Last week was my first 4-day rather than 5-day week, since deciding to work part-time and keep the Bean at home with me for one day. So this little chappy and I spent the day working out how to use a watering can.

HOWEVER. I suddenly realised it’s made me go ‘level-up’ in the meal-planning stakes.

Not only is there now an extra day a week when the Very Hungry and Impatient Toddler wants lunch, I also can’t count on having time to make dinner early that day. Refused-nap-calamity could strike...

So-hooo, I need to factor this in. I have heard of those American Moms who set aside one day a month to batch cook and freeze a month’s worth of meals. A MONTH. Not going to happen here: planning a week is eye-wateringly hard already, plus I have a freezer the size of a shoe box. 

But I guess I could try a little harder to freeze an extra few portions of sauce here, make more than just one meal’s worth of chicken there. Which, if you recall, is what I initially planned on doing when I started meal planning, but, erm, yeah. It didn’t last.

Actually, it’s not my fault - I have a food-hoover in the house. I make more, M-Big eats more. And I get the feeling M-Little is going exactly the same way. Yes, blame them!

This week I’m going to try a little bit though. Just have to make sure I squirrel away the extra portions before anyone sees them…

Can you spot the clever double-ups? Oh and if we're sick of (lovely, lovely) asparagus by the end of this week, it doesn't matter - the season is coming to an end. *sniff*

We’re currently in toddler teething hell. Again.

As 16 out of 20 milk teeth had sprouted by 14 months (with the last 8 essentially obliterating all of February and March), I was hoping for a break. Because, you know, everyone keeps telling me, “oh the molars don’t appear until they’re about two”. But no, one of his molars seems to making a break for it now. At 16 months. *Sigh*

So there's lots of this at the moment:

And this:

I shouldn’t be surprised - the rest of them came out early so why not these ones? I’m trying to see the silver lining - at least we get the teething out of the way early. Right? Right?!

It’s hard. He’s a grumpy, demanding, frantic little ball of toddler misery. He is managing to focus on each toy or activity for precisely 30 seconds before wanting something else, more, different, anything but nothing except for the moon on a stick YESTERDAY. Every request is met with screams, tears, kicking, or all of the above. The bin and the loo are fair game again - are we going back to poking the sockets next?

I try to be patient: he’s in pain. The temperature spikes at night, the wanting to eat but not managing. It sucks, all of it.

It brings out the worst in me too. Can’t help but worry that this grumpy gremlin behaviour is in fact a taster of the Terrible Twos, that he’ll never deign to cooperate again. And this new-found phobia of all things wet and mucky, is that here to stay? Feel bad that I can't cheer him up and, wait, am I even right, what if it isn't teething? And will we ever, EVER sleep again??

Of course this too shall pass, this perfectly ordinary part of raising a young child. I just hope it doesn't take too long, or I will be contacting the Tooth Fairy Complaints Desk.