6.40am The cries of ‘Blueyyyy’ have been going on for at least half an hour. Time to wake up.

9.10am We’re expecting Mum, Gran and Grandpa for an early lunch. They’ve decided to come earlier so we can get to the panto in good time which is lovely, but I’m not organised yet! Best crack on.

12.03pm We’ve had a nice lunch with Mum, Gran and Grandpa who are now on their way to Retford. Me, Soph and Aidan are in the car, ready to go to the pantomime in Runcorn. It might be tricky with two, but I’m fairly confident we’ll be fine. They’re used to sitting in quite big groups of people and watching what’s going on.

12.57pm Take two kids to the pantomime, I thought. It’ll be fine, I thought. Super easy, I thought.

Well, somewhere in the circus that was wrestling Sophia, Aidan, baby Poppy, the changing bag, Poppy’s jacket, Aidan’s blanket, Sophia’s purse and Sophia’s glasses case into the theatre… Aidan’s poo leaked out of his nappy, out of his vest, out of his dungarees and onto my top. I was only saying in the Cathedral on Monday that I’ve never had baby poo leak onto me. 

I didn’t notice how bad it was when I got him out of the car, so I had decided I’d just change him inside – because there’s bound to be some changing facilities! Oh no, no changing facilities signposted anywhere, staff too busy with tickets to help. So I changed him on a toilet floor on top of his blanket.

Soph said ‘look there’s poo everywhere! It’s coming out of his nappy and it’s on his trousers! It’s on you!’

‘Yes, thank you Soph.’

‘It’s not on me though’

‘No, I’d keep my distance if I were you’.

2.15pm Interval time. It’s a great panto, Soph is loving it. She asked me for icecream about four times before the interval. I tried to explain about the interval but I wasn’t very calm so I didn’t do a very good job. Then when we eventually got to the front of the queue, bought the ice creams and I turn to go back to the seats and hear ‘I need a spoooooon…’

‘It’s in the lid, don’t worry. Let’s get back to our seats’

‘What do you mean it’s in the lid? Why are we going back to our seats?’

All the while battling crowds of people, carrying Aidan and covered in poo.

4.45pm We are home and I have got a clean top on. Soph had such a great time! But it was far from relaxing for me. As Soph joined in more and more in Act 2, Aidan got more and more uncomfortable with the noise. We were on the front row of the balcony, but Soph couldn’t really see over the railing, so she sat on my knee while I fed Aidan and kept my hand pressed to his other ear. I was very hot. And covered in poo, did I mention that?!

The people around us were lovely though. The lady next to me moved up to give us more room (and possibly to get away from the smell…). The lovely stewards at the end asked if I needed help, and told me not to rush. Soph was saying ‘but I don’t want to go home’, to which they just smiled and waited for us to get organised.

Anyway, I called Nathan on the way back and told him to be ready to take over when I got in. Pantomimes are a bit like being close to a firework when it goes off. It was great but overwhelming, and I wouldn’t recommend taking a three year old and seven month old on your own, if I’m honest! So I’m sat on the bed with my freshly opened Easter egg. I’ll need a new one by Sunday at this rate!

8.15pm Sophia settled herself again and Aidan is asleep in my arms. Now things are a little more settled and I’ve relaxed, I can dwell on what today means in the church. It’s Maundy Thursday. Bible readings in church today are about the last supper and Jesus being betrayed. He was arrested and taken into a cell overnight. He knew what was coming. He asked for the Father to take it away. But in the end, he went.

There in the garden of tears, my heavy load he chose to bear. His heart with sorrow was torn. Yet not my will but yours, he said.

Darkness is descending here in Aintree and I’m thinking about the darkness falling in the garden on that night, very nearly two thousand years ago. How can a series of events from so long ago have had such a long lasting impact? This week, I was asked ‘if there’s a God, why does chocolate make dogs poorly?’. I have many questions, but one of mine is ‘if there’s a God, why do children get so tired that they can’t sleep? Surely, more tired should mean more and better sleep? Not so.

Anyway, we all have questions. But it occurs to me that if some random bloke got himself into hot water and was killed two thousand years ago, and that was it, we wouldn’t know about it, would we? Two robbers were killed with Jesus. Nobody was really bothered about them, not long enough to record their names or anything like that, anyway. But millions of people across all those years care about what happened to Jesus. They believed that it meant something. I have my own faith, and I have faith in the faith of all those people, too. I believe Easter means something more than my half eaten chocolate egg. The question is, what do you believe in?

More tomorrow x