It'snot fun

Just when I thought my days of crawling through germ infested smelly tunnels and climbing up manky pain inducing rope ladders was over, the soft play strikes again. 

This time with all three of my girls now able to enjoy the mahassoove gross space of snot and lingering urine I find myself being pulled in three different directions. 

In my head it seemed like a perfect plan, Maia had been invited to the party, so Ellie, Millie and I would hang out in the baby area, right next to the main bit and I wouldn't need to move much because Millie would follow Ellie and it would be small and baby easy and Ellie could go to the main bit and everyone could see each other. Except, it wasn't.  It had been refurbished and maxed out. The baby area was now the furthest possible place away from the main bit and was huge. It wasn't fair to let Millie be dragged round by Ellie and besides I was *needed* to go with. Look. Look. Look at this mummy. Look. Look. Look at me mummy!! Millie meanwhile was in plastic ball licking heaven and I gave up trying to stop that, hoping my breast milk would provide enough immunity. 

Then Maia wanted me to be with her in the main bit, so we all traipsed over there     but its impossible to keep up with the girls whilst also following at Millie's pace on her ball licking expedition. Ellie kept getting upset because she would zoom off, expect me to follow her then eventually come back and accuse me of leaving her behind???!

Then it was party room time but as Ellie wasn't the invited one, I had to leave Maia there and take a sobbing Ellie away. A few mins later, Maia turned up beside us because she did not want to stay in the room without me. So, it was another family trip in the main bit this time 'helping' Millie to go the same places with a ball in each hand!  

We are heading for the tramampolines. Ellie had excitedly said before we went, that she wanted to go there with Millie. Unfortunately in her excitement, on her way up a slope, she whacked a wee girl in the face. She then refused to even acknowledge she had done anything and did her annoying pretending to hurt herself thing as if that would negate what she had done. I was really upset that she seemed oblivious to the other girls upset which made Ellie upset and basically it all went pear shaped from then on. By the time we made it to the tramampolines, Ellie refused to go on them saying she never wanted to in the first place and sat crying. Wow that girl confuses me and makes situations WAY more difficult than they need to be. She eventually calmed down and wanted to show me something elsewhere and I decided to go along with it and try and bring us back on track. The higher and higher we were climbing, the hotter and hotter it was becoming. I could see far down below all the other mums and dads sitting chatting, drinking pina coladas (not really!) and generally enjoying their alone time -  except for one dad peculiarly randomly running at top speed every few mins towards the play area?? This was not enjoyable. I needed to get down. I needed to find my happy place.  This time I was smart enough not to take the sore bum slides!! 

It really was the most stressful time in a fun place I have had in a long time. 

I think I'll wait till Millie is old enough to follow the girls by herself. I miss being able to sit. Or else, hubby can take them next time. 

I swear to you though,  if I see any sign of snot I am suing! Mind you it's probably my girls spreading this time since they've both been spiking fevers the last few days!! Oops. My bad.

Meltdowns - several
Losing the plot - just my mind
Breastfeeding - had better do what it says on the tin

Day 9 - The Day My Bum Broke

I always try to do as little housework as possible on the weekend to help recharge for the coming week. The only problem with that, is the place becomes kind of unmanageable and Barry has to do more than usual. The best plan is to not be at home. This happened today.

Maia, for her birthday, wanted to go to soft play and swimming. We did soft play today. 

Grandpa, Barbara, Daddy and the girls

I am still amazed when the girls go off and play on their own because till Ellie was about 3 and Maia was similar age, they would always need and want me to go in with them. I didn't really mind but sometimes it would have been good to just sit like the other mums. When young, it was a great way to stay connected with them, tire them out and helped me feel better about taking them to somewhere kind of  'mainstream'. 

So today, I promised I would go on with them as Barry could hold Millie. 

Two things I learnt today from going to soft play

1) I may be too old to go into the soft play now - I severely injured my coccyx going down the steep scary slide with Ellie. 

2) I scream louder than any kid in there going down the steep scary slide with Ellie. 

After soft play, we went to a restaurant for lunch with a whole bunch of family members. 

I now have a brilliant tip for going to a restaurant with my girls. Knacker them out first at soft play!! 

Restaurants are not something we can usually do with the girls. They find it hard to wait for food and tend to not realise yet that restaurants are different to eating at home. We end up getting so stressed at trying to keep them calm and it's not fair on them to expect they can do it. But woah!!! Soft play beforehand...brilliant!!!!

I also managed a first today with the help of older cousin Jack. Whilst the girls were happily off playing, I managed to sit and watch a film without too much disturbance!!! In fact it was a lovely evening with hubby's sisters and even though the girls didn't get to sleep till about midnight, it all seemed so ok!

Except that once again we didn't manage dinner till late so I did something daft and ordered pizza. I kind of hope she might not react to the wheat, but I just know Millie and I will be regretting my decision tomorrow. 

Meltdowns - none

Losing the Plot - none

Breastfeeding - wheat laden :-( sorry Millie