Yes it’s been a day at work complete with Baby Rhyme Time again. I don’t think either myself or anyone who knows me would ever have thought I’d have earnt money sat cross legged in a big group of mothers and babies singing and doing actions to nursery rhymes. Oh there are many more curious things I have pondered career-wise over the years but singing ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ for a living was never one of them! 😆
Nevertheless that is one of the things I have spent time doing today. There have been others, mostly involving books, people who borrow books or people who also work lending out books. The Little Peter Rabbit bit was possibly the most interesting 😆 I am actually starting to develop an interest in the regional and generational passing down of nursery rhymes actually. For example, I had never heard Wind the Bobbin Up until I went to toddler groups with Davies despite having been sung to myself as a child, owning the ladybird book of nursery rhymes and going to playschool. Whereas Sing a Song of Sixpence which I decided to introduce into my repertoire today had blank faces pulled at me from the 20something Mums.
Ady was home this morning with the children and then Dad was here this afternoon. I know Davies spent some time on Ady’s pc playing a game he got with his Happy Meal yesterday to do with dragons. The current Big Thing here is Ben 10 so there was some playing of that too. Having watched a tiny bit of Ben 10 I am failing utterly to see any value in it either educationally, in terms of it being quality programming, animation, scriptwriting or creative idea but given the high level of merchandise for it and the amount of the childrens’ friends who are also in to it I suspect this is an example of me being a grownup who just doesn’t get it rather than my opinion carrying any weight :lol:.
I read some Extreme Animals to them. I borrowed this book from the library for 3 reasons. 1 It looked quite interesting, 2 I would get to say the word ‘extreme’ lots in the style of a surfer /base jumper / dreadlocked dude type manner while reading it and 3. My name used to be Nicola Davies the same as the author’s so it felt somehow right :).
Ady came home from dashing around like a mad thing to get ready for tomorrow’s show for old people 😉 (9am, tell your grannies!), I read some Famous Five and then it was bedtime. Except bedtime was rather protracted. Davies (who has always been a way better parent to Tarly than I am) has decided he will be the one to cure her of her dummies. Ady has promised her a kitten if she gives them up, I have told her she will thank me for nagging her when she is older and does not have the need for lots of expensive dental work and Davies has hatched a Cunning Plan involving all sorts of great parenting techniques like emotional blackmail, playing to the child’s weaknesses, making deals while they are tired and fragile and lots more (I am very proud). He has created a box with a dummy sized slit in which to deposit dummies that will go to make poor sad injured cats lives better. It is decorated with pictures of said cats and better than that if you agree to help these cats by giving your dummies you get a picture of a cat, previously in need now happy and content and saved, using your dummy. Curiously the picture is drawn in a style very similar to Davies’ art 😆
Where bribes, threats and pictures of otherwise attractive women with wonky teeth have failed Davies’ box and personalised newsletter from cats helped by your donation appear to be a winner and he managed to get 3 dummies off her just tonight :). Is it possible to be a parenting guru when you are seven? 😆
Jonathan says he wants to know when your next Baby Rhyme time is so he can come down and heckle. 🙂
Comment by Jan — 11 April 2008 @ 10:33 pm
It started when an alien device did what it did
And stuck itself upon his wrist with secrets that it hid
Now he’s got super powers, he’s no ordinary kid
He’s Ben 10!
Is it really sad that I know the theme song 😳 😆
Comment by Liza — 12 April 2008 @ 12:47 am
oh my goodness, Liza,YES! (I didn’t know it even *had* a theme song). My lot like it too, I can’t stand it.
Love Davies’ approach to the dummies 🙂
Comment by Sarah — 12 April 2008 @ 4:39 am
Never watched it and thank goodness Buzz hasn’t 🙂
Good luck Davies! I tried everything I could think off with Pea and in the end gave in to her getting married with one in her gob. She gave it up when she was 8. Our dentist wasn’t at all concerned (thumbs and bottles are the issues with him) and Pea shouldn’t need a brace at all.
Comment by Roslyn — 12 April 2008 @ 7:30 am
Jan – it’s every other Friday. But I’ve had heckling threats from Em and Liza and they’ve come to nothing. I am foolishly confident my audience will only ever be mum and babies ;).
Liza, yes that is sad, although I suspect it won’t be long before I know it too with how often it’s on here. I’m currently employing my tried and tested Rick Astley avoidance technique on it.
Ros, I don’t care at all about the dummy,like you and Pea I know she will give it up when she is ready but she does clearly have a huge gap in her teeth from it (which is really annoying as she has only ever had it at bedtime) and it would be a shame if her adult teeth were affected by it. Hopefully D’s plan will work 🙂
Comment by Nic — 12 April 2008 @ 9:20 am
😳 😳 😆
(*whispers…glad i didn’t put all 3 verses now…)
A seems to have moved on from cartoons to nickleodeon crap such as drake and josh, icarly, neds declassified etc. Enjoy those cartoons while you have them – it gets much much worse!!
Comment by Liza — 12 April 2008 @ 10:56 am
Oh god, no, I much prefer the nick/disney preteen stuff to the stupid cartoons (and that’s not because I fancy Drake … ). Ben 10 has entirely passed us by – E got a figure for his birthday, which I was going to put aside to “regift”, but he opened it. It’s never been played with though, I’ll send it down to you Nic!
Comment by Alison — 12 April 2008 @ 12:10 pm
I never encountered “wind the bobbin up” until Aprilia was a babe either. or if I did I blanked the mindless twaddle from my head rapidly!
Comment by Tbird Anni — 12 April 2008 @ 10:16 pm