Lucky day

On being told that Keith's dad, Granddad Sam, had died and that he would, therefore have an extra day with me: "Yay! This is my lucky day!" [fx: longish pause] "Er... Well, sort of..."

They played Harry Potter in the playground today, with Jack as Ron Weasley and Paris as Hermione. Cute.

Lovely extra evening, despite a meltdown over having to share Minnie with Minnie's mate Mohammed (peas be upon him etc) Jim was very taken with the idea of a Tasmanian Devil and pretended to be one for a while. Then he went for a poo and proclaimed that it had come out very easily because he'd eaten some fruit. The fruit was precisely one segment of clementine dipped in fondue chocolate...

A couple of old ones

Don't think I blogged these ones from Wandlebury around Christmas.

Weekend activities

GPWee

Had to send Jim off to school in non-standard trousers yesterday, due to an unfortunate incident with a guinea pig at 8.30. He seemed strangely pleased to have been weed on by Goldie. He was also a bit toired due to having woken up with a bad dream at 1am. It was about a Belgian waffle with a face on it. Scawey.

Drop-off

Parting quote from Jim when dropping him off at school: "but daddy, I'm going to miss my guinea pig". Bless him. Strange not having him here.

Aired Figs

Today we had a chilled creative day. The kind of day that makes you think you're a good parent and, yes, you can actually do this. The kids were banned from the Playstation for the whole day so in the morning they made, and messily painted, cardboard animals. Fish finger sandwiches for lunch (big hit with Jim) and then to the park to play with remote-controlled cars. There were a couple of meltdowns, notably when the batteries in Jim's car ran out and I got very fed up with him, but in general much fun was had by all. After the park I started on the Airfix F5 that C gave Jim for Christmas and the years rolled away with the smell of the plastic cement. He occasionally popped over to see what was happening but I was quite happy to get on with it. I had forgotten how intricate they are but I'm sure the manufacturing quality has gone down - the pieces don't fit quite as they should. Anyway, I'm hoping he osmotically picks up an interest in such things. 

Amy has an Airfix model too, a Seahawk, which she bought with Mum and Dad's money. In the car yesterday:

"Jim, do you want to do Airfix when we get home?"

<pause>

"What are aired figs?"

I went to the doc about my back this morning and have been sent for physio again...

Zoo

Colchester zoo on a cold cold windy day. Something of a spur of the moment decision but we wanted to get out. Didn't get there until 1pm but 3 hours was enough to do it justice. 

The Komodo dragons were a hit...

As were lions, leopards etc.

But the real hit was he penguins. We arrived just in time to see them fed, and Jim was fascinated. Excellent value.