Week Six

Another week has been and gone and we’re now at 27.7% of my parental leave gone. It’s certainly not lots but…well, it’s not none either. It’s worth having a progress bar for 27.7%. Nearly 30%. Basically a third. Comfortably on the way to half. More than a quarter.

Oxygen Trampoline Park

Every Thursday, my four-year-old is off nursery and we tend to do something fun that she likes. This week, we went for a McDonald’s breakfast followed by 90 minutes trampolining/climbing/sliding at Oxygen Trampoline Park. It’s pretty exhausting if you decide to bounce along with them, but she had a great time. We played hide-and-seek in the ball pool, chased her cuddly unicorn down the inflatable slide, and did star jumps on the trampolines. What more could you want from a random Thursday?

Swimming

Monday night is swimming and I took the eldest two this time. We’ve managed to get them a lesson at the same place at the same time which is a bit of a win. The eldest is OK with his lessons but would rather not do them. The middle child thinks they’re the best thing that have ever happened and she loves splashing about.

Showering them afterwards made me regret everything, and I angrily asked my wife how the hell she’d managed to do this with a baby strapped to her (as she did when I was in Oxford). Fair play wife. Fair play.

Gym

I managed to get to the gym three times last week, which I’m generally pretty happy with. At the behest of Claude, I’ve switched to a slightly lighter weight but more intense work out. No more 3 sets of 5 reps, and lots more 4 sets of 8 reps. I’ve not injured myself yet, or come down with a diverticulitis flare-up, so all-in-all I’m pretty happy with things.

I managed to go to the gym 7 times in February, and that included a DV flare-up and a week in Edinburgh. I’m hoping to get to at least 7 times in March too.

Home Help

In the space of two days, we had our cleaner, gardener and a handyman come round and I was (yet again) reminded of how much I value hiring home help. I pay a relatively small amount of money and get a nicer house/garden. That’s just money well spent as far as I’m concerned.

Village Walks

I rediscovered the front-facing baby carrier and spent a fair amount of time walking around with the 8-month-old strapped to me. He loves being outside and is now stupidly curious. Unfortunately, he’s at the point where these things manifest as him being furious about being inside a lot of the time, and fucking shit up anytime he can reach anything. All the same, we’ve spent a lot of time hanging out and I’m beginning to think that he smiles when he sees me and looks out for me as a source of excitement.

There’s a brief window where daddy becomes the favourite, and you’ve got to wallow in it when it happens because for about 17.8 of the other 18 years…mummy is the favourite. If I’m approaching that brief window now, I’m going to have to savour it!

Academic Work

I’m writing a paper at the moment and have spent pretty much all my free time on it. It’s fairly niche and is unlikely to set the world on fire, but I want it to be good. Really good. And so I’m spending a lot of time trying to get it into tip-top shape. The gap between doing a bit of analysis and writing it up for a company, and writing an academic paper, is not a gap. It’s a gulf. A chasm. Even a good analysis…one that you really pour your heart and soul into…it’s nothing like putting together a paper.

Conclusion

A relatively quiet week - but one in which I managed to spend time with my kids, go to the gym plenty, and take my vitamins. Next week is probably going to be another quietish one, with a nice trip to Aldwark Manor towards the end of the week.