Today was going to be one of those treasured days in every parent's life, the day (or two) in the week when the kids are either at daycare or school! All at the same time, thus giving you a free six or more hours of clear uninterrupted time for doing all the things that you wanted to do throughout the week!

My wife had work to do, seeing as I was away for the last few days, so she needed to catch up on some piano practice to prepare for a few rehearsals and concerts that were coming up. Meanwhile, I had grand plans to finish my quarterly VAT tax declaration and perhaps finishing tidying a whole heap of computer related things that had been driving me nuts....

Sadly, the day was not going to be the fabled day of productivity that we were hoping it would be. As I had mentioned in my previous post, both kids were sick, and in the end we didn't send them to school or daycare. From the photo above, the day started off tolerably well, with the two of them still in decent spirits and not yet run down...

Our oldest one loves school, and so she was trying to do stuff that she was already doing at school!

The real day begins

Around 1030 in the morning, the wheels started to fall off the bus. My wife had to practice and get her work done, whilst my stuff could wait till the next time. So I had was in charge of the kids, whilst my wife was practising downstairs. That was fine, until suddenly it wasn't. The oldest was good, just soldiering on... but the two year old did what two year olds do, and completely lost it... she wanted Mum... and Dad was just no substitute... actually more to point, she wanted many things whilst not wanting all of them at the same time!

And so we were having bouts of screaming followed by temporary pauses of sulleness...or as I like to think, gathering steam and energy for the next bout of all body tantrum! That said, I have to be a bit lenient, she is sick after all!

...but it gets to the point where you just ride out the storm! Nothing helps, except for feeling grateful that you are in the privacy of your own home and not in a public place!

The quiet

So, I've just put both of them to bed. The oldest fell asleep straight away with no complaint... meanwhile, the younger is still trying expend the last of her energy in resisting sleep. Soon, she will lose the will to resist and there will be blessed silence for an hour or so. Hopefully with a slightly rested child....