The barking bench!

I say the hammock, he says the barking bench!

It all began with browsing on eBay! I was looking at some fabric and decided to have a look at what else the seller had got listed.

Then I looked at his feedback and clicked on another seller who had sold an old oak wardrobe to this first guy. So then I’m browsing the second guys stuff that he has listed!

He has a travel cot for twins! My mind starts doing somersaults, this may be useful for Minnie and Maisie. I’m not sure yet how, but that doesn’t matter right this second. I find out he lives 45 miles away, this is do-able 😀. We can make a day of it, go for a nice walk have some lunch in a doggy friendly pub, pick up the travel cot for twins and head back home, perfect!

This is what I’m like, the plan is set. I tell my husband I’m going to buy a travel cot for twins, he despairs! He has this tired look on his face that I have seen many times before. He swallows before he asks the question that I know word for word that is coming. ‘Why on earth do you want a travel cot for twins and where are we going to put it?’

I need to think, quick, so I reply ‘ I’m going to put it at my side of the bed for Minnie and Maisie to sleep in’. He scoffs that they won’t sleep in that, they’re too comfortable on our bed! But I argue that they will get used to it and he relents.

I know he would like the freedom to move around the bed in the night. He gets pinned down by M & M, one each side of him and he can’t turn over! Sometimes Maisie gets into the back of his knees and he ends up stuck like that for hours! So this will be a great relief for him if it works.

So off I toddle back to the computer and buy the travel cot (it has a BIN option) and I email the guy to arrange a day for us to collect.

I feast over the photos that he put on and know the travel cot stitch by stitch before we even pick it up.

The day goes ahead exactly as I had planned and we have a lovely day out and come home with the cot which we set up in the lounge. My hubby said it is best to leave it there for a day or two for M & M to get used to seeing it. So I pushed it against the small sofa and filled it will fleecy blankets.

When we had been to the beach and they came back tired and ready for a kip, I popped them both in the cot. Maisie had a dig round making herself a nice comfy nest, Minnie hopped out and landed on the sofa and looked at me defiantly! I didn’t want her to think it was a punishment so I gave her a cuddle a popped her back in. I sat at the side and stroked her until she went to sleep. As soon as they woke I lifted them out and gave them some ham 😀

I did the same routine every day for about a week, it was working perfectly. In fact we would come back from a walk and Maisie would stand up at the cot wanting to be lifted in. Minnie wouldn’t though, she would loiter in the dining room hoping we would forget about her! They could both jump out as long as the sofa was there and they knew this, so that helped.

Then came the day we moved it upstairs, I swear to god Minnie had a smile of relief on her face when she saw us folding it up! She looked so happy, she was practically skipping around the room …. until she followed us upstairs with it and put it back up in the bedroom. I’ve never seen a face quite like it! From joy to horror in a second!

I would put them both in the cot at night but as soon as the light went out I would count to five in my mind and Minnie would come flying out! While Maisie loved it, Minnie hated it. I persevered with putting them both in every night, but Minnie would always fly out after five seconds. It wasn’t until some weeks later I found out why…. It was because madam Maisie would bite Minnie’s foot! Minnie would shuffle to get comfortable and Maisie would chomp on her foot!

It got that when we went up to bed Minnie would disappear, she would hide until she thought it was safe then she would creep in and slink on the bed hoping that we wouldn’t notice. So in the end I just put Maisie in, which is what she wanted really, she loves it. She gets in and I put a duvet all over her and she stays there until about 5 or 6 am and then she joins us on our bed. Sometimes she stands back at the cot crying because she’s decided she wants to get back in!

It seemed such a waste only using the cot at bedtime and one day I had a great idea! I would put a lid on it! My hubby thought it was a brilliant brain wave, he said we could put both of them in it and put the lid on, trust him to get the wrong idea!

I was going to make it into a hammock for the daytime, I thought it would be great for them to lie on looking out of the window, so I went ahead and made a lid 😀

---

They absolutely love it, they go on it every day and bark their heads off at anything that dares move in our crescent. Even leaves!
Believe it or not Maisie is asleep in the cot, that is how she likes it, all tucked up under her duvet. And then ‘at rest’ on the hammock after a busy day keeping guard!