A bit of diversity

It’s been nearly a week since I last blogged. It was a nice Easter week: we’ve eaten well and we’ve had a few outings, some more successful than others!

We had a really good day here on Easter Sunday. We sorted out the garden a bit in the morning and the children liked their presents of new mugs, windmills and a few mini chocolate eggs.

My Dad, Step Mum and the children's Grandma all came over for lunch. The food was delicious, and it was just a lovely, relaxing day. The children enjoyed the company too. Thomas told me at one stage, ‘I like visitors. Is this my party? Am I four now?’ My wee sweetie! He also demonstrated his ‘magic’ by repeatedly hiding things behind his back, them using his powers to make them reappear, to the astonishment (hmm) of his audience. Lady did a fair bit of showing off too and read out a story she’s written, ‘The Witch Tale’. Duncan loved all the attention and games and best of all, chocolate!

On Monday we went to Downpatrick to ride in a real steam train. It was magic. The journey lasted only 15 minutes, then we got out to watch the engine turn and re-couple. This was a most exciting endeavour involving lots of steam and whistle-blowing and men down on the tracks clanging bits of metal. Duncan’s little face was a picture of pure joy. We then chuffed back to the station, crossing a bridge and waving to the people in canoes and the man driving a tractor. Duncan was singing and smiling and calling ‘hello’ to anyone we saw. There was a little shop at the station selling, oh god no, ‘Daniel’s’ engines! That is one of the other types of trains that we’ve managed so far to do without buying because he’s never seen them in any shop before, just on the internet. Well, I bought him a ‘Percy’, I think he has 6 Percys now! Thomas got a ‘Thomas’ flag and Lady got a bunny necklace. All in, a good trip.

We didn’t do much on Tuesday or Wednesday but we did manage to sort out some household management stuff. On Thursday we went to the Aquarium. It’s a great place but it wasn’t such a successful outing. First of all, Duncan was disappointed that we weren’t going on a steam train again, (the train only goes 5 or so times a year). When we went in, he was running around all over the place. That was understandable since we’d been in the car for a long time so he was like a wound spring. They all liked touching the rays and sticking their hands in the touch pools. Lady liked the anemones and Thomas liked the giant crabs. I stuck right by Duncan, and he spent most of his time in a children’s section full of play tubes and dressing up clothes. Duncan dressed as a diver and wanted to jump into the water with the fish! At one stage Gordon was with him and he threw his shoe away and it hit some other poor child. Gordon was really embarrassed and upset and wanted to go home right then. But we stayed another while and before we left, they went to watch the seals for a while. The seal was right up against the glass beside Duncan who was loving it, especially when it started barking and he barked right back! They were rolling around together and just making friends! That made the trip worthwhile. Everyone was grumpy on the drive home though, pah.

Today we had some friends over. When they’ve been here before, Thomas has usually stayed near me and my friend and her 1 yo daughter. Today though, he spent the whole time playing with Lady and the other little boy. They were playing Harry Potter; there was a bit of an issue about the casting but Lady set some challenges and her friend K bagged the main role while Thomas had to accept the part of Ron. They said Duncan was Malfoy! Not that he was interested anyway.

Lady has suddenly started reading well which she’s happy about. Thomas was playing in the bath last night with some foam letters. He had an ‘N’ and was thinking of N words. Then he got an ‘O’, put them together and said NO. Pretty good, I thought. Both boys have enjoyed some maths stories I bought in the charity shop and do well with the little puzzles in them.

I’ve realised why I had to draw the same picture over and over for Duncan. He started producing his own rocket pictures, and they’re really good. He enjoyed watching the process of creating the pictures as well as the finished product. He likes to have these objects and characters to hold and I think that’s why he likes to dress up too. He likes to see himself in character. Lately, he has been wearing a knight costume, a Pocahontas dress (with pretty shoes and a pink hat), an angel dress with wedding veil and Lady’s yellow top under a ‘Big Chief’ waistcoat. We embrace all kinds of diversity here ;-)