Tantrums, toilets and Thomas the Tank Engine

This was going to be a post all about getting through January and how I cope with it - booking holidays, reading a good book, curling up in front of some crappy but compulsive TV at night (a new series of '24' has just started, set in New York; in it, Jack Bauer carries an interesting leather man-bag, perhaps a nod to Manhattan metrosexuality?). But, to be honest, that was rather dull, so I thought I'd tell you about my day yesterday. It was not a vintage one in the Nappy Valley household...but it was a fairly typical Wednesday (the one day the boys do not go to preschool in the morning, so they need entertaining all day).......

Let me give you a quick rundown:

* Littleboy 2 had the mother all of tantrums, which hereafter shall be known as the Muffin Tantum. I will not go into all the boring details; suffice to say that it involved him being dragged kicking and screaming for 400 yards along the street in order to prevent him returning ALONE to a bakery, where he had happily eaten a brownie and eschewed a muffin ten minutes before...
* Prior to this his brother had coughed over all the free cookie samples in said bakery, without putting his hand over his mouth. The owner was very nice about it, but I suspect those samples will be going straight in the bin....
*A visit to a friend's house for a playdate resulted in us inadvertently causing her toilet to overflow and leak all over the bathroom floor, just as she was about to rush off to an activity with her three kids. Cue lots of frantic mopping and administration of paper towels. And this time it was not the boys, but me, who was the culprit.....oh the embarrassment.
*We were supposed to be meeting another friend straight afterwards but had to rush back to our house first as my socks were soaking wet from the Toilet Incident. The boys were also demanding drinks so I snatched them some water bottles for the car. Littleboy 1 then howled all the way to the next playdate that he had wanted orange juice. I ignored him and turned the radio up louder.
*The evening news was just bloody depressing. More devastation in Haiti, and the residents of Massachussetts have taken it upon themselves to elect a Republican into the late Edward Kennedy's vacant seat, thus scuppering Obama's healthcare reforms. (For those not in the US, this is as if Tony Benn were to die and be replaced in a by-election by a Tory).
*My children, who are obsessed with Thomas The Tank Engine, have labelled me 'Sir Topham Hatt' when they play their imaginary Thomas games. So, I am the Fat Controller, who looks permanently cross and tells everyone off? I guess at least he's in charge, which is more than I can say for myself sometimes....Littleboy 1, meanwhile, has decided he is 'Spencer', who as far as I can see is an obnoxious and arrogant engine (although he is 'very fast'). Great.

Getting through January? To be honest, at the moment it's more about getting through Wednesdays....