Earlier this week my friend Karin at Cafebebe said she had a HUGE favour to ask me. She needed to go to London on Friday (today) and didn’t have anyone available to look after Little Miss for day, was there any chance I could have her? Now don’t get me wrong, I love Little Miss to bits, I have watched her grow up almost daily alongside my own daughter Little Bean and love her as I would a niece but our girls can be testing, very very testing. I’m sure you have seen posts on here or over at Cafebebe where we have been tearing our hair out over the girls. They are either the best of friends or the very worst of enemies. For the odd hour here or there, I wouldn’t have any qualms about looking after Little Miss (and I have) but when Karin mentioned it would be from 8.45am to 5.00pm, my instinct was to run for cover. But then I remembered all the times that Karin has been there for me, when I sprained my ankle, Karin was the first friend to turn up in her car to take me wherever I wanted to go. When I lost my babies, Karin was the first friend on the scene with a bunch of flowers and comforting hug. Karin has been there when I need someone to mind the children whilst I run an errand or attend an important appointment. You see, Karin is always there for me – that’s part of the reason that I asked her to be Beanie Boy’s Godmother too. This is something I respect in a friend and although I have many other friends who are just as loyal and supportive as Karin, they aren’t all close by like she is. This was my opportunity to really pay her back and show her that I would be there for her too.
That said, I was dreading today and it wasn’t helped by the fact that Beanie Boy woke at 4am and REFUSED to go back to sleep, meaning I’d had only 3.5hrs sleep and now had a raging headache! We were not off to a good start. I had no idea how I was going to get through the day and then to add insult to injury, my backup plan if the girls got overtired and grumpy with each other – the TV babysitter decided to go on strike. Our Freesat box had developed a fault overnight and was switching itself on and off randomly – thanks Goodmans!!!!
Karin arrived as agreed at 8.45am armed with everything I would need for Little Miss. As she departed my heart sank but I knew I needed to give myself a kick up the backside and take control – I am, afterall, the adult! So I sat the girls down and told them that they were to play nicely, to share the toys, not to fight, not to scream at each other, no hitting or pushing and most importantly to have fun. They both agreed!
Throughout the morning, they played really nicely together, we did dress-up which Little Miss loved and kept asking if she could take the princess dress home – erm, no sorry it was Little Bean’s Christmas present. I only had to put Little Bean on the naughty step once because she hit Little Miss on the head. Tidying up was a struggle but they got there in the end and then we had arts and crafts time in the kitchen with Beanie Boy looking on.
Dinner time passed like a breeze with even Little Bean eating all of her dinner, because I sneaky, I promised the girls that if they ate all their dinner nicely and without argument I would take them to the soft play centre. And that is where we are now, Beanie Boy is asleep in his chair at my side and the girls are wearing themselves out on the activity centre. They are appearing by my side more and more so I think tiredness is creeping in – could I be lucky enough that they will all fall asleep in the car on the way home? Let’s see . . . . .
