Today Genevieve was more reluctant to go to school. I think she was feeling jealous knowing James was going to spend the day in Grandma Lindsey and Grandad Lawrie’s garden. I managed to bribe her with the promise of a sweet treat when I picked her up.
Genevieve’s journey to school consisted of spelling practise, making our bodies into the shape of a “kicking K”, and bolting after her friend Izzy when we weren’t quite inside the school gates. I’m so glad that she is loving being back at school (when we actually get there). The new school dinners are given in a special paper bag that “might be useful Mummy” and so come home to us on a daily basis. So far we’ve managed to sneak each one in the recycling without her noticing.
In the meantime, Stephen dropped James off at his parents’ house while I was doing the school run. James had an amazing day – see below for Grandad Lawrie’s diary entry.
Once I had dropped Genevieve at school, I started the walk home with some mum friends and ended up chatting for longer than I thought, but it was interesting to speak to a mum from another class and find out her lockdown experiences. Her husband has also been unwell, like Stephen, and seems to have some form of post-viral fatigue, too. It’s bittersweet to hear someone else has what Stephen has. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but it’s reassuring to know he is not the only one suffering like this.
When I got home it was time to get some work done. I managed to work all morning with no interruptions. It’s amazing how productive you can be when not trying to entertain a four-year-old at the same time. Who could have possibly guess that?!
Alas, the day was gone all too fast and it was time for me to go and get Genevieve from school. Thankfully the rain had stopped and it was a dry walk home. Despite me initially trying to suggest we head home via the streets, she insisted on running through the woods with three school friends, and I’m glad we did as the joy and giggling that ensued was too lovely to not indulge.
After we’d said goodbye to her friends, Genevieve then revealed that she’d received a gold star sticker for “great maths”. Stephen was especially proud to hear this later in the afternoon.
Once we’d got home it was time to clean her in the bath. Stephen had whisked up a mountain of bubbles with which Genevieve had great fun. The highlight was her announcing “look at my bubble boobs”. Needless to say she did a lot of laughing.
I then had to leave to collect James so Stephen came down to play a game of Monopoly with Genevieve. It sounds like there was minor cheating going on (she is definitely her Uncle Graham’s niece!) but Stephen let it slide as she was having so much fun. Apparently she also tried to make up her own rules, too. Stephen spent a while explaining how it should be played, to which Genevieve replied “but I just want to have fun Daddy”. This melted his heart (and stopped him being quite so grumpy), and so the game continued with “alternative” rules in play.
When I returned with James she proceeded to try to teach him how to play as well. This was also with her “interesting” set of rules. I think it would be hard enough for a four-year-old to follow normally, let alone with rules that change every second depending on Genevieve’s latest whim. But they had fun regardless with only minimal arguing.
Stephen went for another sleep as the hour playing with Genevieve had tired him out. He was so glad for the time they played together though. And it was at this point that the game got interesting.
Genevieve and James were sitting and playing relatively calmly. Genevieve said “I need to pay the banker one dollar, and I’m the banker so I need to say thank you to myself”, and then proceed to thank herself very formally. I had to stifle a giggle.
Later in the game, Genevieve was hugging James too tightly as they had a play fight (no, I’m not sure how that fits into the game of Monopoly either). James wasn’t enjoying it so said “enough, I want to play”, to which Genevieve replied “well I just farted on your head but, never mind, we can keep playing”. And then they just carried on as if nothing had happened (in spite of the rotten stench that mysteriously appeared).
Finally, James got frustrated that Genevieve wasn’t playing properly. He said to her, really quite haughtily, “you’re too busy being silly – come on, we need to play the game you silly billy”. Genevieve replied, somewhat timidly, “oh yes – sorry”. Utterly adorable.
All these antics were just so funny to listen to while I was trying to look at some school training and simultaneously cook dinner. But then there was a mildly panicked “oh mummy, I’m wetting myself” from Genevieve. She’d been so good with this for so long (completely dry for 17 days up to today), so I was caught completely off guard. I was just not expecting a full-on puddle all over the floor, her dress and hand, and the puddle spreading quickly towards the Monopoly all over the floor. Ughh – not what I needed.
This meant that I had to get Genevieve bathed for the second time today (during which she screeched so much that she woke up Stephen), as well as mop the floor and put yet more washing in the machine. After a very frantic quarter of an hour, I was finally able to finish dinner to feed the two of them.
There was one thing that brightened the whole situation. James was delighted to discover that I’d dressed two of his teddies in some of his old pyjamas while he’d been out for the day. He was over the moon!
I had high hopes they would both sleep well and drop off fast so I could enjoy my yummy curry and a very well earned chill on the sofa. I had my fingers crossed and, thankfully, it seemed to work.
Despite not feeling on top form, Stephen had a video chat and a “few” beers with his chums after he’d scoffed down his dinner. He’s had a few of these calls over the weeks but has normally flagged by the time the chatting starts so they’ve all been a bit of a struggle. He was pleased to actually join the call feeling relatively OK this time. By his own admission, he drank way too much but also said that the call was good for his soul. I’d say that the drinking too much was far outweighed by the upside from seeing his friends and having a (relatively) normal pub conversation about, as it turns out, not much at all. Despite his best efforts (or so he claims), he still managed to wake me up as he stumbled in to bed. Oh well.
James’s day according to Grandad Lawrie.
James was really excited when he arrived as we were going to spend the morning at Keston Ponds looking for mini-beasts in the water. Having seen in the weather forecast that there was 100% chance of rain at midday we set off fairly soon after James’s arrival.
The car park was just half full and the only people we encountered during our visit were young families, elderly couples out for a stroll and quite a few fishermen. James was very eager to get to the pond, but we had to wade through quite deep, slushy mud to get there – lucky James had his wellingtons on.
We spent over half an hour ‘fishing’ with our nets, with the most excitement caused when Grandad Lawrie caught a small tench (a little over two inches) in his net, followed shortly by three further tench of much smaller size. Other things caught included a number of newt tadpoles, an assortment of dragonfly and other larvae, a flotilla of small water boatmen and a single froglet with its tail still intact.
The only sadness of the day was that when we put the tench in the jar we had brought with us it proceeded to eat a number of the other creatures we had collected!
Notwithstanding the feasting we had witnessed and the decimation of the creatures we had caught, James said that he really enjoyed his time fishing and wanted to do it again very soon.
Having taken the nets back to the car, we set off for a short stroll to the lower pond to see if the ‘professional’ fishermen had caught anything (sadly, not) and then across Fishponds Road to the conservation pond to look at the many dragonflies, ducks and coots. We were also lucky to see an 18 inch pike sunning itself just a few inches below the water surface. James was very impressed when he was told about the size of its teeth.
We got back home just before midday and, as predicted, the skies opened and down came the rain. That called for a slightly earlier lunch than planned, followed by relaxation time on the settee watching cartoons on the TV.
James soon got ‘cabin fever’, asked if he could go into the garden and then spent the next half an hour there collecting slugs and snails that were clearly enjoying the wet conditions (but maybe not the enthusiastic handling of a four year old).
We also came across a couple of Mullein Moth caterpillars on one of the buddleia bushes. They are beautiful to look at but, apparently, the caterpillars can strip a buddleia of all its leaves in short order, so Grandad Lawrie was pleased that there were only two of them, and that they looked quite fat and probably ready to pupate.
It was them back indoors for a ‘singalong’ led by James, a look at a ‘spot the difference’ book and a quick chat with Great Grandma Olive on FaceTime before Megan arrived to take James home.
The Smiths Family Blog 
another full day then
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