Practical Dad almost won.

It was a bit of a close contest. Joshua asked for a house to be built in the lounge. I listened and weighed up the pros and cons. Fun Dad was happy to launch straight in, but Practical Dad thought back to the previous house-building episode. It had undeniably been an enjoyable experience for all concerned, but the state in which the room was left was something approaching apocalyptic. It also occurred to Practical Dad that the floor was in a bit of a mess, and the sofa had needed some hoover-attention last time round. With the balance of power firmly on his side, Practical Dad launched into action. With the (somewhat dubious) support of Joshua, the toys were tidied away to the edge of the room, where they were piled on top of each other to maximise the effectiveness of the epic hoovering that was about to take place. Unfortunately, once the floor was clear, Practical Dad was tipped over the edge and turned, Jekyll&Hyde-like, into Desire-For-Cleanliness-Verging-On-The-Completely-Sterile-Environment Dad. The hoover was emptied first (due to a somewhat sad wish to see just how much dirt could be sucked from the carpet) and then put to work. All three attachments were used in the ensuing assault, which lasted somewhere in the region of an hour. Sofas were moved for the first time since we moved in (1 1/2 years ago...) and every corner and crevice was duly cleansed. Thankfully, the moving of sofas kept Joshua entertained for most of the process, as he enjoyed jumping back and forth between them. By the end of it, the carpet was looking spic and span and the hoover was over half full (ick!).

To everyone's relief, at some point during our elevenses break (I think it may have the the third choc chip cookie that did it), Fun Dad was rediscovered and ready for action. The housebuilding was almost as fun as the hoovering was fulfilling (?!) and probably took almost as much time. Sadly, Over-Exuberant Dad did sustain an injury in the process of vaulting from one sofa to the other, but the less said about that, the better.