Joe wakes up early (7), which is actually handy because he has preschool and I probably would have had to wake  him anyway, which I don’t like doing when he’s so snuggly. Harry’s already downstairs, obv. Joe plays with his trainset while I do some yoga (but not before having a quick waffle on Facebook about these blog posts – Hi, Jo! 🙂 )

Make Joe’s packed lunch (including soup cos he’s outside all day) – if David was here, he would do this – breakfast for the boys and a cup of tea for me. Get the boys dressed. Have to bribe Joe with a sweet for every item of clothing because he really doesn’t want to go to preschool. Leave for preschool. (I’ve had one sip of tea and now it’s gone cold.)

On the way to preschool, we listen to Cabin Pressure at Harry’s request (“Oh, I wish we could listen to Cabin Pressure…”) and then talk about the meaning of the word “revolution” (Harry wants a Pokemon game called Pokemon Battle Revolution, but he keeps calling it “Pokemon Battle Regation”). After leaving Joe, we drive to town. Part-way there, Harry says “Oh, I meant to time this journey!” and sets a timer on the iPad. Spends the rest of the journey telling me how long I’ve got to get there – “If you make it in less that 10 minutes, you win the chance to go to WH Smiths…”

In town, we go to Game and buy Pokemon Battle Revolution (pre-owned), because we sold the iPod Touch and Storio on ebay, and then choose some CDs for car listening (just as an aside: That’s Entertainment have CDs at 6 for £5 – how mad is that?!) then go to M&S for breakfast. We wouldn’t normally have coffee/breakfast out twice in a week, but I need to pick up some dinner for me and D tonight and since I didn’t manage to eat or drink before taking Joe, here we are.

I read while Harry plays on the iPad. There’s a ‘free WiFi here’ sign on the table and I joke that we should nick it and have it at home. Harry says we can make our own. I make a note to remind us. Harry’s desperate to get home and play his new game, so I tell him about the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment and that I’m going to wait and see how long he can go without playing the game and/or exploding. I’m joking.

We do the shopping then take the stairs back to the car park. It’s five floors and there are two lots of nine steps between each floor, so I do a bit of mental arithmetic and we count the stairs as we climb and recalculate at the top of each set of steps (once we’ve got our breath back). In the car, Harry sets the timer again and we drive home, listening to Cabin Pressure.

(Cabin Pressure is actually a good example of Harry resisting anything he thinks is educational. He said this morning, “I really like Cabin Pressure now!” I said, “Good. I hoped you would.” He said, “Ah! So you were tricking me!”)

At home, Harry puts his new game on straight away (no chance of him resisting that marshmallow) and I go straight on the computer (or me). I answer some emails, edit a blog post, tweet, Facebook, post to my Mum’s Suitcase blog, write this post…

I make H some lunch (I had a big breakfast) and we watch this. Harry says he’d like to float in space, but he’s worried he’d be bored. *blinks*

Read a bit and speak to David on the phone while Harry pummels Pokemon.

Look at The Earth From the Air, etc., talk about habitats and adaptations again. This seems to be coming up a lot lately.

Send an email asking someone to contribute to Bea after reading one of their blog posts. Read for a bit (while Harry plays on the Wii) then we watch Paperman together and a few of the background videos (but this is another example of Harry tolerating it, rather than engaging with/being engaged by it. Pah).

Faff about online again. I’m a bit skittish today. I think maybe it’s because David’s coming home? But I can’t seem to settle to anything. Go to collect Joe and then to pick up David (picking up McDonalds for the boys on the way) (Joe doesn’t eat his. I eat it. This is not good.) While we’re waiting for the train to arrive, Joe’s shivering. I ask him if he’s cold, he says, “No! I’m excited!” Resist urge to shout, “Daddy! My Daddy!” as the boys run down the platform to David. Drive home.

I go into an inter-trance, while David puts Joe to bed. And then I eat some leftovers, while David puts Harry to bed. It’s good to have him home.