Autumn time with Mole, Hedgehog and Beaver.

It is Autumn and going into Winter shortly. The woods look like golden cathedrals. I am driven daily to walk the dog among some nature where she can be let off the lead. Sometimes this is during school hours and is therefore simple and peaceful. Just Coco, myself and the bump. 

Sometimes this is on a weekend, so I use the chance to get the house sloths out into nature, aka Mole, Hedgehog and Beaver. It is always a mission to get them out, with much whining and dragging of feet involved, but they never fail to find their wild child energy once in the nature. 

Today was such an example. When I got them to some woods near our house, Coco streaked off into the distance, while Mole, Hedgehog and Beaver started a game of ‘trust’ along the footpath. This basically involved two of them covering the eyes of the third one, then leading them along the path and finally running with them while holding hands. They thought this was great fun and it suited me as it kept everyone moving. 

We reached our favourite spot by a stream, where Mole, Hedgehog and Beaver like to make dens. This allowed me to sit by a tree with my space hopper tummy, while Coco went a bit mental in the leaves. Mole, Hedgehog and Beaver began a war game with long sticks. I was assigned the role of ‘first aid tent’. This meant that every time Mole hit Hedgehog or Beaver on the knuckles with her stick they would come to recover with me. I couldn’t really follow the game as I was too busy calling back Coco from barking at and chasing every passer by. In the end she was such a liability that I kept her on the lead.

There was then having to mediate between the sharing of the ‘best stick’ that Mole had found and that the other two wanted. Despite there being hundreds of free sticks in the woods, the one that your sister has got will always be the best one. 

As it was getting dark we headed back down the track towards the car, Mole giving piggy-back lifts to Hedgehog and Beaver in turn, which they thought was hilarious. So when Mole, Hedgehog and Beaver are involved in a Coco walk, there is a lot more drama to cope with, but it does also make the walk more interesting. 

One of the fun aspects of having a dog is also having to wash them after most walks, as they will inevitably roll in something disgusting. My routine for this is to get Coco into the garden, where her wash tub with dog shampoo and scrub brush are waiting. She then gets a cold bath from the garden hose, standing up in the tub with her little paws on the rim shivering, before being towelled off and let back inside. She hates this of course, but she brings it on herself.

As we approach Christmas, I’m enjoying that cosy feeling, with dark nights, hot chocolate and films on the sofa with blankets. This year I’m attempting to organise Christmas in November, as baby number four is arriving in a couple of weeks. This means that December is going to be a newborn haze and it will be up to Mr M&H to basically deliver Christmas at the proper time. I’ve laid all the plans and got the stock in, so he should be fine. 

Meanwhile Mole, Hedgehog and Beaver have ever growing wishlists, that I’m losing hope of ever fulfilling. I might impose a condition of keeping their rooms tidy of their existing stuff first, before getting them anything else. Mole and Hedgehog are getting much better at this, but Beaver is not yet five and is useless at being tidy. Making a mess is her forte. 

On a domestic level I’ve coped with this mess by writing a very boring but very helpful list called ‘house care’ and taped it to the fridge. It has a different domestic job for each day of the week. This orders the cleaning across the week and means I don’t get nearly so annoyed or overwhelmed. I just think to myself, ‘Wednesday is vacuuming day, so I will ignore it until then’. So far this is working brilliantly. 

In other news Mole has joined the school orchestra with her violin. I am unsure what this means in terms of concerts for the parents, but I’m sure we’ll find out next year. Hedgehog has now decided she wants to read, after resisting this for most of her life, so is reading ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ to me every night, which is great practice for her and entertaining for me. Beaver started ballet classes on a Saturday morning and came home showing off her new skipping technique. Mr M&H tried to copy this and ended up doing quite a convincing emu impression, that was met with hysterics from everyone. 

After everyone is in bed, my favourite creature to be with is Coco, quietly curled at my feet and snoozing. Dogs and their loyalty never fails to move me. She is the only one in the house to wee with excitement when she sees me. 

That has to be special.