So we’ve moved house. Again. We have finally managed to buy somewhere after years of renting and obviously we are delighted.

But this exciting development comes with downsides. And the biggest one of all is packing. Four kids means we have A LOT of stuff. And although it was FOREVER between getting our offer accepted and getting confirmation it was all going through, once we got that green light suddenly it all started going very fast. We didn’t pack before then because obviously that would have jinxed it. So we were left with a ton of stuff and not much time in which to pack it. And that’s where the laps of the kitchen come in.

Picture the scene: it’s 10am on a Saturday and you’ve been up since 7. The objective for the day is to load all the already packed boxes into the van and then pack more. There is bubble wrap all over the floor, like a flood of plastic, and half-packed boxes are everywhere. The cats are freaking out. You’re already tired, and aching, and panicking about too-much-stuff-too-little-time-too-few-boxes. And then Sebastian starts running.

Sebastian rarely does anything slowly (unless, of course, it’s bedtime or you’re in a bona fide hurry) so the sight of him dashing about the place isn’t unusual. However he is usually going from one place to another; seeing him running in literal circles around me as I packed was bizarre to say the least.

“I’m just doing my laps of the kitchen,” he said when I asked him what he was doing.

My laps of the kitchen. In the same way I might say, I’m doing my marking, or someone having physio might say, I’m doing my exercises. As if this is a normal part of a routine. Except this was the first time he’d ever done it.

I managed to get him to stop. Sadly, the hyperactive behaviour has been a recurring feature of the move (so excited by having stairs, Sebastian and Annabelle were sledging down them while I was trying to clean inside the kitchen cupboards to unpack plates) and there may have been a lot of shouting.

We are in the new house now. With all the boxes now to unpack, a task almost as awful as packing them in the first place. But at least we know we won’t be doing it again until Sebastian is far too old to be doing laps of the kitchen.