Our family’s weekend plans were delightfully interrupted by the early arrival by two weeks of my nephew. I now have two nieces and two nephews, how good is that?

I was putting the coffee pot on the stove on Saturday morning when I casually checked my phone and saw I had a few missed messages and calls – I’d been up late on Friday so I knew it must be the baby.

I reckon few things in life could be more exciting than finding there’s a new family member on the way. My dad says it’s as good as winning Lotto (or as he imagines winning Lotto would be).

As no one could visit my sister and the baby except for her husband (due to covid), a planned extended family BBQ still went ahead at our place and we video called her. And we did some babysitting of his big brother, which was fun.

But it meant that our last minute plans to get the kids ready for their school return today were massively compressed.

Hairdressers are still clearing a lockdown backlog so I did the boys’ haircuts yesterday evening. And this morning we discovered there were still some gaps in the lunchboxes, pencil case and summer shirts department.

And apparently there were no good snacks, so I have to go now and stock up for the rest of the week…

PS pictured is Skittles the budgie who will have to adjust to a quieter house post-lockdown.