NotSheep

We’ve had a few moods from Barney today - a sign of things to come? I do hope not; it completely throws me when he goes from one extreme to another the way he has today. He threw a stone at Freddy’s head this morning when they were out on their bicycles, then switched into The Charming Child a few minutes later; was in helpful-eldest mode at the swimming-pool, only to be found winding up Jack in the back garden after we came home. Then he got all grumpy about being expected to put his bike away without knocking over every other thing in the garage - and by mid-dinner was back to delightful, having a very good-natured staring contest with Scratchy and then teaching Jack how to do it. It’s exhausting keeping up! Is there anyone reading this who has older boys? Is this how they get at eleven-and-a-half? And when does it go away again?!

Other than that, it’s been a good day This morning the boys played, both inside and out, while I put together a huge pot of tomato-vegetable sauce, with the intention of compiling vegetable lasagna this afternoon. They got on really well, and didn’t even go on the computer (they couldn’t, I changed their password a couple of days ago and I haven’t told them the new one LOL) Then we made a delicious pizza-thing for lunch, with a herbed pizza base and roasted garlic and cambozola cheese - something I’d never even heard of until I found this recipe, and was stunned and impressed in equal quantities to discover that the local grocery store actually had it After that we all went to the leisure centre, where Barney got his free swim that he’d missed yesterday, along with George, Freddy, Jack and me. This time last year they were all, essentially, non-swimmers; now they are completely at home in the water, tossing themselves underneath, going down the big slide, and even swimming a bit I’m very impressed by how far they’ve come. Jack hasn’t had swimming lessons, but very effectively propelled himself around the pool by hanging onto a large, frog-shaped float and kicking his legs like mad. He also had a couple of panicky moments when he went underwater and forgot it was shallow enough for him to stand up in. The swimming classes at the leisure centre take children when they reach school-age, so he’d be able to start in September, if we want. I’m still not sure about that - I can’t see him settling down to actually pay attention in a swimming-class (or any class, for that matter!) Having said that, he’s surprised us a few times recently - his drawings are suddenly excellent, he’s taken to writing numbers and letters (this morning it was “4″ - “oh, did you write that?” - “Yes! I just thinked about it and drew it!” LOL) and on Friday he read the number “100″ off a packet, which startled all of us. He also - and this is a biggie - answered a question this morning with the words, “Yes, I am!” The reason this is so startling is that I don’t think he’s ever said “I am” unprompted before - it’s always been “um is” So who knows what new talents he’ll display over the next few months?

Toby got his first swimming experience - Scratchy kept him until a few minutes before we were getting out, then Barney took Jack into the men’s changing room so Scratchy could get him dried and dressed, and brought Toby out to me. Toby was… um, less than impressed. I think he liked the water (which was lovely and warm) but I think there was too much noise for him. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted to wail in distress or watch all the activity around him. He was probably in the pool for less than ten minutes, then Barney took him back to Scratchy while I got dried and dressed.

After swimming we came home - Jack fell asleep in the car and slept for ages after we got home - the car was right by the side door into the garage, and I propped that open, so I could both see and hear him from the kitchen. No doubt after that he’ll be up until silly o’clock tonight. Once he woke, he joined his brothers in playing while I finished off the lasagna, freezing two big pans of it and cooking a third for tonight’s dinner. And despite having vegetables in it - even some recognisable ones! - everyone ate a good portion of it. Toby is loving food now - especially bread (hm, can’t think where he gets that from ;-)) which induces squeals of impatience when he sees it and you don’t get him a bit of it quickly enough. He’s got both the centre bottom teeth, and I think there might be one or two coming through at the top too - about time! He’s just delightful right now - lots of “talking” to us and he’s exploring his world so much. Last night he sat for ages on the bed playing with two small toys, putting one down and picking up the other, then switching - you could really see the thought process that was happening. I just wish I’d something soft to put on the floor downstairs so he could sit and play with toys down there - it’s all hard tiled floors and he still falls over too often for sitting on those!