One word? When seven would do…

James the cat.

Been doing lots of remembering theme tunes from childrens TV of the past here today. Driving the children utterly insane with breaking into the Pink Panther song several times and testing each other with a single line from a show. Lots of dancing around and generally acting like we might just be the kids from Fame. Honestly, if we’d have left the house while singing and a yellow NY taxi cab just happened to pull up outside we’d have jumped on it’s roof in our legwarmers and pranced around a bit doing ‘High Fidelity’ type dance moves. You can just picture it now can’t you? Me and Ady! 😆 Actually aged 15 I once did walk over a car as a dare from my friend Vicky – this was in the days before I got drunk and silly, I was merely giddy with youth. Fortunately it was also in the days before car alarms, modern cars made from very thin metal and me weighing approximately twice what I did back then. So we all came out of it unscathed and with a sense of triumph, daring and edginess. Wonder whether the Thank You Neighbours would welcome us grooving to some Jive Bunny on the bonnet of their Sierra?

Well anyway that was this morning. This afternoon I have gradually come down with A Cold. The children have been fading fast throughout the day and were fit for bed at about 5pm but both suddenly got second winds and Davies didn’t fall asleep until 830 with Scarlett still wandering about closer to 930 and seeing part of Bridget Jones which I’m not at all sure is suitable viewing material for her. Bet they’ll be lovely tomorrow 🙁 And depending on how I feel and whether I take cold and flu tablets I might be a veritable yoyo of moodswings too. And it’s mooncup time. Not looking like a great Monday really is it? Davies has a Beavers visit to the fire station in the evening though so you never know what pole related craziness the day could end with ;).

In the morning Ady planted some flowers in the garden (I think they are pansies – I know literally nothing about the plants he works with, I have zero interest in gardens and can’t even be accused of sitting in them during the summer. I will tolerate short periods of time spent in the shade with pimms if I have people to talk to but seasonal walks aside I am not really one for being all outdoorsy. Admit it, this does not surprise you greatly :lol:. Scarlett did some Barbie.comming and Davies and I did some baking. I gave him the recipe book (some Usborne cakes and cookies thing I think) and he chose flapkjacks. Ady showed him how to light the oven, he greased and lined the baking trays and then we looked at the recipe together. I told him we were making double the quantity and he managed to double all the ingredients fairly effortlessly (not a massive deal I’m sure for someone who’s been doing mathsy type stuff but he has recently worked out how to use his fingers for basic maths and was pretty speedy at telling me what two sixes are. I like that he does not simply know this or has learnt it but actually was visualising two real lots of six. He tends to then remember it once he’s worked it out once. Recently he told me that 100 is 5 lots of 20 – not sure whether someone had told him or he’d worked it out but he has that little nugget stored away now. He also has totally got the hang of all the 10s going up to 100 now too and having been speed sign spotting doesn’t hesitate to recognise 30, 40, 50, 60 etc – again nothing to indicate maths genuis there but similarly nothing we’ve done any specific noting of either. Oh and I forgot to mention the other day while we were at Paradise Park he was looking at one of those machines where coins get dropped in and are on sliding shelves with the idea being that you push some of them off into the tray as winnings and he identified the 2p and the 10p coins just by sight without even really seeming aware of it himself. I’ve noticed him doing the same with pennies and 50 pence pieces too. Again something that has just sunk in with him playing with change lying around at home and looking at it closer to work out what it is worth then remembering the appearance of it and recalling it from that. I remember doing workbooks on coins at school – either in the first or second year and finding it tedious.). So he weighed out the butter and sugar and stirred them in the pan to melt while I added the syrup. I’ll let him touch the hot oven and stir hot pans on the hob but I won’t risk the mess of a dropped jar of golden syrup on the kitchen floor! 😆 He stirred in the oats and spread the mixture between the two trays and then put them in the oven. It’s the first time in ages he’s wanted to do baking with me, Scarlett is always up for it but Davies had lost interest lately to that was nice.

Then because Scarlett continued to be occupied with the laptop Davies and I looked at a book together about cartoons and animations. I think it is aimed at a slightly older audience and covers cartoon strips, flick books, 3d models and video clips. There were some good ideas in it, mostly for modelling, background drawings and details like features and expressions on characters but very little practical advice and certainly nothing we’ve not already long since eclipsed. Davies is in a tricky place right now with that in that he has visions and ideas which he is not yet able to execute and does not have the patience to learn all the theories and techniques behind doing so. Clearly more an ideas sort of person 🙂 I did think that we could do a bit more of the more technical stuff like expressions on faces with plasticine and stuff like tracing and backgrounds though so we’ll try and do some of that this week.

When the flapjack had sufficiently cooled we all went over to my parents for lunch, taking a tray with us. We had a very pleasant afternoon round there. Ady and Dad mostly watched the football. I sat and read a big chunk of a book (always a lovely way to spend an afternoon 🙂 ) and Mum did lots of playing with the children 🙂 So that was a win, win situation. Davies got restless with the girlie bonding that Mum and Tarly seemed to be doing (long overdue!) at one point so came and sat with me and we had a few games of noughts and crosses. Then I showed him how to play boxes although he got fed up of that before the end (think I made the grid too big actually) and then we got out the dominos and had a game of that. Scarlett joined us for that. My Dad has this fab set of dominos that his Dad made him when he was a boy. the box is home made and hand painted and each domino is painstakingly carved, painted black and then has the dots picked out in white. He went further than the double six being the top though and went right up to double eights. The children are quite good at recognising the scores from playing lots with dice and picked up the idea of dominoes very quickly.

My Mum got her laptop out to show me the photos of one of the people they went on holiday with recently and so I got Davies to show her his MMP blog, of which he is very proud. He navigated round it very expertly and showed her all his youtube creations. I think she was quite impressed actually. She started to ask me about making them and I just told her to ask Davies as he makes them, not me. He spoke really confidently and knowledgably about them too (and Dad was listening 🙂 ) and then insisted she watch all the ‘Making of’ ones including the out-takes, which Scarlett came over for as well. Mum had bought Davies his tripod as a Christmas present and I’m sure she thought it was secretly for us so it was good to hear Davies telling her about why it is important to use the tripod etc. My brother came home shortly afterwards and Mum insisted Davies show him the site too. I’ve always been very upfront about our approach and how we don’t do any sit down work but I think my Mum has got the impression that we are either having friends to stay, out visiting other friends or Davies is on the xbox. Which as it happens isn’t far wrong but of course hanging off every corner of those pursuits lurks education and it was quite nice to demonstrate to her just what he can do and be proud of. My biggest moan about my parents, particularly my Mum is that she never really took the time to get to know me, work out what made me tick, what made me passionate and what I felt most alive pursuing – I could feel her already making the same mistakes with D&S, underestimating them in so many ways and placing ridiculous expectations on them in others. I really hope that a bit of a dawning of understanding happened today with some glimpse into what we are all about and in particular, what makes Davies change from the little boy who has to be reminded every two minutes not to jump about on their sofa into a person with passions, a hobby and an interest in their eyes.

We came home, I fed the children and then took myself off to the bedroom for ten minutes reading in peace as I was being all irrational and shouty with everyone and never one to limit the ‘if you can’t be nice then don’t be with people’ rule just to the children I ‘removed myself from the situation’ 😉 , then I came back down and helped them get ready for bed – which they then didn’t actually go to for hours but never mind. Ady cooked a lovely roast lamb dinner and I have had a glass of medicinal red wine for it’s antioxident properties or something. And now I’m off to bed, with hopes for none of us waking too early and all of us feeling better in the morning.