NotSheep

We haven’t been out and about much this week – it’s half-term so most of our usual places to go are full of, well, children – and most of the boys’ weekly activities have been cancelled anyway. On Monday and Tuesday we were all pretty tired after Sunday’s adventures, and we hung out at home, did some skool, played some games, and most of the boys played outside. Most days the doorbell doesn’t start to ring every 15 minutes until after 3 o’clock, but this week it has rung at all times of day, because the people who ring it weren’t at school. On Monday evening, Barney had Air Cadets and on Tuesday he had SJA Cadets and George had Sea Cadets. Unusually, I did the taxi-ing on Tuesday evening, because Scratchy had arrived home at 4.30, feeling unwell, and had gone “to lie down” by 4.50 – he woke after 8, completely unaware that I had been out to take Barney and George to their respective locations while leaving the others watching a DVD in the living-room.

By Wednesday, some of the rest of us had caught whatever Scratchy had. Thankfully it seems to have been a short-lived bug this time and within about 24 hours we were all back to normal – or at least to the same state as beforehand – apart from Jack, who is still wheezing Tim was as lively and enthusiastic as always though, and indeed perhaps a little moreso: I had to tell him off twice during the morning and then he and Freddy both got told off at bedtime for the way they were treating Jack – not that it did any good, for when I opened my bedroom door on Thursday morning, I found them doing exactly the same again. Jack is a very determined person, and people telling him not to do something is, well, pointless. As a result, he gets shouted at a lot when he is in other people’s bedrooms, wanting to join in whatever they’re doing. They push him out (sometimes physically – as on Wednesday evening/Thursday morning, sometimes verbally) and he just returns, pushing his way back in, but even harder. In a way, I was happy to tell Tim off, because if he’s misbehaving, it tells me he’s settling in well. Ten-year-old boys aren’t supposed to be perfect

Barney and George went to their Outward Bound course on Wednesday evening, each returning home with a sealed envelope containing their hopes and goals for the next year, to be opened in one year, and a disposable camera, to be used to capture pictures of their lives. That should be interesting – most of the photos on their phones are either of Bionicle battles or of Louie.

Thursday was a repeat of Monday and Tuesday, although dinner was a bit unplanned – or rather, it was planned but not executed. There were ribs marinading in the refrigerator, and at 3 p.m. I asked Barney to start them cooking in the oven, as I was stuck on the sofa with a sleeping, runny-nosed Louie. A few minutes later, I checked with him that he’d turned on the oven, which he confirmed. I should have checked more carefully. He had indeed turned on the oven, but at almost 5 p.m., when I glanced through the oven window to see how much room was left in it for the rest of dinner, I discovered that we had been cooking nothing but air: the ribs were still in the fridge. We had pasta for dinner.

On Friday we decided to go swimming as usual, even though we knew there would be a lot more kids at the pool. We were right about that, but we got there early enough to miss the busiest time. Afterwards we snacked in the cafeteria and then went up to the library for a while. The boys returned some books, borrowed some more, and Louie, who is very firmly on his feet now, had a great time running away from me and being “caught” by Barney. As he is so firmly on his feet, I thought it would be a good idea for him to have some shoes, so we stopped on the way home and I took him and Jack in to get some. I didn’t think it would take long, so I left the others in the car – they were quite happy with this arrangement, as they had big piles of newly-borrowed books to read. Finding children’s shoes is not one of my favourite activities. Jack tried to find shoes for himself while I got Louie sorted out. The first pair I tried on Louie seemed a bit small, and the store didn’t have the next size, so I found a different pair – but Louie didn’t want to let me near him with the second pair. He pushed my hand away and held tightly onto the box with the first pair in it, saying, “I yike!” “Oh,” I said, “you like the box?” “Ess.” he said firmly. I tried to explain that the second pair would have a box too, but he wasn’t easily convinced. And once he had the shoes on and I put him on the floor, he stood there as though glued to it and refused to walk. Meanwhile Jack had found a shoe he liked and asked a staff member for it in his size – it didn’t come in his size, so he’d found another pair, with lights in the heels, and was busy trying them on. He said he liked them, but when I looked, I realised he had them on the wrong feet, so I’m not sure his stated opinions were trustworthy I told him he had the shoes on the wrong feet. “Oh.” he said, then brightened and said, “Well at least they flash!” Isn’t that what everyone looks for in a shoe?

I left Barney, Freddy and Jack off at home – Freddy had borrowed a DVD from the library and he and Jack wanted to watch it. And Barney was going to start the ribs for dinner, having had the procedure of taking them from the refrigerator and placing them on an oven-shelf carefully explained to him Meanwhile I went to do an errand which took us to a neighbouring town. The drive there is along the coast road, and on the way back there is a particular corner at which you turn and suddenly discover yourself on the edge of a cliff (with a barrier, of course) overlooking the sea – the others are used to this part of the road by now, but Tim had only ever travelled it in the dark until yesterday, so there was a sharp intake of breath and a “wow!” from him

Ribs for dinner – and they were very good. Jack ate lots, as did George, who usually only gets that way about chips, and Tim, who left an enormous pile of bones on his plate and had to ask what the word “enormous” meant.

Ju-jitsu was off for half-term, but Jack was supposed to attend a movie-night with Beavers. His asthma was really pretty bad though, so I talked him into having a movie-night here instead, complete with popcorn. He wasn’t delighted about missing the Beavers event, but he really wasn’t well enough. He had ten puffs of inhaler before bed, and more during the night. He’s quite a lot better today morning, although still not fully well, so he’ll be staying in this morning, at least. Barney and George are off to a Chinese New Year party at GY this afternoon, and because it’s a party, the two ten-year-olds – Freddy and Tim – have been invited too, so they’ve all just left, very excited