Running around

I took Lady to her Ju-Jitsu class on Saturday then spent the time pootling about the town alone- bliss! I trawled the charity shops (not having enough junk of our own at home…) and bought a few more children’s books, including a few ‘Famous Five’ books which I think Lady would enjoy. I loved them as a child, though they are quite trashy and politically incorrect (sexist mainly, as far as I remember). When she's read them, we can talk about the changes in society since then. Got to keep the liberal ideological training going!

I took all the children to a friend’s 4th birthday party in the afternoon. The children all had a fantastic time. Lady hung out with 2 older girls and I think she thought they were really cool. Thomas loved it, he and his little buddy are so similar and cute together. Later he was telling Gordon all about it, ‘I like-ed the pizza and the crisps and I like-ed making big burps and everybody was laughing’. Duncan was, well, tricky. He discovered a packet of biscuits on arrival and wouldn’t stop climbing to get them. He had a fair few tantrums and I was trying to calm him down often.

I had to decide before we went whether I should take him or leave him behind with Gordon, but he knew we were going to a party and he really wanted to go. It wouldn’t have been fair to leave him just because he’s harder work. Part of the problem was bad planning by me and I felt bad that the other adults there who don’t really know us might be thinking how awful it must be dealing with children like him. (None of the other children posed any problem as far as I could see.) I should have brought some food and drink with me because he’s so limited in what he eats that even child friendly home-made pizza, crisps and cola aren’t acceptable to him. As soon as the cake was cut we all left, but he still had time to grab at the bit of icing the birthday boy was eating and break it up. I felt bad about that, but I just wasn’t fast enough to stop him.
It might sound strange, like I’m over analysing all this, but I need to learn what I can improve to help him deal with situations better.

There were 2 notable occurrences on Sunday. 1st, I went out for a run. I haven’t run for ages and I did OK. It was great actually; I went easy and ran into the park which was utterly beautiful. There were tiny pink flower buds appearing on the hawthorn and I saw the 1st crop of wild primroses. I used to pick bunches from the hedges round our house for my Mum when I was little. I hope I can run more often as the evenings get lighter, that is if I’m not totally knackered by the time Gordon comes home from work!

The 2nd and more amazing thing was that Duncan ate a chicken leg!!! He was hungry and asked for some chicken. Obviously I obliged, then we all stood in wonder as he ate it, dipped in tomato ketchup of course!