Horrid Henry...

A couple of days ago TJ announced that it was book day today and that everyone had to go into school dressed as their favourite literary character.

Being the consummate professional that I am I went into costume overdrive. I decided that TJ would go to school dressed as the Mad Hatter - the Lewis Carroll version of course... I made a hat, complete with tag, I organised cravats and frilly shirts to go under his suit from his day of being a page boy - well, he does need to get some wear out of it. I dug out an old wig and knew that everything would be fine.

Unfortunately, when I informed TJ that he would be going to school today dressed as the Mad Hatter he looked at me with daggers. "I am going as Horrid Henry," he replied.

I glared daggers back. "I have gone to all this trouble," I said, "You will be a great Mad Hatter."

"I don't want to be the Mad Hatter, I want to go as Horrid Henry, its my favourite book and I want to go as him," he then added, "You can go as the Mad Hatter if you like."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I said angrily.

"Because you didn't ask!" he replied.

I was stumped.

He was right, I didn't ask.

So feeling a little guilty we duly went through his Horrid Henry books to find a 'look' for school.

It turns out that Horrid Henry must also be smelly Henry as he only ever seems to wear one jumper - a blue one with a yellow stripe through it but that was the jumper that TJ wanted...  So we set off two days ago to find a jumper that looked exactly like Horrid Henry's.

We didn't find it.

TJ was distraught.

How could he go as Horrid Henry without a blue jumper with a yellow stripe?

Then Papa had an idea. Wasn't Horrid Henry also a cartoon. We quickly googled the cartoon version and found that here Horrid Henry wore many different clothes - but in the cartoon he was also a red head (in the book he is dark).

So now TJ had this image fixed in his mind - when TJ gets something fixed in his mind you know you are going to have to follow it.

We searched the shopping mall for cartoon looking clothes - lots of britght colours - but definately stripes (Horrid Henry would only ever wear stripes). And then TJ decided that like the cartoon he needed orange hair.

So we went off to the lady's accessories shop - which TJ refused to enter and found him neon orange hair spray.

He left for school as happy as Larry - or Henry...

I just hope he doesn't put his head against anything - or that iot rains - or else he will look like he has been 'tango'ed'!

Advent Fun...

Well, we have eased the boys gently into the festive season.

This weekend saw the Sprog's 9th birthday - and we have agreed that, as both boys are December babies, we will get the tree and house decorated on or just before Sprog's birthday and then it will all be up for TJ's birthday, which is just after Christmas - so we are celebrating their birthdays along with Jesus's.

So last week whilst Sprog was at his Drama group (with the impossibly cheerful drama teacher) TJ and I went to choose a tree. At first he didn't want to. I heard every excuse - 'its not Christmas!' "I dont want a tree!' and "Why are we here?" - the last question was going to take a long time to answer so we decided to get a tree.

We unwrapped the lovely real trees - which TJ loved doing and watched the staff get upset as they realised they would have to wrap them up again. TJ selected the tiniest tree I have ever seen - his theory being that as it was so small no-one would want it. Psychologists will all point out that he was probably making a comment about himself - but I chose not to dwell on that - I was in full tree buying mode!

He then switched to looking at the biggest tree he could find and we eventually came home with a tree that practically takes up half the living room.

That evening we stood the tree in situ in the living room - with no decorations - just a bare tree in a bucket of water - apparently this is good for the tree but it also allowed TJ time to get used to the idea of a tree in the house. Then on Friday I allowed the boys to decorate the tree themselves. Papa and I put on the lights and got the decorations down from the loft - then we let the boys loose.

As Papa will tell you we are typically gay in that our tree is always immaculate - we alternate between a modern festive tree in pure white and crystal and a traditional Victorian tree with wooden ornaments. But this year the tree is so big we simply don't have enough ornaments - so the boys decided to put everything on. By the end the lower branches were covered with stuff and the higher ones were bare - so after the boys went to bed we re-arranged some of it. Never do that with a child who 'sees the world differently'. As soon as TJ got up he pointed out each decoration that had been moved and then moved it back... so now my tree looks like the decoration box simply exploded over it!

But - they love it - and thats the main thing!!!!!!

