Sunday Chat - this week in review: Lots of moving parts, tricky bedtimes, cute kids.

This week was another mixed work/childcare week.  One of the tricky parts of splitting childcare with the husband while I'm on a 4 day week is that he covers 2 days and I cover 2 days and then I have 2 day of work and 3 days of kids and that is a lot of kid days.

My work days were Monday/Tuesday this week.

On Wednesday my brother and I took Aubrey and Clara to a local farm / wildlife park.  It was cute but not £30 cute

On Thursday we went to a local splash pad and park.  This was a serious highlight for all:

Clara LOVES water

Aubrey is not so sure - she mostly liked getting her feet wet.

Unfortunately twins did not nap, which was no good very bad for me.  I set up outside Rice Play:

And then all the rice ended up on the patio and then Clara started eating it (it's 5 years old, and painted, and gross) and then everyone was sad.  Then I ran out of patience and we ended up watching some 4pm TV.

My brother came with us to the park, and at 3pm when twins were not napping he went for a nap.  He has been a huge help on this visit, but also helpful in realizing that the daily experience of managing small children is super exhausting.

Before he got here he was cycling 100km a day through France in 40 degree heat.  He says it's way more tiring to be here watching kids.  Touche.

On Friday twins had morning nursery and I enjoyed an hour of Rachel time by doing a strength workout.

Saturday was a family trip to the bike park.  We used to take Lily and Ezra here every weekend for toddler session but I find taking 4 kids to be fully overwhelming so I have not been.  Andy has taken the kids.  This trip had 3 adults (with brother) but it was still a fully overwhelming start as Aubrey scraped her chin on the ride from the parking to the trail.

I know I'm supposed to be more relaxed about kid injuries etc on kids 3 and 4 but I'm actually more stressed about it because I really don't have time to be in A&E for hours with one kid.  Plus there is enough crying as is without broken bones etc.

Still, it was cute.

I rode a blue trail with Ezra

And Lily and I played on the pump track too

At one point (not pictured) I found Clara riding a boardwalk section alone.  Andy was with Aubrey.  I guess that's fine?  Here's Lily on the boardwalk at a similar age, but Clara was going much faster because she is mental

I have very fond memories of the bike park, however I think they are mostly from when we paid £7 each for 2 kids to ride, and not £7 each for kids and then £13 for big kids and then £15 for adults.  We used to spend £14 for a morning, this trip was £60.  Not something we will be doing often unfortunately, but fun for a one off treat.

I can tell life is getting expensive.  I knew 4 kids would be expensive but would like it to wait until after we are done paying for childcare.

And today is Sunday.  I started with a Rachel Morning (YAY!) and went to the gym with my friend (impromptu, amazing!).  I have made a rough outline of my week and there are a lot of moving parts:

This week

• Nanny is coming back on Monday (yay!), but working short days Monday and Tuesday (at least)... So I have 1/2 days work on Monday & Tuesday
• My brother leaves on Wednesday
• Gym with Gym Buddy on Wednesday (haven't seen him since June!)
• School sports day on Wednesday, although hopefully canceled due to heat
• London with work on Thursday
• Last day of school on Friday & having people over for ice cream to celebrate

Things that are helping / things to remember

• Taking Floradix/vitamins/iron is a good idea all the time, not just when life is good
• Meal prepping salads to help get good nutrition in during the week
• 3 Strength, 3 Stretching, 1 Pilates is the sports goal
• Rachel day on Saturday - Yay

Twin Sleep

This is a whole different blog post but twin bedtime routines are still generally terrible, lasting around 2 hours.  This means that Andy and I get almost no time together, and that neither of us is able to leave the house in the evening anymore.  I also spend most of the day getting progressively more stressed about the awful bedtime we will get. 

I started a new strategy yesterday and I am sticking with it for a week - we finish bedtime routines, and then twins go to bed.  If they get out of bed, I put them back in.  Yesterday Aubrey figured it out in about 20 minutes, Clara still took over an hour, but I am hoping some consistent boredom will get them to go to sleep.  Bedtime battles suck. Wish me luck.

Right, that's a hodge podge post of the week! Time to stretch and shower and enjoy the last 40 minutes of Rachel Morning...