kids

What Knuffle Bunny Free Taught Me

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My kids have enjoyed many of Mo Williams books. I can still get laughs out of them from elephant and piggy books. They have also enjoyed Knuffle Bunny since they have been as old as Trixie in the first book.

After our last holiday I was reading the girls Knuffle Bunny Free. They were asking lots of questions that were very insightful for children their age. Sometimes it’s hard to get through book because they ask so many questions. Sometimes that’s great since their questions are very funny. This night they were asking what seemed like a lot of questions. I was trying to answer all of the topics to their satisfaction. When I got to the end of the book I realised my biggest take away from it was that airline they flew on really does not know how to clean planes. They were gone a week and Knuffle Bunny just sat in that seat back pouch.

I know that’s not the point. I know that it’s improbable they would’ve sat in the same seat on the same plane. I guess my frame of mind after traveling was just to zoom in on the fact that that plane must be really dirty.

Civilised Working From Home

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My sister in law came to visit in March. When trying to come up with something that we would be interesting to do with her I thought going to the Doctor Who shop. She is Doctor Who fan like I am. I wasn’t sure if she had ever visited the store in her trips to London. She had not so we planned to go. M was going to take the girls to a park nearby while we browsed the shop. When it came time for us to get ready to leave the girls were a bit crazy. Since M had spent time with our sister and law while the girls were in school she suggested that I take her on my own since I was more of a fan.

It was well worth the trip. We geeked out in the shop for a really long time. I bought the girls the latest Sonic screwdriver (13th Doctor) to go with their collection. I also got a Tardis tea set for one.

We also paid the pound to each to go into the museum they have in the back. That may be its own post since it was super awesome. One of the owner showed us around and he was supercool about explaining everything.

It was a fantastic experience even though I spent more money than I had anticipated. On the plus side now I have a tea set to help me get into the tea drinking habit.  Since I got the tea set I have been making a mini pot of tea when working from home.  I am even having it on the weekend.  I treat myself to one or two tea biscuits.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the new ritual.

The girls are even getting into the ritual sometimes on the weekend.  They saw me doing it one day.  I couldn’t say no to them after they saw the tea biscuits.  They also love tea.  Since team to them is really a tiny amount of tea and the rest of the drink being milk in the cup.  Adding a biscuit to the ritual sold them too.

W Sister Short on Sports

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The other day we were going out to a birthday party.  M called up to the girls: “Girls get your trainers on for the birthday party since there will be sports.” The girls both groaning a reply “we don’t like sports”.

The first thing that pops into my mind is that they are totally my children.

Photo from me during my first year playing Soccer (ie Football) since I don’t typically post pictures of the girls.

W Sisters Shorts on Have You Met Steve?

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The girls have access to a large cache of Lego thanks to my parents storing the majority of my old Lego in a VCR box for 20 years. I wrote about that previously. Thanks to that and several new Lego kits the girls have a great exposure to Lego.

T and even A to a degree has been building the kits with varying degrees of assistance. They are both getting good at building their own stuff too. I love it.

When we were in Bournemouth back in May i believe the girls had some Lego with them. A started referring to this lego guy pictured as Steve. None of the other lego people have names. I figured she would forget about him after a few days however she didn’t. Flash forward a few months when A is playing with lego she goes looking for Steve by name. it is pretty funny. What is also amazing to me is that figure is at least 35 years old since it is one of the ones we gave them when we got my lego.

They both are a few years away from the entire Hogwarts kit however they are off to a great start.

Boobytrapped

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I should either feel that i have failed as a parent that my kids are boobytrapping the house, or i should be proud of their skills at home security. Who am I kidding I am so proud.

Passover Vs Easter

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I am with John Stewart on the whole Passover vs Easter as a father of mixed faith (sorta neither faith however following stories of both). This is a video from a few years ago however its still as funny today as it was then. So true. Passover is such a harder sell than Easter. Just look at the photo of our Easter spread that is the setup for our egg hunt with the girls tomorrow. On the Passover front they may get some soup and chocolate covered matzoh.

An Old Favorite

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The girls had me read this again today. I haven’t read it in at least a year. Such a fun book. One of my favorites if not my fav from when they were little.

Compulsory tickling when the hippos went berserk was also successful!

The W Sisters and the Story of Did I Eat Well?

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I am hoping it is universal for little kids to constantly ask if they “ate well”? For those without kids that is their code for did I eat enough to get desert or a treat. Little tip kids if you are asking it is likely a “no, no you did not eat well”.

My wife and I realized the effect of sugar on T early on. We try to avoid treats or desert every day. That doesn’t mean the girls do not get treats or try to get them often enough.

Recently we have experienced a new phenomenon. T will eat a lot f her meal or even all of what us in her plate without anyone asking. At or near the end of the meal she will ask if she ate well. At that point I am like, actually you did. At time of writing this T has done that at least 3 times with successful desert for her. Now all she needs to do is not be a crazy person after getting desert so I won’t regret giving her anything.

Her sister is not as evolved. She is still at the phase of being outraged when told. She cannot have desert after not eating a single piece of her dinner. MC and I are just bastards. I am hoping she learns or just toned down the yelling. I am good with that. I know neither are realistic for a while.

The W Sisters And The Story of The CIA

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I feel I am experiencing a normal phenomenon, yet I still find it very odd. It feels like my kids have been recruited into the CIA or other secret agency. It might be fight club. I am not sure. What I do know is when I ask either of my daughters how there day went they say some variation of I don’t want to talk about it.

I feel that is a typical kid thing to do. One of the teachers said its normal and they will eventually start talking about stuff that happened weeks before. OK great I am still waiting to hear about stuff from April then.

If that wasn’t semi-frustrating enough both of them will tell me stuff that happened that actually didn’t happen. Ussually it is just fantastical enough that you know it is BS. Last year for example in T’s class there was a boy we will call F. Every day F would do some wild and crazy thing. Some stuff I don’t even know if it is possible for a 4 year old to do so it was pretty apparent that it was all made up. Then of course I meet the kid. Funny enough there is a good chance he was the kid in the class that required a decent amount of discipline. I am not saying he was the worst kid in class or that anything T said was true. it was just funny that in her own way she was saying he was difficult.

Of course with a track record like that it is hard to tell if she is telling the truth. The other day T was telling me a story about the bus driving very slow almost not at all during a field trip. Then the teacher said something and they waited for another bus and then went back to school. The elaborate description about the bus driving very slowly sounded far fetched so I filed it away as another imaginary event. It wasn’t until the next day when i saw a post from one of the Mom’s who went on the trip passing on that there was bus trouble during the field trip. After she explained the situation it was apparent that T was spot on with her description. Now the girl has me so turned around i can’t tell when she is telling the truth about stuff at school. Well played my little one. Well played. Now please stop teaching your younger sister do to the same thing.