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Got a witty, profound or just plain silly caption for this picture? Then leave it in the comments below! Then click on the little boy’s head here & you will be magically transported to the funsome Mammasaurus’ blog for many more pictures crying out for a witty / pithy #satcap caption.
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Got a witty, profound or just plain silly caption for this picture? Then leave it in the comments below!
Then click on the little boy’s head here & you will be magically transported to the funsome Mammasaurus’ blog for many more pictures crying out for a witty / pithy #satcap caption.
My Tiny Dancer. Dressed as Snow White, for some reason.
When Jaime from ‘The Oliver’s Madhouse’ asked me if I could maybe join in with her new ‘Active Family’ blog-linky I have to admit: I sniggered, a little. I may have even actually ’lol’d!
Trying to get our funsome twosome to be a bit active isn’t really a problem at the moment. Even when they watch TV it’s more likely than not to be ‘Lazytown’: a show whose main character is a health fanatic called Sportacus. Living on ‘sports candy’ (mostly carrots) & always going to bed at 8.08, this is a man who has never knowingly walked anywhere in his entire life. Why do that when you can double-flip, cart-wheel, run or jump instead? Lately Ellie seems to spend more of her time being his preposterously pink side-kick Stephanie than herself, & she loves trying to copy Stephanie’s dance moves. Jake is Sportacus of course; I get to be the chubby, middle-aged, bald Mayor. Yay me.
Sportacus Jake!
No, it’s more of a challenge to get them to not be so active sometimes, please. Like when they’re jumping & doing forward rolls & headstands on the bed, or wanting to play ‘horsey’, when it’s late & they should be settling down for the night. Sometimes even after 8.08 (gasp)! Or a “Please stop climbing on the back of the sofa, especially when I’ve got a cup of hot coffee / a plate of lasagne!” sort of thing.
They’re at pre-school now for a few hours during the week, & that seems to use up a lot of their energy most days. We still take them to Monkey Music on Friday mornings, & have just started them in a dance class on Thursday evenings. They love both! We used to take them to a children’s gym on Friday afternoons & we’re looking for an alternative; that was probably their favourite activity & it would be a shame to lose it.
On the weekends we try to take them out for something active at least once a day: the country park, the fun farm, soft-play, swimming, or just scooting to the local playground. And there’s always the mini-trampoline & the flexible flyer in the garden!
So overall, yes: I think we’re a fairly active family.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I just need to have little lie down please…
For more ‘Active Family’ posts just click the pic:
So we were playing in the garden this afternoon, in the sunshine. We were throwing a ball, picking flowers & (I think) pretending to be characters from Lazy Town. As you do. I think I was the Mayor.
This would be such a great photo if it wasn’t for those boxer shorts…
Ellie sees something moving on the concrete, & rushes over to it.
“Ooh look! What’s that Daddy?!”
I look. “I think it’s a slug. A baby slug.”
Now she’s really excited. “A BABY SLUG!! OOOH, IT’S GORGEOUS!!”
Ellie likes babies, & is refreshingly free from prejudice as to which particular species thay may belong to. Or how slimy they are.
She rushes inside: “Look Mummy: A BABY SLUG!! IT’S GORGEOUS!!”
The Mummy doesn’t share Ellie’s enthusiasm for slugs, even baby ones.
In fact I think it’s fair to say that she doesn’t like slugs at all.
Undaunted, Ellie returns to her new love. “What is it doing, Daddy?”
“I think it’s probably trying to find food.”
“Yes! It’s trying to find food for its Mummy & its Daddy & its cousins” (Ellie likes having cousins) “and its babies!”
She & Jake then decide that it should eat their ‘wiggles’: worm-like fruity sweets that they don’t like at all & that they had already scattered for the birds. They were then duly distributed around Baby Slug for him to eat.
It occurred to me that it was probably trying to get out of the sun. And – of course – having listened to me as I explained that slugs ate leaves & the like they then set about picking leaves & covering Baby Slug with them.
Then it of course needed water. So a jug of said stuff was fetched, & poured for Baby Slug. They were very good, just pouring it around, & not on top of, their new friend. There was rather a lot of it though…
Satisfied that they had thoroughly provided for Gorgeous Baby Slug, they ran off to put more flowers on the trampoline. Which I think had became the Mayor of Lazy Town’s airplane, but I’m not entirely sure.
And what of our friend?
Have you heard the phrase “Killing with kindness?”
He appeared to be…sleeping.
Although when I later went out to retrieve my boxer shorts he had gone, so maybe my lovely little carers really had looked after him well!
“Wot So Funee?” is a blog-hop, so for more funnies just click the pic!
Ellie wanted to draw with colouring pens on the muddy puddle that she & Jake made.
She asked if she could & we said (definitely) “No”.
She argued.
“So why ask?”, we didn’t say.
“Ellie”, we did say, “if you try to draw on a puddle it won’t work & you’ll ruin the pens”.
She argued again.
We repeated the above, trying to make it more simple.
She argued some more.
So we put our collective foot down: “If I see you doing that I will take the pens away”.
