Building Things

And Who Knows What They Are Except Ben.

I get it wrong every time I build something for him, even when I really do try my hardest to follow his instructions. And he can't seem to build the creations that are in his head - I blame the limitations of the materials to hand...

We've had a "nothing" day today. I dozed for an extra two hours this morning while Ben watched Wall-E; he came up quite a few times saying "Ben want mummy" but then only hovered at the door or by my side, he didn't do anything to wake me up. We've instilled that one in him for a while. Don't wake mummy/daddy up, she/he's asleep... it seems to work. He won't wake you up if you're asleep! Result. So he came and went, finding various things to do, hit or jump on, before I woke up properly. I am grateful for the combination of his character and the way we've brought him up so far that I am able to let him play by himself while I sleep - I wouldn't be able to cope otherwise at the moment. I do feel guilty for the amount I am taking myself off to sleep at the moment... but it has to be done. I can't see any other way of coping.

(Little edit - I rarely sleep very soundly, and only doze if he's not in the room with me and am generally aware of all the banging and crashing that goes on as part of his playing. I only sleep properly in the day if he's curled up next to me! He always comes and finds me if he's hurt himself (usually as a result of crashing a car into his hand) and that never goes without me waking and doing something about it. Please don't think I actually "abandon" him!)

He was funny at breakfast though, before all that extra sleeping on my part. We had our cereal in bed. Ben has dry cereal at his request, and I have milk on mine. He won't have a full bowl of cereal with millk but he likes to share mine! So this morning he asked to share mine, as usual, but as there was very little I told him he could only have one spoonful. "Ben want two!" No, just one. And then eat your own cereal. "Ok" So he had his one spoonful, and went running off to the bathroom to find daddy. Daddy eventually pieced together that Ben wanted to share mummy's cereal, and that he wanted "two cereals" (two spoonfuls). Daddy said Ben would have to ask mummy. Ben replied "Ok, Ben say please?" and ran off back to me. "Ben say please, mummy! Ben want share!"

I could hardly refuse could I...

Thankfully after that Steve came and took him downstairs and presumably refilled his bowl of cereal before turning Wall-E on and going off to work!

So we've had a nothing day. Wall-E back-to-back I don't know how many times. Ben drumming. Managed to make some lunch at some point. Had chocolate. Was only sick once, this morning. Tired, but not zombie-like. Just... no reason to get dressed, no motivation. But a day of nothing seems to have been what I needed. I don't feel utterly exhausted!

It was gone 5pm before we were both bathed and dressed though. I say dressed, I was dressed, Ben is back in pyjamas. Clean, dry, pyjamas. He'd been "helping" me have a bath before having his own bath. And the number of pyjamas he went through, trying on, and saying he didn't actually want those ones, was frankly ridiculous... But bathtime was lovely. Ben was singing "incey wincey spider" with me, doing the actions, splashing in the water, over and over, not quite getting the words right but was having a good go at them. Then we sang "wheels on the bus" and he was showing me what all the verses and actions were. Although he wanted me to sing it while he drummed on the side of the bath!

During his bath though I had to stop him scratching a lot :( he wasn't pleased to have to cut short his bath but he wouldn't stop scratching. Thankfully as soon as I started putting sudocreme on his scratches he stopped crying and was only to happy to wriggle to where I needed him so I could put cream on all the way round. He started crying when I said I was all done! "More cream mummy, want more cream..."

Dinner as soon as Steve gets home, although we've had snacktime of toast and apple and crisps. He's coming home via a shop to pick up a "family toilet seat" which we've finally managed to get a hold of! Ben seems excited about that. I wonder what will actually happen. Whether he will sit on it at all....