Dear Diary- The week before school!

 

 

 

 

 

What a week!

This week seems to have completely flown by, I wish it would slow down. We are all on countdown to the start of school. I think it will affect Arthur more than I first thought. He has really enjoyed having his brothers around him. This week has been a lot more chilled and at home than last week. I think it is just what we needed though. Ready for school to start on Tuesday.

 

Monday – Bank Holiday

Bank holiday is a day of rest and relaxation! if you don’t have children of course!

Today I had a lady come to collect a free cloth nappy hire kit, which I promote voluntarily. It is really difficult to try and speak to clients when its the school holidays. The boys use that time to ask me for things they’re not normally allowed. “Mum can I go on my tablet” “Mum can I play Wii” “Mum can I have lemonade!” For some reason they think I will give in and give them what they want. But I don’t.

After the lady went home, all ready to trial her cloth nappies. We went into the garden to play. Oliver although really boisterous and bouncy has a soft caring side, especially to animals. His latest love is to collect wood louse and looking after them. We gave him a little mason jar with a netted lid, to help secure his woodlouse. He filled the jar with fresh grass, and a slice of carrot and cucumber. Mark and Oliver looked up what they like to eat and apparently rotting veg is pretty lovely for them.

 

In the afternoon, Oliver said goodbye to his woodlouse, and came with me to donate blood. I have been a donor for a couple of years, but have only been going sporadically. I made a new years resolution to keep it up and today was my 5th donation. My first Milestone. I wrote a blog post here all about the blood donation.

 

 

Tuesday

Tuesday was a really early start. I was looking after my neice and nephew K and A. My brother dropped them off at 5.30, I haven’t seen that time of day in ages. But surprisingly I woke up, got dressed and didn’t feel all that tired. I think the coffee Mark brought me helped when he woke me up! He was leaving for work, I think secretly he loved it! as he is always leaving whilst we are all tucked up in bed.

Having 5 kids is a handful! But K and A are great! and kept my 3 amused so it was lovely. We had to visit the drs in the morning, so bringing all 5 to the small drs surgery was an experience. Thankfully not a bad one!

 

We all quickly decided that rather than being stuck at home we were going to have a picnic! and we were going to Ferry Meadows! yay again! We made a quick pitstop at home to grab supplies, change K and A into something a bit more appropriate for sand/water play and we soon set off!

They all went to play and they didn’t need me! That had never happened before. I was sitting on the bench, twiddling my thumbs watching them all playing together. They soon had enough and came back for lunch!

 

Afterwards, we went to feed the ducks! Ferry Meadows provide free duck feed, in the hopes no one feeds them bread. I then treated them all to ice-cream! who doesn’t love ice cream!

 

Wednesday – School Uniform shopping!

The day I have really been looking forward too, but at the same time dreaded. It means that my boys are growing up and about to embark in the next stage of their lives. Jack is moving into Key stage 2 and Oliver is starting Reception. With it being Marks day off from work, we decided that today was the day!

We started at Clarks to get them both measured and fitted for their school shoes. It was crazy busy! but I should of expected that being the last week of the holidays. We were seen quite quickly though, and they staff all kind of knew what they were doing.

The boys all looked smart in their shoes.

 

Next shop Sports Direct, we needed to find a hoodless jacket for Jack for PE, Backpack and a drawstring bag. Sports Direct is one of the shops with rails everywhere! So people are barging into one another. It really isn’t a great plan! We decided to just pick up the backpack and after paying we left.

We went into Mountain Warehouse after thinking we could maybe just get a cheap fleece for Jack. They had a sale (My 4 letter favourite word) and also found water bottles for them both too! on buy one get one free!

Now the uniform shop!

Despite being the only place in Peterborough to buy their particular logo’d uniform you would think they would make sure they have stock! Now you know where I am going with this. Luckily we have hand me downs for Oliver and Jack had last years uniform so we only needed a few new bits. Oliver was okay, everything in his size, Jack however nothing! absolutely nothing! It was really frustrating. Yes maybe I should of ordered earlier, but I thought they would have enough. It will take a week for his polo tops to arrive! Luckily he has some already!

We soon came home, and spent the afternoon playing with water.

Thursday

Today has been my busiest day in regards to cloth nappies. On Tuesday we received our Yumbox lunch boxes. So this morning I prepared their lunches. knowing full well that when the first lady arrives it is lunch time, and they will be asking for food.

My first client arrived at 11.30 and I went through her cloth nappy hire kit. She soon left happy.

My next appointment was 2 heavily pregnant ladies who both wanted information on hiring our newborn nappy kit. It went really well, but was  cut short when 1 of the ladies waters broke! This had never happened before, so excitement and being a bit scared all rolled into one. I am excited to hear an update!

The back part of our fridge (part of a fridge freezer) keeps getting iced. The seal is starting to come away, and the temperature levels fluctuate. So we had to order a new one, which by the way arrives tomorrow!

I decided to spend a couple of hours tidying the boys play room. 2 hours I will never get back!

Friday

I woke up to the sound of the boys playing. Playing in the room I spent 2 hours tidying! I wish I took a photo. They were playing together, laughing and It was really sweet hearing them. The delivery company had messaged me saying they were going to deliver the fridge freezer between 11.30-1.30pm. When the fridge freezer arrived I unpacked  it all and gave the box to the boys. They made a boat and had so much fun playing with it.

I received an email from yesterday’s client. She gave birth to a baby boy, but coincidently her friend who also came for a demo, waters broke too and gave birth to baby girl this morning! It is so exciting!

Saturday

This morning I was hosting a demonstration in Kiddicare about cloth nappies. I try and organise one of these meets every month to entice local families to come and try cloth nappies. We have only recently starting to arrange them on Saturday and to be honest I am not sure how much longer we can continue. Either only 1 person shows, or like today we have several. This past week has made me really fall back into love promoting cloth nappies, I seemed to have taken a step back recently. But we are at the Nappy libraries busiest time and it has been fun!

My mum came over this afternoon. She normally visits every Saturday but recently there has always been something happening with either of us, that it has been awhile. The boys love her visits! and they really miss her when she doesn’t come. I don’t think my mum realises just how much the boys love her coming round. Whilst my mum was here she told me about Smyths Toy Shops promotional offer. Take a Monopoly 50 note into the store and they will give you The Electronic monopoly game free. But like anyother great deal it was sold out by the time we arrived!

Then this happened!

When I got home Jack was wobbling his tooth. Oliver had kicked him in the mouth and his front tooth became really wobbly. He refused to let me look at it, or touch it. He refused his food and hadn’t drank anything in awhile. When I did look in his mouth the front of the tooth was hanging, the back still attached and I could see tooth in his upper gums. Getting a little concerned that maybe the tooth was cracked in half I rang 111.

111 is a free nhs direct number to call for non emergency queries. We love the service and so thankful for it! It means no useless trips to A&E or minor injuries. I rang them up and within 45 minutes a dental nurse called me back. She reassured me that is was all normal process for the tooth especially due to trauma. The Nurse spoke with Jack who was really unsure what was going on. She really helped to elevate his concerns and let him answer her questions and she responded appropriate to him. It was really lovely to see him engaging in conversation with her over the phone. Not long after the call, he went to bed and fell straight to sleep.

I am looking forward to next week. I have another nappy kit going out Monday, and Jack is at school Tuesday. Starting Year 3 as a Giraffe!