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.