The tables have turned

This morning was different. The youngest woke at 6.24am (its always sometime between 5.30 and 6.30) and made such a racket that I had to go and get him. He is now practically running everywhere, toppling quite often, but simply getting up and setting off again.

The morning went ok. Shower, dress, breakfast, dress the children...and we were almost ready to leave on time (my time that is as they are not yet at school, so don't need to be in for a specific time...who knows what I will do when we have to hit a deadline!). I say almost, because they were both dressed and I went with the eldest to clean his teeth, leaving the youngest in the playroom with his shoes on the floor ready to put on. Only when I returned there was only one shoe...and the other was nowhere to be found. 20 minutes of ranting, shouting, screaming, pleading, threatening and frantically opening and closing all manner of cupboards, drawers and toyboxes and it was still not found. How was I supposed to take him to nursery with only one shoe?

Eventually, I sat down and took a number (about 100) of deep breaths and started again...this time on my hands and knees as I imagined he might have been. I crawled into all the nooks and crannies I thought he might have done and...eureka...it was hidden behind my desk, behind the curtain. I swear he was smiling at me when I found it.

I should mention that the eldest behaved impeccably throughout all of this and even helped me to look for the shoe...although he kept finding far more interesting things on the way, like the car he lost last week, some building blocks, a crumb on the floor, etc, etc, etc!