Home today.

I always realised it would be a challenge, adjusting from having only one child to having two. I had joked that it is moving from double teaming the child, to man on man defense. Today we bought the wonderful Zoe home from the hospital. and the differences of raising two children made themselves abundantly clear. It was somewhat of a shock to the system, I guess I had expected that we would adjust the routine slightly and all would be well. It turns out it is more than that, the house has a distinctly different rhythm to it, a feign beat, asymmetrical, full of augmented 5ths . I'm sure we will adjust and discover a new normal in time, I just hope it doesn't take too long!

Here are a few of my favorite moments from today:

• Realising that the time penalty of letting the 2yrs old (15mins extra) help me carry the bags to car was worth it, as it lets him contribute to the family - this includes two detours while Alex walked all over a bush turkey's nest so he could "see the turkey" - which he subsequently chased on to the road.
• Standing in dog poo while trying to get Alex out of the rain, then walking the poo through the length of the house and into the baby's room carpet, to change the baby's nappy... yep. Ironic. I was clearly disappointed in myself, was trying toe clean the carpet, on my knees. Alex comes over and asks - "Are you alright daddy? ", then later tells, "You're alright daddy." 
• At bath time, Zoe pooing her nappy,. and just after I get back with wipes, the other one pooing in the bath. This simple sentence does not convey the 3 minutes of chaos that followed, but I can assure you, both children were clean by the end of it. 

I'll finish with a quick story about Alex. Recently my parent gave Alex a toy steering wheel, this morning he is turning the key on and off again, so I ask him "what are you doing?", "I'm turning the power on" is the reply. Fast forward to late this afternoon, when Alex and I are rushing into a Mobility shop to hire a shower seat for post-op Louise. We arrive 10 mins before closing time, and the staff there don't look overly happy to see us walk in so late in the day. The sales assistant is trying to explain the differences between models, and Alex runs off across the store to the mobility scooter section and climbs up on a nice looking blue rinse special. I see this out of the corner of my eye, and ask the assistant - "They can't be started can they?". She says, "he is fine, they can only start if he turns the key". I dash over to him, and say "What are you doing? hop down". His response loud enough for the sales assistant to hear was priceless. It was simply "I"m turning the key"...