So......the dreaded summer holidays (or hellidays) are here. I'm feeling very odd about it all this year, it seems almost surreal.....I know that one day I'll wake up and the true horror will hit me, but until then I reckon I'll remain slightly in denial!
Last summer I took a photo of the kids (nearly) every day and put them up on Facebook as a kind of project, something to help me see the endless days gradually disappearing I think! Simon did his brilliant Beard Project; shaving right at the start of the holidays and taking a pic every day, proving to the world that his facial hair does grow freakishly slowly! My dad shaved every other day when I was a kid, and still does I think; despite having hardly any hair on his head it obviously appears rapidly on his face. I'm still stunned that Simon can go literally weeks without shaving and still not develop a full beard, look out for him in the Guinness Book of records as the man with the slowest growing facial hair! Seriously, I easily get through more razors than he does, it might be best not to discuss my shaving habits here though.....
So, as Simon has embarked on The Beard Project Year 2, I thought I should do something myself.....not wanting to bore everyone on Facebook with daily photos of my kids again, I thought about keeping a sort of summer diary within this blog. It'll be a place for me to vent, and maybe kind of cool to look back on if I survive the next few weeks! Admittedly I've failed in my task already as Week 1 is already over (thank the good Lord) but I can back date it......so here goes......
SATURDAY 24TH JULY 2010
The kids officially finished yesterday, although as I previously mentioned, Darcie missed the last week of term due to chickenpox and has therefore been delighting us with her presence for a whole week. Loads better but still very spotty, she swings between screaming to go out, and screaming to stay indoors because she's embarrassed about her spots. Eventually we got the kids ready and headed for Victoria Park, a lovely park right in the centre of Portsmouth. It's one of my favourite places to hang out with the kids, loads of space, gorgeous flowers and trees and the whole area is secluded and peaceful somehow, despite being in the town centre and slap bang opposite the main railway station! There's an animal enclosure with various birds, including a stunning peacock and the recent addition of peacock babies which are unbelievably cute. I'm definitely coming back as a peacock in my next life! There are also rabbits and guinea pigs which are constantly surrounded by hoards of grubby kids, all desperately shoving carrots, lettuce and celery at them. My own kids love feeding the animals too, and went to the park via Asda, spending a fortune on "guinea pig food" plus some picnic stuff for ourselves as well.
Several pubs in the centre of Portsmouth display old photos of Victoria Park, which I find fascinating - it's one of those places which has been around forever, and I remember seeing a framed print of women pushing babies around there in the early 1900's. It's weird thinking about all the thousands of children who must have run around there, and how different life is today.
Darcie and Harvey had a great time with the animals, then we had our picnic (well to be accurate three of us ate while Harvey fed his lunch to the goldfish who live in the fountain) they burned off some energy in the play area, which only appeared last summer, previously there were no swings, etc. which is unusual for a park but kind of nice in an odd way. Harvey enjoyed tormenting his sister on the pretend (and very cool) train, while Simon took photos and I generally lazed around eating sweets.
After a couple of hours the kids had had enough so we headed to the shops, much to Darcie's disgust - she only likes shops if she knows for certain she's getting something big and expensive. Things were going well until we entered a shop selling DVD's, wii games, etc. - Simon was browsing and as the kids were hanging around near the stairs I asked if they'd like to have a look downstairs. Darcie was moody already as apparently people were staring at her spots, and it seemed this was the final straw for her; she randomly shrieked something along the lines of "I'm so scared, you're going to throw me down the stairs again!" I was truly stunned as I'd simply asked if she wanted to look downstairs, and have honestly never thrown her down a flight of stairs in her life, although to be honest sometimes its been tempting.
Being a busy Saturday afternoon, and a popular store, the place was packed, and a woman had clearly overheard what my darling daughter had said. The woman stopped dead and looked at me with a mixture of horror and disgust, clearly appalled that I'd previously chucked my child downstairs and was preparing to do it again. I was embarrassed and simply couldn't believe what Darcie had said, we all know kids do strange things sometimes, but it was just so random. I was majorly hacked off and told her so, cue more major moods and plenty of running around generally acting like a two-year-old from my beloved daughter. The scary part though is that I think Darcie genuinely believed I was about to push her down a flight of stairs, and I'd done that previously.
As a slightly odd punishment I then ensured we spent ages in Tescos (supermarkets are apparently the most boring places on earth) and took great delight in refusing point blank to buy Darcie an iCarly microphone (£9 for a piece of complete tat, of course I'd have begged my mum for it too when I was 8) which resulted in me being crowned Meanest Mum of the Century.
SUNDAY 25TH JULY 2010
Still stinging from the previous days accusation, I was extremely reluctant to do much with Darcie - I always think Sundays are weird days for taking kids out. In fact Sundays are pretty weird days anyway, in my opinion.
