Sunday morning

This morning I got up at 9.08am instead of the usual 6.30am, Tom made a pot of coffee and brought me cup as I lounged, cat in my lap, reading the papers. Then I drank more coffee, had a leisurely breakfast and stared out of the window for 10 minutes. Tom decided to go back to bed for an hour and I sat and listened to the silent house.

You've guessed haven't you? The kids aren't here. No, we didn't sell them or even donate them to charity, they are at their cousins' house for the weekend. I've mentioned previously that we have a kind of 'month about' arrangement with Tom's brother and his wife, we have all 4 kids for a weekend one month, they have them the next. Which means every two months we get a child free weekend...and so do my brother and sister-inlaw. The kids get to spend a weekend a month with their cousins, which they love doing. Everybody wins. When I dropped the girls off on Friday afternoon my brother-in-law said to me 'we're so clever doing this'. He's so right.

Yesterday we sat down with a glass of wine to watch a DVD at 4.30 in the afternoon!!!! We managed to watch 2 DVDs yesterday.... uninterrupted. And no-one ate my Jersey Caramels (I ate them all myself which admittedly left me feeling slightly nauseous but that's the price you pay).

When we pick the girls up this afternoon, Tom will take Aislin to a birthday party and I am going to take Hannah to the Butterfly Exhibition at the museum. Our peace will be shattered as we leave the world of the childless couple and get right back into family mode. Tonight I'll be packing the school bags, making packed lunches and ironing school uniforms. The weird thing is I'm really happy about that. I love these weekends but no matter how much we're enjoying ourselves there is something missing. Of course it's great for Tom and I to have some time alone and be able to have conversations that aren't punctuated by children's requests, arguments or accidents, but that's not normal life anymore. We did some shopping yesterday and not once did I have to tell Tom to 'put that back' or 'don't touch that'. He's quite well behaved in shops - unlike his offspring, but it felt a bit strange.

So at approximately 1.30pm Central Standard Time we will step back into the parallel universe of parenthood. Can't wait.