addendum

I feel a definite need to blog and counter last night's blog post focusing on the insanity of the day. Rest assured that yesterday ended magnificently with Amber and Russell babysitting and us having a lovely dinner with friends, Kym and Paul.

At some point I am going to have to go to Kym and Paul's property with a camera because everywhere I look there is ridiculous beauty - a laden pear tree, fenced off veggie garden, goats and chickens, lovely old gates, a little corrugated shed with an ornate white iron door that is picture perfect cute (don't even know what it is for). They also have two gorgeous sons who give me a peek into a future life with our own kids, when they are young adults - interesting and interested humans in their own right rather than the pesky yet sometimes amusing offspring  that we have hanging around at our dinner parties.


Between the evening out and Russell and Amber who happily babysat until very late at night on a school night, the chaos and tension of earlier in the day has been completely erased.

When I talked to the kids about the crazy yesterday they did point out that there was one high point - Sadie had her very first walk up to the High Street. They are right, the walk up there (which was dry) was great. And in my efforts to be IN more photos, Sam took a shot of us as we set off. This was two hours before the gate was ripped off his hinges, perhaps it is a sign of things to come is the shot of me battling to control my hair in gale force winds.

And a small update on the fallout of yesterday - Milly didn't end up with a full shiner, just a lovely arcing bruise around her eye; the whites are hanging on the line and so far neither kid has mimicked my colourful vocabulary. I think it will all be alright.