Sadly the run of glorious weather had finished – the sun had officially departed and we were back to the usual rain, clouds and general greyness. I would have liked to say it was nice while it lasted but I had been lazing on my sickbed for the entirety of the heatwave. I didn’t even get to light the BBQ once!
After breakfast, Megan braved the weather to head to the nearby bakery. Having access to a bakery during the lockdown had been invaluable – we always had bread for sandwiches and toast! Megan had placed an order for a lovely granary loaf plus some sausage rolls for the kids’ lunch, but when she got there they also had doughnuts with pink icing and sprinkles as well as a cherry Danish pastry. How could Megan resist?!
The children accompanied Megan for the shopping trip (in spite of the weather). They had taken to the “new normal” amazingly quickly and knew that they needed to wait patiently outside the bakery while Megan went inside. However, the same couldn’t be said for the other customer in the shop. According to Megan he just wouldn’t stand still and kept stomping around making it impossible for her to maintain the required two metres. I would have told him off personally but Megan was too polite.
On the way back from the bakery the kids took every opportunity to splash and jump in puddles. Despite wearing wellies and puddle suits, they still managed to arrive home with cold and wet feet and legs. A quick change of clothes and warm sausage rolls sorted them out soon enough though.
Genevieve was still making a fuss about doing her school work so we attempted something new. Rather than battling to get her to write her answers down using a pencil and paper, we asked her to type them on the laptop instead. She was initially excited about trying something new and grown up, especially after I told her that I use a laptop all day at work (which I desperately tried to make sound both sexy and glamorous), but the sense of wonder quickly departed. Before long Genevieve was resting her head on her hand, rolling her eyes and begrudgingly taping individual letters out at a snail’s pace. She would have been measured in words per hour rather than words per minute. Tedious, but eventually she got there.
While Genevieve was “busy” working, James drew the mouse from the Gruffalo with some help from Megan. He also did an amazing self portrait on the whiteboard (beautifully juxtaposed by Megan’s flower picture). He’s really confident with a pen but needs to work on his grip – currently he holds pens and pencils like a spear rather than the usual finger and thumb option. He’ll get there though and it’s definitely not holding him back creatively!
Genevieve explored her creative side too. She’d worked out how to access the iPad camera when it’s locked (why are the damn things so intuitive?!) and had wandered around the house taking “artistic” images and selfies. All of the family’s devices sync to a Google Photos account, so Megan and I had quite the surprise that evening when we discovered more than a dozen photos of Genevieve’s LOL Doll in various poses, plus some magnificent side-eye posing from the little lady herself.
James had learnt the same iPad trick too – both children are like little technology sponges! However, his images tended to be of the ceiling or a corner of his face (if we were lucky). I had no doubt that his “photography” would improve quickly though, so we got ourselves mentally prepared for a flurry of random imagery and “portraits” over the coming weeks. Maybe we should set up a gallery and turn the lockdown in to a money-spinner?
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