A frugal life is an easy life!

DAY TWO - Sunday 25th July:

Sprog2 woke me up at 6.30am, once I'd fed and watered her, she then decided to go back to sleep.
I was still groggy after the exertions of yesterday, so I was drifting in and out of snooze mode whilst upright on the chair - only one thing worse than this, is driving whilst trying to stay awake!
I grabbed a quick coffee (which went cold before I'd got half way through it, as is the norm) and nipped upstairs to collect a pile of washing.
Got that on the go, sprog2 decided to awaken from her slumber, I tried for more than half an hour to force feed a bowl of weetabix down her neck, she was having none of it.
Washed and changed her, got her dressed (for those without children, this sounds like a simple task - which it would be if it wasn't more akin to trying to untangle a pile of long snakes with the occasional screaming in the lughole!) sprog2 kindly decided to scratch her own bits as I turned to get a new nappy out of the bag, covering her hand in vaseline in the process, which I only discovered later on as she tried to manually claw out my front teeth with her nails of razor blade sharpness.

I then attempted to hoover the front room - another task that sounds easier than it actually is.
Have to move all those buffers* and all her toys, one side of the room at a time, whilst wedging my left foot before the baby walker, to stop her grabbing the hoover wire or the hoover itself. It's ok in the middle of the room, but once you move your foot wedge to reach the edges, she's off like a bleedin rocket. Once completed as best I could under the pressure, I shifted direction and repeated the task on the other side of the front room.

I followed up by hoovering out all the kitchen, doormats and assorted bits of carpet in between.
As I was on the road on saturday, I stopped off at the local garage for the customary two loaves... they were out of bread, so I had to face the dreaded Tescos eeeeeek.

They kindly had a "local community fair" on in their carpark. How they can be "supporting the community" after doing so much to destroy it god only knows, but that's another post.
So of course, there was nowhere to park, I had to get some brass out of the speedbank as well, pre payment electric was running out. (I love using supermarket speedbanks - 1. It totally messes up their figures as regards how much people draw out from it and confuses their figures/statistics about how much people then go on to spend in their store - 2. This works even better when you don't use their store at all and just draw the brass out)
After walking to the furthest corner away to pick up two loaves (10p per loaf more than my local expensive garage might I add) I paid up and left, walking ages back to the car.
From there I drove across town to get some electric credit on my key.
Finally I got home to peg out the washing I had put in earlier and put another load on.
It started to rain... so out I go again to bring it all back in.

By now it was 1pm, the wife was off to work and I had a return wrestling match with sprog2, to get some scram down her neck... this time she scoffed the lot without much of a fight.

Now one thing not mentioned so far, is a thing that every parent knows about, but daren't utter the word... the POO!
Religiously, once a day it lands, it could be a 5am surprise, it could be an after dinner delight, but almost without fail, it will come. What goes into baby - must come out, in a larger quantity!
Today I got lucky, it was relatively solid, still involves changing and another "keep still or I'll cut yer legs off" battle, but at least the clothing survived.
Under normal circumstances, exactly 2 minutes before going anywhere, one arrives, often a "back burner" (one that shoots straight up the back and involves changing all clothing bar socks - factor in a baby who thinks they have a bit part in the great escape and you can imagine the carnage).

I put in some more washing and pegged it out, managed to find time to wash the pots, sprog2 had just woken up in her chair, so I popped the TV on for her, Oliver was on, I left her to make a brew and get her some tea on the go, with the melodic "who will buy" song wafting through the air, only to return, just in time to witness Bill Sykes battering Nancy to death then being shot as he tried to escape!

After food was consumed and pudding, sprog2 boarded the ankle basher (baby walker) and started turning the front room upside down.
I managed to grab a piece of toast, then it was wash time for baby, pyjamas, a quick bottle and hope she settles down.
She didn't settle, but I got a few hours of talking out of her and then we had a play.
The eye rubbing started about 9pm, by quarter past she was flat out.
Another day gone before you know it.

* Buffers - Large household things/toys, that are placed around the edge of the front room, to keep a baby in a walker away from cupboards, TV, etc.