This week we will be mostly… getting naked in the garden

Does anyone else have short term memory loss? I fear I may be getting it early. Whenever someone asks me what I did last Friday, I have to really concentrate for about a minute before the answer finally comes.

Did we go swimming? Or was that the Friday before? What was the weather like? was it a garden day, or a house day? A car day, or a walking day? A buggy day, or a sling day?, did Mole and Hedgehog fight or were they friendly to each other? The days and weeks roll into one, punctuated by bits of news, holidays or birthdays looming, and the occasional night out with a cocktail involved.

This is what the past week looked like for me:

Monday: Went to work on the train, Mole and Hedgehog in preschool. Busy day at the desk, lunch in Spitalfields market, fuelled by coffee in the afternoon, back home on the train to meet Mr M&H in the playground, drive home for dinner, bath and bed.

Tuesday: Mole at preschool in the village, me with Hedgehog at home. Dan the handyman arrived (all the way from Derby, blimey) to fix the shed door. Later Hedgehog had one of her marathon naps on our bed and I do laptop time. After we fetch Mole from preschool we go to the swings, where I have a period leak emergency, so we briskly go home.

Wednesday: Into work on the train, another intense day and stayed for after work party. Have sushi for dinner, followed by a basement party in a Spitalfields back street, which served up the most original cocktails ever, I settled on one with apricot and tequila, had about 4 of them. Leave feeling floaty and nostalgic for London life. Get home by taxi just before midnight.

Thursday: Woke up with bad hangover, and have to get up with Mole and Hedgehog to drive Mr M&H to work. We have Mole’s ballet lesson (in which Hedgehog joins in), followed by the swings, then home for lunch and naps. I mainly nap on the sofa while Mole and Hedgehog fight over the puzzle games on the living room carpet. In the afternoon we go swimming and have nearly the whole place to ourselves, it is lovely. Mole insists on wearing her goggles at all times, even though she won’t put her head under water.

Friday: We drop Mr M&H at work before going to Noah’s Arc playgroup. Mole and Hedgehog run between the playdoh table, the bikes, the dolls and the snacks, having mental overload. We get home for lunch and naps (again, I’m mainly the one napping, while being climbed on or bounced on). In the afternoon we go to Woburn Safari Park (I have membership so it features most weeks). This time we bypass the drive around bit, as Hedgehog wants to “GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT”, so I park up and head to the indoor play bit. Mole is now just about tall enough for the blue slide, this is a vertical drop one that ends in a ball pit. It is half way between the more tame ‘wibbly wobbly slide’, and the ‘red vertical drop of death slide’, that even I won’t go on. Mole goes on the blue one about 10 times, while Hedgehog and I watch and give encouraging nods, before the strip lighting and booming music gives me a headache and I drag them both outside to look at some actual animals.

Saturday: I have to be at Rushmere Park for a 5km parkrun at 9am, we make it with 10 minutes to spare. On the way Mr M&H complains about why these things are always held at such a god forsaken hour on a weekend. Mr M&H takes Mole and Hedgehog off to the swings while I meet my fellow racers. On my second lap I run past them sitting on a bench chanting “Go on mummy”. Mole gives me an intense stare with a glazed smile. I finish in 30 minutes, and enjoy a hot chocolate in the café, shared with Mole and Hedgehog who fight over the teaspoon and fish out the marshmallows. Mr M&H does an ALDI shop, and the rest of the day is spent at home gardening, while Mole and Hedgehog play on their bikes on the driveway, get naked, rampage through the house, play with the lawn sprinkler and generally frollick with the neighbouring children.

Sunday: It is clean the house day, Mr M&H does the kitchen while I do the rest of the house. We finish by late morning, and head out to Ampthill Gala Day. We were expecting some sort of hand knitted village fete, but we get a full on festival, complete with circus ring, fairground rides, literary tent, music stage, comedy tent and an inflatable planetarium. Mole went into over drive, she got a balloon, candy floss, and 2 fair ground rides within the first 5 minutes. Hedgehog sweated quietly in the sling and sucked her thumb. By mid-afternoon, Mole is having a hot and sticky meltdown, covered in ice cream and tears, so we retire to the shade where she sits between my legs and licks my knee. We get home for Mr M&H to do some spaghetti bolognaise and put them to bed as quickly as possible, they are asleep in 2 minutes.

So that was my week. See what I mean? One week is much like another, it’s hard to keep track of what exactly we did. I find the best way of remembering is to go by themes. Last week the theme was Eversholt Lido (with picnic on the cricket ground), this week the theme was being naked in the garden, and next week it will be something else.