On dark afternoons when the house is full of rumpusing boys and the avocado has hit the carpet I feel I am single parent. However, this is not true. Most days Joshua is at work doing diligent and productive labor to support our way of life (and of food dispersal). He also helps a great deal at night since he is nocturnal and I turn into a ghoul after 10.30pm.
ASIDE: It is an interesting psychological fact that after 10.30pm and until 2.00am I lose any semblance of being a good parent. Even Frost has noticed it:
"Shannon, why do you kiss me goodnight and put me to bed and say nice things but when I come out of the bedroom you are very angry? You have a Dr Jekyll side."
Its true. I exhaust my last nugget of happy Mummy at books and bedtime and any child waking before I have recovered some Me-Time and Sleep gets The Shark Parent. SNAP!!! It is at these moments that Joshua is particularly useful.
Last night Frost woke with a night terror (a nightly occurance when he is slightly roused when I come to bed) and was babbling about Not doing it and You Love Him. Joshua calmly reassured Frost we love him too and took him to pee and tucked him in. It is Josh's theory that night terrors are caused by a full bladder. I don't know why terror and peeing are associated. Perhaps it is a boy-thing. I didn't say anything except "wake UP" and "Argh" and "God, he needs to start sleeping in his own bed." See, I am a total ....
Which brings me back to the family portrait taken by mum on the front steps. There we are - Josh looking slightly sinister, me posing as usual in a futile attempt to look fabulous, Frost caught between expressions and so somewhat blank and Wren rather puzzled because his photographic disposition is still to be determined. For now, he just wants the camera.
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