I had my first visitor to Beachville this weekend – Little Pea came to stay :o)  I’ve only had him to stay overnight once before, and this time he stayed for two.  I’ve come to the conclusion that there are definite differences between being a Mummy and an Auntie.

Generally speaking, I imagine a Mummy wouldn’t share their bed with a four year old.  This auntie doesn’t have a spare bed, but did have a spare side of the bed as Himself was away and she thought it would be ‘quite nice’.  Little Pea snores, sleep talks and has an amazing ability to almost get his bottom on his Auntie Pog’s pillow throughout the night.  He also woke at 5am wondering every five minutes ‘Is it morning time yet, Auntie Pog?’

This is Little Pea reading Mr Impossible to Norman Cat at about 5.10am, just before Norman headed under the bed for the weekend:

A Mummy would probably know that one activity is enough for a day if eating and dressing are also required…

Auntie Pogs, however, think the following will be do-able:

• Breakfast (over an hour.  For half a bowl of cornflakes)
• Getting dressed
• Cookie making
• Cupcake making
• Watching of Scooby -doo
• Eating not quite an entire ham sandwich (this took ONE AND A HALF HOURS.  There were tears.  The last mouthful took TWENTY minutes.)
• A bus trip (Much squealing as the top deck was a first and very exciting).  Please note that the ham sandwich is STILL being eaten.  It wasn’t going to win:

• Meeting of Himself and his children.
• Performance of pirate acrobats at local festival (All the boys loved it):

A mummy would probably have known that a balloon sword purchased after the performance wouldn’t last long….

• Purchase of balloon sword
• 45 seconds later: balloon sword pops
• Purchase of second balloon sword
• Much chasing of new friends with balloon sword
• Trip to the pier for various rides:

A Mummy would have known that there would be restrictions on some rides for Little Peas.  And probably would have been clever enough convince their Himself to be the ‘accompanying adult’…

• Helter Skelter ride resulting is a very screamy, shaky Aunite Pog .

A Mummy would have known that ‘yes, of course you can go in the sea’ was far too vague…

• Paddling to knees in sea while wearing trousers, trainers and socks
• Stripping of trousers, trainers and socks in the hope they might dry before home time:

• Stripping of ALL remaining clothes after an incident involving crouching down for a big wave to be left in the only remaining dry item:  An anorak.
• A short time of absolute bliss with nobody crying, getting wet or eating a ham sandwich:

A Mummy probably would have got a Little Pea home by tea time rather than bed time…

• Falling asleep part way through dinner wearing just an anorak:

We were both exhausted.  But just before he fell asleep, Little Pea told me ‘that was the perfect day’.  And that made it for me.  :o)