Tuesday, February 28, 2012

where do they put it ?

Yes, I am aware that boys eat alot of food - I remember my dad talking about going over to a mate's house and eating the place empty in one sitting. I have a 3 1/2 year old and a 6 year old. I buy bananas in bunches of 12 or 20 these days, I buy apples by the 8 or the 10; I don't buy one loaf of bread any more, I always buy 2; they wolf a can of baked beans; a box of 48 Weetabix hardly lasts a fortnight; mini yoghurts get bought by the dozen and we usually have more than that floating around in the fridge. What are they going to be like when they're teenagers ?

Monday, February 20, 2012

egg heads & drawing

The kids are on a roll - they just love drawing and writing at the moment. After years of moaning that I have sons that NEVER sit still and focus on something, both boys have taken to drawing for ages and ages and I had nothing to do with it! at all! Huzzah.
We're going through paper at quite a rate of knots and Zack wants to post every letter he writes to his Nana (at £1.10 a pop), so we're having to moderate the contributions.

We've had a run of head injuries - Zack fell down the stairs at Starbucks on Saturday, holding a full mug of hot chocolate :( poor bub. He had an egg on the back of his head after that.
Calvin was scooting in Ally Pally playground and managed to handle the skateboard drop-off thrice, but the fourth time he fell forward onto his scooter and T-bar'd his forehead, ending up with a blue grape in the middle of his forehead. Amazingly he hardly cried and still says it doesn't hurt 28 hours later. His brother just needs to tease him or bump him and he wails like something dreadful has happened, but one bump on the head has had very little effect in comparison. Kids!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

dangerous objects

walking in the snow in Burnham Wood last weekend.
Yes - that's me carrying Calvin's bike


So Calvin and Zack are interested in sharp knives AND fire. The latter because the electric ignition on our gas stove has gone on the blink, so we're using matches every time we cook anything. The former because they've observed the difference cutting with their kiddie implements and my kitchen knives has made. This week I had Calvin (now 3 1/2) cutting up carrots with a large knife - under supervision of course (for all your web trolls), and Zack slicing oranges and orange peels. It freaks me out completely and I think that's the end of that exercise, but isn't it interesting how children are drawn to these things ?

Someone once said to me that childhood is a long succession of near-death experiences. I guess that's one way of looking at it.

It made me think of a collection of children's stories I discovered about 10 years ago : Struwwel Peter. The stories were written more than 150 years ago and drive home the "if you do this, then that will happen to you" - usually death or punishment. Wowzer! How did I end up on such a bleak note? There are better ways to teach children safety in the home.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

reverse psychology

The new way of getting this done at Chez Guthrie is to say the opposite. If I need socks put on, then I say 'not allowed' OR 'you can't do it'. Alternately if either Zack or Calvin show an ability to do something, I then say, 'You are TOO clever. Don't do that again', which leads to much hilarity and repetition as they prove they can do it. Calvin now shouts at me, "Say 'Stop doing that' to me Mommy!" giggle giggle.
Calvin is definitely the mechanically minded child - he loves to observe and tinker with things. I turned Zack's bike upside down, so that he could let the pedals rotate freely. He held onto the chain and moved it back and forth on the teeth of the cogs. He used the brakes and pedals - all very intriguing. He is still obsessed with trains and loves to build his train set in the lounge.
Both he and Zack were delighted with the Scalectrix set they got for Christmas but as it wasn't the most high quality set, the connections have got a bit tired from over-use. tut tut.
Current DVD obsessions are : Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs; Cars 2 (another Xmas pressie)