Sports Relief 2012

Preschool had a sponsored run in aid of the day which consisted of running twice around the playing field. LM was very keen & had been practising for days. He had even confided in me that his best friend J was faster but that he sometimes overtook him.

The day was thankfully sunny but the first hiccup occurred minutes before the run was due to start. Dew on the grass meant the play leaders decreed wellies were to be worn. LM hates wearing wellies to run & much prefers bare feet even in colder weather so it took some cajoling to get him to start. This is a skill I have developed since LM came along so he was on the start line ready for the off & was even in the leading pack.  Halfway round & LM had dropped a couple of places but was still going strong.  Then he started to look behind him & fell back further.  Not too far but enough for him to finish the first lap in tears refusing to go on because he wasn't winning.

My cajoling skills were back in play &, whilst grabbing his hand & sprinting (ahem) alongside him, I gently explained that it wasn't a race, that he was doing it to raise money & anyway he was still ahead of loads of people who, if he didn't get a move on, would soon overtake.  I wish I could say that doing it for charity spurred him on but alas I think it was the third incentive.  Still, he finished albeit in tears.

Later he watched the start of the TV coverage (well, he wanted to see Strictly Underwater) & after a film of a young boy working on a rubbish dump I explained that this was why he was raising money (& not, I repeat, not racing) so that boys like that could go to school.  Luckily LM is very keen on the idea of going to school (long may that last) so agreed that this was a good thing.

We're working on the tears at not being first whilst trying not to douse his enthusiasm.  Wish us luck.

Visiting relatives

Well kind of.  Yesterday I took LM to Monkey World as a reward for being so patient with all the building works.  We'd been before when he was smaller & had always been blessed with rain but yesterday, despite a foggy start, the sun came out & we were able to really make the most of it all (& not just the indoor play area).

The big hit with LM were the gibbons.  We were treated to a display of acrobatic skills that delighted LM by the golden-cheeked gibbons & one of the Mueller gibbons kindly presented his bottom to him after rapping on the glass to make sure we were paying attention.  Cue much hilarity from LM (though thankfully he didn't reciprocate). 

Being only 4 I'm not sure how much LM understood when I explained that many of them were rescued but he was very impressed with their climbing frames & with those provided for the visiting cheeky monkeys.

World Book Day ...

... and the day was far too beautiful to spend curled up with a book (although we did manage a trip to the library where LM got to make a badge celebrating the day & bought 2 books).

So we went to the beach (not put off at all by yesterday's beach trip in the fog) and LM practised riding his bike along the front before we went for a wander on the beach where LM insisted on bringing home a pebble indistinguishable to my eyes from every other pebble on the beach.

Back home we got to work in the garden planting out potatoes before taking a break for a sit down (me) and dance (LM):

Blue skies, GreenDay

Gone 4 and the sun was still shining so we played football for an hour and LM displayed some pretty impressive goalkeeping skills (as long as the ball wasn't kicked too hard).  However I feel the game was unfair as witnessed by the final score of LM 551, Mummy 0.  Apparently you only score if the ball stops dead centre in the goal without touching the net.  Who knew?

And to celebrate St David's Day we had cheesy leeks for tea!