Monster & Teeny

Monday - A bit of a non starter really. We were still very much recovering from our wonderful week away. And sadly going down with a horrible cold which we were all at different stages of feeling rough with. This was coupled with me getting a really nasty infection in my wisdom tooth - which resulted in a trip to the dentist, the hospital and a dose of antibiotics later in the week to clear up.

Monster made a clock from a ‘make a clock’ kit he’d had for his birthday and we had an otherwise low key day with lots of TV and lots of quiet playing. We built a lego house together, made some invitations for Teeny’s birthday party next month and I managed to get the hall booked to host it in too.

Monster had Badgers which was a Halloween party theme so they just played games for an hour which he said was ‘brilliant’. He came out with a bag full of sweets he’d won which he promptly shared out between him, Teeny, me and A.

Tuesday I was in more pain from my tooth and the children were still at various stages of the cold. So Monster spent most of the morning playing X box and Teeny and I did some very leisurely tidying up of the playroom. The sort you start and begin to regret and wish you’d never started! Lucy texted to ask if we up for lunch and a play so we headed round there. Monster went off to the park with Lucy, R and R while Teeny and I stayed behind and read a couple of books together as she was not quite ready for the park and seemed to require a bit of one to one. We caught up with them and had a short play until the cold drove us back to Lucy’s to eat chocolate!

Wednesday - our normal getting together with SIL, J & M and Lucy, R and R was amended to bring everyone to our house to play for the afternoon so that I could nip to the dentists and leave the children with SIL and Lucy. We had our usual interesting and in depth chats while the children created bedlam and chaos around us

Thursday - A worked from home so he could take me to the hospital for an xray on my tooth, then we took the children to Asda for a few bits and pieces including a birthday present for a friend. Lots of playing with geomags and xbox again.

Friday -  We had Lucy, R & R round and determined to do something altogether I dug out some jigsaw puzzles as well as the geomags thinking that if Lucy and I started to do them then the children would probably join in. Sure enough I was right and the geomags were soon aandoned so they could all help make maps of the world and the UK with us. Lots of geographical chat followed including pointing out various places Lucy and I had visited or we lived at, places we’d all been together (like Kessingland) and discussion about counties, countries and continents. I popped out briefly as part of a dry run for when I start working soon and Lucy will be one of the people helping look after the children, which went very smoothly and reassured us all that it will work out just fine.

We had a delivery of coal while I was out and the coal lorry knocked over our lamppost outside our house. I phoned the council and then the various external agencies who look after streetlighting in an outsourced manner and reported it which caused a stream of men and vans with traffic cones, fluorescent vests and noisy machines to come and remove the lamppost, dig out the base, fill in the hole and disconnect the live electricity. We watched each step of it, herding various children out to observe and ask the friendlier of the men questions about what they were doing. I’ve seen such things happen on Auntie Mabel and I’m sure it could be seen in a book but how much better to watch it happen for real.

In the evening Monster suddenly expressed a wish to learn to read. He’s toyed with the idea before but never with any real passion or ambition. He seemed slightly put off by the idea it isn’t something you just ‘learn’ in a sit down and do it in one session sort of thing, but made a very good effort at reading a Dr Seuss book and subsequently has been making real leaps and bounds and showing lots of interest in letters and words so I think this really might be the start of it.

Saturday - An early start to pay a visit to friends who have just had a new baby (nearly 3 weeks ago) and deliver a birthday present to the new baby’s big sister. We stayed a couple of hours, baby worshipping, cuddling and cooing, dropped in on The Portico for another hour or so and then came home.

Sunday - a quiet morning at home with A and Monster in the garden enjoying the autumn sunshine, chopping firewood etc while Teeny and I did some baking. We went to SIL and BIL’s in the late afternoon so I made parkin to take with us for a traditional Bonfire Night treat. After lunch we headed over there. The children played in the garden, SIL and I made apple loaf and some lovely spiced citrus punch (which the adults spiced up a bit more with some brandy) and as darkness fell we had some fireworks.

When we got home the pub across the road had just lit their massive bonfire and was kicking off their TWO HOUR display of fireworks. Teeny was all fireworked out  and Charlie and the Chocolate factory was on TV so we sat and watched that while Monster and A dressed up warm and stood in our garden observing more fireworks.