Apologies for the late post for last week (or the early post for this week, depending on your point of view!) but it’s been a tough week folks!

Image credit: Corbis Corporation

The end of the holidays on Monday brought the Christmas decorations down and with it a bit of spring cleaning – you know how it is, as you hoover up the last of the glitter, tinsel and pine needles dropped by the tree and notice a little extra fluff accumulated where it wasn’t before… Tsk! No matter how ordered the house looks at this point, I can’t help but feel glum at having to get through the rest of January’s dark days with no twinkle lights to cheer us.

Then it was the first day back at work after a break of almost two whole weeks (benefit of working part-time!) on Traumatic Tuesday, which was always going to be a shock to the system. This year it wasn’t just a shock to my system though, it was a shock to the Little Chap’s too. That’s not to say it didn’t rock his little boat last year, but this year, now he is three, we have increased the number of hours he goes to nursery/daycare, starting with a five hour stint from 8am on Tuesday. You can imagine how easy it was to get him up and dressed! Oh boy…!

And so we moved on to Win It Wednesday for more of the same. It all went swimmingly, despite the Little Chap being so exhausted that he didn’t really want to get out of bed. Not surprising having taken on board so many changes in his life the day before – Daddy not being there when we wakes up – being made to get dressed before going downstairs – not being promised TV while we get breakfast – having to leave the house before 8am – nursery on a Tuesday not a Wednesday – only seeing Grannie Daycare for half a day and apparently – not being offered a post lunch nap at nursery, despite my special request that he have one! I did eventually get him out of bed, sit him on the potty, helped him undress/dress himself without any scraps or harsh words to each other.

The Little Chap even managed to brush his teeth without saying “I don’t want to!” before I noticed that he had a really sore looking patch of rough, dry, chapped red skin on his chin from dribbling when he sucks fingers/thumb/anything else he feels the need to chew on. Being a caring kind of Mummy, I thought it might benefit from a dab of gentle non-sting Vaseline, which would soothe and moisturise it back to health but also act as a bit of a barrier against any further dribble for the rest of the day. Needless to say, the Little Chap  thought otherwise. Needless to say, I quite lost my sense of humour at this point when, in order to administer said greasy stuff, I had to almost wrestle to the floor a small feisty person doing a darned good impression of an octopus while screaming loudly at the top of his lungs about how he didn’t want any. Like I need that before coffee 8 o’clock in the morning!

Roll on Thursday and the end of my working week. This was also the end of the Little Chap’s week at nursery and I had made him a little chart to show him the tasks of the day and the order in which we complete them, with space for him to stick a sticker on completion of each one – I thought it might help to reinforce some expectations and re-establish our normal routine while making it feel more like a game for him.  It seemed to work as he eagerly completed each task and stuck on a sticker.

Then it all went a bit wrong. He went to daycare and my day started to fall apart. I only work a half day on a Thursday, usually leaving the office by 1pm latest to get home around 2pm. With this in mind, I had organised a grocery delivery for 3-4pm and had a list as long as my arm of all those annoying wee chores I wanted to do before collecting him. However, due to a particularly hectic morning of meetings, unexpected visitors, a catch up with my boss and a couple of tricky jobs to sort out, it was 1 o’clock before I managed to type my usual brief summary of the week’s events to my colleague for her to progress in my absence. The most pressing of these being some super complex and half baked travel arrangements for our investment director who wanted to book his flights that day. By the time I’d pulled all my handwritten notes together into a summary itinerary with notes of progress to date, expected actions and contact names, I was the wrong side of an hour late leaving work. On my way, I stopped by Boots to collect a few essentials, which delayed me further.

I had planned to take advantage of the car being parked in the station car park to take some clutter to the charity shop, some parcels to the post office and also to run a few errands in the village before making it home in time to meet the groceries. But it was not to be! I barely had time to get home before the groceries arrived. Once I’d carefully stowed them in cupboards and fridge, I emptied all the bins, cleared out some newspapers stashed mile high under the coffee table and weeded some toys from the toy box to make way for the new birthday/Christmas gifts so generously given to the Little Chap.

Before I knew it, it was 5.30 and time to collect the Little Chap. So much for me time!

Flake Out Friday came next with both of us so shell shocked by our week back at work/nursery, that the Little Chap had to climb into my bed for a cuddle first thing and I was too tired to argue. He spent the rest of the morning sniffing and streaming while I chased after him with lengths of toilet roll trying to persuade him to blow his nose (which he has been able to do since he was about six months old but which he rarely does on demand!) until he collapsed into bed for a two and a half hour nap after lunch! He then took his time getting up, by which time I’d completely forgotten we’d been invited to a friend’s house for a play date.

The moral of my week? Stay in bed.

Happy New Year to One and All – it can only get better right?

Mayfair Mum x

© Mayfair Mum, 2012