Stephen and Anne's life in pink

Lily's first day at school

2010-09-07T21:59:00.001+01:00

My little girl gone growed up. Lily started at the local primary school today. She was pretty excited, and especially keen on the school uniform.

I went with Anne and Isabel to take Lily to school. We went in to the classroom and Lily's teacher got the kids to find their name on the register. The register was a computer display projected onto a touch sensitive screen. The kids had to find their name, touch it, and then drag it up to the top half of the screen. It was probably exactly what Buck Rogers would do to sign the register. In the 25th Century.

We left her in her cyber school for the morning, and when Anne collected her she seemed to have enjoyed herself. She doesn't tell us much, of course. Tonight she wanted to know when she could go for the whole day. Not for three whole weeks I'm afraid.

I'm hoping she enjoys herself at school. She certainly has enough questions. This morning she asked me where animals come from. I said that mummy and daddy animals make baby animals. She'd clearly been thinking about this as she replied "But that would go back forever. Where did the first lion come from?" Not sure how we move to the specific lion from the general animal, but I let it pass. As I got dressed for work I tried to explain evolution to her, which then moved on to a discussion of God and gods, and as quick as she'd got onto the subject she suddenly said "Why can't I do this button up?" and I was rescued.

I wish Lily's teacher the best of luck.

The spirit of The Fringe

2010-08-20T21:54:00.001+01:00

Bath time tonight was followed by a stand up comedy routine, into which Lily accidentally dropped one genuine joke.

Bella finished the set off with the obligatory "poo head".

Lily's Face Movie

2010-08-19T00:03:00.002+01:00

I downloaded a Picasa update at 11.30pm, and within 15 minutes had made the video below by selecting some random photos of Lily and making a 'Face Movie', a new tool/gimmick which aims to keep the face in the same place and match them up as best it can.

Very easy to do. With a bit of time spent on it it could probably be pretty impressive.
(also in HD here)

Who needs a Wii?

2010-08-15T07:25:00.001+01:00

Lily and Isabel prove that watching TV isn't necessarily a passive experience.

Two girls, one cup

2010-07-23T08:34:00.001+01:00

On a trip into town yesterday we got Isabel a new lidded cup. Lily seems to think this is unfair, despite the fact she has plenty both lidded and unlidded. Porr Bella has only ever had a single cup of her own before.

Lily now seems convinced that she'll get a new cup soon too. She conveniently forgets that on our shopping trip yesterday she got new 'indoor shoes' for school and loads of school uniform.

A week's holiday in mishaps

2010-07-19T22:42:00.010+01:00

"Nurse, I think we need to contact Social Services. The injuries on this child could point to a sustained history of violence and abuse. Either that or a week's holiday in Hampshire."

We've just returned from a week in a holiday park on the south coast, near the New Forest. We had a great time. The theme of the holiday seems to be bruises, accidents and vomit.

(Lots of photos here.)

Saturday
Both our kids are prone to car sickness. We were lucky on the three hour journey to the south coast to get away without any sickness.

Until, that is, we pulled into the car park of the holiday park we were staying in. I turned off the engine as I parked, and that was Lily's cue to show us her lunch.

Oh joy.

Sunday
Isabel had slept in a bed for the first time ever, and, though she got out of bed and opened the door once (cheeky monkey), she didn't fall out of bed.

Lily, who always sleeps in a bed, did fall out of bed in the night. She told us the next morning that she had woken in the night to find she was on the floor. The fall hadn't woken her. She had a large bruise along her cheek and behind her ear where she had hit the bedside table on her way down.

In the morning Lily banged her forehead on a metal bar as she climbed up a climbing frame. Much sadness. Later I could see it was about to happen again so I called out to her to watch out. My calling distracted her and may have been a contributing factor to the repeated injury. Even if it wasn't she mainly blamed me.

