Who Let the Dad's Out?

It is Saturday morning and the house is silent! It feels extremely strange and very surreal. Why?

Anna and James have left me!!!!!

Well, when I say left me, that is not strictly true because they will back for lunch!

James and Anna have joined a toddler group, especially designed for dad's and their toddler's. It is their first day today. It runs on the first Saturday of each month. I think James was attracted to it when heard that there would be bacon butties, comfy sofas and newspapers to read. I didn't tell him that Anna wouldn't give him any time to sit on a comfy sofa and read the paper. For Anna, there is toddler toys, a craft activity and lots of other children to get to know but she will probably be too busy running around singing Lady GaGa and trying to cut her hair with scissors again

I didn't even know they were going until 5 minutes before they left. I was reading the local paper while watching Anna draw faces in her Weetabix and just happened to mention that there was this dad's club running in our local community centre. James actually didn't seem very interested until I mentioned the bacon butties and then his ears sprung up like a cocker spaniel and he suddenly was very interested!

Before I knew it, Anna was being whipped out of the high chair with the promise of lots of new toys to play with and they were heading off down the road! I was left on the doorstep waving goodbye as Anna cheerily shouted 'Bye Mummy. See you later', holding her Daddy's' hand and skipping! Anyone would think she was pleased to see the back of me!

It feels very strange, sat here on my own. The house is never normally this quiet any more. Don't get me wrong, Anna and James do spend a lot of time together but it is normally with me or I am, at least, in the background somewhere. I think it is actually really good for both of them to spend time together without me around but it just feels very peculiar at the moment!

After long days of being rushed off my feet, I sometimes dream of moments like this when I would actually get spare time to surf the Internet looking at completely random sites and now that I am doing it, dare I say it feels a bit boring! Before Anna, I used to do this all the time (when I was meant to be planning scintillating lessons for the week ahead!). Now I'm not sure how I wasted so much time! Of course, there is always piles of ironing and washing that I could be doing but never mind!

So I am sat here instead, writing a blog about Anna and wondering what she is up to? Is James racing around the community centre trying to catch an excitable Anna who has decided to run amok with the glitter. Maybe she is trying to eat glue or thinking that the play dough is looking like a tasty snack ? Or could it be that James is sat eating his bacon butty while Anna plays beautifully with some new toys that she hasn't discovered before. If that is the case, then I am going to have to find out what I am doing wrong because she never does that for me!

As James left, he said 'Well, we can see what it is like can't we. We don't have to go again if it is rubbish" so I'm really not sure what the reaction will be when James walks back through the door. It will either be "Never again. All parents do is talk about their kids all the time and Anna doesn't stop still for a second" or it will be 'That was great. Anna loved it and the bacon butty was delicious". I am truly hoping it was the second. I realise that it does feel incredibly strange not to be with Anna at this second in time but I could probably get used to having 2 hours off one Saturday per month!

I have just heard a police siren hurtling down the main road (which is quite close to our house and is the main road leading into Chester from the motorways). As you can imagine with it being such a busy road, that is a fairly common occurrence but I am now sat here thinking 'what if the police siren was heading for the community centre because Anna has decided to do something she shouldn't'. I'm not exactly sure what that would be though - I need to get a grip! What on earth am I going to be like in September when I have 2 mornings of this! At least today I know she is with her Daddy!

Only 40 minutes until they are back.