Tag: children
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Babies and Baubles
Each year, we encourage our two children to each select exactly one new bauble to add to our tree. The result is a decoration that's a celebration of the changing tastes and interests of our two kinds: a mismatched, discordant, crazy mixture of colours and shapes, but in which each and every item is its own story.
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Balance bikes are just better
Sean McP justifies why balance bikes are better than stabilisers (training wheels) for kids to learn to cycle, and I ponder the possibility of popping the pedals off our youngest's first bike, perhaps later this year.
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On the way to school this morning, the 10-year-old lagged behind to build a small snowman.
On the way back, the dog saw the snowman, which wasn't there when she'd passed earlier. She wanted to make it clear that she Did. Not. Trust. it. She stood back and growled at it for a while, and then, eventually, was persuaded to come closer.
Leaning as far as her little legs could manage, she stretched to carefully sniff it while keeping her distance. She still wasn't entirely happy and ran most of the way to the end of the path to get away from the mysterious cold heap.
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A champagne-coloured French Bulldog wearing a teal jumper leans hard to sniff at (while avoiding getting too close to) a small snowman about the same size as her, on a footpath mostly covered with snow (except for a patch from which the snowman's materials were clearly extracted).
(This same dog earlier this year spent quarter of an hour barking at our wheelbarrow when, unusually, it was left in the middle of the lawn, rather than beside the shed. She doesn't like change!)
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Kids' ability to pick up new words from context is amazing.
Kids' confidence even when they've misunderstood how a word is used is hilarious. 😊
This evening, our 7-year-old was boasting about how well-behaved his class was while their regular teacher had to attend an all-day meeting, vs how much it impressed the temporary teacher they had.
His words: "Today we had a supply teacher and we totally DOMINATED her!"
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Future Arimaa grand masters at practice, this Sunday morning boardgaming session.
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In a cluttered dining room, two children play Arimaa, a chess-like board game.
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Things my children have gotten out of bed to say to me tonight:
- I don't want to go to school tomorrow
- I can't find [name of toy]
- I want [name of toy I lent to my sibling] back
- if I'm ill, I don't have to go to school tomorrow, right?
- I can't sleep
- I might be ill: I don't think I should go to school tomorrow
- I want a hot water bottle
- I'm too hot
- I've lost my hot water bottle
- I spilt my water1
- I went to the toilet because I thought I was going to throw up but I didn't but I think I'm too ill to go to school tomorrow
- my book is wet
- I forgot to brush my teeth
- I don't like these pyjamas
- I still can't sleep
Footnotes
1 it later turned out to have been spilled on an electrical extension socket! 😱
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As the kids grow older... someday our final soft play session - something we used to do all the time, and now do only rarely - will be in the past.
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A mug of coffee held in front of a view of a multicoloured soft playground.
But for now, at least, it remains a chaotic way to tire them out on a morning!
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Found GCAA274 Garrigues #23 - El Vilosell
This checkin to GCAA274 Garrigues #23 - El Vilosell reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. The geokids and I are staying nearby and came out for a walk this morning to discover this under-appreciated cache. What an amazing location and such a great view! We searched many "obvious" locations without …
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Made it through a day and a half of theme park fun with the kids. Time for a much-needed beer, then as long a sleep as circumstance will allow.
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Three glasses of beer held by adult hands clink together against a glass of water and a bottle of Fanta held 6 by cold hands.
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Parenting is about sacrifices.
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Dan drinks a beer, a children's football match is being played in the background.
Here, I'm making the noble sacrifice of forcing myself to drink a delicious beer so my 10-year-old can use the customer-only bathroom at a beachside amateur football club. Such a sacrifice.
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Enjoying a glass of cava while the kids peer down out of the window of a Barcelona skyscraper.
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Half-full champagne flute on a table. In the background, two children look out of a floor-to-ceiling window.
Day 8 of my sabbatical. Think I'm doing this right?
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This boy is excited and ready for Spain!
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A boy smiles widely as he sits, playing with his tablet, in an aeroplane window seat.
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This child is eating sausages with one hand while playing a video game about eating sausages with the other.
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A child slouches in an airport lounge chair. Her right hand is being used to eat a plate of sausages. Her left hand is playing 'Fork N Sausage' on a tablet.
Is this life-imitating-art or the other way around? Who can possibly say?
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Off to Spain! BRB.
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Dan, Ruth, and their children on an airport car park shuttle bus.
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Bad Names for Servers
Not for the first time, our eldest child has drawn me a network diagram. It's cute, but I've outright refused to name one of the new servers I'm provisioning after our dog. Here's why...