So the morning of the 14th was busy. We achieved more before breakfast than I have achieved in whole months from the past. In the morning we had the assessor over to look at the house. She was here at 8.15am, and our intensive lessons are at 9am. Tight, but manageable. Except for the fact that Ted didn't wake up until 8.50am. And when I say wake up, I mean he reacted to me opening the curtains and tickling his belly at 8.50am.
As I was picking up the swimming bags, I turned around to talk to Harriet and...there was Squeezmo! Just sitting there, right next to the dresser in the lounge room! Of course it was chaos as I was drowning in bags and children squawking at me like excited chicks. However I did manage a quick glance over and determined that he had a few facial injuries and what was ore likely to be a soft tissue injury to his lower back. But he urinated and defaecated without a problem, so no neural damage that was going to cause a domestic disturbance.
Where had he been? Well. It turns out that, in a tragi-comic twist that he had been inside the house all along! You may remember that I cleared out the dresser and moved my fabric stash into there. Well Squeezmo had chosen the very spot where I had my stash of new (rather than secondhand) material. Which of course is now wrist deep in molted fur and smells like a sick cat. Mmmm...nice. More of my favourite pastime. Oh washing, how I missed you.
But there was no time to waste - we were off! Poor Squeezmo was ceremoniously replaced in his hidey hole and we made it to the swimming class with enough time left to spare so that we didn't appear too negligent. And while I was waiting there I had the supervisor come up to tell me that Harriet had "fantastic style in her stroke" and that if she was interested then she should work towards being in squads. And as she said "I should know. I've been a teacher for a long time". Now since I'm normally too terrified of this woman to even catch her eye, I just nodded meekly in response. Not only that, but Teddy moved up to the next pool, which is a huge step. It's great for the family as a whole because the closer he gets to full independence in the water, the closer we get to having water-based family holidays.
Oh and sorry - did I mention water? Because we had a friend over with her son for the day and in anticipation of Harriet's sense of frustration and isolation, I also invited her friend Lucy over. And you may remember that we bought that paddling pool the other day. It has been a *huge* hit with the children. It's wonderful how water can change the dynamic of a situation, an environment and a mindset.
Turns out it can also change the furniture and footwear of those foolish enough to leave the back door open when Ted has hold of the hose. The child just stood there with the hose running full bore and pointed it directly into the back room. *sigh* And after there had been many run and jump games, competitions and water attacks, there came the thrilling finale. Watering the back door. Oh, the hilarity. This went on for...oohh...how long would you say, Jade? Maybe a full ten minutes? All the while we watched as Jade's shoes sat in a growing pool of fresh water that was collecting at our back door and running into the vegie patch.
Eventually our guests from the mountains had to leave, while Harriet and her friend managed to squeeze in a few more hours of play. For some odd reason they decided to put on a 'fashion show'. Which was hilarious. There must be precious few things more delightful than a fashion show put on by the incredibly fashion-unaware. I can't really even say fashion blind because that at some level assumes a vision capacity that they aren't using.
Ted, as is often the case, decided to take over the proceedings. I can hear your gasps of astonishment from here. And as much as it is an indication of my lack of interest in upholding domestic standards of excellence, I quite enjoyed the dust motes in the background during the performances.
As with everything lately, it all descended into a dance performance. Harriet was not particularly interested but whilst being cajoled by Lucy, Ted was busy undertaking steps remembered from his dancing performance (which has, shamefully, been yet to make it to blog).
Given that the children hadn't allowed me to do any sort of shopping for about a week, we were unable to scrounge up a dinner of any recognisable sort from what we had in stock. Instead, I offered that we go and meet James after his meeting in Enmore and then move on to have some $3 tacos for dinner. Sounds perfect, non?
Ah, no. Because there were no outdoor seats. And inside is too loud for our noise-sensitive Harriet. So we sat there trying to reach consensus on a dinner suggestion. None was forthcoming. This photo really captures the magic of that time.
And so it was that we went to our favourite Thai place nearby as a compromise on everyone's first choice. And then we came home and shaved the cat's face.
Sorry I just had to have that as the last sentence of hte blog but then realised some may think it was accidental and that I was stopped mid-writing. Nope.
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