Trampolining

And so I stagger into another week. I feel that I have been burning the candle at both ends. Not so much work wise [although I have been taking the laptop to bed and typing with the baby under one arm] as children wise. My partner is still away and the baby is still teething [when will it end?] and waking up at 4am, 5am and then finally 6am. Daughter one decided that the weekend was a good excuse for staying up late with Mummy and chatting about life in general. Daughter two, meanwhile, had been mounting yet another email campaign for a sleepover. She send me lovely emails with fancy borders and everything detailing what we must bring to the sleepover. Then she passes me secret handwritten messages during the day and keep whispering things like "remember tonight" even when I have not agreed to any form of tonight and have indeed begged for mercy.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster of a week. The first night I was trying to get the baby to sleep and told everyone to have a quiet bath with  no splashing. Daughter one was in charge. I emerged after the baby woke up several times due to the general hilarity to find the bathroom completely flooded. I was not best pleased. Daughter one texted to her grandmother: "Mummy is EXTREMELY cross. I'd better go." I fear this Blackberry thing is not good for parents and that my name may be mud across the whole BBM network by now.

The next night I left them watching a nice film while I got the baby to bed. I heard a blood-curdling scream from downstairs. The baby woke up. Apparently daughter three had accidentally almost strangled daughter two who had then thumped her while daughter one waded in by telling daughter two that she was a bully and was unloved and very annoying. I then had a long session of assuring daughter two that she was loved by many people, but could she just refrain from hitting her sister.

On Saturday we went in search of the trampoline we had bought off e-Bay. In the traditional fashion we set off late because no-one in my house except me appears to be able to get themselves ready fast without me being on top of them most of the time. I handed daughter one the iPhone which my partner said meant that there was no longer any need for a GPS. Ha! Daughter one was not exactly paying full attention as she had One Direction blaring out. "You need to be on the purple road," she said helpfully. I could see no purple road in sight. "What's it called?" I asked. "No idea," she replied, while continuing to sing along to 1D with her sisters [and the baby] yelling out the chorus in the back. We apparently were a little blue dot on the phone and our destination was a red dot. They appeared to be getting closer together. "The dots are converging," I said at the traffic lights. "It must be round here somewhere." We looked for the road name. No sign. I kept driving and asking daughter one if the dots were on top of each other or moving in alternative directions. It was a little like playing that game where you say if the person is colder or warmer when they are looking for treasure. Except none of us knew where the treasure was. I gave up and called the trampoline man. It appeared we were actually miles from our destination. Running low on petrol, we eventually arrived.

We went home to put it up. I had suggested it might be a good idea to wait until there were two adults in the house [the instructions specified two people were needed], but everyone was too impatient. The wind was blowing hard, but I actually managed to get the trampoline up, even though all the neighbours were by this time watching. I felt Olympian. Now I just have to construct the security net thingy.