Reasons to be glad #4

Disney at twat o'clock

It is a very rare occasion that my small person sleeps through the night, in fact so rare I can count all the times on one hand. When she DOES sleep through it means she's wide awake at 5am. Often shes awake super early even if she doesn't sleep through. 

Sometimes I cannot bear another episode of the friggin' Zing Zillas or Postman Pats special delivery service (special because he's shit at his job and nothing gets there on time). Sometimes there just isn't any kids TV on at twat o'clock, so instead we watch Disney.

Yes Alice STILL has milk from a bottle and we cuddle and everything! 

I put the kettle on, get the milk and cuppa ready then we cuddle up for the film. The older Alice gets the more she wants to move and play as opposed to sit and cuddle. These morning bottle/tea/movie moments are a small window where she will just sit and be cuddled and its lovely. 

It is pure mummy daughter time and I try not to take it for granted because there will come a day when she isn't willing to do this anymore...or she wants to watch the same film a million times in a row. 

It's especially lovely at the minute too because I get to re-live all the awesome stuff from my childhood with Alice...or at least introduce her to it and hope she enjoys it too. If she doesn't? She can empty the dryer happily while I re-live those moments by myself.

Some moments are even better now. Whenever I watch The Little Mermaid I always smile at Ursula because let's face it, she's awesome and because she was inspired by the drag performer Divine! 

Just going to leave this here..

Reasons to be glad #3

Tea. It is wonderful stuff. Along with coffee it is the fuel of mums (and nurses for that matter). Tea starts conversations, it is comforting, it is rewarding and it turns me into a human in the morning. 

I love everything about tea and the whole ritual of making a cuppa. I enjoy choosing the type of tea, the cup, whether to have it sweet or not. 

The first tea of the day is the 'good God is it even daytime?!' tea. It is usually at 6am, strong and bloody sweet. It is essential to getting my brain to start functioning. 

The second cup is the nap time cup and it is bliss! Alice is down, it is 2 hours of the day where I can have free time, do some me stuff and ignore the dishes and hoovering that I really should be doing instead. This cup is like a reward and if there is a chocolate hobnob floating around the cupboard even better! This cup of tea is always drunk hot which is a luxury. I get to drink hot cups of tea at work but they come in polystyrene cups so its not the same. 

The third and final cup is usually after the nap is finished and before dinner is started. It's the 'come on you can do this shit!' cup to give me the energy to make dinner, put the small one to bed and get ready for the next day.

Since becoming a mum tea has become a symbol of adult/child free time for me. I love being a mum but its hard, its non stop and there aren't scheduled breaks...sometimes there are no breaks. Tea for me is a mum break in a mug, a little daily reason to be glad.

Mum moments

All parents have days where their small person or people seem to throw routine out the window and try something new. I don't know about other parents but I like to pretend I'm prepared for it, I can handle this, its to be expected with children but the truth is I can't. I feel like I forget everything and I spend most of the day flapping trying to keep up. There is a fine line between laughing about it or crying about it..or shouting...or all three sometimes. 

I had been dreading today a bit anyway because Alice was due her immunisations but in what now seems like a favour from the universe the nurse was sick so they have been postponed. 

Alice has developed a habit where most nights she is awake for 2 hours in the night for usually no apparent reason. Last night was no exception. We did the usual thing this morning, she plays with the loudest toy she can find while I get her milk and down some tea in an attempt to make myself feel a little human. A couple of hours of this is usually followed by a nap and time for me to get ready. Not today.

Today Alice decides nap time should be sooner then usual but wait mummy's in the shower, let me call to her continually. I ignore her, she'll settle soon I think. Big fat no. 

I give in eventually and bring her in the bedroom so I can put my make up on only due to decorating we don't have a bedroom door so I baracde the doorway with a bin and laundry bag. Initially she finds me swear muttering amusing until she discovers my bedside table is unmanned. She rummages through it and out come all manner of make up and toiletries. I leave it for as long as I can but have to stop her when she is about to empty the entire contents of a face wipe packet. This is met with a tantrum. 

We go downstairs for breakfast. The tantrum continues as she follows me round the kitchen like a puppy. She's hungry, clearly I didn't get the memo about the routine change and have failed to have nourishment ready. The winge tolerance meter is about to explode so in a desperate attempt to soothe the beast I give her some crisps. That's right, my small persons breakfast (or part of it) were some cheesy puffs. She loved it.

I continue breakfast making buying more time with more crisps then I hear a noise. I look down to see her emptying the recycling bin and at first she's taking it out to put it back, awww, I think. Another noise, again I turn, she is now trying to drink out of an empty milk carton! She's done this a few times now and I'm pretty convinced this is the way she's developed to tell me she wants a drink. 

Next is the porridge which goes down well but then dear lord the winging comes back! I can see the look on her face it screams 'where's my fucking cheese on toast!' Or it would if she knew the word fucking. 

Off I go again to make the cheese on toast, moving her away from bins and plug sockets as I do. We eat the cheese on toast (quite happily actually) and then she crawls into my lap and winges because again I missed the memo that NOW its nap time. 

Up to bed we go where finally she sleeps and I drink tea and eat cookies. 

Parenting is made up of lots of different moments. Some are full of worry like the moments when your child is ill, other moments are hilarious like when your child dances to Lady GaGa, some moments are stressful like when your child refuses to sleep...and other moments like today are a mixture of all 3. Although I wouldn't admit in the stressful moments I wouldn't have it any other way.