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

All Change

Well what a different swimming lesson that was!

  After the trials & tribulations of last week, today couldn't have been better.  LM made a real effort to swim well on his back, performed his straight jumps perfectly & even crowned me 'Queen Mummy' with the ring he picked up from the bottom of the pool.

It just goes to show that you shouldn't let the tantrums get to you because it is only temporary - I just need to remember that next time.   (Note to LM: please, please, please don't let there be a next time).

They grow up so fast

I was going to blog with this title before today as LM had his place at primary school confirmed and will start going there for one morning a week as of Thursday, by way of an introduction to school life.  He is very excited about the whole thing & whilst I'm very proud of his enthusiasm I can't help but think it wasn't that long ago that he was just a tiny scrap of a thing dependent on me for everything.

But today he showed me how fast he was growing up in an entirely different, & not at all pleasant, way.

We were at his swimming lesson & we clearly have made no headway in taming his over-competitiveness as he started screaming with fury when the others in the class reached the far side before him - in fairness to him he usually is first but today he had been messing about & not even trying, yet he had expected them all to stop & wait for him to get his act together.  I took him over to the side of the pool & tried all of my tantrum  taming techniques to no avail - he just kept screaming that he hated all his 'swimming friends'  & that he wanted them to get out & let him swim on his own.  For one brief moment I thought the threat of getting out of the pool & going home was going to do the trick as he paused his ranting only to start again when he realised the others had had the effrontery to carry on swimming without him.  So we went home - it's not easy dressing a screaming child then dressing yourself whilst simultaneously trying to make sure he doesn't make a mad dash for the pool fully clothed (I even considered running for the car in my swimsuit).  

LM has good lungs, I'll give him that.  He kept up the screaming all the way home & even when taken up to his room.  Although by this time he had changed the target of his fury to me & the house:  "I hate the house.  I want to ask the builder to knock it down."  He even wanted me dead which was a horrible thing to hear even when you know he doesn't understand what he's saying.  It was like hearing a teenage version of him.  My LM had gone from being an adorable child to schoolboy to moody teenager in less than a week.  That really is growing up too fast.

He eventually calmed down when I just sat on his bed not saying anything but cutting off any chance of escape (although he kept up the teenager bit for a while longer by pointedly turning his back on me).

We're all smiles now of course but it did sound like he was getting his wish on the house front a moment ago as we had a builder knocking through a window & plumbers ripping out a bathroom.

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.