One word? When seven would do…

Really tired today, it feels like Friday’s been a long time coming and I feel drained and knackered but in a happy and positive way. Bring on the weekend! 🙂

We didn’t get to Blockbusters as Ady drew my attention to the fact there were already loads of films on TV being Good Friday we could watch instead. Davies appeared upstairs with me as I went to put away some clean laundry and get dressed and sat rubbing moisturiser into my back and chatting to me. Funnily enough I remember I used to go and sit on the side of the bath and wash my Mum’s back for her when I wanted to chat to her about something – I distinctly recall blurting out a load of saved up questions about periods one evening while doing it and writing her secret messages by tracing my finger on her back with the words…where did that closeness go I wonder?

So Davies came and sat chatting to me about The Easter Bunny coming. He wandered round the houses a bit and then asked ‘so who *really* hides the eggs then?’ so I asked him who he thought did it. He went all bashful and said ‘you?’ so I agreed and said yes it was and asked him how that made him feel. He said it was a nice feeling, like a good secret and it was nice to pretend. We seemed on a bit of a roll so I asked him if he thought there were any other things a bit like that where we all pretended something fun and he said without really thinking about it too much ‘Father Christmas?’ so I agreed again and he went on to say ‘and I think that when we leave a carrot out for the reindeer you cut triangles in it with a knife to pretend it’s teeth marks really’ so it’s clearly something he’d thought about, deduced and was fine with all by himself. I kind of guessed he might have done prior to last Christmas as he is normally a child who needs full details on every little aspect of everything and although he has an active imagination he is also very clear about it being imagination and has a very good understanding of what is real and what is pretend (which should probably make me all the more worried about him believing in God really 😉 ). I asked him about the tooth fairy too (in for a penny eh!?) and he said he thought that really I got a penny from my purse and took the teeth away. So I guess that’s that then really! 🙂

I know this is something there was discussion about at Okehampton and I was in a conversation with several people about it at Melrose too and I can see various takes on the when to tell the truth opinions and of course one must do what is the right choice for one’s family, indidvidual child and the impact on siblings but personally I’ve always felt slightly uncomfortable with the concept of keeping up pretence for very long on such things. Quite specifically because we HE and as yet Davies has only really had me or Ady to pass him his knowledge or at the very least confirm or deny or answer his questions I feel we need to maintain a very clear channel of truth and trust between us. It is fun to pretend and I am not after taking away childhood magic or anything but I would never have been able to vehemenantly defend the existance of Father Christmas et al if faced with a volley of Davies style questions and interogations so I’m glad we had the understanding about it that I thought we had. Scarlett was not around for this conversation although I’m sure Davies will feed it back to her at some point anyway but I imagine she is confident enough in the ability of Ady and I to provide money for teeth, chocolate for Easter and presents for Christmas that it is unlikely to devastate her either really 😉

That done and clearly sensing truth and potential weakness in toeing the parent line on all politically correct hot topics he pressed me to choose a favourite offspring and got fairly pissed off with me when I couldn’t. I did explain that I have different relationships with each of them, there are things in them both that I adore and which irritate me and that although I love them both equally there are times when I would choose one of them over the other to spend time with or do certain things. Not what he was looking for but the best he’s gonna get out of me on that one! 😉

We went back downstairs and they had popcorn for breakfast 😉 and watched some Cbeebies for a bit of a retro kick. They quite like The Upside Down Show and we were also enjoying Tikkabilla (even though it had the dreadful Sarah-Jane in it) while I read some more of my reading group book when Dad arrived unannounced. He stayed for coffee and then went home to collect Mum, promising to be back in a couple of hours.

I have some pondering on my parenting and educational approach to do but I am pushed for time just now so it will have to wait but as part of my master plan I did indeed put my book down and do some drawing with them for a while. Davies had done an Easter card for David (thank you neighbour) and written ‘Happy Easter’ on it with me just telling him which letter to write next and then written ‘Davies’ inside and was doing various other pictures quite happily too. He wanted to make a book and for me to do the writing and him to do the drawing so I suggested we read a book together and then did some drawings to go with it and he wanted Very Hungry Caterpillar. So we dug out one of our copies and made a book each by folding large sheets of paper. We both copied the first page ‘In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf’ and drew a picture to illustrate it. I did the next page writing but Davies had had enough of writing so we changed our minds about the project and I got out a large roll of plain paper to make one long story illustration instead. I wrote out the title and the writing from the first three pages, told him what it all said and then popped out to hang some washing out. He had made a very good start but came out to me in the garden in tears because Scarlett (in a sort of jealous rage apparently) had scribbled all over it with black pen. Not altogether sure what had really happened as she was quite upset about it all too and seemed fairly contrite so we packed the drawing stuff away and got some hama beads out instead. That was all going very smoothly and cooperatively when Mum and Dad arrived so it got abandoned in favour of chocolate eggs and Easter gifts arriving slightly early.

Davies got a Spiderman egg, an egg with a red toy mini car and a magicians set complete with hat, wand and a few tricks. Scarlett got a Bang on the door egg, an egg with a pink mini car and a Barbie peel and stick dressing up scene thingy with a case to play with it in the car and a Tinkerbell dressing up outfit. So they were all opened, some consumed and enjoyed and the rest played with while we had lunch.

They are also very tired and were not really on top form or that willing to be fawned over by Granny or teased by Grandad so keeping them occupied has been challenging by necessary. We ended up getting out a couple of enormous sheets of paper each (from the scrapstore) and the paint pens and they did a couple of massive pictures each. Davies drew himself eating his tea complete with his name totally in mirror writing from right to left – which I’ve noticed a couple of times lately but I’m sure I’ve heard people mention enough to write off as normal and fine – and a road scene for his mini with houses, churches, factories, a river complete with all the underground pipes for plumbing water back to the houses and a fire engine putting out a house fire – very detailed! 🙂 Scarlett did a rainbow on one sheet and a piece of toast with various toppings on the other. Actually I have taken some photos of Davies’ most recent pictures which I will upload soon as they are very good. He is now colouring in the whole sheet of paper with background colours and so on, using black to outline everything and then adding colour and paying attention to detail and things like perspective. I’ve introduced him to Illustration Friday, last week it was Speed and he did a good racing car picture and we chatted lots about my interpretation of it with a drawing of the race of the hare and the tortoise. So I’ve told him about this weeks theme being ‘spotted’ and we’ll see what we get from him for that. He really doesn’t get on with watercolours or paint in general really but I think he’d enjoy getting to grips with other materials as he loves his playdough and plasticine, he likes pens and crayons and chalks (not in the house of course 😉 ) and when he’s not making brown I think he’d like to learn more about texture and colour mixing. Any suggestions for other arty ideas or links gratefully recieved – actually computer aided drawing or design might interest him, will have to look into that…

Ady’s now home, my parents are staying for the dinner I really should be downstairs cooking and my wine awaits.