The hilarity continued late into the night last night. It took Beefcake and I several hours to find the bolts that were needed to put the cot together. In the end, they were somewhere we had already looked. We were a bit confused. It took us until around 3 am to finish putting it together. We are both night owls but lately we seem to be egging each other on to stay up later and later. Not a good idea when you have young children and there is no chance of sleeping in.

Also, Poss insisted that she was far too hot and couldn’t possibly sleep in her bed. To be fair she has a loft bed and being that much closer to the ceiling does mean it’s a lot hotter for her, so Beefcake moved her mattress. When I went in to talk to her this morning we had a chat about the fact that she no longer seems to play with any of the large array of girly toys (think Barbie horsedrawn carriage etc) cluttering up her bedroom. All of the things she does use have nowhere to go and lurk around the room in small piles. We agreed it was time for a cleanout.

I was quite surprised by her enthusiasm, actually. She usually likes to hoard every scrap of fluff she has ever found. She once (recently) brought home a knitted doll she found on the street and squirrelled it away in her bedroom until I stumbled across it. It was then that Rhubarb confessed he had been sworn to secrecy regarding the doll as it had initially smelled quite strongly of wee and she had secretly washed it in the bathroom basin to remove the smell. We didn’t keep it.

So, Beefcake and I took Pudding to swimming, leaving Rhubarb and Poss to their chores. When we arrived home, we were greeted by a bedroom kneedeep in toys and Poss’ excited yabbering about a new craft project. It seems that she read  about how to turn an old, torn box (when repaired with copious amounts of sticky tape) into the perfect dolls house. But no! A doll’s house would be far too cheerful. Poss has decided to create a cardboard box orphanage and could I please purchase some wooden pegs so that she may create bedraggled peg orphans to inhabit the place. You see, she has all of this extra space now!

I should have known that a clutter-free bedroom was unattainable. She has always formed particularly strong attachments to her clutter. She still sleeps with her very worn and rapidly disintegrating teddy from infancy. He recently came apart to such a point that there is actually no fabric left to sew him up. I can’t mend him. We tried suggesting a dolls hospital, where he could receive a new skin, thinking this would ease her pain. She became so hysterical, at the thought that we suffered three nights of inconsolable crying and nightmares about Jiffy having new skin. He now wears a newborn suit of Grub’s in order to keep his stuffing in. I’m afraid of what will happen if he becomes completely dismembered.

Think of me then as I trudge off to try and restore some order to the room of a burgeoning bag lady. It won’t be fun.

Hot on the heels of Super Happy Blog Fodder Monday, I have more fabulously gripping content.

Fe tagged me for a take a photo of your handbag meme. It may be sad but I’ve actually loved  looking at other people’s versions of this post. Handbag voyeurism, baby.

This actually cheating for me as I have recently cleaned out and changed bags. It is usually far more disgusting.

Contents include:

• 1 disposable nappy and empty wipes packet
• Receipts and useless scraps of paper
• A lip gloss thingy
• My gorgeous, much-loved Mimco wallet
• Assorted children’s hats, to suit various weather conditions
• Two bent straws
• 2 pens and 2 Ikea pencils
• My lipstick purse
• A strip of black opaque tights, made into a hair tie
• My diary and four hair ties
• A powder compact from the dark ages that I never use but think I might, so leave in my bag
• A pair of Grub’s socks
• My keys – on Mme Tussauds photo keyring
• Smints and Splenda tablets

I’m not passing it on to anyone specific, but if anyone does it let me know, cos, you know, I like to look.

Poss has always been creative. She likes to draw and make things. Throughout her life she has consistently come up with ideas and songs and stories that boggle my mind. She just has a whole ‘other’ sense of reality to anyone I’ve ever met. I can’t describe it, in any concise and concrete way, only that she is either brilliant or teetering on the brink (not entirely sure that’s a thing a mother should say about her littlun, hehe).

It’s a running joke between Beefcake and I that she will be a bag lady or one of those crazy old ladies that fills their house with old newspapers and bottles and bits of fluff and dried flowers and buttons (you know, and they end up with rooms that they can’t go in and floors covered with a foot of detritus and cats). Mainly because, if you go into her room, that’s what you’ll find. Whenever she goes anywhere, even the back yard, she gathers things in her pockets to bring home for “making”. Has done ever since she was about 3 or 4. She once collected shoe boxes from all over the place (friends, family etc) and made a tower of shoe boxes in her room. There were about twenty. We were tolerant until some, ummm, unsavory things began to be stored in them. That’s a whole ‘nother story though!

The other day, she asked Beefcake to photograph some figures she had made to accompany a story. She fully intends to have this published. Being ten, she doesn’t grasp all that this would entail. When I asked her about it she said she thought it would be cool cos she could buy her own book in a shop.

When I tried to (gently) discuss, what I see as some potential plot and character development flaws with Poss, I received the response “You’re not a publisher, Mum”.

I’m not a publisher. This is just a sweet, innocent story by my sweet little girl, who has such a sarcastic mouth on her tweeny self, that I’m sure “my sweet little girl” will not oft be used in years to come to refer to her.

This is Poppy and Oliver too and they are friends to each other.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Their favorite game is Hide and seek but Oliver always wins.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–
“I’m not good at this game” said Poppy, “let’s play something else.”
“Don’t worry” said Oliver, “everyone has something they’re good at.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
First they tried skipping, but it didn’t go so well.
“Remember, jump when the rope hits the ground” said Oliver
“I can’t do this” said Poppy, “but everyone else in the class can click their fingers”.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
When Poppy tried to click her fingers it was hard to get her spirits up.
“You put your middle finger and your thumb together and you click!”, said Oliver
“It’s hopeless,”, said Poppy “I give up.”
“Don’t quit now,” said Oliver “there is lots more things to try.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————–

They tried lots of things but Poppy was good at none of them.
“You see” said Poppy, “I’m good at nothing.”
“There is one thing you’re good at.” said Oliver,
“What?!” said Poppy
“Being my friend!” said Oliver.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–