22 July 2008

With a stomach like a beach ball and my monthly due anytime today, not surprisingly, was not one of my better days. To sum it up in one sentence I now know there is a reason four year olds go to morning kindy 5 times a week. Paul went off to work around 8.20am and as his car drove out the gates the children ran past me, still clad in their pj's they were shrieking at the top of their lungs as they tried to catch the poor cat. That's when it hit me that it was just me and them...

Paul has picked up work for a friend of his Mum's called Margaret. She lives in a retirement village and the plan is that once all the other ladies residing there see what he can do they'll all be clamouring for him to swing his brush their way. Paul thinks the lady across the road is looking particularly keen so fingers crossed. The beauty of this work being that Paul's his own boss and today he was home by 12.30pm. In the interim, once I managed to get the boys dressed I plonked Dan on Josh's lap in the stroller (apparently Josh did not have his walking legs on today) and set off to check out a playroup Pam had located for me. It was actually a wee bit unnerving making my way alone through the busy unfamiliar streets with two towy pre-schoolers but we made it.

The boys were the oldest of a handful of kids that had been going to this playgroup since they were a few weeks old. The Mum's were welcoming though and told me that Thursday and Friday's groups had older children enrolled. Meantime Josh managed to snap a flag off a toy trolley while Daniel was sitting on the floor whining, "It's mine." to an uninterested tot.

I hope Thursday's visit is more successful. For Josh's part I am sure he misses his pre-school. I do feel guilty about pulling him out for the rest of this year but then we go for one of our BBQ's down by the beach and the guilt abates.

A more successful day was had on Sunday. Our visit to Currumbin Wildlife Park will go down in history and not just because I actually packed a picnic lunch but because it was our first family day out with not one single paddy. The boys had a ball checking out the womabats, kangaroos and koalas. Daniel was particularly taken with the koala's (our nickname for him because he is so cuddly and clingy). He made us laugh when we sat down for some morning tea. I jumped up with a shriek when I turned round and found an emu eying my muesli bar. Daniel piped up with, "Don't worry Mummy it's only a pelican." And how's this for a small world- I bumped straight into an old friend from Christchruch, Maria. I haven't seen her in years and there she was on the Gold Coast for a week's holiday with her little boy.

And on that note my friends tomorrow is another day.