There are days of mania and whirlwinds in the house where a two-year-old lives when you don't know how it was possibly 5.59am the last time you caught a glimpse of your watch and then there are days when silence descends upon that very same house and you wonder what on earth you spent your time doing when there was no little person around filling your every minute.
What did you do with the hours, minutes even seconds before there was toy tidying to be done and a little lady's social calendar to oblige as well as an additional wardrobe to iron and re-fill or meals to be planned and served in sufficient time to fit the other routines in that are necessary for a smooth transition into bed-time? (There is to be no interference with the bed-time routine for fear of being forever jinxed. We must be on the way up the stairs for the necessary ablutions by the latest 6.45pm or chaos ensues - for me rather than the Little Lady. When would I get time to do the other stuff that I can't fit in around the whirling world of a small human?)
In her absence, we sat staring into space and sometimes at each other wondering what we did talk to each other about before we spent time repeating the phrases - often echoes of our own statements - that she had uttered with some confusions making us smile? What sounds filled the air when there was no reasoning with a two-year-old required?
Today has been one of the latter days for me where I spent some time pondering these very questions. So what did I do? I did some chores; I filed some paperwork; I edited some web posts; I caught up with some emails but most of all, I waited for her to come home. And, although the house had toy free zones for at least three hours, I was glad when the Frozen, Baby Annabelle & Peppa Pig carnage had resumed and the mania had been restored because it's just not home without all of the paraphernalia scattered everywhere!
Perhaps next time, I will grab the opportunity to watch some (more) trashy TV (may be I did squeeze a bit of this in today upon reflection) or do something that isn't home related but what would the fun be in that? I would only spend my time wishing that I had got all of the annoying things done so that when she was back, I could spend time with her like I do now having fun and answering all of her continuous queries that only a two-year-old poses.
This post originally appeared at www.viewfromadaddy.co.uk