Scorchio!

I've mentioned before that when summer comes around I get quite literally addicted to checking the weather forecast. And - People of the World - that time has arrived!!!!! If only you could see the grin on my face and hear the sigh of contentment I make as I type those words.  It is ridiculously hot outside. And inside. And it's the inside bit that's causing a problem. Chez Bobs is a bungalow with a loft conversion, and you know that heat rises? Well, that's where the Childbeasts sleep - upstairs in their princess and transport themed ovens. I've always loved the sun, it makes me feel happier and fitter and I love being able to be outside all day.
But when you have kids, it's not always easy to enjoy being outside when it's hot. Obviously I don't want them getting sunburnt or to get heatstroke so I've been sending the kids out covered in factor 50 suncream, which is so thick it looks like they're about to go off and swim the channel. I've recorded myself saying "Put your hat back on!" so I can play it back at will and don't have to repeat myself 8 million times a day. Headgear is very necessary in this weather but also mean that The Boychild is literally dripping with sweat under his ridiculous desert hat that makes him look like he's in the foreign legion. And bless him he's got terrible 'pickly heat' (as The Daughter calls it) so at the minute he looks a bit like a pimply wet beetroot. We went on the school run this afternoon after we'd been playing outside in the sandpit. Suffice it to say he was covered in sand and suncream, and five minutes down the road he stopped to pull down his shorts and tell me that he'd got "sand in bum, mummy".

After only three days of sunshine, the kids are both tired, hot and ratty; my little hot cross buns. The cats are enjoying it though, they've been outside in the sun all day everyday which is brilliant, less hoovering for a start. Bob especially seems to be enjoying his freedom and a bit more variety to his diet, having eaten three bees so far today. And Dolly (the old half blind one) has been even more sprightly. She woke me up at 4am this morning, titting about in the hallway with a cat toy. But because it was already light outside, and the sodding birds were up making a row (they were still making a row at half ten when I was going to bed, so when exactly do the little buggers sleep?), I couldn't get back off again and resorted to Flowerboard once more.

So it seems that there are more downsides to Summer than there are positives. When you add up mardy kids, pickly heat, noisy birds, insomniac cats, stupid hats, and sandy crevices, there doesn't seem much left for me to be excited about. Which is just as well really, because according to my obsessive checking of the weather, it'll be pissing it down again by Tuesday!