Almost 4

LM will be 4 next week.  I can hardly believe it.  He is turning out to be a lovely, happy (mostly) little boy with a real enthusiasm for life (some things he is enthusiastic about are, admittedly, slightly odd.  For example, when reminded earlier this week that he had a check-up at the dentist's today he said "Fantastic! Can we go now?")
To capitalise on all this eagerness (before the apathy sets in & it will be a chore just to get him out of bed) I signed up to a free trial on Reading Eggs - a website designed to help 3 yrs & up learn to read.  LM  loves it (to the point that he pesters me all the time to do some) & is getting good at some activities.  From a parental point of view it can seem a little repetitive but at this early stage in his reading career, LM doesn't mind & he certainly seems to remember what he's learnt.   Is it good enough to pay for?  I'll see if he keeps it up.

Not only is a birthday looming, but Christmas too and this year LM will be a king in the preschool Nativity.  At least that's what the staff have told me.  If I relied on LM for my information I'd be pulling my hair out trying to come up with a train costume!  He does admit that he is carrying a present though.  I'm hoping that by the day someone will have persuaded him of his regal role (& also that he will take part & not sit & scowl like he did for the Easter show)

Can't write any more as I have been informed that "My tummy is getting very rumbling now" so I must get LM some lunch

Splash & Flash

I've said it before & I'm sure I'll say it again but I am very proud of LM's swimming.  He now has his first swimming badge (well, technically it's not his first, he did get one as a baby but that was more for just turning up & not screaming the place down) and is progressing well.  However, this week I was, shall we say, a little less proud, maybe even mortified.  LM needed a wee so got out of the pool (thankfully) & informed me he didn't need my help.  We (the girls in his class, their mums & the instructor) waited patiently for him to return before resuming the racing and he was back in no time at all...

...with his trunks around his knees.

He stood there, legs akimbo, grinning broadly, waiting for me to sort him out.

Fact.  It is quite hard to pull up wet trunks when you are simultaneously laughing & hanging your head in shame.

Necessity is the mother of...

...I hesitate to use 'invention'.  You'll see why.  Building work has commenced, much to LM's joy.  The back of the house is now an awful mess with mud, rubble & a deep hole .  On the plus side, the digger has kept LM entertained for ages.  Who needs Cbeebies?  (not that I am recommending everyone takes the drastic action of commissioning an extension just for a few hours peace & quiet from their little ones. For a start it's expensive as children's entertainment goes & then the work that keeps LM transfixed tends to be the antithesis of peace & quiet in itself).  But I digress.

The building work has meant that a door, which was formerly an internal one, has now become external and, even boarded up, lets in a bit of draft (especially in this inclement weather).  So today's fun after-preschool activity was making draft excluders.  I hope I can be forgiven for their unsophisticated look but I don't know who got bored first, me or LM.  Still, as long as they do the job.