Just Another Friday

Today I had a crazy busy afternoon.

I'm still trying to recover.

He's a little rundown.

12.45pm
Having fed, changed, chased, cleaned up after, giggled with and cuddled Charlie, I got him into the car for a run into the city.

Just to get some army gear for Kaiden. I had only a few hours left till he left for camp and we needed some essentials desperately.

1.30pm
After hitting every red light and being surrounded by idiotic drivers, I then spent 20 frazzled minutes stuck at road works, so I felt blessed to find a parking spot just across the road from the Army Surplus store.

1.35pm
Having had the BEST sales assistant help me find all I needed in a whirlwind 5 mins I find myself walking hand in hand with Charlie down the busy street. We stop to stare and point and ooh and aah over every bus, truck, car and person that passes us by.

2.00pm
Decide to take a different route home to avoid said road works, only to find that I really don't know where on earth I'm going. The only good thing was, that guided by the sun I knew I was at least heading in the right direction.

2.10pm
Eventually make my way to roads that I actually know. Relief is a great feeling. Unfortunately having Charlie scream from the back seat that he wants his shoes and socks off NOW tempers my elation. Manage to reach back and yank them off one handed whilst keeping the car on the road.

2.11pm
Charlie screams louder than ever as I obviously misunderstood his previous screamed demands, and wasn't supposed to take his socks off, only his shoes. Realisation dawned as I was about to take off the second of his socks. Apparently to a toddler being left with one Elmo sock on and the other off is the worst thing in the world, and he wasn't shy in letting me know.

After some quick thinking I started singing the rhyme "Diddle Diddle Dumpling My Son John..." and the screams immediately ceased.

Thank goodness.

Unfortunately I then had to sing that same song over and over for the next 10 minutes.

2.30pm
Finally arrive home, rather more stressed than when I left.

No matter. Shake it off and just get on with things.

Gave Charlie a quick snack and nappy change and we were out the door and back in the car again.

3.00pm
Picked Corey up from school and raced him to martial arts class, while he changed clothes in the car. Made him perform a rolling exit and parachute roll out the car door as we passed the dojo (kidding but not too far from the truth).

3.25pm
Hurried back to pick Kaiden up from his school before he started to worry where I was and walk off to his Grandy's house.

Luckily Kaiden was waiting patiently for me and was more than pleased with the army 'supplies' I had picked up for him.

2 army singlets and a shirt
8 heavy duty tent pegs that shouldn't get bent out of shape this time
30 metres of hoochie cord (a hoochie is the tent thing they make out of a ground sheet and sleep under for two nights in the cold - brrr)
1 fabuous best thing ever : the latest and greatest brand new army torch with different colour lenses (red for secret night time operations)

4.00pm
Get back to the dojo in time to see the end of Corey's class, Charlie keeps trying to run in and join the class but contents himself doing star jumps and running up and down the side for a while before taking off out the front to run circles around and around a drain happily for 10 minutes straight.

4.45pm
Battle peak hour traffic all the way home and take twice as long to get there. Realise that we have one hour exactly to get Kaiden fed, dressed and ready to go off and play boy soldier for the weekend.

5.45pm
Back into the car and miraculously manage to pull it off and get Kaiden to the departure point on time and hopefully with everything he needs to survive the weekend.

6.00pm
Back home again (this time for the rest of the evening) and time to get Charlie organised for a bath and bed.

7.00pm
Something else to be greatful for - Charlie went straight of to sleep without a whimper, which means I could start dinner.

7.30pm
My hard working husband arrives home just as I'm serving dinner so we manage to sit down together and compare notes on our day.

Not sure who won the "I Had a Stressful Day" competition.

But it was close.