I paid back a spot of playdate debt today, don’t get me wrong, it certainly was not a chore having them around but the tidying up before hand was extreme. I’ve made no secret here that housework it not my forte, that combined with trying to squeeze a family of four into a small flat is a recipe for disaster, so consequently we don’t often do playdates as it requires mammoth cleaning from me first. But we’d had a good playdate at J’s house before half term and we had invited them back, so it was time.
I had planned on starting the blitz yesterday afternoon when Girl Lacer was at nursery, we’d been in town all morning and had ended up having lunch there, a picnic fresh from Waitrose of cooked cocktail sausages, bread rolls, mango followed by strawberry smoothie, sorry for the seemingly excessive information but relevant later. The weather was lovely and resembling Spring slightly a bit more and we returned via the park, playing with a new ball Girl Lacer had brought with some Easter money. Boy Lacer decided to fill his nappy whilst in the park, conveniently away from any nappy changing station, so I had to drop Girl Lacer at nursery with a smelly little boy in tow and then me and Boy Lacer walked back home, which as Boy Lacer was walking takes about half an hour. We got home, eventually changed that nappy, Boy Lacer settled at the computer, I settled down with mine for a quick check of my e-mail before the tidying were to commence, phone rings, it’s the school, Girl Lacer has come down with an allergic reaction, she’d turned bright red and puffy.
I had to prise Boy Lacer’s shoes back on and prise him even harder off the computer to go and pick up Girl Lacer, who by the time we arrived at the school she was looking distinctly less red and puffy and by the time we’d got home again she looked completely normal, see the relevance about the information she had for lunch? We’ve concluded she’s probably allergic to strawberries (and there I was looking forward to taking her strawberry picking this summer), she’d had a strawberry at the weekend and had come up in a far milder temporary rash then which we had put down as one of those things.
So the very act of picking up Girl Lacer early totally through me and no panic cleaning was actually done yesterday, I admit I gave up for the day and had a rather nice time starting a new embroidery pattern. So today had to be complete and utter non-stop cleaning until ten past three when I had to go and pick up Girl Lacer, I cleaned from breakfast, stopping only for lunch and to do the nursery run and stopped at three o’clock with the flat looking pretty good. Clean, visibly tidy, I’d even taken time to arrange some of the toys in ‘themed’ play areas, I’d got the pretend baby stuff on Girl Lacer’s bed, the space stuff in the hall and the cars and trains in the living room. I had neglected to clean under the beds and sofa, but unearthing them is unearthing hell, so out of sight out of mind (bless him but cleaning under Boy Lacer is actually disturbing Boy Lacer’s secret book stash, he likes sticking his favourite books there).
So nursery run again, it was the sponsored skip today, I had been dubious about Girl Lacer’s ability to skip but she claimed she could, aptly demonstrated without a rope and then admitted afterwards that it was a little harder one. So she comes out with two pieces of paper, one recording her number of skips, 49 . . . 49! I was glad I hadn’t sponsored her per skip which I had thought about and thought about sponsoring her quite a bit per skip as I didn’t think she’d do more than about 3. Turns out it was jumping on bubble wrap (?), honestly if that was the case I’m surprised she stopped at 49. The second piece of paper was a copy of a letter we’d had last week, with her name written on it, asking for a £5 contribution for a story telling session, I have to admit that I’d forgotten to pay this ‘contribution’ by last weeks deadline and although I had thought about paying late, to be honest this close to payday we didn’t really have a fiver so I decided as it was a ‘contribution’ and the school had had plenty of money out of us that month (£20 and this is a state school!) I thought my forgetting were happy circumstance and left it at that, after all it was only a ‘contribution’. Obviously not that much of a ‘contibution’ if I was getting reminder letters, so I’ll pay up tomorrow (pay day then anyway) but still what were they going to do next, send some year 6 round to knee-cap us?
Anyway we walked back with J and her mum and her little brother. Girl Lacer’s best friend S also walks back that way and it was like a major diplomatic incident due to S being jealous that someone else was coming to play with Girl Lacer. S is owed some playdates here really as well, as we’re over his house far more often than he is here, although with the size difference between our respective houses I think S’s mum understands.
We arrive home, I open the door, Girl Lacer, J and her little brother bound up the steps, Boy Lacer always likes to go up the front door step on his own it just takes some time. So I tell J’s mum to go in, Boy Lacer eventually makes it and I’m in last into my pretty much pristine flat and what do I see? Remember I said how I had avoided tidying under the sofa? Out of sight, out of mind? I see three children scrambling under the sofa to fish out the toys from under there, forget about the toys I had arranged out lol!
Anyway a nice playdate, the flat is now descending back to messy (standard response at any playdate to want to play with EVERY toy), but as usual I’m determined to keep it tidier, a determination that will last a few days and then life as usual will get in the way.