After lunch Bella tried to squeeze between my chair and the cupboard behind my chair to get past. I tried to move my chair forward but ended up just tipping it forward and then back again. As it tipped back it squashed her head against the cupboard. That one was pretty traumatic for all involved. Anne looked at me like I'd done it on purpose.

Later, Lily jumped on me, tickling me as I lay on the sofa. My involunary reaction involved elbowing her in the eye.

Monday
We visited Christchurch on Monday and had a look around. We went to the cathedral for a peek. We've never spoken to the kids about religion, but I thought that given that Lily will be forced by archaic rules to partake in some form of outdated worship once she gets to school in September I'd explain to her that people built churches like this so they could think about Jesus (she knows Jesus from Christmas of course). Lily later referred to the cathedral as "Jesus's castle", so I think I did a good job in explaining it.

Before we went out Bella was standing on the edge of our bed with her hands in her pockets. I thought she was in danger of falling, so moved towards her. What I didn't predict was that Bella would simply jump off the bed, hands still in pockets, banging her eye on a shelf as she fell forward after landing.

Later as we left the swimming pool Bella fell on Tarmac, grazing her knee. A fairly dull injury by our standards.

Tuesday
We went on a day trip to the Isle of Wight, and met up with some friends who were there on holiday. We met at The Needles, and after a relatively long walk to the viewpoint at the top of a hill we walked down to get some lunch.

I'd been carrying Isabel much of the way, but on the way down I told her she had to get into her pushchair. She agreed, on the proviso that she not be clicked in. Foolishly I relented. After a while she started bouncing up and down in her seat. Jump up and down once more, I warned her, and I'll click you in. Immediately she leaped out of the pushchair, landing sprawled on the Tarmac. She was lucky to get away with just grazed elbows.

I clicked her in after that, but it could be said that the horse had bolted.

On the ferry/boat back to the mainland, Isabel had an argument with another two year old girl for almost the entire 30 minute journey about whether we were on a boat or a ferry.
"It's a boat."
"It's a ferry."
And so on.
I predict she'll be a barrister. She's very sophisticated.

Wenesday
No injuries of note. This is quite special.

Thursday
We went to Long Down Activity Farm in the New Forest and had a great time. There were lots of opportunities to feed animals, trampolines to bounce on, and one of those activity cages for kids with slides, ball pit etc.

This is where the most disturbing injury of the holiday happened - the one that makes me wince to think about it, and the image of it kept me awake that night. Isabel wasn't very good at getting out of the ball pit. She'd push herself out over the metal bar and land on her head, usually rolling over. The ball pit was out of our reach as it was within the 'cage'.

One time, Anne and I both watched, helpless, as Isabel rolled out onto her head, and then her body bent over in a most unnatural way, that looked like it might do serious damage. She stood up and looked dazed. She then burst into tears and staggered about. I had to get her out through some padded rollers and she complained through her tears for a few minutes that her back was hurting. I'm not surprised having seen how she fell. I'm wincing as I write this.

Lily must have sensed our upset, as she later provided a much more light-hearted mishap when she fell down the toilet as she tried to twist round so she could look at her poo. Anne could barely control her laughter as she was faced with Lily's head, arms and legs sticking out of the toilet seat.

Friday
We spent the afternoon at a New Forest museum in Lyndhurst, at which the girls did dressing up and playing. Aren't museums great!

For the third night in a row we went to the toddler disco in the holiday park. The girls had a great time at these, dancing like divas, cuddling adults dressed as squirrels, and showing off. We nearly didn't make it on the Friday as Lily kept throwing up for seemingly no reason. We think it may have been an allergic reaction to something,. but can't work out what.

Lily was determined to go to the disco as it was out last night there, so rather than milking her sickness as she normally might she soldiered on.

As she left the disco, exhausted, she fell and grazed her knee. Probably the most blood from any injury we had on the holiday, but pretty tame by the holiday's standards. Despite walking all the way back to our cabin/caravan after falling, once we'd put a plaster on her knee she hobbled around like she'd been seriously injured. Drama queen!

