Mary Poppins

We've finished reading Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Comes Back and tonight we have begun reading Mary Poppins Opens the Door. At the beginning of the first chapter, Mrs Banks is determined to advertise for a new nurse for the Banks children (Jane, Michael, the twins Barbara and John, and the baby Annabel). Mr Banks is so distraught with the situation - Robertson Ay has just put black polish on one of his shoes and brown polish on the other, a sign of the degeneration the household has fallen into without Mary Poppins - that he mournfully wishes that he had never married; perhaps he could have "Lived in a Cave" instead, he muses.

"As long as Mary Poppins was in the house, everything had gone smoothly. But since that day when she had left them - so suddenly and without a Word of Warning - the family had gone from Bad to Worse.
Here I am, thought Mrs Banks miserably, with five wild children and no one to help me. I've advertised. I've asked my friends. But nothing seems to happen."

Mrs Banks even considers hiring Miss Andrews, the frightful governess from Mr Banks' childhood. On reading this, I looked up from the book to meet Jeff's eyes and suggested, "Perhaps we should advertise for Mary Poppins to come and be our nanny."

Jeff thought this was a brilliant idea. "But," he said, "I don't think she'd like to sleep in the guest room."

And then he added, "But for Mary Poppins, I'd move out of our bedroom and stay in the guest room myself!"

I'd better get back to the reading ... the kids are in bed and Josh is calling out his window, "Mum, we've been waiting for Mary Poppins!"