Shadows tapping at your window…

The most used present from Christmas for the children have been these art sets I picked up in The Works months ago. They sat in the playroom for ages and then I decided in about October that actually I might as well put them away for Christmas as they’d not been used yet. They contain about 30 felt tips each, a set of watercolours and a paintbrush, some crayons, some coloured pencils, some oil pastels and bits like a ruler, scissors and a pencil sharpener. I think Scarlett has done some painting pretty much every single day since they got them and is now just getting a little pot from the kitchen, filling it with water from the bathroom and setting herself up to paint without any assistance.

And far from what I would have anticipated giving the messiest child I know such weapons of destruction she keeps the paint on the paper, is very careful with it, actually produces recognisable representations of things and uses all the colours. If this keeps up I might well get her a set of watercolours and teach her about colour mixing too.

So this morning she was doing painting while Davies was on the old laptop on the Nickjr site which was all very nice and educational and childled 🙂

We headed off to soft play and as it was the first time my car’s been driven in nearly 3 weeks all of the cds were still in Ady’s car. It was lovely to drive mine again actually, and to drive generally. I like driving and when Ady is with us he *always* drives. I’m not keen on his car anyway, it’s a VW Golf and although it’s very whizzy and has lots of buttons and stuff I like a big car, so my Sharan gives me all the buzz of driving a tank *and* being high up too – lovely! I once cherished a dream to learn to drive a bus or a HGV and I still think I’d like to do that – like Long Distance Clara on Pigeon Street! 🙂 So, anyway, we had to listen to the radio instead of cds and as all I could find was Bucks Fizz we gave up and talked instead. Have now forgotten what we talked about of course but I know it was an interesting 3 way conversation, which we have more and more these days. Scarlett constantly amazes me with how she is able to be *such* a toddler still at times and then such a grown up little girl at others. The questions she asks (far above and beyond the basic ‘why?’) and her thought processes just stagger me. I remember thinking the same about Davies actually so there is every chance that I just have low expectations of your average 3 yo and mine are nothing special but I like to kid myself they are anyway! 😉 She also has a very good sense of humour and is excellent at teasing. Listening to her and Davies chatter away about the world and stuff when they don’t think we’re listening often has me and Ady in fits of laughter.

The last couple of times we’ve been to soft play I’ve really resented the money as they have not made any use of the facilities but for once they were raring to go and as soon as they took their shoes off they decided who was going to be which Backyardigan and ran off together! I cashed in my ‘free’ ticket for a cup of tea (free when you pay the obligatory entrance fee of a quid for an adult!!) and was then summoned to deal with a little shit of a child who was out to make every other kid cry or so it seemed. It takes a lot to make Scarlett cry but this kid managed it twice and then sat on Jack when Julie and the twins arrived so in the end I told D&S to just play somewhere out.

Anyway, they had a really good couple of hours clambering about, yelling and playing with Jack and Maisie and each other so that was really nice as they have been a little fraught with each other of late. Julie and I chatted and gossiped about Activeo, Tumble Tots and extra curricular activities for D & S.

We needed a few bits from Tescos so with promises of excellent behaviour I let them both walk with me instead of going in a trolley and we strolled around getting everything we needed. And they were excellent – and I don’t even have the money to bribe them with gifts anymore! 😉 But they were still high on the thrill of a 5 pence lollipop each when we left soft play I think!

We got home and put the shopping away and then we all went upstairs for the first leg in Operation Davies’ Room. Although we were at it for the best part of two hours it doesn’t feel like much happened but I did persuade Davies to let me bin the sad remains of the Peter Pan Island from last Christmas and shove some of the many, many, many soft toys in the loft so there *is* less clutter. Tomorrow (maybe!) I’ll finish off with dusting and stuff like that which should give it the air of the newly tidied room it seems to lack. TBH I don’t think it will feel anything special until it’s been repainted anyway really, so hopefully that will be sorted soon.

While tidying up the books I came across Just So Stories so I read the whale one aloud to them while they put all the figures back into place in the fort. I have to say they were unimpressed and I was too really. The language seemed so old fashioned and unnecessarily stumbling but not in a charming way like Dr Seuss and there was just little or nothing to capture their imagination. Even I got bored reading it! So that went back on the shelf again! It was probably not helped by me inwardly giggling remembering a tirade about Rudyard Kipling that Richard Herring had gone into as part of his stand up routine we went to see last year actually! We also found a couple of Cat in the Hat activity books and a Space book so we looked at some of those and did some spot the difference, some code breaking stuff and some pairing stuff. Left those out to take downstairs for a later date.

It was teatime by then so they found Cat in the Hat on dvd while I sorted their tea out and then they watched that before bed. It does sort of grow on you that film you know, it’s probably the first time I have actually watched it rather than been in the room while it’s on and some of it is quite funny in a taking the piss out of itself sort of way. Makes a change from C&TCF anyway!