Saturday
We went to Anne's dad's for a few days after our stay on the south coast. Less then thirty minutes into the three hour journey Isabel was sick all over herself and her seat. We cleaned up her and the car, and changed her clothes, but still did the rest of the journey with a strong smell of vomit in the car.

Didn't holidays used to be about rest and relaxation?

They Might Be Giants weekend

2010-07-09T22:14:00.002+01:00

Our weekend of They Might Be Giants (TMBG) gigs was great. Whenever we go anywhere now Isabel thinks we're going to "see John and John" again.

The Saturday trip to London was exhausting, and we met up with friends when there to go to the gig. TMBG put on a great show for the kids, which was great for adults too. There were confetti showers which were a lot of fun, and also a helium-filled remote-controlled penguin and squid flying about the Royal Festival Hall during the gig. I think they were part of the Science festival that was going on, of which the TMBG 'Here Comes Science' family show was a part. They played a grown up show in the evening, which I'd have loved to have gone to, but we were all exhausted from the trip to London with the kids, so it's probably best I didn't go.

Especially as I did it again the next day. That was more relaxed though, since TMBG had kindly agreed to come to my town on the Sunday. Anne was out working, and my mum came with me and the girls to the gig at a University of Cambridge lecture theatre (one I've been for work meetings in). I never expected to be taking my daughters to see my FavouriteBandOfAllTimeEver, let alone my mum!

The girls had a good time at the gigs. Lily was pretty serious through most of it and Bella bopped around a lot. They both got very excited by the confetti showers on both days. At the more intimate Sunday gig they were well placed to run around in the confetti, so they collected loads of it to take home. Anne was well pleased with that of course.

Below are three videos of the weekend.

The first is our trip to London:

The next is some video from the London gig:

And the third is similar to the second, video from the gig in Cambridge on the Sunday:

Sisters are doing jigsaws for themselves

2010-06-18T22:28:00.002+01:00

We've been trying to show Isabel how to do jigsaws. It was hard at first as Lily would just take over and want to do the jigsaw herself. Gradually we've been showing Lily how to encourage Bella without actually doing the jigsaw for her.

This morning we noticed Lily and Bella doing a jigsaw together with Lily handing pieces to Bella and gently encouraging her. It was lovely. I grabbed the camera and tried to catch it on video.

Of course, by the time I caught it Lily had become impatient and was pretty much putting the pieces in herself. Bella seemed satisfied just patting the pieces down after Lily had put them in.

And then of course something goes wrong and the video ends in whingy half-hearted forced tears...

The girls' first (and second) rock gigs

2010-06-18T07:41:00.000+01:00

A week tomorrow we're taking the girls to London to see Brooklyn band They Might Be Giants (TMBG) play a family show at the Royal Festival Hall. I can't wait. The girls' first proper gig at two and four years old. (They've been to a couple of Folk Festivals, but I'm not counting those as I want this one to count.)

Long after I'd booked the tickets for that I heard they were coming to Cambridge the next day for their only other UK gig - a family show in one of the University's lecture theatres. This is apt since their recent kids album is all about science. I couldn't pass that up so I bought four tickets to that too. Anne's out that day so I've asked my mum to come.

I bought my first TMBG album 20 years ago this month and have loved them ever since. I've seen them live several times. So it's a big thing for me to take Lily and Bella to their first TMBG gig. I hope they like.

In recent years, as well as continuing to make "grown up" music TMBG have been making kids albums. Some of these have been educational albums which come with DVDs: Here Come the ABCs, Here Come the 123s and Here Comes Science.

Our kids have been exposed to these a lot, and it makes a welcome change for us from The Wheels on the Bus.

The songs are educational albums in the best way, in that any 'education' is secondary to the music, and this has meant that Lily and Bella have enjoyed them log before the concepts in the songs are of any use to them. There's information in there, but mostly the songs just happen to feature, say, letters and numbers in them.

