Re Helens’ comments – yes it was a bit of ‘just do it like this’ mode Actually it’s not so much juggling SB and BB, that is getting easier as BB can entertain herself more now. She will sit and fiddle and investigate things for ages now quite happily for ages sometimes and is less fussy about the bottle thing. We just need a bit of time to settle into things. It’s moslty the organisation (or rather lack off) of the house at the moment which seems to amke just life itself a bit harder than it needs to be anyway.

Heather – no SB will have to leave nursey at some point next year. They say up to 5 years old and her compulsory education starting date would be Summer Term next year, though many of those at her nursey will start in September I guess. We haven’t quite decided what to do and at what point we will stop nursery.

anyway, Coffee break over, back to the house sorting

I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall today RE meeting the diverse needs of a 2 and 7 yr old (not to mention a 27 yr old )

Will the nursery take SB once she’s ‘official’?

firstly, effectively, mon and tues are the only days you have to be sole homeboy, as I’m at home wed, and nursery thurs and fri. therefore, big tasks and sorting can happen thurs and fri, and smaller ones on the wed. Also better utilisation of evenings!!

I can do non-internet shopping at tescos on a mon, as drive past one when i leave addenbrookes. SO therefore, only the basic keeping tidy, and nappy wash needs to be done on the mon/tues, and a bit of weekend organisation, means that prob no washing at all.

As for juggling the 2 of them – i think there are a fair few posts on how i felt i was struggling. yes, it was ok, and it will be for you too. i found that wiht SB, interspersing ideas and freeplay worked best. if you remember, i used little boxes of books and phonics cards/ maths stuff, to have around where I was going to feed BB, so that we could look through whatever took her fancy in it, and rotated the books etc around. This buys a bit of breathing time for thinking. Also, I often had a plan for a crafts activity/cooking/experiment or 2 up my sleeve so that I knew where the stuff was and could deflect – when we have got the utility room sorted, that should be easy. At lunchtime we often had a muzzy or other edu video on so that i could do a bit of clearaway – or the laptop with one of her programmes on it – again usually bought about 30 mins when I could do something else.

Making up stories for her to enact is a good one, as you can feed BB, hang out washing, sort out dinner etc while doing it, and still be interacting. SB needs a lot of energetic activities, so the indoor pogostick or her bouncer very good – as you can maintain a conversation.

Changing venue as soon as you feel stressed also good – changing BB’s nappy often produced a break, and thats why we often did baby massage, as settled SB down again. Also going out into garden to find flowers, grasses, different leaves/seeds, see how veg growing etc.

SO ignore house things mon and tues [apart from making it not a complete bombsite!] And then work like trojan to sort out those things wed/thurs/fri.
when I earn a bit of money, we will buy second hand shelves and drawers and get a bit more sorted, but the crafts bit is the first!