Pitter patter rain drops

Daddy's home for the week, which is a nice add on to our weekend away. He took the boys out to a very wet (indoor) teddy bear's picnic and gymnastics and a play in the park in between the wetness.

I spent 6 hours straightening out the house and cleaning, interspersed with feeding Plum and settling her to sleep. Today I discovered that she really does love music and is very calm when a song is being sung. Really enjoyed listening to some favourite tunes, cleaning and singing with my girl. 

Plum also did a poo today which is the first in a week (at least, as I can't remember exactly when the last time was) It was a great relief to us as we were starting to wonder if she was okay. Other than not going she has been happy and well so wasn't too worried but was beginning to wonder how long it would be. Definite evidence of change of diet.

A flurry of activity occurred after dinner and Bean got busy building with bricks and requesting one game after another. We happily played snap, grasshoppers and dotty dinosaurs with me and Pumpkin. The adding cards (which he got for his birthday) didn't go down so well when he realised that you couldn't play snap with them. I'm sure their day will come.

I want to ride my bicycle

Pumpkin has been thoroughly enjoying riding his bike and missed it yesterday so requested a ride today. We planned on going to the park. It has a nice big hill to ride down and has helped Bean enormously in learning to ride. We also planned some strawberry picking. This years lack of effort in the garden means that the planting, growing, harvesting cycle has not occurred at all (although the fruit trees are beginning to produce) so I thought a trip to a strawberry field might rectify some of the lack. And lastly we arranged to meet friends again at Warnham Nature Reserve to spot some of those illusive frogs. 


Fa#3 was still with us and we packed a picnic and headed off to the park, only to be reminded when we were packing the bikes that Pumkin has a flat back tyre. I found two bicycle pumps and we set up on the pavement outside our house and attempted to pump it up however we couldn't get either option to work and the tyre remaind flat flat flat. I tentively suggested he took his scooter which initially went down really well, until we arrived at the park and he decided he really could ride his bike with a flat tyre. There were a few tears and a little ride in the buggy before we got to the top of the hill and he decided that riding his scooter would be okay. Bean was initially worried about going down the hill on his pedal bike but I ran along side him and he did amazingly well, making it all the way to the bottom without falling off or panicking. This, of course, is something I couldn't have done if fa#3 hadn't been there too. We went and fed the ducks. I hadn't packed much bread for them as they are often over fed and not hungry, today they seemed eager to eat all we had. We then turned back towards the car bt Pumpkin wanted to go to the maze. The boys ran around the maze, I fed Plum and the rain began. Just some drizzle to begin with but it slowly and steadily became more than drizzle. We headed back to the play area, toiletted, changed nappy and lost Pumpkin. We found him back at the pool watching the swimmers and I explained that we were worried about him and he had gone too far away. He was most unconcerned himself. 


We had a quick pit stop at the post office to collect a parcel and the rain came down some more. We made the decision not to go strawberry picking and went and lunched in the car at the nature reserve. 


Considering all the rain that we have had so far this year this is the first time that we have picnicked in the car. Very British. My consoling thought was 'at least we're out and about!' I had also packed our waterproofs, not just rain coats but all in one waterproofs. We put them on, transferred a sleeping Plum into the buggy, who suprisingly remained asleep and went for the second time this week for a walk with our friends to try and find some baby frogs. It was perfect weather for frog spotting. We walked the same route as before and a couple of froglets were spotted by our friends' mummy but no one else got to see them. We did see the biggest slug that I have ever seen though, it gave me the shivers! And I feel a mini project on amphibians coming on. Bean thought it was 'amazing' that some animals could live on the ground and in the water. Creation is amazing. As always the leaflet including the map of the grounds was popular and Bean managed to locate us and our route on the map. Pumpkin's evaluation of the trip was 'we haven't seen any frogs mummy, that's disappointing.' this is the third or fourth time he's used the word disappointing this week and I'm hoping that it's just a new word that he's excersising and not representative of his overal evaluation on life!!!  


Daddy's coming home a little later from work tonight than normal and it will be the first time that I'm going to be faced with bedtime on my own. All three smalls head to bed within an hour of each other and this results in washing, stories, changing, feeding and nursing and bathing all happening at the same time. With daddy here we have got a rhythm in place which works well for us at the moment. Thinking it might be an out of step rhythm tonight and hoping that we all cope with it.

Update: Daddy came home at his regular time so all is well. We had a post dinner flurry of activity from Bean including: catching ants in his pooter, writing and reading two stories, dressing up as a motorbike man and riding around the garden and making the flower petal wheel that we picked up yesterday.

The road is long

Bean returning from Grandma and Pop's has been a bit traumatic and it has taken most of today to find our equilibrium again. He came home yesterday lunch time which was followed by a second viewing of 'cars.' I knew he would need the down time when he got home. This time I watched it with them (my first time, and I quite enjoyed it.) We struggle to find films that don't upset the boys, Bean especially. I invested in Stuart Little recently thinking it was fairly low key but we only got part way through before we had tears and anxiety.'Cars' we manage. It always amazes me how much Bean remembers after only one viewing. I had a constant commentary all the way through telling me what was going to happen, if not that he was asking me questions about racing and sponsorship deals.

The rejected Lightning McQueen

A flurry of activity followed. Grandma and Pops, by chance, had bought a cars painting poster set each for the boys so they wanted to start painting these. This progressed into Bean wanting to paint his own picture of Lightning McQueen. It has only been this side of Christmas that he has really taken his own interest in painting and drawing and crafty activities but his development has come on rapidly as he now paints and draws recognisable objects and their placement is well thought through, including colour and shape and space. The painting was rejected by Bean as he put a sad face on the car instead of a happy one. I tried to suggest some ways of fixing it but to no avail.
After much painting he then wanted the car garage out and the box of cars we have. These haven't been out for a long time. Some toys can sit unplayed with for weeks and then suddenly they find new life! He sorted out all the cars that were small and metal. He got very agitated when Pumpkin pulled out some cars that were small but wooden. In schools I know they test children in reception to see if they are able to sort. Mostly this is done in a setting made up by the adults and then the children are asked to sort whatever toys they have been presented with. I wonder if the adults observed children at play more whether the results would be different. Does Bean actually know that what he is doing is sorting and would he do it if I asked him to? mmmmmm....
He proceeded to line them all up in a queue like fashion and send them up the lift one by one and park them on the top floor. This was followed by them coming down the ramp one by one and being lined up adjacent to one another round the back of the garage. This is not the first time that arranging toys in such a way has appeared in his play...and it wont be the last.
Today we went to our local Family Centre. It's a lovely place for us to hang out, it's not too far from our house and has a warm welcome whenever we go. The boys played for hours in the hall with two of their friends. It was a game based around 'Octonaughts.' They rearranged all the toys to build themselves a house, where the large soft skittles were lined up as pillows, a tent in one corner was their 'pod' where they lined up the vehicles outside (as if parked in bays) and the car mat was used as the mapping system. Other than these observations the children were left to it, they understood more of the game than any of the adults!!

Example of trajectory play (found in the archive)

For me I can't help but observe my children's play and analyse it. So here is my diagnosis: Bean is currently using a trajectory schema in his play. That is he has a repeatable pattern of behaviour (schema) which takes a trajectory pattern. It's also displayed when he kicks a ball around; shows a preference in play equipment at the park: climbs up and down the crows nest, and using the slide; repeatedly asks to climb the ladder into the loft; insists on playing at falling of his chair at the dinning table; practises repeatedly what can only be described as a long jump and I'm sure other things that I haven't noticed! 


Found out a bit about lapbooks today thanks to HEWS. Very interesting.