100 days of lockdown
Stephen gave Genevieve a long talk about how she must never eat or even touch wild mushrooms, but apparently the next words out of her mouth were “can I pick them up”. We’ll need to keep an eye on her, won’t we!
Do egg-carton caterpillars turn into cardboard butterflies?
James and I joined a toddler craft class on Zoom. James was most excited to listen to the story, sing a new song with actions, and make an egg-box caterpillar. He was a lot less keen on the dancing at the end though.
When is a stick not a stick?
Genevieve wanted to make a calendar up until she’s seventeen “when she can marry Harrison”. Stephen was not willing to make her a calendar covering over ten years of dates, so they agreed to create a countdown calendar instead.
The day of the Mummy Dash
I had to go the bakery first thing in the morning to get bread as we had near enough run out again. I have no idea where Stephen and the children put the stuff – they get through so much!
If you go down to the woods today…
The children had asked in advance for a teddy bears’ picnic to be an activity for the day. Grandma Lindsey, with due diligence, had all of the bears lined up to welcome Genevieve and James when they arrived.
Ice cream insanity and McDonald’s meltdowns
Grandma returned home and remarkably the house hadn’t been flooded or burnt down by James and Grandad. James decided to build a robot to take home, so we said goodbye to a few empty cartons and tubes.
Going out-out for a cheeky Nando’s
Genevieve asked how Harry Potter and Hermione made their feathers into quills. I was only too happy to oblige showing her with the black drawing ink I had in my cupboard. I haven’t seen her write so much in one go totally by herself with no support or cajoling, coaxing or any form of bribery…
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[Insert “doctor, doctor” joke here]
As soon as Genevieve burst in the door, she desperately wanted to show Stephen her yoga skills. I have no idea why as she hadn’t mentioned it once on the way home!
I was wondering why the Frisbee was getting bigger, and then it hit me
It was a school day for Genevieve so, of course, I had to wake her up and force her out of bed at 7.45am. A stark contrast the day before when she had been up and running about at the crack of dawn.
Celebrating in style with two types of cream
Pudding accompanied by both squirty and pouring cream. The children’s eyes lit up when they realised there were two types of cream they could have. I’ve never seen cheesecake disappear from a plate so fast.
Girls just want to have fun
Genevieve found one of the hen do games that we thought had been hidden away. It was a game of hoopla where the pole you’re aiming for is strapped to someone’s body and is shaped like, shall we say, an invigorated male protuberance. Thankfully she thought it was a “witch’s nose”. Oh the joy of…
Emergency chocolate makes everything better
We had only been pond dipping for five minutes, and had found just a few snails and dragonfly larvae, when a sudden high-pitched wail was heard. James has fallen into the pond.
Unsupervised iPad time leads to some surprising outcomes
Having whipped up a mountain of bubbles in the bath, Genevieve very much enjoyed having bubble boobs again. James, however, could not be convinced to have bubble anything. Not even a bubble beard. Killjoy!
Fishing escapades, board game rule bending, and bubble-based anatomy
Once we’d got home it was time to clean Genevieve in the bath. Stephen had whisked up a mountain of bubbles with which she had great fun. The highlight was her announcing “look at my bubble boobs”. Needless to say she did a lot of laughing.
Mosquitoes are the stuff of nightmares (if you’re four year old)
There was suddenly a lot of excitement when James spotted a beetle on the patio steps. The garden’s full of wildlife if you stop to look, but sometime James takes a real fancy to a particular bug. We had to tell him that he couldn’t keep it – he wasn’t very happy about that.
Apparently you can make cupcakes in a mug
Stephen and I both have fond childhood memories of licking mixture off of spoons while baking. It’s probably terribly unhealthy, but the joy it brings surely outweighs any downsides. And the kids didn’t notice that, while they got the mostly-scraped wooden spoons, I was enjoying the heavily coated spatula. There have to be some perks…
Easter 2.0 – the bunny returns
After dinner, the kids had one final play in the garden in the last of the sunshine. Mentioning no names (Genevieve), “someone” thought it was a good idea to fill James’s toy gun with water and bubbles. Let’s just hope it dries out, otherwise we’re going to have a very sad cowboy on our hands…
Nature walks with Grandad are the best, especially when there’s ice-cream afterwards
Dinner was by special request of James. This morning when he had been brushing my hair, he twisted the hair around the hairbrush exclaiming it was just like spaghetti. So, yep, you guessed it, he had asked for spaghetti for dinner.
Sub-30 minute 5km? Completed it mate!
The art appreciation was short-lived and James moved on to playing with his toy gun. He loves playing with it (despite Stephen and I doing very little to promote such play), but I guess that boys will be boys. He will need to work on his stance though if he wants to be more like…
I can’t wait to be a grandparent as revenge will be sweet (pun intended)
The children started work on their giant dinosaur colouring project, although this was done without any great enthusiasm despite asking time and time again to be able to do it. Typical!
Purple power – back to school
Genevieve begged to walk home through the woods with two of her classmates and I couldn’t refuse her pleas. The three of them ran off giggling, laughing and revelling in the excitement of just being together. It was so lovely to see.
Grandad dances just like John Travolta
The weather was nice so we got out the water table. This was a slightly sneaky move as it also meant that Genevieve could experiment with the idea of volume and capacity for this week’s maths schoolwork. Stealth learning!
Help – my monkey’s pulled a muscle
James drew an epic scene. His description was amazing: “This is me being silly wearing a helmet riding across the grass on a motorbike being a stuntman.” Utter genius!
This mum runs
Genevieve came in to the kitchen to see what was going on, at which point she farted loudly and before making a swift exit. Stephen and I tried to chastise her for this antisocial and unpleasant behaviour, but we’re both such children that we started giggling instead.
Virtual (baby shower and stag do) insanity
Megan had bought sausage rolls for the kids to enjoy. They were exceedingly happy with that piece of news. However, I was less thrilled as, somehow, they always manage to spread flakes of puff-pastry all over the house when they eat the meaty treats. Oh well.
Princess Leia buns don’t last as long as you’d expect
The daily battle to tame Genevieve’s hair ended with her requesting a Princess Leia do. Two side-buns later and she was good to go. She was very happy with the result (even though her right bun was already threatening to unravel). Hair success!
Why aren’t more giraffes rainbow coloured?
The kids insisted on brushing my hair before they went to bed. They need a lot of practice – it wasn’t the nicest of experiences! But it was worth the pain and discomfort to see their smile afterwards.
If your sous-chef is four years old, don’t be too surprised when the kitchen gets messy
We were having homemade burgers for dinner and James was on hand to be my sous-chef. He did an excellent job measuring the dry ingredients, but when it came to adding the minced beef he was more keen to stab it than mix it together. He ended up flicking meat everywhere but we got there…
The never-ending (puppet) story
This children played quite peacefully but, shortly afterwards, the neighbours certainly knew that Genevieve and James were visiting from the cacophony of noise/music from the kazoo and recorder being played very loudly around the garden.
Government approved garden picnics and a serious amount of tidying
Genevieve did two dance routines, chatted to her Beaver friends, and designed a machine that fed you snacks, food and drinks whenever you wanted so you could bypass your parents when you were hungry or wanted hot chocolate. Needless to say, she had a great time.
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