NotSheep

The last couple of days have been quiet. Scratchy’s been off work (public holidays), but of course he’s been getting ready to leave for NYC; I’ll be leaving him at the airport bus this evening. The washing-machine is working, sort of, I think - not sure it’s rinsing stuff properly, so am still considering the purchase of a larger one. The particular larger one I’m considering takes a 9kg load - exactly twice what my current one does. The notion of cutting my laundry in half (well, the washing-it bit anyway) at a stroke is appealing, I must admit.

Scratchy’s been doing that male I’m-fine-yes-I-am thing, and has been taking his supposedly non-existent stress out on the rest of the family, alternating between snappy and grumpy. I must admit that it has occasionally crossed my mind to suggest that he leave for the airport sooner rather than later

The boys put together a huge model of a velociraptor yesterday, and have been reading the book that came with it. Barney has been doing lots of science study in the last few days, but mostly he’s been reading or playing outside. He has been skateboarding, which he thinks makes him look very cool. It might do that, if he could go more than two miles an hour and not wobble He’s off to camp with a friend tomorrow night - for the friend’s birthday treat, his parents are taking a bunch of boys to camp one night and spend the next day doing outdoorsy activities. He’s looking forward to it, especially since he hasn’t seen this friend in several months, and misses him.

George and Freddy spent most of this morning playing with the cuisenaire rods. George is permanently attached to his mp3 player, so all communication with him takes place at 95 decibels. He was playing down the street earlier and I called him back because I could hear him shouting. I told him the volume wasn’t reasonable, but he argued that it was, because a bit of K’nex had fallen down the drain. Quite why he thought yelling at it would help is beyond my comprehension.

Freddy is currently riding his bicycle up and down the street at top speed. Despite it being mid-July and actually sunny and reasonably warm, he’s wearing a duffle-coat. I gave up asking.

Jack is being his usual determined self and appears to have been born in a barn - every door in the house is open, except for those that slammed shut due to the breeze.

Toby is being delightful, as usual. He is very determined to be up on his feet, which means one of us has to stand there and hold onto him. I think he might have slept a six-hour stretch on Tuesday night, though he didn’t repeat it last night! He’s talking lots these days, and is getting very good at letting us know exactly what he wants.

As for me, I’ve been trying to get all the things done that I know I won’t get a chance to do while Scratchy’s away. Toby still spends a lot of time in my arms - which is not something I mind, as I know it won’t last forever and I’ve never met anyone who wished they’d cuddled their babies less - but it does make it more difficult to get certain things done. I can use the Storchie, but his hands are everywhere - if I’m trying to cut up cheese or something, I need a hand to hold the cheese, a hand to cut it, and two more hands to keep his hands out of the way Fortunately the boys’ activities have all finished for the summer, so I won’t be providing the taxi-service that’s usually necessary - though they do have swimming every day next week, so we’ll have to be semi-organised anyway.