The science album is probably more overtly educational, though you've got to admire a song like Meet The Elements which manages to be catchy even with lyrics like (referring to chemical elements) "like a box of paints that are mixed to make any shade, they either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are".

Even at four some of the 'learning' on the albums is beyond Lily. But thanks to TMBG Lily has been able to sing the alphabet backwards since she was two and a half, list the planets in alphabetical order, and tell people that the sun is made of plasma, not gas.

If I could make one suggestion for government education policy it would be to ensure every bit of the curriculum has a catchy song to go with it.

For both Lily and Isabel the first song we played their virgin ears, minutes after they were born, was the same TMBG song. That the song was The End of Tour which appears to be about traffic accidents and death is neither here nor there.

Is this indoctrination of our kids healthy? Not sure. It's certainly fun.

Lily really likes TMBG and can recite a lot of the songs. Bella has also listened to a lot of their songs, but mainly likes the fact that both members of the band are called John.

A footyphobe watches the game

2010-06-17T18:07:00.002+01:00

I have promised Anne I'll watch the GB vs Someone soccer game with her on Friday evening.

My initial suggestion upon hearing she wanted to watch it was that I'd leave her to it and go and read the internet in the back room. That didn't go down well. Apparently it'd be better if we watched it together.

I may have to put some money on the game to stay interested. Any other tips for someone who doesn't like football watching a match?

Things I'll be doing anyway include shouting "SCORE A GOAL" a lot, and saying things like:
"The idiots - they've started the second half on the wrong side of the court!"
"Which ones are the goodies again?"

If Great Britain lose I'll know better than to show my indifference.

Especially if I have some money on it.

Verbal Bella

2010-06-15T22:20:00.003+01:00

Having started speaking a fair bit later than Lily did, Bella has found her tongue in the last few months and frequently gives a running commentary of everything that's happening from the moment she gets up. She's very sweet and likes to think she's very funny, a trait she gets from her father.

At the moment she's most likely to tell you what pants she's wearing. Or what she did in the potty. She's recently upgraded to pants from nappies, and is (rightly) very proud of herself. She seemed to get it very quickly, encouraged by chocolate buttons and the promise of Peppa Pig pants.

If she tells you something she'll want you to acknowledge what she's said, and generally wants you to repeat it to her. If you don't she'll tell you the same thing again. And again.

And again.

And so on.

Here she is singing a couple of songs this morning.

Funfair fun

2010-06-13T21:53:00.003+01:00

We took the girls along to the Cambridge Town and Country Show on Sunday, an annual event on Parkers Piece with stalls, animals, food and, importantly, fairground rides for young kids. Both the kids love this sort of thing (obviously). We had a good morning wandering around, looking at animals, trying to teach Lily that the more she asked the less likely it was that she'd get, and putting the kids on various rides of dubious safety.

Bella had loads of fun, though she wasn't allowed to go one a couple of the things Lily went on. Poor lass. Bella's speech, which took ages longer than Lily's to really get going, is coming along brilliantly at the moment and true to form she barely shut up the whole time we were there.

The only dodgy thing we saw there were people walking around offering balloons to kids which, once the kids accepted the balloon, they tried to charge a pound for! There was no notice of price as they approached. This was pretty cunning but pretty bad form. The parents can either pay up or have to explain to their young kids they must return the balloon. I did the latter, obviously. If I'd had a pin on me I might have entertained myself a little with their stock. We're so used to the kids being given balloons on the street or at these sort of shows for free it didn't occur to me they'd demand money after the offering.

We had a picnic lunch, during which the girls seemed most enthusiastic about the raw veg and houmous. Plus Anne's left eye ballooned up after handling a Guinea Pig.

The girls had a great time. The one sore point for Lily was the large inflatable slide. She usually loves these, but the one today was a little fast for her (too bouncy really) and it upset her a bit. I was surprised when the nice man running it gave her a ticket to get her on the bouncy slide think for smaller kids which was next to it, and which Isabel was playing on.

