Cultural conditioning
Barney woke up first, as he usually does, and wandered into our room in search of a mummy or a daddy who might be willing to get up and make him some breakfast.
Mummy got up, as she usually does, and through the landing window saw the snow covering everything outside, and still falling softly from above.
“Look Barney!” she cried. “Look at the snow!”
Barney couldn’t really see, because he’s not tall enough to see out of that window yet. Kate had to bend down and pick him up.
“Look at that Barney! Everything’s covered in snow. Wow, isn’t that exciting?”
Barney’s face lit up with a huge grin. His eyes shone.
“Snow!” he said. “It must be Christmas!”
A long walk to a long barrow
Barney and I went on a cracking walk, and made a little vid when we reached our destination...
Oh, and then we remembered something else we'd meant to say...
Waiting for Dave
There’s excitement in my home town, Folkestone. For months now, a solitary dolphin has taken up residence in the water just yards from the town beach. He’s easy to spot; just go down to the seafront and look for a small crowd of people pointing and smiling. They’ll have found him already.
The dolphin’s been named Dave, and he’s turning out to be quite an asset.
I’ve seen wild dolphins before, in Oman, and knew how hard it would be to try and get a photo of Dave. That didn’t stop me trying anyway, but it ended up being much more interesting and exciting to put the camera away and just watch the water. Dave frolicked, frequently popping his upper section and fin out of the water, sometimes blowing from his air-hole.
Sitting on the beach is always fun; having a dolphin to watch makes it positively enchanting.
Labels: family
Breakfast of prey
We were a bit short of breakfast cereals, so Barney tried some Alpen for the first time. He seemed to like it.
There he was, tucking in and munching away, when suddenly his face changed. He stopped eating, looked up, and asked:
"Daddy, is Alpen made from real owls?"
Labels: family
Bedtime walk in fog
Sometimes, if Barney is feeling particularly energetic towards bedtime, we go for a Bedtime Walk. We don't go far, nor anywhere in particular, but just for a stroll to see what we can see. Now that the clocks have gone back, bedtime walks are dark, and Barney has discovered the joys of playing with torches.
This evening the fog was thick and the street lights glowed like fireflies. Barney giggled as we shone the torch beam straight up into the sky, trying to work out how far it could reach.
Labels: family
Visiting a hole in the ground
We made a special trip to the woods between Ashford and Faversham in order to see Jem Finer’s Score for a hole in the ground installation.
It’s located deep in King’s Wood (map), and is one of many artistic works there managed by Stour Valley Arts.
I was a little bit disappointed when we finally arrived, muddy and sweaty, at the site of the huge metal trumpet that pokes out of the ground. There was no sound coming from it at all. The lower section of the tube was covered in graffiti. It felt like a bit of a let-down.
It was also hard to find. King’s Wood is fantastic, but it’s huge. A few more signs pointing the way to the installations, and more importantly back to the car park again, would be a very welcome addition. If it was just me getting lost in the woods it wouldn’t be a problem - but I had a tired and hungry four-year-old with me, who couldn’t really take on the fact that daddy was confident of getting back to the car eventually, but couldn’t say precisely when that would be, nor if it would be around the next bend or not.
I’d go back though; armed with a larger picnic, more time, and perhaps no children. And I’d remember to take a photo of the map of the woods that you encounter shortly after leaving the car park. Might come in handy.
Labels: family
Last trip to Longleat
We went to Longleat to finish off our Passport ticket, which allowed us to visit each attraction once over the long summer holiday. Because I spent much of the summer not driving, our chances to go there were limited; we hadn’t done the safari park, the maze or the boat trip, and the Passport was due to expire this week.
So we went, and did all of those things and more. I particularly enjoyed seeing the giraffes up close, and the sea lions in the lake were quite a sight (and sound) to behold…
Labels: family
Eggs on bed
There was a storm late on the Saturday night, one of those endless storms that floats low over the town and broods for hours. The thunder woke everyone up, including Barney.
Most of us managed to get back to sleep again, but he couldn’t. He was wide awake and hungry and just wanted to get on with the day, even though it was still the early hours.
He came into our room several times:
“Can I have some breakfast now?”
We sleepily muttered that it was far too early, and that he should go back to bed.
After a few attempts at persuading us an early breakfast was a good idea, Barney must have decided that if the parents were too sleepy or too grumpy to provide it, he might as well go and get breakfast by himself.
So he quietly padded downstairs. Mummy and Daddy snoozed on, oblivious.
Barney knows his way around the kitchen very well now, so he did the sensible thing and aimed for the fridge. This meant dragging a stool across the room to stand on, and balancing precariously on it while opening the fridge door.
