Harry gets up at half six (as usual) and goes downstairs by himself. I go back to sleep and don’t wake up until Joe shouts me at eight. Joe and I go downstairs and I make myself a cup of tea while Joe – who is what we call “hangry”, so hungry he’s angry – yells that he wants breakfast, but “not breakfast, FOOOOOD!” I read for a bit with my tea while Joe flails about, hangrily, and Harry plays on the Wii.

Joe used to go to preschool on Wednesday mornings as well as Monday mornings, but before Christmas he started to kick up a fuss about going (on all days, not just Wednesdays), so I decided to knock Wednesdays off.

Joe eventually calms down enough to eat a bowl of cereal and then we do some crafting together from his Doodle Drawers (we make a concertina pompom dog, left). I read a bit, post some blogs, email, tweet, facebook, make more tea. David phones, Harry speaks to him, Joe empties the entire toy box on the floor.

You know that book The Bear Snores On? That’s what this morning is like, but with Harry playing on the Wii. I wash dishes, I have a shower, Joe plays with his Fireman Sam playset (and clocks that I may have sneaked some of it into the charity bag). I make a selection of extra breakfasts for both boys. Meanwhile, Harry plays on…

The boys go up to my bedroom to play Spongebob. This involves about thirty cuddly toys, lots of laughing and banging and then, inevitably, Joe in tears. I make myself a sandwich.

We drive to Oswaldtwistle for a home ed meet-up. It’s the second part of a first aid session (we went to the first part before Christmas). We learn how to help someone who’s choking and how to deal with a heart attack (the boys don’t like this – too scary). I leave the boys playing with the iPad and another couple of kids, while I go and give the doll CPR (I’ve never done it before).

Chat on the way home about gender again. Harry assumed one of the children he was playing with was a girl because, I think, the child has waist-length hair. Harry claims that wasn’t the reason, in fact it was because of the other kid’s skin: “Girls have soft skin and boys’ skin is rougher.” I have no idea where’s he’s got this idea from.

I drop a bag of school uniforms off at Harry’s old school and from there we go to our local library and then have a run on the grass outside. Back at home, I can’t find my keys and we have visions of spending the rest of the week at the in-laws (but what about the guinea pigs?!), but then I check my phone and the school’s phoned – the keys are there. Back to the school, pick up the keys, back home, cup of tea and a sit down. Phew.

The boys want to watch Toy Story, so I set that up for them and then do the dishes, put a wash on and hoover the front room. (We were meant to change the guinea pigs today, but we haven’t any newspaper so have to put it off til tomorrow.) Toy Story gets stuck, so I put on an American show that’s been recommended to me – Martha Speaks – and they watch that while I make tea (and while I make tea, I clean the kitchen).

After tea, Joe goes up to bed: couple of Miffy stories and a Sesame Street podcast, which includes this:

How. Brilliant.

I ask Joe what he wants to do for a career. He says “Builder. Policeman. Fireman. No. Builder. I want to build things. Or I could be in a film on the computer. Toy Story. I WANT TO BE BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!” So that’s cleared that up.

Back downstairs, Harry plays on the Wii while we both listen to Cabin Pressure (which leads to a conversation about syllables). Up to bed to start reading Olga Takes Charge.

Glass of wine for me and a read-through of the first 10k of my new book (with some TV… and Twitter) a couple of episodes of Happy Endings followed by No Impact Man DVD.