Fortunately for me I got some video of Lily finding the big slide a little too much. It's the first slide she goes down in the video embedded below (or here in HD).

Overkill

2010-06-06T15:16:00.002+01:00

I understand that if you look up the word 'Overkill' in the dictionary you'll see this photo.

Bella balance bike

2010-06-06T14:40:00.001+01:00

We got Lily her first bike last summer when she was three and a half. A year later and she's still not sure about it. She rides around the garden fine, but get her on the pavement and she doesn't like the wobbles. (She's still got the stabilisers on.) Part of the problem is that since she's worried about it she won't get any speed up, and if you don't get speed up the bike's going to wobble more. We regretted not getting her a balance bike (one without stabiliers or pedals - essentially a scooter you sit on).

Today we got a cheap balance bike for Bella, as more than once she's tried to climb onto Lily's bike and fallen off. Hopefully that'll help her 'manage the wobble' and give her some fun. We're tempted to take the stabilisers and pedals off Lily's bike so they can both scoot around.

No Mr Bond, I expect you to die

2010-05-21T07:50:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I got a book from the library for Lily called 006 and a bit. It's about a girl who pretends to be a spy. With hilarious consequences, obviously.

I explained to Lily what a spy is in order to put the book in some context for her. ("They fight baddies and wear discguises"). She didn't understand the title of the book so I told her about James Bond, whose number is 007. I told her there were books about him and they'd also made lots of films about the caddish MI5 agent.

"I want to watch James Bond films", Lily announced.
"You can when you're older Lily. Those films aren't for four year olds."
"But I want to watch them with you", she pleaded.
"You can Lily. When you're older we'll watch some of them together if you like", I reassured her.

Lily put a hand on each of my cheeks and pulled my head closer so that she could deliver the final blow with inches between our faces.

She looked me in the eyes and said, "But you'll be dead by then won't you?"

Lovely. Thanks for that Lily.

Dad in charge for the day

2010-04-25T14:33:00.003+01:00

Anne was away on a training course for the day on Saturday, and so I was in charge.

This was a little daunting, as I rarely do a whole day from breakfast to bed time on my own, but it went well and I had a great time. I think the kids enjoyed it too, but the main thing was I enjoyed it.

That it was a nice day helped a lot. Today it's been raining a lot. If it had been me in charge today I'd have been tearing my hair out while the kids bickered while stuck in the house. Or we'd have ended up at a shopping centre so they could run around inside. I'm very glad it wasn't today.

At one point yesterday Lily said, "It's odd with mummy being away. It's a bit like she's dead."

I don't think we can read much into this other than note her current slight obsession with death. And poo.

For me the key was to keep them busy, and out of the house. I made sure they were dressed and fed first thing, and while they finished their breakfast I made sandwiches and gathered together picnic things. Then we got the bus into town (an entertaining activity in itself), and after the obligatory Disney Store trip it was time for:
- coffee (water for the kids) with flapjack
- a run around a Cambridge college while the students studied
- a walk by the Cam
- a play on a playground
- a play on a skateboard park
- a picnic by the river
- an ice cream cone each by the river (they were rather too big for the girls, but they enjoyed them nonetheless)
- bus home
- nap for Bella and the end of Toy Story 2 and start of The Muppet Movie for Lily
- trip to the car wash
- trip to Sainsburys
- tea (the kids helped to top their own pizzas)
- bath (hair wash night)
- stories
- bed

I'm exhausted just listing it. I really needed my gin and tonic after all that.

I'd say I made two errors:
1) We were probably a bit too quick in the morning and were in town by 9.30am. This mean the kids were tired and wanted lunch by 11.15. I distracted them with unsafe play in a skateboard park before having an 11.40am lunch.
2) I took too long stopping the jumping-on-the-bed game in the evening, and ended up with a very full bath. They were both sitting in their with water up to their necks. I now realise this was foolish, though it was funny to see.

