Hi All,
Apologies for the looooong delay in blogging - I'm a cra- um, rubbish blogger and I deserve to be flogged!!! (ooh, how very 50 shades!!!) or "blogged" as Prince Daddy has just said, reading over my shoulder.
Soo, a brief explanation of where I've been and what's happened to the Mummy Clan in the last 12 months. I believe I last left you with news of my broken fingers and broken foot. Well! Prince Daddy went one better just a fortnight later and incurred an injury of his very own. On the Wednesday, he headed off to rugby practice as usual and, just 30 minutes later, Princess Mummy received a very apologetic call from the captain saying "we're sorry but Prince Daddy is being loaded into an ambulance cos we, um, might have dislocated his ankle. A little bit."
Although I don't remember what I actually said, (something along the lines of "I lent you my hubby and you broke him?!") apparently, he came off the phone in tears and when sympathised with by the men talking about shouting women, he said I had not shouted, and, upon returning the phone to Prince Daddy, whispered that his wife was "a bit scary."
Without a LittlePrinceSitter, I was left stranded at the castle, waiting for news of my darling Prince Daddy, which did not arrive until silly o'clock the next day when a nurse phoned to tell me that Prince Daddy was not the hardy Welshman I was promised on our wedding day, but a rather more fragile knock off version. As advertised, he had dislocated the ankle, but in an effort to win the injury ratings game, he had also snapped the end of the bone and would be looking at weeks in hospital as well as multiple surgeries.
So that covers where I have been-fulfilling my marital duties and taking care of Prince Daddy in his hours (or months) of need.
Strangely, having Prince Daddy incapacitated has done wonders for the Mummy clan-and not because I am some Kathy Bates in Misery kind of micromanager. (Although that may be part of it all). Having Prince Daddy laid up for the greater part of 6 months has meant that I have been forced to confront my narcolepsy and its limitations in a new way. As well as accepting the things that I cannot do, I have also learned that there are a number of things that I CAN do-with the right help.
For example, although I cannot just get a bus or take a long journey on a whim, I have discovered that I CAN however take Little Prince to school on my own. Something I would never have dreamed of doing before Prince Daddy's "little accident". I also learned the value of good friends. People who looked out for me on the way to and from school, who picked me up when I went splat, who phoned to see if I needed shopping and who simply came to sit with me when I had a bad day.
To these people, who I will thank by name, breaking my own rules of anonymity, I must say thank you- for teaching me that admitting I need help and asking for it, are not signs of weakness, but of a great strength. To S, who gave me the gift of seeing her own weaknesses, hidden inside one of the strongest women I know. To M who ran innumerable errands, making out he was going shopping when he wouldn't have been if I hadn't needed that milk and cat food at eleven o'clock at night. To my beautiful R who realised that I needed a wife, a friend, and someone to keep me on track, as well as being an emergency contact at school for when I was sleeping. And to N who shared her pregnancy and all it's joys and trials, letting me give advice when it wasn't really needed but I needed to feel useful.
Prince Daddy has long referred to my friends and sisters as The Coven, but now, I feel that we are truly a sisterhood. Yes M, even you. This post has become a touch sappy, but without these amazing people, I would never have got through the last year. I would not have coped with single parenthood-however brief. Then I would not have written my children's stories. Without them, and the encouragement of Prince Daddy, I would never have had the courage to submit them for publication, or felt the joy of seeing them in print. And wouldn't be sitting here now, propped up against a surprisingly healthy Prince Daddy, typing away whilst Little Prince sleeps the sleep of the justly cheeky in his Thomas the Tank duvet.
Thank you all. Princess Mummy, brought to you by The Coven haha.
