Having spent a week with 4 children, felt the need to capture a few of this year’s catch phrases from them.
As we now see them (and their parents) about once a year, what they can say and do moves on a lot. We continue to use last year’s phrases, brush them off and bring them out again when we’re there, and then the parents realise that they’ve forgotten all about them saying that.
The eldest is now reading fluently in English and Italian. However, we were able to teach her ’sausages and chips’ as a game for saying things with a straight face. She’s hugely enjoying jokes at the moment, and we also taught her ‘life is but a melancholy flower’ (try singing it to the tune of Frere Jacques, and you’ll see what we mean). Her favourite knock knock joke is the Irish stew one…yes, you know you remember it.
(What’s scary, or probably reassuring, is how many of the jokes in her joke books I remember from my own childhood, and how they are still funny to her.)
Next in line is now into horses as well as ponies…and is starting to read a bit in English. She is also inventing her own jokes, though these don’t really quite work yet. She is very clear on music, and refers to particular songs as “X’s song” because they are no. 7 on the CD, and that’s the age of her sister! Any queries on Womble themed songs should be addressed here, except when she has the “Womble Tidybag Blues”.
The boy of the troupe is now 3, and is fluent in mechanical machinery. When I suggested one of his toys was a digger, he told me no, it was a snow plough…Another good one was when we all went out for a walk around a hill town an hour away. Seeing woods nearby, his dad asked him if he thought there were wolves nearby. “Oh yes” came the cheerful reply, as he toddled off.
The youngest is only 2 and a half months old, so can’t really be held to much in language. Never the less, there are good amounts of arm waving, and making noises back several times so that it sounds like a conversation. She was also introduced to being read to, by dint of being wedged against me while I read ‘Mr Tickle’ to her brother. We reprised this later with ‘Elmer’ and all 3 older children on the sofa, which seemed to go down well!
As for our own achievements, we have become acquainted with “Dora the Explorer” (We did it! We did it!). It’s not as good as last year’s “Chicken in a school” quote, but I’m sure we’ll remember more from this year as we settle back in to life with fewer small but cheerful distractions.
November 10th, 2007
Back to Edinburgh yesterday, after a couple of weeks’ holiday. The crunch of coming back is not so bad, although the quality of greyness this morning made me realise why some people decamp abroad for the entire winter…Admittedly, we’ve been spoiled, with quite a lot of sunshine and heat in the south of France, followed by sunshine and warmth in the north of Italy.
Decided we’d have the weekend at home, so doing a certain amount of pottering. This has even gone to the lengths of clearing out dead spices from the kitchen cupboards. Not so exciting, but it makes me realise my ‘anticipate exciting food by buying herbs and spices’ habit needs to be checked up on every now and then. Thankfully none of it was crawling out of the cupboards by itself, but our bin will smell of a weird combination of flavours for a little while, no doubt.
I guess that when we’ve been away, it’s nice to get to know one’s home again, and pottering about helps in this. Seeing it all with fresh eyes also helps for clearing out stuff that you’ve been putting off doing before going away (if not for months before, I suspect).
One aspect of taking stock is to think about doing something with the garden again, rather than looking out the window at it, feeling tired, and going off to do something else. Having been inspired by our friends’ veg patch, and having rediscovered a few pots for growing things on window sills, perhaps I’ll start small over the winter, and actually get some gardening done in the spring.
One exciting discovery today was what’s on offer for food digesters. Rather than leaving it to me and Dan to digest everything (ha, we’ll give it a try), you can get bin things for the garden which allow you to get rid of food waste, even bones, fish skin, etc, rather than bin it. This immediately suggests an end to our kitchen bin getting smelly, a surge of interest in cooking roast chicken regularly, and provides a further incentive to create a new bit of the garden in front of our shed, where it gets the most sun. I suspect in practice it will involve prevailing on my mum and Dan’s, who actually know what they’re doing in the garden, but it’s another reason to feel positive about the garden.
Talking to Dan’s mum on the phone today, aware that I have less of a sense than usual of what will be waiting for me when I get back to work, now that there are new colleagues to return, potential to give away a further chunk of work when I’ve tied it up, and some new activities in investigating staff learning for the wider team I’m part of. Maybe it will mean I genuinely can have a bit more time at home too, plan for things, rather than work always dictating what’s possible in my home life.
Taking stock. Moving on to making stock tomorrow.
November 10th, 2007