This morning as TJ opened his advent calendar - chocolate for breakfast is his idea of heaven. As he did so I said, "Are you going to give a bit of chocolate to your old Dad then?"

He looked at me stunned - his face froze - and he simply said, "I don't want to see my old Dad - is he coming?"

He had completely misunderstood me, "I meant me," I explained, "I'm your 'old' Dad."

"No," he said, "You're my new Dad."

He has been with us for nearly three years now - yet I am still his 'new Dad'.

Oh well - at least I am his Dad!

And this morning I heard the best thing - he was getting ready for school and singing a Christmas Carol, 'Away in a Manger' - it was the most beautiful thing I have heard... finally he is getting into Christmas....

End of Term - again!

Well, this is it.

Its the end of another school year and the end of Key Stage 1 for TJ. He now gets to be a big boy and wear a tie in Year 3.

The year has flown by.

Yesterday was TJ's end of year assembly with parents invited to come and watch. I went into school in the morning to help with the staging of the 'musical number' - Daisy Daisy mashed into 'The Bicycle Song' by Queen as the theme this term has been the Tour de France, which the school have used to teach geography and French.

It was as the song was playing that we realised some of the references in the verses to Coke and Caine - might not be suitable for 7 years old to be singing. So ingeniously (well, I think so) we removed half of the year group and they entered throughout the school hall coming in from all directions during the verse making as much noise as possible in order to block out the offensive lyrics and then join in on the fun bicycle bit.

It went really well - the children really got into it and the Year 6, who watched the dress rehearsal were suitably impressed and the Year  2 children beamed when their older counterparts applauded and whistled.

At the end of the assembly the children reprised the song and TJ was given the special job of leading his group of children down the middle of the aisle through the audience and inviting the parents to come and follow the kids through to the year 2 classrooms for refreshments and to have a look at their work. Inrehearsals it went really well....

On the actual performance TJ decided he didn't want to do that - so he led his group out of the side door. When other children and a teacher told him he was going the wrong way he simply said, "I don't want to go that way!" and led them the other. Strangely they all followed him. He may be diminutive but he is certainly authoritative as not one of them argued with him or went the correct way. I think he may well be a commander in the armed forces... either that or a traffic warden!

Later in the classroom I asked him to show me his work - he pointed at a wall - "It's on there somewhere," he said - and then raced outside to play with his friends.

To be honest I couldn't find any of his work - I'm not even sure if he goes to that school - there was no evidence of any of TJ's wok anywhere. Well, he may imply have told his teachers that they were not allowed to put them up... I guess he would charge them a royalty fee!

Neighbours, Everybody Needs Good Neighbours....

Another song to start today's blog entry.... Maybe that should be my theme for the next year's series of entries, I've been looking for something...

Of course, I could also have used 'History Repeating' by the great Dame that is Shirley Bassey but that might have been too obvious, or not obvious enough.... 

As you know, we moved house in September of last year, out of our beautiful Georgian townhouse (beautiful but not very kid friendly... Apart from the ghosts who were far too kid friendly... Oooo, there's another story there, remind me to tell you later)  into a far more family friendly property which overlooks a river, is near to the park and the school but which has a comparatively small garden, hence football is banned and all budding young soccer players have to make the two minute walk to the park... Of course most children don't want to walk anywhere no matter how close so balls have already gone awry after being kicked in the garden.

What is strange though is that our new neighbours are carbon copies of our old ones. To our left we have an elderly couple who live for their garden, exactly the same as our previous neighbours and, like the previous couple, they are lovely and indulge the children. On the other side we have a younger couple with no kids who are barely at home, I assume they both work late, and consequently their garden is left to its own devices. I think we are somewhere in the middle of the two, literally. I don't mind gardening but it doesn't rule my life.

Yesterday it was a lovely sunny day and the children were in the garden while Papa and their cousin who is staying with us, fired up the barbecue. Since we have had the slightest hint if summer the barbecue has been in constant use, Papa even suggested using it to bake a cake, I don't think that will taste too good but Papa wants to find out if charcoal is cheaper than electricity... 