Having opened it and got himself positioned, he gazed inside. Hmmm … what to eat?
Ah! Eggs!
Impressively for a four-year-old, he somehow managed to extract the egg box, open it, remove two eggs without breaking them, put them down somewhere, close the box, put it back in the fridge, and shut the door.
Now armed with his eggs, he faced a problem. He doesn’t know how to make eggs into breakfast. Thankfully, he didn’t try operating the cooker, but instead wandered back up to his bedroom.
What to do with two eggs?
Put them in the bed of course!
Now what?
Hmmm.
Fancy a bit of jumping.
Boing. Boing boing boing.
A little while later, Kate woke up enough to wander into B’s room and ask him if he wanted to go downstairs for breakfast with her.
“Yes please,” he said.
Kate spied something suspicious.
“What’s that wet patch on your bed?”
Barney looked at her as though she was an idiot.
“The eggs,” he explained.
And there they were, mashed into a shelly, eggy, soggy mess all over the duvet and the sheets.
Kidsequences
These are just some of the things that change when you become a parent...
- Your concept of "busy"; once you have children, you start to notice just how much time you used to have for yourself. You also realise how much of it you wasted.
- Your priorities; naturally, the welfare of your kids suddenly becomes the most important thing in your life. If half the picnic gets spilt into a muddy puddle, you'll give the little ones your share and go hungry yourself, because that's what you need to do. And you won't mind in the slightest.
- Your sleep patterns; you'll be waking up much earlier, every day, for many years after your child is born. A lie-in will be a luxury. A lie-in with your partner an extremely rare luxury. Suddenly, early nights won't seem such a bad idea anymore.
- Your reading habits; there's very little time to read books when young children are around.
- Your appreciation of spontaneous things; although children can be very spontaneous people ("Let's build a Thunderbird out of paper and this egg box right now Daddy!" says mine at 7.15am), they're not very flexible. They need to be fed when they're hungry, they need to go to bed when they're tired. It's hard to be spontaneous when you have to plan for your little one's every requirement in advance.
- Your diet; suddenly you find yourself hoovering up your offspring's leftovers. This can amount to a surprising amount of food.
Labels: family
First day at school
So here's our Barney, four and a bit years old, ready to go to school at eight o'clock this morning. He was very excited and keen to talk to other children about Thunderbirds. Thanks to all the pre-school preparation, he already knew his teacher and his way into his classroom; so in he trotted, perfectly happy, giving me just a cursory cuddle as he went.
I strolled home in a thoughtful frame of mind. My gorgeous, wonderful, funny, argumentative and entertaining little son is now starting his own life; from now on he'll be learning to form his own opinions, choose his own friends, decide his own future. Good luck to ya, little fella. I love you.
Labels: family
Been canoein'
We took a ride on a canoe up and down the river through central Bradford on Avon. We had lots of fun.
Labels: family
Dungeness lighthouse
Barney and I spent a few days in Folkestone visiting his granny. We took the RHDR to Dungeness and visited the the Old Lighthouse, then played for a little while on the beach. The skies were duller than of late, but we didn't mind.
Lots more photos of our trip in the (newly-revived) gallery.
Labels: family
We all went on a summer holiday
We spent a lovely week on the coast, at Highcliffe where Dorset and Hampshire kiss. Every day was incredibly hot, so midweek we took breakfast down to the beach with us - bowls, milk, cereal and all - and trudged back to our chalet at 11ish, when it was getting uncomfortably hot. I swam in the sea every day; Barney and I made dozens of sandcastles. The days were hot but easy.
Later in the week we enjoyed days out in Bournemouth (where B and I went up in the Bournemouth Eye and doh! I forgot my camera) and the Isle of Wight, which surprised me with its beautiful and dramatic landscape. I'd like to explore it more one day; a walk around its coast sounds rather appealing.
Dad and lad
This was my Father's Day present from Barney; a portrait showing "Daddy and me holding hands and I am pretending to be a donkey." Brought a tear to my eye, it did.
The why phase
Don't touch the sharp knives, Barney.
Why?
Because they've got sharp blades on them.
Why?
So they can cut things.
Why?
To make them smaller.
Why?
That makes things easier to cook.
Why?
Because small pieces of food cook faster.
Why?
It's something to do with conductivity, I think, but I can't remember all the details.
Why?
Because I'm getting old.
Why?
Everyone gets old.
Why?
That's what happens to people.
Why?
Something to do with entropy. And chemistry, I suspect.
Why?
Because bananas.
I want a sandwich.
Names that Barney made up for some imaginary trains
- Dilla dilla
- Tanat Nana
- Wogglon
- Wigladigalent
- Sisselgens
- Willagilladada
Labels: family
