Come and find us!

That is a call I hear, fairly often, which is usually followed by me making exaggerated movements around the house, checking in cupboards and on top of shelves and the most ridiculous of places to find the children who I can quite clearly hear laughing from underneath one of the beds.

That is what usually happens.

Today we were having a lazy day and sitting at home watching a DVD. It was Monsters University, which we had bought on yesterday's shopping outing, forgoing such things as muesli bars in order to fit it into our little budget.

So we were watching, and it was paused because Miss 5 needed to go to the loo, and I figured that whilst she was absent and the picture was paused I would use that opportunity to make coffee number 5 or 6 for the day. Yes. It was a heavy coffee day.

Why?

Because at 4am Miss 4 visited my bed. And at 4.15am Miss 5 visited my bed. And because Miss 5 is still tender in the arm, and Miss 4 is Miss 4, well, I just thought it was easier to just get out, let them have my bed and I would go sleep on the sofa.

So I grabbed Miss 5's doona and pillow and that is precisely what I did. Why didn't I sleep in her bed? I have absolutely no idea. That would have been the logical thing to do. At 4.15am logic is quite obviously not my strong point.

Anyway, I was tired today, so coffee aplenty.

Coffee made and I hear "Come and find us!!" followed by hysterical laughter times 3.

The laughter is coming from the girls' room.

So first stop for me is the bathroom.

"Are they in here?? No, they aren't. How strange. I wonder where they could be."

*hysterical laughter from the girls' room*

"COME AND FIND US!!!!!!!"

And I go into Master 3's room. "Are they in here? Perhaps under the bed?"

*hysterical laughter from the girls' room*

And so I go into the girls' room, listening to the laughter which is coming from the direction of under Miss 4's bed, where they usually all hide.

Usually.

And I check in the cupboard. "Could they be here?? NO! They aren't! I wonder where they are…."

*hysterical laughter*

And that's where things changed.

I assumed they were all under the bed, so when I said aloud "Are they behind the door?" and opened the door, when Miss 5 said "Boo" from her hiding place behind the door I damn near had a heart attack.

I proceeded to fall back on her bed, half laughing half crying because she seriously scared the living daylights out of me. Compounded by the fact that we were watching Monsters University, which had had us being "scared" or at least roared at for the previous half an hour.

I must say it took me a little while to recover. But it meant that I no longer needed the coffee. I still had it of course. Just didn't need it.

Master 3 has realised that life does not imitate television.

He realised this by way of a toy. A toy hammer. And he discovered that unlike Bob the Builder, who is able to fix things simply by hammering them, if you hammer a toy plastic car with enough force, it doesn't actually "fix". Quite the contrary.

And then hammering it twice as hard to fix the damage done by the first hammering only serves to shatter the plastic even more.

And yet the hammering continues.

I'm going to hide it. I have to. Or I will go insane.

I am constantly surprised by how much my kids eat. They think about food at all times. Incessantly. They will have just had a meal and then they ask when the next feeding session is.

10 minutes after lunch today Miss 4 asked "When is it afternoon tea time?"

I asked her if she thought about anything besides food.

And she said "Yes. I think about you."

Cue awwww moment. And then big hugs. For ages.

I do love my cuddles. And I love that the kids love cuddles. Much as at times they are reminiscent of molluscs hanging off me, I still love that they are so affectionate.

I love that Master 3 will be sitting on the sofa, look over at me and say "I love you so much mummy."

Even though it is quite disturbing to my sleep, I love that the kids come into bed with me just to have a cuddle. And for the time being I will let them. I guess that eventually I'll slowly wean them out of the habit, because seriously I need to start getting more sleep. But for now I just love the cuddles. And they grow up so quickly. And before I know it they won't want to be giving me cuddles.

So I'll take every cuddle I can get right now.

And as it stands there are plenty.

And that is just fine by me.