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Tag: working from home


Just when I sat down to check my emails at 6:15am (thinking I can actually drink my tea hot for a change) Kit comes into the room with a “BOO” behind me!
Me: “Already? You are awake already? This is even earlier than normal school days!”
Kit: “I am really cold...” but in fact she is so active (Oh dear)
Me: “You HAVE to go back to bed. Even Kat is sleeping. Its night time” (Alright I lied)
I go back to her room and tuck her in and come back thinking maybe that will work (eyes on the room monitor now instead of screen – what a life!)
After a few minutes I hear “Can you sleep with me?” – This has become such a problem since Kit learnt to talk perhaps? Everyone loves their children to sleep with them once in a while but you let them do it once and they want it when you don’t! I think its time for Kit to wake up now and its only 6:30am – on school days, she’s sometimes difficult to wake up at 6:45am – now we did well, didn’t we?
Last night was classic: when the school announced the closure Kit was almost asleep and I told her: “Your school is closed tomorrow”
Kit looked at me with half closed eyes, sucking thumb, pulling her ear (like she does when she is declined mine) barely able to speak: “Not Kat’s?”
Even in that half asleep state, all she cares about is if Kat is going to go to school or not??!!

Pancakes with fresh strawberries and maple syrup coming up...that should keep them busy for a while!

This is also Kit’s first year (full time) at school so it’s an exciting year ahead for her and me...she’s excited about her new pencil case, her new friends, teachers...she feels she is one step closer to being Kat now... She chose her backpack online (along with Kat) yesterday. In fact, a task that both Kat and I thought would take just a couple of seconds took about half an hour! Kit could simply not decide – she has become so computer savvy, she moved the mouse with such ease to scroll up and down the screen that it took her ages to decide while Kat and I wondered where all this power had come from! Kat and I had preselected one backpack for her but Kit is so strong-headed, she selected the one that SHE wanted and in the end that is what I bought for her. Of course this upset Kat because she wanted Kit to have that one but Kit wanted this one (I’m just plain happy that Kit agreed not to have the rolling backpack and agreed on the preschool size – Imagine!!)
After much bickering, the girls are (finally) now looking forward to their personalised backpacks and I am wondering, maybe it is a great thing that they are going back to school and a week into school I will probably wonder how was I ever surviving with them both with me 24/7?


Kat, being the older one is manipulative. She has all the nicer soft toys neatly stacked on the top of her study desk (she thinks this will keep them away from Kit’s reach?). Kit on the other hand has no preference – anything that Kat likes, she likes by default. It’s as simple as that! The instant Kat expresses feelings for any cuddly toy (and she does have preferences now that she’s 10!), Kit will immediately drop whichever one she’s holding and bond with the one Kat wanted saying “I love it so so much…”
Predictably, this will lead to arguments, snatching, tears…and even more online shopping!
Kat will always say something like “This is the only soft toy I love…so and so gave it to me and I really value it and now SHE has taken it” (glaring at Kit who will blissfully ignore her and whisper sweet nothings to her newly acquired victory and dramatise the whole thing to possibly anger Kat more?).
Every cuddly toy has a sentimental value for Kat – I wonder how she’ll ever get rid of them…
Today Kit has won a big Panda from Kat. To keep it safe, it has been further gifted to me (it gets very complicated to work here from home in the holidays!) – I have been given 2 pets to look after right next to my desk – Panda and Toot (some name for their baby elephant). Every now and then, Kit comes in to make sure they are safe with me and that Kat has not taken them away…to make her victory even more profound, she has Kat’s scarf around the Panda’s neck!



After several unsuccessful attempts at getting my attention, she decides to go back to her room. I keep the video monitor on (it’s comforting that way but now that she’s out of range it is beginning to worry me!)
Kit comes running to me finally (panting): “I need a jump rope.”
Me: “Why?”
Kit: “So I can practice jumping”
When you are on the phone, you are really not in the mood to get into an argument with a 3.5 yr old that 7:30am is not the best time to practice jumping with a jump rope and definitely not inside a house! So I give in and this is what I see when I go to the cupboard to get the jump rope…
The step stool which is kept in the kitchen has been carried all the way to the storage cupboard and Kit has tried to stand on it and has even used her Tinker Bell brolly (usually hanging in this cupboard, now lying alongside the box at the top!) to bring the box with the jump rope forward. Maybe her aim was to somehow get the box down? And then what? Have it land on her head? This box at the top is quite heavy – thank God for little mercies!
Jump rope is down, step stool back in kitchen and Kit can be seen jumping in the video monitor. Phew! I’m left wondering if I should just forget about it all and drink that Baileys we have chilled in the fridge – it did say ‘With a hint of coffee’ on the bottle…I do feel I need a different sort of caffeine this morning!

I am back now with a big smile on my face and she is busy eating her apple all dressed up in her Sleeping Beauty costume – working from home today…PRICELESS!