P is for...

Today is brought to you by the letter 'P'.

In a rare moment of openness about what LM gets up to all day in school he told me that they were practising 'P'.  When I asked him what words start with it I was informed that his contribution to the class was the word, wait for it, "Perseverance"! 

Top marks for the right letter but I don't think I should take credit for his choice of words - whilst perseverance is definitely a quality you need as a parent I'm fairly certain it's not a word that gets bandied around in conversations Chez Nous that often.  We suspect that the teacher must have used it (probably just seconds before) for LM to remember it so clearly.  

Still, it is proof that he's learning something.  Now if they could just teach him to eat a yoghurt without getting  it all over himself...

UPDATE:  LM's teacher confirmed that he had actually come up with 'perseverance' (remembering it from their talks about having to persevere to learn new things & their talks about God) - it was, apparently, a 'Wow!' moment

Two days in

LM is now at school.  I can't quite believe it myself, just seeing my baby in his uniform brings a lump to my throat (but at least I didn't cry as he ran into the classroom that first day, without a backwards glance).

I knew LM wouldn't have too much of a problem - for the last term of preschool he spent one morning a week in Reception class getting to know the teacher & the routines - but I had thought (hoped?) he would be a little more reluctant to leave me.  Alas no.  I am supplanted by Miss W in his affections.  The last few weeks of summer were spent drawing pictures for this other woman in his life, everything he does is just so he can tell her, and Saturday he said "I wish I was going to school today".  I exaggerate of course.  When the school day ends he is still my LM.

Although he has only done 2 days so far (let's see how long his enthusiasm lasts once he realises that this is it now for the next 12 years or so) I had to ask him what the best thing about school was.  His reply surprised me: "Learning & stickle bricks".  OK, so the stickle bricks part didn't surprise me, but the 'learning' bit did.  I mean, how much can you have learnt in 2 days?  So I asked him to elaborate.  It turns out he has learnt about keeping the classroom tidy & putting things away.  Bring on the homework!

I'm not saying LM is venal but...

... I think he may well easily be bribed with money.  (Let's hope he doesn't go for a career in politics).

Tonight we had a lentil salad from Hugh FW's brilliant Veg book for dinner and by way of prandial conversation I told LM about the Italian tradition of having lentils at New Year because they symbolised (OK I didn't say 'symbolised', I said 'look like') money & were meant to bring you luck with it.  LM looked down at his plate, picked a lentil up for closer inspection then turned to me & said "We should have this every day because it's the best dinner in the world".

Weirdly, when I had previously said that I could quite happily eat the salad every day he hadn't been so keen as we wouldn't then be able to eat other food.

I'm wondering what other prosperity 'traditions' I can find that will persuade him to pick up his cars & Lego.

Olympic Inspiration

LM is very keen on the Olympics.  So far his favourite events to watch have been canoeing, track cycling & hurdles.

 However he has developed his own events, not all of which I can see catching on.

Event 1:  The garden obstacle course on space hopper.  Personally I think this would be a great spectator event.  LM is obviously the current (& only) record holder but we are ready for a challenge from his cousins when they come to stay.

Event 2:  The Hot Wheels step race.  This just seems to involve LM playing cars with the addition of giving each car a country to represent.

Event 3:  Running really fast around the living room.  Team GB athletes might find the distance a little limiting but LM reckons he can beat Jessica Ennis (although admittedly she was hurdling 100 m & he was just sprinting 2 m)

Event 4:  Cushion horse eventing.

Unfortunately his enthusiasm for the cycling has not translated into Event 5: Nice bike ride with Mummy & Daddy, as last night's tantrum proved.  Apparently the track we tried to go down was "too bumpy" which resulted in a meltdown & an early night.  I'm sure he won't be the only athlete to have a hissy fit.

His best commentary so far has been, on seeing the Olympic Flame burning in the stadium, "Look!  They have a fire to keep them warm."

Anyway I must go.  LM is currently setting up the cushions to be the sand for his Triple Jump attempt & I need to adjudicate. 

The darker side of travel games

We recently took LM camping in France (& conveniently escaped the worst of the weather here, although we did have to do a bit of a clean up when we got back).  Now usually on long trips (in LM's mind, anything longer than 5 minutes) LM is allowed to play games on the iphone but with a 6 hour drive ahead of us we decided to ban the phone and come up with other ways to occupy him.  On the way down a sheet of French road signs to look out for lasted a surprisingly long time but on the way back the sheet was lost under camping equipment so we resorted to the old standby, I-spy.

The problems with playing this with LM are many.  Firstly, when it's his go he either chooses something completely random that he couldn't possibly see (snowflake in July?  OK, so had we been in the UK that might just have been possible) or he chooses a letter and every time  we come up with an answer he pauses while he thinks about whether he likes it & then just plumps for the answer he likes best regardless of whether he had thought of it beforehand.  When it's our go he just randomly shouts out words that rarely start with our letter.

It gets a bit much after a while so we started spotting different coloured cars - first to 10 the winner.  When that finished I thought we'd move on to animals.  I chose cows, Daddy chose monkeys (I guess he didn't want to upset LM by winning) and LM said he was going to look for "people's eyes.  But not on their heads.  Ones that have fallen out on the road".  I would like to reassure everyone that France has not turned into a nation of zombies & LM scored a big, fat 0 on that.  (I probably would have won had I not been so disturbed by LM's choice that I forgot to count).

Is it a little boy thing?  Or does LM have a particularly gruesome imagination?  Next trip, come back iphone, all is forgiven!  (Perhaps LM's plan all along)

Talk to the hand...

I asked LM to do something today that he wasn't happy about.  I repeated my request & he walked away from me saying "I'm not talking to you - I'm stonking off!"

Anyway, he did as he was asked so 'stonking off' clearly means 'I'm off to do exactly as you asked Mummy albeit begrudgingly'.

Dinnertime Discussions

LM asked a disconcerting question over dinner.

Picture the scene:  the sun is shining & we're eating dinner on the (half-finished) patio when, out of the blue, he asks "When will people start dying?"

At first we were too taken aback to answer but, to buy time, I asked "Like who?"

LM then told us that his friend at pre-school's Grandma had died and he wanted to know when anyone else would (I'm guessing he meant people he actually knew).

Daddy bravely stepped in & explained that people died when they were very old.  To which LM countered "But you are very old Daddy"  (there may have been a slight snigger from Mummy at this point).

The conversation thankfully took a lighter tone after that