With 4 children aged 18 months to 8 years I have found that I become reliant on friends, acquaintances, tradesmen and babysitters to look after my kids. School finally finished the other day and my kids really wanted a bbq for dinner. I was hesitant to take all four of them in the car just to buy charcoal and eldest daughter and boy in the middle were having a lot of fun with the gardeners. The gardeners have known us for years and as they were going to be at my house for another 25 minutes it gave me plenty of time to nip out with A&E to get the charcoal.
Needless to say the petrol station didn't sell the ready to light bbq charcoal that I like to use so I had to park in our local supermarket carpark which is indeed a hypermarket and take the girls with me. We eventually found a trolley with 2 seats in it and then we whizzed up and down the aisles until we came across the bag of charcoal that I wanted.
I headed for the do it yourself express checkout which as it transpired wasn't express and very few people using the checkout seemed to be doing it themselves as they all required assistance from the one assistant. When we finally had paid and purchased our 5kg bag of charcoal all that remained was for me to make it back to the car. In my wisdom and to save time I decided that I would take the girls out of the trolley and we would all walk to the car. As I was struggling through the car park holding one girl, a 5kg bag of charcoal and with the other girl walking holding my hand I realised how crazy I must have looked let alone how dangerous it was. Luckily various cars in the carpark stopped to let us all get safely to the car.
Having loaded everyone back in I raced home. The gardeners had finished and I apologised. Why does a 10 minute excercise always turn into half an hour?
Welcome to Surround Sound Parenting - Two became 4 - The ups and downs on life with four kids including identical twin girls.
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Friday, 15 July 2011
Spice Girls
I had a beautiful kitchen fitted in my house about 4 years ago. I chose lots of cool things like a pull out larder cupboard and deep pan drawers and then either side of the hob to fill the space I had small pull out racks put in. One contains my clingfilm and tin foil and the other side contains lots of small bottles of herbs and spices. A & E are now really adept at pulling out the foil and greaseproof paper and putting it back in and this week they seem to have found a new found love with the spice rack.
The other day I wondered why they both started sneezing but then I saw that the lid was slightly off the 7Thai Spice and they were both inhaling it. The lid also doesn't quite close on the ground ginger which they clearly liked the smell of and to their delight they discovered when a jar is thrown at the floor Mummy has to painstakingly sweep up mustard seeds. They really didn't enjoy the taste of the bayleaves and I am now totally out of paprika and turmeric.
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I wouldn't mind but I have a kitchen/playroom, so right next to this abundance of pans, spices, straws, bleach and noodles are plenty of toys, books and games. Clearly though I have two budding cooks in the making with a nose for fine spices.
As I look around my kitchen I think that they have almost explored every cupboard. They haven't emptied my cake tin cupboard for a couple of weeks but I have just noticed my two open shelves under my kitchen table full of cookery books - I assume once they get even more acquainted with my tools and spices they will start looking up suitable recipes in my books!
The other day I wondered why they both started sneezing but then I saw that the lid was slightly off the 7Thai Spice and they were both inhaling it. The lid also doesn't quite close on the ground ginger which they clearly liked the smell of and to their delight they discovered when a jar is thrown at the floor Mummy has to painstakingly sweep up mustard seeds. They really didn't enjoy the taste of the bayleaves and I am now totally out of paprika and turmeric.
I wouldn't mind but I have a kitchen/playroom, so right next to this abundance of pans, spices, straws, bleach and noodles are plenty of toys, books and games. Clearly though I have two budding cooks in the making with a nose for fine spices.
As I look around my kitchen I think that they have almost explored every cupboard. They haven't emptied my cake tin cupboard for a couple of weeks but I have just noticed my two open shelves under my kitchen table full of cookery books - I assume once they get even more acquainted with my tools and spices they will start looking up suitable recipes in my books!
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Mini Explorers
It's been a few weeks since I last blogged and I realise now that the main reason for this is that Baby A and Baby E are no longer officially babies and have graduated and become non-stop toddlers. I am now unable to turn my back on them for more than a few seconds and I know that if my house suddenly seems very quiet I should start to panic. The only reason I am actually able to write this is because after all the running around, playing and singing we have done this morning they have finally gone to sleep and I get my 90 minutes of freedom.
