When you have three kids, and you lose one of them (temporarily of course) things just become easier. I have heard this is true no matter how many you have. For instance, if you have four, having three is significantly easier, and of course going down to one is a doddle. It doesn't matter which one, or which two, the dynamic changes and there's a bit of a novelty factor.
So, this afternoon I was left with the two youngest while my eldest social butterfly went on a sleepover. During the afternoon they went from niggling each other, dobbing and sniping about minor infringements, to playing beautifully together.
Although I did make it easy for them. First we went to Max Brenner for chocolate dips. One each. They've never had one each before, they've always had to share. It was kid heaven.
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| Before. |
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| After. Talk about good use of chocolate. |
And then we went to the beach. It was a bit cold and a bit windy. But it's been so long since the beach has been a viable option (due in part to my mental block of simply not going to the beach in June, July and August) that we gave it a whirl. It was excellent fun and I promised to take them later in the week when the weather is warmer.
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| Excited footprints. |
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| Excited digging. |
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| And a little bit of wave chasey. |
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| Ok so the waves aren't that big. But they were big enough to cause a lot of screaming and giggling. |
They go well together, my two littlest. When they're not vying for their big sister's attention they look out for each other and play beautifully. Joshie tries to get Issy to say poo so she will get into trouble and Issy tells Joshie to hit her so she can dob on him, but apart from that, it's pretty smooth going.