We took video of lots of this to show mum the next day. Here's the evidence.

Epping Forrest, sun and mud

2010-04-17T18:10:00.007+01:00

Lots of photos today. Lily started our day out dressed as in this photo. She ended it with no top on under her dress, different leggings, a muddy vest, no socks, and no knickers.

We had a fab day today, meeting up with friends Wendy and Craig, with their nearly-eight-month old son Jamie. We went to Epping Forrest, for no better reason than it was half way between our houses.

The day got sunnier and hotter as it went on, and our girls had great fun climbing on fallen tree trunks, running around, and just generally looning. The grown ups enjoyed the walks in the woods and the decent pub lunch in the sun.

Lily had wellies on, which was fortunate as she decided to stomp around in deep mud. We weren't keen, and warned her that she could get very muddy.

Of course, Lily knew best. I said that if she wasn't careful her boot would get stuck in the mud and she'd get a dirty sock. Either that or she'd fall over and get muddy hands. Or perhaps both.

As it was all of this happened and she got very very muddy. Fortunately, having been a dad for over four years now, I knew exactly what to do. As soon as I sensed she was having trouble and might fall over I was able to whip out the video camera in order to preserve the satisfying moment. It's included below (or here) for history.

I think after this valuable lesson in "Mum and Dad Know Best" Lily will always listen to us and do what we say. Yes, I think that's what will happen.

It was pretty disastrous, and Lily was very sad. It took us some time to clean her up (and rescue her boot) and we got pitying looks from sympathetic (though amused) parents who walked by.

We had some spare leggings with us, and Lily's shoes, so we were able to recover the situation, mostly. And a Mini Milk helped.

The day ended at Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, where the kids dressed up in Tudor outfits.

We drove home very tired, having caught the sun a bit.

Lily doesn't want us to talk about the mud incident. She didn't specifically say I couldn't put it on YouTube and blog about it.

Chocolate Sunday

2010-04-04T08:06:00.000+01:00

Christ is risen, so that we may eat chocolate before breakfast. Or something.

And don't they look happy?

The kids treat us like a taxi service

2010-04-01T21:15:00.001+01:00

Spent most of the day here. It was great fun. But cold. Bella went purple.

Choc!

2010-03-31T20:55:00.001+01:00

Chocolate refridgerator cake at Byfords in Holt was a hit.

Manic kids

2010-03-29T19:19:00.002+01:00

Apparently the chocolate cake they'd just consumed wasn't responsible for this display.

Here's the kids having fun on a wet day in Holt. We'd just been for coffee and cake at Byfords, and were keen for the kids to exhaust themselves, and thus (I hope) sleep well tonight.

Norfolk 'n' kids

2010-03-28T19:53:00.003+01:00

We've come on holiday on purpose.

We're renting a house in Fakenham, Norfolk for a week. It's a much needed break for all of us, especially Anne who's supposedly part time job has taken up a lot of time over the last few months. Fakenham wasn't chosen as a particularly glamorous location, but as a convenient base to visit other parts of north Norfolk.

We arrived on Saturday with two over-excited kids having a great time exploring the house. Lily has a bunk bed in her room, which is a big hit. In part this is because Peppa Pig has a bunk bed, but it's also because we can drape a duvet over it and make a den.

We forgot that the clocks were changing. This is something that is always an irritation for us, since it messes with the kids' sleep routines. However, being on holiday makes it easier, since we're not under pressure to get our timings back to normal since we don't have a normal routine on holiday.

We looked around Fakenham a bit on Sunday morning. Fakenham wasn't there to greet us since it chooses not to open on Sunday. We did manage to take the girls for hot chocolate, and Anne chose to go into one of the few open shops: a tatty clothes/toy/toiletries shop. I figured she was just going in since it was one of the few places open, but was amazed when she actually started trying things on and after 20 minutes of me trying to stop the kids picking up everything in the shop Anne bought some boots.