They have now realised how fun it is to be part of a double act and they have sussed out how to team up and become a force to be reckoned with. They have also taught me several things about myself and the house in which we live. For example I really had no idea that I owned 3 rolls of greaseproof paper until I found all 3 of them entirely unraveled on my kitchen floor. Seemingly overnight A&E have grown that bit more so that all the items that I put out of reach on my hall table/dressing table/kitchen table are no longer out of reach.
In the past couple of days alone I have picked up an entire box of cotton buds off my bedroom floor twice, re-wound 2 toilet rolls and several times a day one of them will come and present me with the cheese grater from the drawer in my kitchen. When we are upstairs they love nothing better that to move the step stool in the bathroom to the side of the bath and stand on it to reach the nearest tap (thankfully it's the cold one) and then they stand there with their hands under the water.
Of course when one of them does something then the other one copies. If one tips their bowl of cereal off the table then unless I am super speedy the other one will follow suit. They definitely know how I operate though because as soon as I get one of them down from the highchair they immediately pass me my dustpan and brush.
Not only are they starting to become more independent at home but they have now realised that there is a whole world out there which doesn't have to be viewed from the confines of a pushchair. As much as I love my new pushchair they often manoeuvre themselves to a standing position so that all I can invariably do is take them out.
I realise now that they are at that great age where they are learning all the time, trying to say words and they think that every drawer, box and cupboard needs to be discovered. I have given up even trying to sit down if they are awake or tidy the toys away during daytime hours but then I think of the couple of programmes I have seen recenly - one about identical girl quads and another last night of quads and I just count myself lucky that at least if we are out I have a knee each for them to sit on and a hand each for them to hold. I may be outnumbered by 2:1 but I don't even imagine how the Mums ever leave the house if they are outnumbered 4:1 all of the same age.
With my 90 minutes slowly ticking away I better go and do a bit more sweeping and tidying so that A&E can get up and run riot around the playroom once more.
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They have now realised how fun it is to be part of a double act and they have sussed out how to team up and become a force to be reckoned with. They have also taught me several things about myself and the house in which we live. For example I really had no idea that I owned 3 rolls of greaseproof paper until I found all 3 of them entirely unraveled on my kitchen floor. Seemingly overnight A&E have grown that bit more so that all the items that I put out of reach on my hall table/dressing table/kitchen table are no longer out of reach.
In the past couple of days alone I have picked up an entire box of cotton buds off my bedroom floor twice, re-wound 2 toilet rolls and several times a day one of them will come and present me with the cheese grater from the drawer in my kitchen. When we are upstairs they love nothing better that to move the step stool in the bathroom to the side of the bath and stand on it to reach the nearest tap (thankfully it's the cold one) and then they stand there with their hands under the water.
Of course when one of them does something then the other one copies. If one tips their bowl of cereal off the table then unless I am super speedy the other one will follow suit. They definitely know how I operate though because as soon as I get one of them down from the highchair they immediately pass me my dustpan and brush.
Not only are they starting to become more independent at home but they have now realised that there is a whole world out there which doesn't have to be viewed from the confines of a pushchair. As much as I love my new pushchair they often manoeuvre themselves to a standing position so that all I can invariably do is take them out.
I realise now that they are at that great age where they are learning all the time, trying to say words and they think that every drawer, box and cupboard needs to be discovered. I have given up even trying to sit down if they are awake or tidy the toys away during daytime hours but then I think of the couple of programmes I have seen recenly - one about identical girl quads and another last night of quads and I just count myself lucky that at least if we are out I have a knee each for them to sit on and a hand each for them to hold. I may be outnumbered by 2:1 but I don't even imagine how the Mums ever leave the house if they are outnumbered 4:1 all of the same age.
With my 90 minutes slowly ticking away I better go and do a bit more sweeping and tidying so that A&E can get up and run riot around the playroom once more.
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