I was woken to the sound of squabbling offspring and a sobbing, stomping up the stairs loser in the battle. Davies. Who is pretty much always the loser in a head to head battle between them as she uses the illegal force of violence whereas he practically never does. He got the half an hour snuggled in bed with me chatting though which despite his advancing years is still an attractive option – oh how I feel those time slipping away. Those of you with children tiddly enough to still giggle when you do that hand right up in the air whooshing towards them with a tickle enjoy it please and give your little darling a tickle from me next time too. Might have to persuade Ady to enjoy such things – we had a conversation in bed last night with both of us being astonished at how old we are and how old our children are and how we *still* don’t feel at all like proper grown ups!
Davies and I had a chat about friends, about feelings for friends and then a very indulgent and gossipy session about what he thought of all the adults and children at camp last week 😉 The kids perspective on everyone is very interesting…
Chickens out, firewood split, breakfast sorted and tea made. Today I wanted to get Christmas cards written so I did that, Davies watched films – today we had Nightmare Before Christmas, Indiana Jones and at least one other, along with some documentaries – Davies caught some of the ‘after the humans’ one I’d watched a while back and thought was excellent.
Scarlett played with her playmobile – she has a large amount of birthday cash which I think she will spend on bolstering her stash of Playmobile – animal related only of course ;).
Scarlett wanted to do her duck moulds – it was her suggestion to get some plaster of paris moulds in the shape of ducks for her birthday and I couple of goes on ebay at getting some ending up with a very small and a very large version of latex moulds for cement garden ornaments. Ady had got some plaster from B&Q so we mixed it up and filled the moulds only to discover the frame we thought would work (built up from giant jengo pieces) didn’t work at all. So there we were, in sub zero temperatures, with a very heavy plaster filled duck mould trying to hatch a plan. We went for wedging it in the log box and calling it a trial run!
Back inside for warmth, lunch and getting some stewing steak cooking and some rough puff pastry made and in the fridge chilling ready for our dinner later.
The afternoon passed pretty quick with the moulds being unveiled to show that yes, they will work really well once we sort out a support (the instructions recommend sand so we need to get a bucket to fill with it) and a mad dash to gather Badger uniforms.
Tea for children and then Ady arrived home, we all got changed and headed out to Badgers. I got a small Christmas present from Julie and a card thanking me for everything this year and headed off to gather various bits and pieces of Badgers work to put on display. I over heard a boy and his Dad talking with the Dad trying to persuade the boy to join in and came out to see S and his Dad. S and his sister (also S) have had a really rough year as their Mum is an alcoholic and has split up from their Dad, things have gotten quite messy and she currently has very limited access to the children which has had (understandably) a massive impact on them. I have had both S & S in my group this term and despite the odd burst of challenging behaviour found them really lovely kids who are struggling and needing love and support – which is why I am not the right person to do this role as I am crap at distancing myself and remaining professional.
So I had a chat with S and whilst I didn’t quite persuade him to take part in presentation night I did get him feeling better about it all and suspect I could have got him to be in it had we not had a crisis of misplacing all our written prompts for our part of presentation night. A quick ‘Hungry Badger huddle’ and we shot upstairs to quickly write down notes and run through what we were saying before going and presenting it.
I was hugely touched to have lots of well wishes from adults and children and realised I had made an impact on even the most tricky children. Julie gave a bit of a speech about how I was a breath of fresh air, had come along with a very different approach and perspective and taught them all something and the Badgers seemed genuinely sorry to see me go. It was not really my thing but I think I made the best of it.
Davies was presented with his SuperBadger award – I went and looked out the post from his very first Badger meeting back in March 2006. It’s been a really good organisation for Davies – he has learnt loads, experienced lots of different people, attended camp (shudder!) and whilst not particularly made special friends at least been exposed to a different set of people. I’m really proud of him 🙂
Scarlett got her Gold Badger paw, meaning she has achiveved 9 badges and been there for 3 full years. She still has time to get her Super Badger if she goes back if we come home again. She has taken slightly less from the whole thing I would say, particularly as one of the 3 years has been spent with me there but I suspect she has taught Julie a few things ;). Lots of hugs and well wishes all round, my Mum had come along to see the presentation and I hope was pleased to see us all in action. I promised to stay in touch with Julie so she can feed back to the Badgers how we are all doing.
Back at home I read some Mr Gum and then went for a bath while the kids watched the Wallace and Gromit inventions thing and then Jimmy’s food factory.
The kids went to bed, I finished cooking our dinner and we ate watching The Apprentice. Tomorrow I am back to work.