Being the summer holidays a lot of our baby classes are closed for a while, so my other mummy friends and I have been seeing a lot of each other. When the weather is good we go to a local park where there is a paddling pool, when it is wet we try some indoor play places and we have been taking it in turns to host everyone at our houses. This week was my turn.

There are 4 mummies (including me), three almost 2 1/2 year olds, Monkey who is 14 months, a 7 month old and a 4 month old. As you can imagine it gets a bit loud and chaotic. It started off ok, as the older ones play with each other a bit, but bless Monkey, he was a bit bewildered by all the people and noise. It must be hard for him, one minute he’s playing with mummy and then the next minutes there are bigger kids playing with his toys, and mummy is chatting to other people and cooing over babies. It definitely overwhelmed him a bit, we meet up a lot out and about but I guess it is different when it is his house, and his toys.

It also doesn’t help that unfortunately one of the older little boys has been going through a slightly, er, feisty (?) stage and Monkey is very nervous of him at the moment. He’s a lovely little boy but at the last time we met up he had quite a shout at Monkey when he wanted to play with the toy he had, and hit it out of his hands. For little Monkey I imagine that was quite scary. Of course my friend stepped in and she has had a good chat with her little boy and his behaviour is definitely improving. It’s hard for her too as nobody wants their child to behave like that, it’s just a phase and yet another challenge for us mummies to deal with!

Anyway he was a lot better at our house but I think Monkey was still pretty wary of him from the previous time, which just didn’t help his general mood. Monkey is definitely in a bit of a mummy’s boy phase at the moment too so he was quite upset initially and around lunchtime. Thankfully though, after lunch he cheered up and was playing nicely out in the paddling pool and sand pit which I had set up in the shade. We then all trooped upstairs for the kiddies to play with some more toys up there and so I could show off our newly decorated bedroom to my friends. There was a really cute moment where one of the 2 year olds was curled up in a chair with a spot book, another sat on the floor, and the third playing on a piano floor toy while Monkey was playing with a puzzle. (At this point the 4 month old was nicely dozing and the 7 month old having a cuddle with his mummy – who has very strong arm muscles! :))

I had made some apple puree ice lollies (basically just frozen some pureed apples in ice lolly moulds) which went down a storm! Monkey wasn’t 100% keen and another of the toddlers didn’t seem to like the texture, but the other toddlers loved it. It was also a real winner with the 7 month old who is teething and just getting going with weaning, He loved it and scoffed the whole thing! Brilliant and I’m glad it worked as you never know with this kind of thing whether kids wouldn’t like them as they are obviously not as sweet as normal ice lollies.

We set the older toddlers up with some ice painting outside, and they really enjoyed it, it certainly kept them quiet for a while…. but then we realised that one of them had found an old paintbrush and used it to spread the red food colouring paint through the conservatory, onto the wooden door frames into the dining room and on the dining room walls. Oops! His mummy was mortified bless her, but I wasn’t too worried as we haven’t decorated the conservatory and the doorframe needs painting anyway. I’ll admit I blanched a little at the dining room wall, although it would just need painting over, but thankfully it all come off with just baby wipes so all is well that ends well, and the lesson is not to leave them alone with the ice paints hehe!

Watching all the little ones interact with each other was really lovely as they are all such different characters. Monkey wants to prod the babies, and is just a bit wary and in awe of the older toddlers. The toddlers are now starting to really play with each other. The two girls really liked monkey’s backpack, which has a parent handle attached to it, like reins. They were taking it in turns to put it on and walk each other around the garden, and were pretending they were dogs. So cute! Then the older little boy was playing with the 7 month old so gently and then gave him a cuddle and said “I’m really proud of you” just so cute! Even the lovely little 4 month old was in on the action as the older girls were trying to rock her to sleep in her seat and making her giggle.

So yes, it was chaos, my house is full of crumbs and wet muddy sandy footprints but it’s nothing that can’t be cleaned, and it was just a lovely day. All us mummies got to catch up too and we are going to try and have a weekly evening swim and are hoping to find a cheap deal for a spa day together to get some down time. In the meantime though I am very grateful I have such lovely friends with lovely kiddies and I am looking forward to watching them all grow up together!