going away

Sunday, 4 May 2008

Tomorrow I'm off to Melbourne (again) for a few days. I've got no plans and I can't wait. I've been lucky with getting out and going away lately - last night Jon and I even went out to dinner and to the Chaser's war on Terror Variety Hour thingy (which I rate as barely 5/10 but that's another story). Anyway as Denny and Robin had cunningly booked themselves into the earlier show and we had tickets to the later show it meant mum was called in for a few hours of what we like to call 'extreme babysitting' - which involves all of the children at the most demanding time of the day.  When mum got the dreaded call-up she extracted this section of her diary from the last time she was called in for something similar - Jon and I went to a wedding in Canberra and to make matters worse Denny and Robin went out for one of the nights we were away. The black is mum's diary entry, the red are comments from me. Apologies if it's boring for you -but it makes me laugh (and it probably makes mum laugh ... now)  

 09 Friday
Catherine and Jon swanned off to Canberra for the weekend leaving Denny & Rob & us in charge of children and cakes.   

• 7am checked email, checked back yard for safety.  Dismantled (with some difficulty) the portacot to be taken to Denny's house for Jett tonight.
• 8am Miley, Toby & Zali delivered by Denny.  Toby's trousers falling off due to large stash of coins in his pocket.toby is a notorious collector of money and hotwheels cars
• 9am Zali wets pants up in the back of the garden and by the time she gets down to the back door everything is wet and needs changing.She was 6 months younger then; now, she even gets up during the night and braves the dark to go to the loo
  
• 9:10 Terry & Miley leave for swimming.  I frantically rinse and try to dry Zali's clothes
• 9:45 I leave for swimming with Toby and Zali in dampish clothes.
• 10:05 Terry & Miley leave swimming for home.
• 10:40 Zali, Toby & I leave swimming for home- Toby now very hyperactive
• 10:50 Arrive home to message from Denny saying Jett is sick and has to be collected from crèche.
• 11:00 Put Toby and Zali in the car to take Zali to crèche and collect Jett.  Toby is supposed to have a nap in the car.  Chatters all the way.
• 11:15 (after massive road diversion in Kingston making it difficult to navigate to crèche) arrive at crèche.  Deliver Zali, offer to exchange Toby for Jett - not accepted.  Jett looking very pale and sorry for himself in the lap of a carer who carries him tenderly to the car.   He perks up pretty quickly with Toby's energetic chatter.
• 12:00 Arrive home, discover Jett's milk has leaked in his bag and soaked all his spare clothes and dribbled onto car seat cover.  Wrench car-seat cover off to wash it while three children clamour for lunch.  Miley has been playing in the back garden and is barefoot.  We do find his shoes later, but not his socks.
• 12:20 Lunch going reasonably smoothly till Jett produces a VERY dirty nappy.
• 12:45 Catherine rings and Terry assures her that Jett is better, and "we will make sure he has a sleep".  
• 1:15 Terry departs to drop Miley (in borrowed socks) and Toby at their crèche and then play tennis.
• 1:20 After exploiting Jett's talents at putting away toys I reassemble portacot, and put him in it
• 1:25-1:50 Jett howls with indignation
• 2:00 Washing out, dishwasher murmuring away & Jett & I asleep
• 2:40 Awake again, another dirty nappy
• 3:30 Terry returns from tennis.  Jett & I sort out the washing.
• 4:00-5:00 We all fall asleep again front of the cricket - I miss a Computer Taming appointment.
• 5:00-6:00 Heavy gardening.  Terry weeds, I rake and Jett puts the debris in the basket.
• 6:20 Jett and I off to Denny and Robin for Extreme Babysitting.
• 6:35 Find three children in the bath and Denny and Robin at the front door waiting to go out.  They had been fed but there was nothing for Jett who only wants watermelon anyway.  Give him some milk, three dry biscuits and some leftover water melon I find on the edge of the bath.  (Presumably the others had been allowed to eat it in the bath, a sensible arrangement).   Manage  to dry and pyjama the four, including nappies for three.  Then after persuading Miley to clear enough stuff off the floor of their bedroom to make space for it I re-erect the portacot.  Settle them in front of a car-racing movie which only Toby (of course) watches to the end (8:45). The others take themselves to bed with books.  Jett seems happy enough because he can see Zali through the mesh of his cot, but insists that the door be kept shut so Zugzug can't wander in.(Jett was water and cat-o-phobic in those days - he's much improved; now he's just not-getting-his-own-way-phobic) There is quite a lot of bouncing, but finally it stops and Miley is the first to sleep.
• 11:30 Home and bed.

10 Saturday
Relaxing game of croquet.

• 1:00 Denny drops Zali & Jett off.  Both looking exhausted as they had woken at 5:30.  Fed them.
• 1:30-2:45 Jett & Zali bounce and chatter and shout and giggle their way through "quiet time".  The portacot is still at Denny & Robin's place so I can't isolate Jett.
• 2:45-4:30 Potter about in the garden.
• 4:45 Denny returns with all their belongings and the portacot which Terry kindly carries in and assembles.  Played beggar-my-neighbour and other card games till 5:30.  Minor battle over tidying up.  Zali into the bath with Jett circling anxiously (it's only in the last few months that Jett will voluntarily have a bath).  Feed them on rice and soy-sauce which Zali eats and Jett doesn't.   They both have milk, watermelon and ice-cream.  
• 6:45 Both to bed after reading.  Zali falls asleep immediately although Jett yells in her ear for 10 minutes.  Not a squeak out of either of them all night.

11 Sunday

• 7:30 Children awake at unexpectedly civilised hour. Dress without a fuss (apart from hair-brushing which apparently isn't a regular part of their morning routine)  Eat reasonable breakfast, nutragrain & fruit-loops (grandparents' indulgence)
• 8:00 Start to sort out their clothes etc and am now seriously worried.  They appear to have their entire wardrobes with them in assorted bags, also a suitcase of toys each.   Have Jon and Catherine gone away for ever?
• 10:00 Beautiful day so down to the beach.  The tide is high so not much beach.  Not many people either, and the ones who arrive try to move out of earshot of  aquaphobic Jett who screams for about 20 minutes.  Sit him on the sea wall so he can watch Zali and passing boats, and he can play with the pebbles.
• 11:00 Transfer to playground and Jett rushes about.
• 12:00 Home for lunch then a very long and successful "quiet time"  So long indeed that Zali who was lying on spare bed - bottom partly on doona, partly on sheet and partly on pillow manages to wets her pants and everything she was in contact with.
• 14:45 Handover to Catherine and Jon at the airport.  Now for the washing.

Ah - Luckily by the time Jett and Zali have kids of their own we'll probably be way too decrepit to be considered for these sorts of duties.