let her get out, while I packed my stuff (yes isn't it unfair - after an hour loading everything in my trolley, I have to unpack it all and then pack it into bags myself only to unpack it all again at home - what type of country is this - terribly cruel!!) Anyway she noticed one of the ladies who worked at Sainsburys who has Downs Syndrome - well she was so scared of her she literally climbed under my dress! Don't know why, maybe just because she looked different - at least it kept her in one place for a while.

6. Oh yes, I forgot I still had to pack the stuff in my boot and by now Silke definitely did not want to get back into the trolley and refused to hold my hand so I had to carry a screaming two year old while manoeuvring my wandering trolley and directing my sulking six year old to pull the £$%$% thing in the right direction.

7. We got home and I unpacked the car, carried everything to the house, unpacked everything, made a picnic lunch for the kids, sat on my little piece of lawn and had a picnic. At last a little bit of peace - except for Silke who only ate the cupcakes, strawberries and crisps and not even a bite of the sandwiches I made - as usual.

8. I thought after all this fun I would get Silke off to sleep in no time but alas, she ran around until around four pm when she finally fell asleep while bf. By this time I was so exhausted the rest of the day was a bit of a blur.... Mieke made Halloween decorations and drew pictures of parachutes and planes. I ate the other half of the meringues. Mieke used the tub to make an insect catching thingy - very creative she is...

Well that's what I did today - fun wasn't it? And this was the first day of our summer holidays. Wonder what's in store tomorrow.....