We have been staying with my parents for four weeks now, and with the exception of Christmas week, we have been settling into a fairly easy going yet structured routine.
Up around 7am in the morning, Lydia comes into my bed for milk & snuggles, while Georgie, sometimes without even a “hello” for her Mummy, invades my poor parents room & bed. The declaration of “I go see GrandmaGrandad!” is called out to me as almost every morning she comes out of her bedroom and heads straight to my parents’.
The habitual morning tea-tray now comes upstairs with a drink and bowl for Georgie, a corner of Mum’s croissant broken off inside the bowl, ready to distribute crumbs onto Mum & Dad’s sheets.
I serve up breakfast in the dining room after getting dressed, and then we do chores or play in the living room with a variety of toys and books, or maybe go out to a playgroup or something. After lunch Lydia has her nap and Georgie has some Mummy time – we have been baking and colouring and all sorts of things!
Mum works Monday to Thursday, so during the week my Dad helps me to entertain the children in the daytime, and then on Friday we do something with Mum – to give Dad a well-earned break! Now that the schools are back, we have been trying out local playgroups in the week, and working out a regular schedule of things we can do to keep the girls busy and seeing other children out and about.
Each day whilst Mum is at work, Georgie and I tidy the toys up at around 5 o’clock, so that “Grandma can come home” – in Georgie’s mind it seems that Grandma won’t come home if it’s untidy!
Dad cooks dinner for us all and then the kids have a bath with Mum’s supervision while I clear the table, sort out PJs and find Melody doll, that sort of thing. Lydia has her last feed of the day downstairs, while Mum reads bedtime stories to Georgie, and then it’s off to the land of nod for each of them.
I think the fact we are settling into this routine nicely now is really helping to calm the girls down after several very strange months. Georgie is beginning to know what to expect when she wakes up in the morning, and it is going to be like this for at least another month yet so we will hopefully be able to relax a bit for the next month before we exchange on the new house and move back up to Birmingham. They are both blossoming and Lydia is about ready to take her first steps – she keeps bottling out!
I am really hoping to carry on with the same sort of routine once we are in the new house, as it is working wonders on the girls and I have had more time to relax in the evenings, with bedtime a little bit earlier than it has been for a few weeks, thanks to all the chaos.
We are all missing James, so I’m pleased to report that he is going to be coming down to visit on Friday! I am really looking forward to a great big hug.
Sounds like you are making it work 😉 Kids are surprisingly adaptable I always think! Hope the new house isn’t too far off though xx
Yea, it’s not the ideal situation but the kids are coping really well! The seller is away until mid-feb but other than that causing a delay everything seems to be going smoothly 🙂