NotSheep

That’s my estimate of the number of small pieces of toys I have touched today. Lego (of various sorts), K’nex, Mr Potato Head, Bionicles, marbles, bits of Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit pieces of pie, dice, chessmen… I have collected, sorted and put away every bit of anything I could find, and there was an awful lot of it

We’d the usual busy start to Saturday this morning, with swimming lessons for Barney, George and Freddy at 9 and 9.30. Henry wants to get his hair cut, so Scratchy was going to take him to the barbershop while the others were in the pool, but when they drove past just before opening-time (9 o’clock), there were already three people wating for it to open, so that didn’t get done. After swimming Barney and Henry went to Fit Kids, which seems to have gone down well, and then back into the pool, since a Fit Kids session comes with a free swim.

I spent the morning tidying up and nursing Toby, who’d had quite a fever on and off all night (and continued to do so all day, though he does seem much improved now). I don’t know what his temperature was; I haven’t taken a child’s temperature in years. I go on two things: how hot they feel (slightly warm, quite hot, scary hot… Toby was the latter) and how they act (a bit off, sorry for themselves, totally miserable… Toby was the middle one). He wasn’t interested in anything except sleep and breastfeeding, which are the two best things he can do when he’s sick, so that was fine by me. He’s now cheered up to the extent that he’s trying to help me type this - with his toes - so I think he might be over the worst of it

The point of all the tidying was to give Barney and Henry something in which to store their clothes and other essential-for-being-an-eleven-year-old-boy stuff in their own room. Freddy has moved into the small bedroom that Barney vacated in order to share with Henry, and until today, Barney’s clothes were in Freddy’s closet, Freddy’s clothes were in the corner of George’s room, and Henry’s clothes were in a bag at the foot of his bed. Now each child and his clothes are actually in the same room - which seems a much better idea, can’t imagine why I didn’t think of it sooner I watched Henry putting away clothes for a few minutes, then went and told Scratchy, “he’s folding everything and sorting his t-shirts according to whether they’ve long or short sleeves… he’s the son I never had!”

He had a phone-call from his parents at lunchtime; En Famille recommends a maximum of one call a week for the first few weeks, then one every couple of weeks if possible. A lot of the things in their literature initially struck me as quite picky - stuff about no books in their native language, how many photos they could take with them, how often parents should write to them, etc - but now I think they’re right. If the child is hanging on between one point of contact and the next, there really isn’t time to meld into the host family’s language and culture and way of life. Henry has, I think, done extremely well this week. I know he’s still not quite relaxed and open with us, but I think that will come in time. He got off the phone and told me he was finding his mattress uncomfortable - I don’t know if it had just occurred to him to tell me, or if he’d told his mum and been told to tell me - but I switched it for another one and he was very pleased

Oh, and I think he’s settling in well - he corrected me today for the first time. “Henry likes Runescape,” I said. “No,” said Henry, waving his finger at me, “I love Runescape!”

Jack asked how long it would be until Henry’s “mum and dad come to take him home”, and I told him it would be a long time (about one-ninth of Jack’s life!) and that Henry would be staying with us until after my birthday (which is at the end of February). Jack nodded wisely and said, “That’s because there is chocolate on your birthday.”

Once we’d got most of the bedrooms sorted out, the boys watched a DVD before dinner. Barney was grumpy - due to reading for far too long last night and a busy day today. Henry was yawning - due to a busy day today and still coughing a little (though much less) and, well, due to having probably had one of the most overwhelming weeks of his life! So everyone has headed to bed early, and in fact I think three of them might even be asleep already… with me not far behind