My announcement that we were going to have a Quiet Day Indoors was met with screams and death threats, so we did eventually venture to a little park (the kids call it the Green Park for some reason, which always reminds me of a London Underground station) It was a long, tedious day and Darcie was in a fool mood for most of it - eventually her immature behaviour angered Simon so much that he found a "I am 2" badge which I think was Harvey's, and made her wear it while we were out. The idea was to embarrass Darcie and make her see how silly she is sometimes, but as usual the plan didn't work and she walked around with her hand clamped over the badge, moaning continuously that it made her hot. Of course a tiny badge can't possibly make someone hot, but as always Darcie was right and we were all unbelievably mean and cruel, victimising her for no reason. Okay so the badge thing might have been slightly horrible, but believe me, she deserved much worse! (like being pushed down a flight of stairs maybe....joke!)
MONDAY 26TH JULY 2010
Our local library had a childrens event on this morning, Alien Creation, which I'd read about a few days previously. Basically a craft session lasting a couple of hours, making aliens, and doing other activities - obviously other kids would be there, and I thought Darcie & Harvey might enjoy it so in an unusual burst of organisation I'd acquired two tickets for the event (although technically Harvey was too young as it was for 5-12 year olds but I ignored that)
After the usual arguments we managed to get to the library for 10.30am, and the kids really enjoyed themselves. Lots of other children were there and it was fairly well organised, I felt desperately sorry for the bloke running it though and was reminded once again why I will never, ever work with children. Darcie and Harvey made some cool aliens and it gave them something to do, signed Darcie up for the summer reading scheme afterwards although I doubt she has any intention of actually reading the books! The lovely woman organising it gave both kids funky bookmarks and stickers though, so they were pleased.
Grabbed some lunch stuff and headed home, much to Darcie's displeasure but I had an absolute ton of housework to do, and stuff to organise in preparation for the next day.....
TUESDAY 27TH JULY 2010
My mum had been offering/threatening for days to come over and collect Darcie so she could spend some time in Selsey with them. Initially we wanted to wait until we'd got a bit further into the holidays, but Darcie was desperate to go and to be honest we felt we'd all benefit from some time apart.
So today was the day, I like seeing my mum of course (just in case she's secretly reading this) but it's such hard work. She isn't overly hard work herself, all she asks for normally is cups of tea and the odd meal, but the preparation is a killer. We dash around desperately cleaning up to create the impression that housework is done regularly, and not just when she's due to come over. I've been known to hide dirty washing as I'm so ashamed of my giant tower of laundry, and random other things get hidden too. Our bedroom is the main place for shoving anything we don't want her to see, i.e. bags of dirty clothes, objects which make the place look even messier, etc. and I do my very best to ensure mum doesn't ever enter our room. The door is kept closed at all times and we often joke that my parents must wonder what on earth we keep in there. I've had to physically block my mum from entering that room and often use distraction techniques whenever I suspect she's thinking about attempting to go in there.
So after working continuously all Monday afternoon, evening, all night and the whole of Tuesday morning (well it damn well felt like that's what we did anyway) the place was just about acceptable, provided my mum didn't look at the walls, floor, windows, under any beds, or open any cupboards. By the time she and Darcie got onto the train around 3pm we were completely exhausted mentally and physically. I like to think that when my kids eventually move into their own places (hopefully sooner rather than later) they'll also spend days preparing for my visit, of course if any rooms are sealed off I'll immediately know why, and make a point of running in there the second their backs are turned!
WEDNESDAY 28TH JULY 2010
Simon, Harvey and I freely admit to thoroughly enjoying the peace whenever Darcie goes away; it's lovely not having the screams and moods although Harvey is fairly high maintenance himself in a different way. It's good knowing that Darcie's happy and enjoying herself, and horrible as it sounds, things are so much more relaxed when she isn't here.
However, I miss her. It's very strange not having my child at home with me, a very odd feeling and not one I really like. She never totally leaves my thoughts, I find myself wondering what she's doing, if she's okay, and then there's the tremendous guilt because as I said, we're happy when she's not here. It shouldn't be like that, but it is. Of course sometimes we're happy when she is at home, and the family isn't complete without her, but things are so much easier when she stays with my parents.
Harvey really, really misses Darcie, and is demanding which is hard to cope with sometimes. Simon suggested taking him to the cinema this afternoon, so we headed up to Gunwharf Quays, home to the famous Spinnaker Tower, one of the main landmarks of Portsmouth which they started building around the time Darcie was born.
