Lockdown Diaries Week 12

This is now normal. It has now been 12 weeks in isolation indoors and it now pretty much feels normal. It’s been so long and I guess in order to get through it you kind of stop thinking about the weirdness of the whole situation and it becomes like a super extended version of a weekend when you dont go out. Of course I continue to miss my family and friends. The ability to go out and have lunch and a few drinks with mates and have some time to feel like a person away from the kids. It’s odd not going to the shops for random small things or just something to do to break up the day.

Ravey misses the park, being able to go on the swings, go swimming, see his friends and family and going to preschool.
The kids are super close, at points maybe too close and a little obsessional about each other, constantly kissing and clambering on one another. More and more as weeks have passed Roo is progressing and learning and the kids are able to play more complex games together in a way that is rewarding for both.

Since my last lockdown post there have been a few big events, firstly I bought a sewing machine! I’ve always wanted one and with all the crafting ive been doing with the kids and reading about all the single people and their new learnt lockdown skills, all it took was an episode of Kirsty Allsop lockdown crafting and it was purchased along with some fat quarter fabric bundles I found online in Aldi’s special buys.
I have made my first sewing creation, some Paddington bear bunting for Roo’s birthday. Which leads me to the second big thing, Roo had her second birthday last week. My little bubba 2 already! I feel such a mix of excited and in awe of her growth and learning day by day, and sad at the final farewell to the baby stage. Baby squishes are the bestest. I’ve written another post about all this which is soon to come. It was a weird one though being in isolation but we had two zoom video parties with both sides of the family which was nice.

The third thing is that we got a butterfly kit from insect lore. We had little caterpillars, watched them grow and then cocoon themselves and then enjoyed them as beautiful butterflies for 2 days before releasing them. It was so cool and the kids were fascinated. Although I will say, the release wasn’t quite the insta-perfect glorious and magical moment I imagined it would be. Rather we spent two 30 minute sessions with camera poised to get all 5 to leave the damned habitat, resulting in all video footage being of motionless butterflies sat in their habitat to the soundtrack of wailing and tantruming kids who were fed up of waiting for some action. We did at least get one good exit with a butterfly landing on my hand.

Going back to some lockdown diary staples, I can report Joe Wickes remains like a distant memory and has yet to make a reappearance in our house, along with any exercise, I am now a little ashamed to say now that I’m writing it. The weather up until this week has continued to be lovely so the kids and I have continued to live it large in the garden and craft the crap out of life. Our house is bloody filled with recycling creations. Cereal and egg boxes, bottles and toilet roll tubes, all plastered in glue and stuck together with feathers, sequins and pipe cleaners. Thankfully most of these monstrosities fall apart within a day or two so I can get rid of them. Some however are built to last, like the 2ft painted robot Ravey made that has been sat at the dining room table for 2 weeks now. He’s lost a foot but otherwise he is holding up pretty steadfast. Sat eating my dinner with this smiley faced box man opposite me.

What do you do with kids art? My kids are spending several hours a day making stuff or drawing or sticking so piles of it is building up. You have to be ruthless and get rid of anything unless it is of particular importance or it actually looks good. Otherwise you’d have suitcases of the stuff. Sometimes they come up to you all beaming and say “i made this for you mummy” and you look at this beautiful masterpiece they have presented to you and its an entirely blank page with one scribble in the middle. Now unless that’s the first thing they’ve ever given you, lets face it that is going straight to trashville.

I’ve weaned down the baking. Cut back to a batch of cookies a week mostly because I can’t bring myself to go through the trauma of baking with the kids. This week the weather has finally turned and its been mostly miserable so we’ve spent a lot of time indoors. There has been considerably more cbeebies and Netflix going on I’m not gonna lie. TV has been my friend this week.

Si continues to work from home and we are bossing it. I’ve managed to avert any children bursting into any of his meetings and Si literally steps into dad mode at 5pm or for his lunch hour. I had thought that working from home would mean he would kinda be working and also slacking a bit but Si is hardcore strict and works his full hours with no negotiations. Boooo! He has been so busy. I know its been hard. His job is intense at the moment. He has a well deserved week off annual leave this coming week. It will be lovely to have our first week all chilling together since lockdown began.

Ravey and Roo continue to terrorise me as always. The current issue is that they cant be left for even a minute before cries are heard and someone is hurt or some other drama. Ravey has been a full on fournager this week. Falling into the pits of despair and distress over the most random stuff and full on getting agro. He is good at using his words he will say “I am angry with you” and lower his head and glare up at me all demonic. This then quickly spirals into a full emotional breakdown where he begins wailing whilst dragging on me or clambering on me. At this stage its hard to get him back. He can’t even hear me over the blasted racket he’s making. Affection is rejected and pushed away and leaving is met with hysteria and increased grabbing at you and wailing. Rave has never really been like this. A handful of times he has had proper meltdowns but this week has been something else. Roo has also learnt the art of denial and deflection. Its like being at a panto. Screaming kids shouting “she did it”, “No, he did it” back and forth. Its actually hilarious to watch and listen to but after a day of hearing those voices its enough to make you want to gauge out your own eyeballs!

To top it off yesterday at 4:30, after waiting ages for me to finish feeding his sister I turned to see him sparko next to me. It has been well over a year since Ravey stopped daytime naps, and a 4:30 nap is danger zone to any parent regardless of childs age. So annoying, always means they will be dicks to get to bed. Would do anything for him to have a random daytime nap alongside his sister. Ah man one glorious hour or so alone! Wow, just realise I haven’t had any time alone now for months!

Lockdown measures are easing slowly. I wont be rushing out to get to the shops but once those pubs are open and we can see people properly I need to have some me time. And when I say me, I mean me and my favourite ladies and it will absolutely involve all of the alcohol and all of the food.