Pester Points

1. Lavender Blue

2. Lavender Green

3. When I Am King Dilly Dilly

I woke with Son 1 aged 5y 10m in the Big Bed beside me.  I went downstairs and checked in the boys’ room.  An empty cot.  Son 2 aged 2y 10m was asleep in the Double Bed. He’d climbed out, gone next door and put himself to bed again. Now I know there is something worse than a child who wakes in the night and gets into bed with Mummy.  A child who wakes in the night and gets into an empty bed.  Puff And The Monsters  I got in with him for a cuddle. Son 1 came plomping down and got in the other side.  Son 2 climbed over me and thumped Son 1. I have now invented Pester Points.  Son 1 gets a Pester Point every time Son 2 hits him and he doesn’t hit him back.  He gets a Pester Point every time Son 2 trashes one of his games. When he has enough Pester Points he will get a Playmobil King and Queen to rule over his knights. Son 2 won’t get anything.  

Today, by order of Son 1, was Tidying Day.  He and Wonder Nanny took on the bathroom. Son 2 and I continued in the Double Bedroom.  I started off by making the  bed. Son 2 lay on the mattress, laughing his head off as I shook out the quilt over him. ”Do id again!” He stood on the floor and pulled the quilt off, piling it on him. Son 1 came in, drawn by the peals of giggles.  Anarchy.  All the pillows from the Double Bed, Son 1’s quilt from next door, both boys’ pillows and Son 2’s cot blanket were heaped in a pile. They disappeared into a soft quilty heap.  I gathered up missing bits from books, broken bits from books, unidentifiable broken-off pieces of plastic and various other odds and sods.  I mended and sorted, and took out all Teenaged Niece and Nephew’s handmedown books and put them on the shelves. I went through a mighty pile of Son 1’s artwork from Nursery and Reception, and managed to put more than half in the recycling bin. Everything else of course will need frames. Son 1 and Son 2 emptied out all the pocket-book sets and started to spread the drawings around. I sent them down to Wonder Nanny, who was making lunch.  Starting the Sort Out is a Good Thing. Now I’ve got the books out of the wardrobe, I may be able to make headway on the piles of outgrown baby clothes piled up in  there.

After lunch I wanted us all to go shopping… night nappies for Son 2, a prescription for me and the start of The Man’s Birthday Picnic. Son 1 wouldn’t come, and so Wonder Nanny stayed home too. Son 2 wanted flip flops, and I found him a very cute pair in Animal. He looked great, but after walking from one end of The Town to the other, decided he didn’t like them because they rubbed between his toes. “You can gi’ dem to Son 1.” When we got back, Son 1 ordered me upstairs to look at what he’d been doing. His Playmobil Pirates, in a perfect pirate cave, the parrot and the pelican in the trees, the weapons in a big piles, the candlestick on the table. All the undersea set was beautifully laid out.  I almost felt sorry for him. I’ve never seen him play with his toys like that… he never gets chance because Son 2 is always there, whacking and stamping and scattering.  Son 2 followed me upstairs and looked in delight at the cave and the underwater scene. “Can oi’ pay wiv it?”  He whacked and stamped and scattered. Son 1 wailed. I gave him a Pester Point.  “How many Pester Points have I got?”  “Seven.” “How many do I need to get my King and Queen?” “Ten.” “I don’t  think I’ll have the King and Queen. I’ll have that Playmobil Knights suitcase we saw instead if they’ve got any left.”

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