We had lunch at our favourite Chinese restaurant and weighed up the pros and cons of taking Harvey to the cinema. He swayed between wanting to go, and not being overly bothered, and we were concerned about paying out a small fortune and then having him moaning that he wanted to leave after ten minutes! Harv doesn't have the concentration span Darcie had when she was his age, so eventually we decided against the cinema. Instead we took the Gosport Ferry to Gosport (obviously) only a ten-minute trip but Harvey's first time on a boat and he thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a mooch around Gosport (haven't been there for years) before jumping back on the ferry and bringing our exhausted little boy home to bed.
THURSDAY 29TH JULY 2010
A fairly quiet day today, had a lovely chat to Darcie on the phone this morning - she always phone us twice a day when she's with my parents and is lovely to talk to. I often think how young Darcie sounds on the phone, and remember that she's just a little girl still really.
Took Harv into town, popped into the library, treated him to a couple of little toys and Macdonalds for tea. He's been quite tired all day, think his first experience of a boat wore him out! He chose a Thomas the tank engine DVD from the library, soooo boring but at least it kept him occupied for a while when we got back!
FRIDAY 30TH JULY 2010
Took Harvey to Southsea on the bus today, as he wanted to see the sea! I used to live around there as a student and it always brings back some happy memories of carefree days. We took a picnic which Harvey again refused to eat, but we had fun feeding the sea with pebbles and seaweed. He's such a sweet little boy, always wanting to do things with me which makes such a change from the blatant hatred which I often get from Darcie.
We checked out the boating lake, the real swans have been replaced with little boats shaped like swans and ducks, for the sum of £6 one can pedal one of these strange contraptions around the boating lake for 5 minutes! I don't like swans but am slightly concerned about where they've gone? Harvey initially wanted a go on a duck boat, but thankfully changed his mind - I found the whole idea of attempting to control it while everyone watched frankly terrifying!
Harv played in the park and we took him in the arcades, he loves the penny machines and has a tendancy to win which infuriates Darcie whenever she's with us. We stuffed ourselves on ice cream and generally had a lovely afternoon by the sea. There's a model village nearby which Darcie is desperate to visit, plus a new splash park which simply consists of sprinklers which kids can dance around wearing swimming costumes (paedophiles dream come true) we'll go back there at some point this summer so the kids can have a go.
SATURDAY 31ST JULY 2010
Darcie came home today, my mum brought her back mid afternoon. I was very happy to see her again, and Harvey was over the moon to have his playmate back! As usual though, Darcie just about held it together while mum was here, but the second she attempted to leave the screaming started. She begged my mum not to go which upset everyone and then screamed herself into oblivion all evening. I was informed that I'm horrible and Darcie hates me and hates living here. This is the child who spent days telling me how much she missed me, and apparently pretended that a photo of me in my parents lounge was in fact a webcam and I could see her. I couldn't calm her down so she ended up screaming herself to sleep. I hate it when that happens, I feel so horrible and realise that I am in many ways a truly useless mother.
SUNDAY 1ST AUGUST 2010
Today was okay, we took the kids to the rec, a large park about 2o minutes away. They played for a bit, then we walked to Krazy Kaves, an indoor play centre which I've mentioned before on here. Harvey bumped into his friend from nursery James, who had his party at Krazy Kaves a few months ago, one of my blog entries was mainly about that party! They had fun, and then once again we headed to Macdonalds for tea. Darcie was kept busy for most of the day, so not much opportunity for screaming although she squeezed a couple of moods in.
Tomorrow is Blood Test day for her, I know she dreads these occasions and I understand why. I'd have hated it too as a kid, and I still don't like things like that. Darcie has to have blood tests and a consultant appointment every six months as she has an under active thyroid, and she's incredibly worked up about tomorrow and the blood test. I really, honestly, sympathise, but she needs to realise that people have it much worse than her, some kids spend months in hospital. Of course not many 8-year olds realise how lucky they are, but I keep trying to explain that her life isn't as bad as she thinks it is.
I hate taking Darcie for her blood test, as much as she winds me up at times, it's horrible watching someone stick needles into your child. I know it'll be over soon, but I wish it was over now.
Hiya, I started reading this post the other day, but had to take a break from it as my baby wanted attention... i know! How rude of him! But I got back to reading your posts today, and I have to say, I love your style of writing. You make me laugh, and smile, you make me want to hug you and simon! Oh and I so sympathise with you! It must be so difficult for you both with your tots. But the reason I had to comment, the part with your mum coming over! My parents visit every couple of months, and when they come I have a few days mild tidying, then the night/morning before I go through this manic phase of cleaning and tidying EVERYTHING. I think given the chance I'd put hubby and mini troll on a shelf so they cant make more mess! But then I do the same for when anyone comes over, yesterday I scrubed mini troll and his walker down because he was covered in rusk and the BT man was coming lol. (just cos i didnt want him thinking i was a scruffy mummy) It is exhausting preparing for people coming, and yet its ridiculous at the same time! PLEASE keep writing your blog! It makes me smile to see there is another female in the world who is sanely insane!
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