Shatteredmummy.com

In the past twenty minutes there are about fifty things that I have thought would make a good blog post.  Top of the list is Alby’s polite but naughty nature.  It is 9:34pm as I type, Alby is playing the piano thumping down on the keys and shouting “that one’s loud mummy”.  Every so often I ask if he is tired or if he would like to go to bed.  He looks down in a slightly bashful way and says “No thank you mummy”.  Polite, yes.  Troublesome, absolutely.

The second thing I feel compelled to write about it Alby’s unlimited supply of energy.  He hasn’t had a nap today.  He has been up since 7am.  He has played with his cars, his train, his playdough and his toy groceries.  He has been on a 90 minute walk across the Moors with Percy.  Yes, he was in the backcarrier for part of it but he also ran a fair share of it in addition to chasing a few sheep, stomping on several mole hills and throwing stones into the reservoir.  He has been in the garden with Mark, walking his plastic £10 lawnmower up and down whilst he declares that he is “cutting the leaves”.  He has done all of his puzzles, played the drum, the piano and sung Christmas carols with Mark (more on that later). He has splashed about in the bath, scribbled on my Christmas cards and bashed away on the keyboard of my computer as I endeavoured to finish up a piece of work and yet he is still not tired. 

It is now 9:42pm.  Me: Alby are you tired?  Alby: No thank you.  Alby play hammer. He is now walking around the study bashing everything he comes along with my pen. 

I’ve been trying to work out over recent days why I haven’t been blogging that much recently.  It’s because every minute of every day is spent trying to exhaust my son.  And yet no matter how much caffeine I drink or how much sugar there is in my food I simply don’t have the stamina to keep up with him.

Mark went away a couple of weeks ago and I was a broken woman.  Not because of how much I missed my husband (though obviously I did, a huge amount).  It is because for the two weeks that Mark was gone Alby expected me to provide the entertainment level of not just one parent, but two.  As I say, I was a broken woman.  Mark is heading off again at 9am tomorrow morning and won’t be back until Friday.  I’m terrified! I wonder how much bribery it will take for a nurse at the local hospital to hook me up to adrenalin by drip? 

I don’t know why I’m surprised.  Yesterday he played rugby in the morning, visited the Knaresborough Christmas market and then charged around Northallerton with me for two hours and still didn’t wasn’t interested in a day time nap.  The saving grace yesterday was that he went to bed at 8pm.  Hurrah I thought, I’m more than happy to give up day time naps if it means an earlier bedtime.  Stupid me.  It’s now 10pm and the game of hammers continues…

There is more to write.  And one day it will come but for now my brain is dead, my eyes are heavy and I need to conserve my energy or I am sure to pass out where I sit whilst Alby plays hammers on my head.

Wish me luck