Ellie: “You won’t see me!”
Nice try, Ellie, nice try…
“Wot So Funee?” is a blog-hop, so for more funnies just click the pic!
From almost as soon as they could walk, and probably before, Jake & Ellie have loved playing with water.
This morning things were a bit strange outside. There seemed to be something there…let’s see if I can remember…called – that’s it! – ‘Sun’. A little bit, anyway. And it wasn’t too windy, or cold. I believe it may even possibly be something that might be called…(thinks)…(dare I say it?!): ‘Spring’.
They carried on this morning where they left off last night: mucking about with water!
I think they were trying to create a Muddy Puddle. So please note the footwear, because – as many parents will know – “If you want to jump in muddy puddles you must wear your boots”.
It’s not as straightforward here as it was in the old house. There we had an outside tap & a big hose. Here I have to fill up the watering can from the kitchen sink then carry it the length of the house into the garden. Admittedly that’s not very far! Still a hassle though. If we were staying here I’d probably run the hose through.
The Method then seems to be pouring the water from the watering can into little buckets, then pouring the water from there onto the grass & the compost-enhanced concrete. And they take turns, which is good. Co-operative play: what we parents like to see!
Then it’s time for some enjoyment of the fruits of their labour: jumping up & down in muddy puddles!
Oops: looks like Ellie’s got her top a bit wet! We did have to change all her clothes afterwards…
Jake decided the puddle just wasn’t muddy enough, & needed a bit more compost. After my pointing out that there was already a fair bit of dirt around in the grass he seemed to accept my suggestion that the compost should stay where it is…
Then: job done, muddy puddles made, it was time to celebrate on the trampoline!
And yes, I know: the garden is a mess. I promise to tidy it up a bit before we move!
I’m joining up with the Mummies & Daddies doing ’Messy Play for Matilda Mae’. It’s a blog-link, set up by the lovely Jennie in honour of her beautiful messy play loving baby girl who she so sadly lost to SIDS in February. Lots of us are making a mess for her! To see more messy play posts just click the pic:
Got a witty, profound or just plain silly caption for this picture? Then leave it in the comments below!
Then click on the little boy’s head here & you will be magically transported to the funsome Mammasaurus’ blog for many more pictures crying out for a witty / pithy #satcap caption.
When I’ve spent time at the old house* I usually come back in a somewhat reflective frame of mind.
Take this picture, for instance, which I posted back in June & meant to explain but never did:
I was working really hard: clearing, cleaning, supervising tradesmen, sorting, throwing out rubbish, organising storage & removals, trying to get leaking roofs fixed or replaced in torrential rain, sanding & revarnishing the 100-year-old wooden floorboards: that was a nightmare! I was desperately trying to get the place ready to go onto the market as soon as possible. I needn’t have bothered, as it turned out: despite dropping the price a lot – too much, I think – we still haven’t sold it.
One of the jobs then was cleaning the chalk off the back wall. This wall. It was some of Jake’s & Ellie’s first attempts at art, at making shapes. It will eventually lead to writing, drawing, who knows what else.
To wipe it all off, to erase it from existence, to remove their precious scribblings: it just seemed wrong. I really didn’t want to do it. But I had to.
Everywhere I go there I see memories. The big garden I loved so much: we had so much fun there, especially in their second year when they were more mobile & playful & I was their main carer. They loved messing about with sand & water with the play-tables, & playing with the hose. Jake never ceased to amaze me with his ability to find & pick the ripest & juiciest blackberries from the vines which were threatening to dominate all else there. Sometimes we’d just sit on the seats & watch our world go by. Other times we’d climb around & explore, & be fascinated by the insects, birds & frogs we might find. We weaned them in that garden, & would eat outside as much we could in the warmer months. In the house there are toys still there that we haven’t had room for in our little, supposedly temporary house.
So many memories! They’ll never leave us, of course, but the house feels empty; just memories there now. I feel like it should be full of the sounds of laughing, running children – but it’s still, & quiet. Too quiet.
And it got me thinking : some of the most precious moments that we as parents will carry with us will be from these times: when our young loved ones were 2 or younger.
The age up until which we human beings are meant to have little or no memory of anything that happens to us.
So things that we’ll carry with us & that will be some of our most treasured memories will be things they’ll know nothing about?
I can already see myself reminiscing with Jake the teenager about the blackberries, & getting: “Oh Dad, stop being so soppy!”, before he runs off to his room to play some very loud music. Via his Ninsamyo Holodeck, probably.
Just one more of parenting’s, & life’s, ironies I guess.
I wonder what else this Daddying lark has lined up for me?
Now, if I could just remember where I put my keys…
* A year ago we reluctantly moved from our home in the Midlands to Wales because of work. We had a little place there which we had been renting out, & the plan was to move in there for a few weeks while we sold the old place, then buy a new family home in Wales. But we haven’t been able to sell & we’re still living in a house which just isn’t big enough for 2 adults & active twin toddlers. So we’re stuck. But we do have a Plan B.
