19th August 2015

The Joy of Poo

This morning my 6 week old had an explosive poo.  The production was almost orchestral.  I felt relieved as he hasn't produced one in several days, and I had a premonition that today was going to be a good day.

But it didn't start that way: I felt unusually tired after being up with Mr Mouth every two hours, despite going to sleep early (like 9:20) last night.  And the poo had decorated his pajamas - which meant rinsing them out and taking them downstairs to the laundry room - which reminded me that our washing machine had had a fault message flashing that I was too tired to do anything about last night - which sent me digging for the users manual and looking up the instructions - which had me on my hands and knees peering at the bottom of the appliance trying to figure out how to open the hatch to clean the pump filter - which had me scrabbling for old rags and towels to mop up the floor when the container I chose didn't catch all the water from the hatch.

I look at my watch.  6:45am.  Great.

Then from my prostrate position, I hear from over my shoulder behind me, 'Mommy, I'm hungry.'

I love having a toddler who can follow verbal instructions.  'Okay sweetheart, we'll have breakfast.  Can you go call your Daddy for me?'

'DAAAAAaaaaaAAAaaaDdy!  MAAAaaaawwMMY...'

'No, I mean, go upstairs and ask him...Oh.'

and Simon appears over F's shoulder and after a couple of attempts, I finally communicate to him what I am trying to accomplish....

Fortunately, it was a fairly straight-forward fix and it only took about 20-30 minutes to do, during which my Mister Baby Poo-master slept like a, well, like a baby and Simon and F and I had breakfast together.  Then, I was able to continue to cycle round the loads of laundry.

After we took Simon to work this morning and ran a couple of errands, we went up to a local community family hub/centre/cafe that has an incredibly inexpensive and well-talked about nursery.  They only run 2 hour sessions (10-12 and 1-3, I think) and you can only book your child into 2 sessions a week, but they are like £2 an hour.  (Contrast to the regular nursery where we pay almost £20 for an 8-12 session.) Add to it a very good cafe and free wifi and boom - perfect.  I had booked F into just a settle-in session today from 10:30-11:30, and I was pleased with how well stocked the nursery was and how excited F was about the toys.  We had lunch there afterwards and she kept asking if she could go back and play 'with the big dog' (there was a stuffed animal dog bigger than her) after lunch.  I told her we weren't on the list this afternoon, but I would put her name on the list for next week.

But aside from just having a bit of flexibility to sit down and work (I made some phone calls and filled in some paperwork while she played next door) it was a great atmosphere because other people in the cafe were so willing to just chat.  There was a lady there whose daughter was in the creche as well and we just started chatting away.  Granted, having a baby is a great ice-breaker.  :-)  The people running the cafe were soo nice.  Great to know about and something I think we'll try to do fairly regularly.

We came home via tesco and a charity shop.  Hit the jackpot.  F's been on a growth spurt and I hadn't got her a winter coat this year yet.  You know when you get a feeling - 'yeah, I'll just turn in here and see what they've got.'  Well.  Gorgeous smart hooded black wool walking coat from a semi-designer shop age 3-4, dry clean only, but looking practically brand new = £4.99?  Yes please.  Then, hidden behind some atrocious looking fashion mistakes, a waterproof hooded navy fleece-lined puffy Hello Kitty snow-type jacket, age 4-5 = £5.99?  Winter - do your worst.  A play coat and a smart coat.
('She has no fear for the winter for her household are all clothed in scarlet....?'  Or something akin to that.)

Titus was a jewel throughout this whole time.  He was asleep when we got to Dr Bells, woke up 30 minutes after I dropped F in the creche, then nursed for 20 minutes, then was wide eyed and happy all through lunch and even when we got back into the stroller to walk back, then dozed off while shopping and only really woke up again once we were back home, when the cycle repeated itself.  Hardly an ooch today - hence the magic of poo!  His tummy felt good!

After a busy morning (we also picked up a few essential sundries in Tesco - ha ha, like MILK!) we watched Frozen this afternoon to have a rest.  Titus was just entering his drowsing off phase again when we left the house for the first Explorers of the year.  Fantastic to see everyone and feel more engaged than I've been able to for a good while.  R has some company staying for the next few weeks, A was telling me a little about D's feeding, H is waiting to close on their new *house*, C was new to Explorers and telling us a bit about their family's story, R is expecting a baby in February(!), N and H were cooing over Titus... and again, the kids were happy.  Titus was settled, F was playing really sweetly with and around the other kids.

I was expecting, after such a model day, to have all hell break loose once we got home, but I was able to get dinner started in really relative peace.  T wasn't fussy.  F and I had a power-struggle, but that was because she was getting really tired and hungry (and besides, I won.)  Simon and I bathed Titus and then I snoogled him up in a nice fleecy sleepsuit with his hair all sticking up fluffy and weird.  Then, bedtime and *both* kids asleep by 8:30pm?  Wha...?

Oh and on top of all that.  Joy.  Titus had another poo this evening.