Getting Genevieve to finish the last of her school work for the week was nearly impossible. All she had to do was write out the number bonds for twenty (zero plus twenty equals twenty, one plus nineteen equals twenty and so on) and then make up three real-world sums (e.g. if I had eight bananas and my brother took two how many would I have left). It should have taken around half an hour (at most) but was dragged out for well over four hours in the end. Megan and I tried various different negotiation styles, approaches and threats to get her to finish. Although we got there in the end we were hopeful that she’d come out of this difficult phase soon. She was more than capable of doing the work and, frankly, we were mentally frazzled from the constant battling.
By the time Genevieve was finished, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining so Megan took the kids out to jump in puddles. They had a lot of fun. Like a huge amount of enjoyment. They must have jumped in every puddle on the block plus all the other nearby puddles for good measure. There can’t have been a single puddle within a kilometre that hadn’t been splashed or frolicked in. You get the idea.
And then they splashed some more.
And then they regrouped and managed to find yet more puddles in which to splash.
On the way back to the house they checked in on the neighbourhood monkey. He was busy taking photographs so the children struck their best poses before bidding the monkey farewell for the day.
The kids were then bathed and swiftly changed in to their onesies to warm up. Puddle jumping was fun but they had both ended up rather chilly. Megan and I agreed that it was going to be a sad day when James finally outgrew his Peter Rabbit onesie – he looked so damn cute in it!
We cracked open the latest packages from Grandma Lindsey and Grandad Lawrie. Inside we found new exciting games to play including Witch Guess Who and Top Trumps. The children were thrilled! The daily FaceTime calls and games were really helping us get through lockdown and the kids loved speaking to their grandparents.
After the kids were asleep, Megan asked if I had Deliveroo installed on my phone. I dutifully handed it over and asked what she was looking for. She’d heard that M&S were now on the app and she was keen to see what goodies were available. Sadly they didn’t have the nibbles she was craving but, purely out of interest, we added a packet of Percy Pigs to the basket to see how much they’d cost. We were both astounded (and somewhat amused) when it came to the bargain basement price of £13.49 including delivery. You’d have to really have a Percy Pig craving to justify spending that amount!
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