To realise how bizarre this is you need to know that Anne a) hates shopping and b) would never buy clothes in a tatty souvenir shop. I really don't know what came over her. She kept saying that the boots were good. Bottle Rocket or something.

As we left I said to Anne "I don't even know who you are any more." And I meant it.

On Sunday afternoon we took a trip out to Foxley Wood for a walk. I think we may have solved the time change issue by wearing the girls out. Lily walked for over an hour, and only started moaning about ten minutes from the end.

This morning we went swimming in Hunstanton (an indoor pool - do you think we're mad?) Lily seems much more confident in the water nowadays (I should hope so after Anne's taken her to swimming lessons for the last eight months) and had a lot of fun.

It's lovely to be able to spend time with the girls without jobs to do, clothes to wash, real life to live. Lily seems to be enjoying herself and Bella is singing, shouting and running around almost constantly.

Having Bella around is a bit like having a random phrase generator. She's spent part of the day listing all the things in our rented cottage which aren't chocolate, and on the way home from Hunstanton in the car, on a very vet and overcast day, suddenly started pointing out of the window shouting "CLOUD! CLOUD!" To give her credit, she was right, but why pick then to notice?

In other news, we can no longer get any good photos of our kids. Lily thinks pulling faces for the camera is The Funniest Thing In The Whole World, and Bella copies whatever Lily does. I think I'd better brush up on my photoshopping skills.

Paint a little birdhouse in your soul

2010-03-14T22:21:00.003Z

A fun weekend started with me taking Lily to the cinema to see Happy Feet (she danced throughout) while my mum took Bella for a walk by the River Cam. This gave Anne a break on what she's dubbed Mother's Day Weekend.

Mother's Day Proper started for Anne at 8.30 as the girls presented her with beans on toast and coffee in bed. I should really get the credit for this as I prepared it, but I graciously let the girls lie. They then presented her with a birdhouse they (mainly Lily) had painted. Garishly. But probably better than I'd have managed.

It was a really nice sunny day, which was a pleasant change after all the cold weather we've had lately, so we headed out to the Magog Downs, one of the few hills in the area for a run around (i.e. to wear the kids out). The girls had a great time, having seemingly been shut in the house for three months (at least that's how it feels).

Lily picked up a stick and said it was a gun, and kept running round saying "Shoot gun!" No idea where she's got that from, but I wasn't overly concerned. I was more concerned later when I heard her say, in a sweet manner, to Bella "I have a gun and a sword. Do you want to be cut up or killed?" Oh boy.

A further trip to a playground this afternoon and I'm expecting the kids to sleep well tonight. They'd blimmin better do, since I'm shattered.

Wicked ball skills

2010-03-14T14:56:00.003Z

I'm not usually one to boast, but Isabel, at two, has the soccer skills of a 35 year old man.

Unfortunately the 35 year old man is me.

Also here

Mother's (Short) Day

2010-03-12T12:58:00.002Z

Wednesday evening when I got home from work:

Lily approaches me, conspiratorially.
"Daddy, on Sunday please can we..."
Lily pauses. She turns to her mum.
"Mummy, I've forgotten what time."
Anne whispers "Half past eight."
Lily turns back to me.
"Daddy, on Sunday please can we take Mummy breakfast in bed at half past eight because it's Mother's Day?"
I am suspicious. "Did Mummy put you up to this?"
I feel rather bullied.

Anne will probably get her wish, even if she did go about her request in a nerfarious manner. If she's lucky I'll even stop Lily and Isabel from preparing the breakfast and do it myself.

In retrospect half past eight isn't an unreasonable request. It says something that Anne's dream is to be allowed to sleep in until half past eight, and then be given breakfast.

At what age can kids be trusted to get up by themselves, make their own breakfast and watch The Wide Awake Club, leaving their parents to sleep?