More playdough fun!

Oh my gosh today started early.

So I was awake at 5am writing the blip - that was ok, I'd gone to bed at 10pm anyway. But the nappy didn't get changed until 7am when Charley next stirred. And then - well, both boys kinda woke up. And didn't show any interest in going back to sleep. So we got up. We were having breakfast well before 8am. This. Is. UNHEARD OF.

Half past eight and we were done, cleaned up, dressed, and ready to go out. My brain couldn't cope. It felt like 10am already...

We went to the shops eventually as of course Charley was ready for a nap much earlier than usual, and he slept the whole way right up until we were done and about to sit down in a cafe for a coffee. He knows a good thing when he smells it. He had some scone and a bit of chocolate cake. He didn't care much for the cake. Too crumbly! And chattered all the way home after that.

Home for some serious playdough play with the chocolate mud playdough, even Grandad joined in much to Ben's delight - lots of squeals and shrieks of laughter and delight! Mum and I made up a batch of no-cook playdough (basically salt dough) while Ben and Dad were playing and even Mum couldn't resist squishing it :)

Lunch was soup and bread and pork pies and Charley had his first experience of soup. It was a hit! And a splatter! So he got quite mucky. And Ben, who was really tired having not had a great deal of sleep, wanted mummy milk and couldn't have it because I needed lunch and had a bit of a meltdown and in that moment I was really grateful for one particular mommy-blogger's words.

We get through the meltdown INTACT. AND he even had some lunch!

After lunch, we got the second round of playdough out. That was a hit too - in a completely unexpected direction! I was expecting Ben to stick twigs and stuff into the dough but he really wasn't interested in doing that. Instead he carefully sliced hunks of dough off with a wooden knife, and together we made scones, or little round blobs of dough. Some of these he stuck twigs into as lollipops.

When he'd done I got the dough ready for tomorrow by turning it into the beach - part of it is the sand, I added some sharp sand, and a lot of yellow colouring and a bit of red to turn it orangy; part of it is blue for the sea (I still have blue dye on my hand - oops!), and part of it is still white and we can make shells and pebbles with that. The fact that it is salt dough excites me because with this set of dough I might let it dry out if the sculptures are interesting enough!

Lots of cuddle playtime after that. Charley wanted another nap so I went out for a walk with him and Dad, specifically to buy treacle to make a sticky ginger Herman with, but we ended up with quite a lot of biscuits in our basket...

Charley in his mam-overcoat and the didymos attracted a lot of attention today, all good I think! And I must look comfortable in my skin because I was recognised in the street by a dear friend from over 10 years ago. Sue - thankyou so much for stopping us and saying hello!

Dinner later of spaghetti bolognese and that was interesting watching Charley investigate the spaghetti. He did pretty well although it wasn't soft enough for him to eat (perfect for the rest of us though!). He had LOTS of mince. That went down well. And more berries for pudding, much to his delight. He is a serious strawberry addict. His eyes light up when he sees one. His whole body waits in anticipation. He's so funny!

Bed after pudding, thank goodness. Charley was asleep almost instantly although he didn't want to let go. Ben came up not long after, too tired to let Grandad clean his teeth, on the verge of another meltdown. And I fell asleep too. Woke as Charley stirred and ended up with him crying on Grandad's knee as I had my evening injection, before he fell asleep on me again while I blogged.

And so I'm writing the text to this blip at 4.30am and I really really should go back to sleep and pray that today doesn't start as early as it did yesterday for us....