Spawn of satan!

I have loved being home this week and spending time with the girls: eating a meal together, bath time, reading stories, drawing and colouring, cuddles, watching telly on my lap, sharing stories about our days and waking up the next day knowing this will happen all again. Or so I thought....

 

Tonight I was confronted by the devil incarnate and her younger sibling (or protege): we have had generally high levels of grumpiness, rudeness, agitation and all round damn horrible behaviour. The end result was the terrible twins going to bed early and sleeping it off. This look on Lucy's face just about sums tonight up. I would blame the parents for this outburst of bad behaviour, but for obvious reasons that is not possible! Oh happy days....half term needed. We have two very tired girls and two very tired parents. Tomorrow is another day...

Missing my crew...

It has been six days seen I have seen my family and I have to say I am feeling glum. Away for work all week and then not seeing them yet as they have gone away for the weekend ; I just could not face the drive to Surrey having driven half way across the country all week to join up with them. To say I am looking forward to seeing them tomorrow would be an understatement! I know I keep going on about it and I must be boring any reader senseless but spending so much time away from home and not seeing my family is proving very tough indeed. At the moment it is my life and my lot.

Fleeting phone calls at the end of the day when the girls are tired just make me feel more glum as each days goes on. Anna has perfected the art of grunting at me and Lucy is struggling with me being away and very quiet when I ring. I have plenty to distract me whilst I am away but Amy and the girls are never far from my thoughts. A career is important but so is my family. I reflect every day on whether I have done the right thing in taking on a bigger job and I never come up with the an answer. Being a good husband and being the best dad I can be are so important to me, but how can I be if I am hundreds of miles away?

 

Three lovely weeks to look forward to though with less travel coming up, Amy and Lucy's birthday  week and time off at the end of the month for good behaviour though..



Chavtastic!

Lucy woke up this morning, chose her outfit and accidentally did her best to do an impression of Vicky Pollard with her pink tracksuit, trainers and chosen top. All that was missing was the phrase 'bothered!' Thankfully she has not armed herself with an attitude or fast talking and helped her mother cook a fantastic roast dinner, has done her home work and been a pleasure to spend time with today. Anna and I had a lovely drive to Grandma's singing and giggling with a big splash through the ford in the car. My time away from my family gets more and more at present and this Sunday time has with the girls has been great. We spent an hour in the garden making 'baddy' food for Captain Hook, Megamind and all the bad guys from every Pixar film we could think off and then set up a rogues picnic. Great fun, especially the mud. Thanks girls. Finished off with some silly dancing to high school musical this afternoon. With a sad heart I will see you next weekend as I have to go away again. Look after each other and your Mummy....

Secretive natures....

Lucy loves school and is so happy. She never talks about it but when I picked her up today she could not wait to tell me her news. This week she has been appointed a school counsellor. She attends meetings and talks about making the school better! She is a chip off the old block and I am sure that the Hammond socialist ways will shine through as she fights the system and the good fight. I hope she will contribute greatly and possibly dominate the odd meeting with the family disruptive nature! I look forward to hearing about this, if I can get the information out of her. Taking part in this will do wonders for her confidence. She whispered gently in my ear that she was looking after her sister at school and was keeping her promise to her daddy she made a week ago.

Anna too, is also loving school, though will still not part with her mother easily in the morning. In speaking to her on the phone whilst I have been away for work, I ask her how things are going, all she says is 'I don't quite remember', then the phone goes dead. Charming! Slightly worried that she is worn out already and it is only week two of this term. You'll get used to it Wiggle, I promise..

Sisters are doing it for themselves!

This has to be right up there with the best photos I have ever seen. I have blinked and my girls have grown up and both now going to school. Amy sent me this whilst I was working away and other pictures  and it drew tears to my eyes. I gather 'reluctantly' would be the word to use to describe how Anna embraced her first day, but she has soon settled in after a couple of days and already loves it!  Word on the play ground is that she is something of a celebrity with her arm in a cast, now sporting her posh blue one she is the cool kid in town! Once again I am very proud of my girls, but sad I missed out on the experience of being here. Anna has already reverted to type and is using her school bag to hoard things in, let's just hope she does not pinch half the school and bring it home!
On a different note - thank god we made it through this week's witching hour with event..


The witching hour...

Friday night at 7pm is proving to be something of a jinx in the Hammond house in recent weeks. Last week, Anna was sick and yesterday the girls gave Amy and I a double whammy to deal with as we were supposed to be going out to dinner: Lucy lost Oddball and was hysterical and Anna, not to be undone by her sister, fell on her hand awkwardly on the trampoline and broke her right wrist. Cue half the night in hospital, exhausted parents and a very tired family. Having found Oddball on Lucy's behalf in the middle of the night, she was the only one of us who slept well. Anna was fantastic and very patient, brave and a real gem in a great deal of pain and eventually arrived home at 2.30am. I was very proud of her.

 

After this pretty horrible evening, I have to say I expected an even worse day today surrounded by tired and cranky women. However, it has been a lovely day capped off by some truly quality time with Lucy this afternoon making play dough cookies and making our own shop 'Sooooper Coooocies' as Lucy spelt it on the sign!

 

The big question is what on earth will happen next Friday at 7pm? Only time will tell..

After well over a year of searching....

After well over a year lost and unloved in the toy wilderness 'little Woody' has finally been found. This may be a very trivial thing for some people and should not really carry  any consequence, but you have no idea how many hours I have dedicated to looking for him for the last year since Anna lost him! The sheer delight that I greeted his appearance with from the cupboard under the stairs was one of relief and general parental neurosis. God bless Mrs Hammond and her once a year purge on tidying the house and having a good clear out. My concern came though when I realised much to my dismay that I probably cared more about his reappearance than Anna did. I know I am not right, but I was glad to see him!