As in our previous home TJ's version of weeding was to pull any offending weeds up and throw them over the fence, onto the elderly side not the young side who probably wouldn't even notice. I told him off and the two children and I sat down to make paper aeroplanes. Great fun. I was called upstairs and went to see what Papa needed. In the time it took me to get up the stairs and onto the balcony all of the paper aeroplanes had been lost and were to be seen poking out of next doors miniature trees and shrubs where my two had been lobbing them over the fence. Another telling off, then we went out for a walk to get rid of some energy and also to prevent TJ from putting his head into the barbecue to see 'if there was fire yet!'

On our return the kids rushed in from the garden to show me the most amazing aeroplane made out of paper, it really was a work of origami. "Wow," I said, "The neighbours must be back in and you have to say sorry and thank you now." "Why do I have to say thank you?" Asked TJ. "For the paper plane," I told him. He looked at me disparagingly and said, "But the plane came from the tooth fairy, I know because I saw him!" (Our tooth fairy is called Frank and TJ is expecting him any day now, hence we have had many 'sightings').... So I duly went over to thank the neighbours who were very nice about everything and asked if the children liked the plane they had made for them.

We had our barbecue and the young couple from next door had theirs. They  had friends over and were all sitting and chatting on their balcony, not offensive at all... Well, not to us.... TJ on the other hand finished his food and then said, very loudly, "Well, I would have enjoyed that if the people next door weren't quite so noisy!" Cue a sudden silence from everyone next door and much  hushing and 'TJ, you can't say that." from me....

Our neighbours went in soon after that and haven't spoken to us since.... They shall probably start throwing their weeds into our garden next....

Discipline - part 2!

Aaaaargh!!!!!!!

I hate holidays!

Well, that's not entirely true. I love beaches and nice hotels and good looking staff who come and spritz your face with evian while getting you your favourite tipple and the only problem is what to order for dinner  - those sorts of holidays I love.. school holidays spent at home are a nightmare - especially after the first week or so!

Today it is TJ's turn to require the firm hand.

To be honest, he has been lovely all morning. Lea had a drama workshop for three days and whilst Lea is out TJ tends to be a lovely angel of a child - today he did all his homework (yes, at 7 he gets Easter homework, Mr Gove would be happy) and learned his 2, 5 and 10 times tables - he even asked me to test him. As a reward he got to play on the wii for an hour.

There was an ulterior motive on my part, as TJ played quietly in the play room I could get on with writing the speech I am giving at my sister's wedding next week. But all was ok. I wrote the first draft, TJ had fun and then we went and collected Lea from her drama group before coming home for lunch and then taking the dog for a walk along the river... all good... until we came back and I went into the playroom to discover that whilst playing his game TJ had also been quietly unravelling the rug.... bits of wool were everywhere...

He is younger than Lea and has his own learning difficulties, so I do tend to be a little more patient with him. 'What happened here?' I asked him...

He was silent... I looked in the doorway where Lea was eagerly waiting to see her brother get punished (don't you just love sibling rivalry). 'Go and find something to do,' I told her. "I'm ok watching." came the smart Alec reply. I put on my stern voice, 'Now!' I said and off she dutifully went. Although I knew she was listening around the corner.

Turning back to TJ I said, 'Ok, tell me what happened here....'

And now the fun begins. Story after story came out of the little mouth. 'It did it all by itself when we went for a walk." 'I think one of the DVD's got caught in it." "It got a bit unpicked and then fell apart - it is old."

I listened patiently and then became all Captain Von Trapp with the strawberries that turned blue... 'Maybe, ' I said, "Maybe, you were sitting there doing nothing at all when suddenly the rug started to unravel and the dog came in and she started to pull at the string and then the dog saw the fun game on the TV and got excited and pulled even more...and my rug then fell apart?"

I could see TJ's brain processing this. "Yes,' he finally said, "Yes, I think that is what happened."

'Well, in that case," I replied, now fully in role, "We had better stop playing exciting computer games in case you or the dog get over excited again. I think now we should only do quiet things in the playroom like reading or stamp collecting." (I don't know where the latter came from.)

TJ immediately started to cry - practically on cue and much more realistic than snotty little Gretle in the movie. 'Ok,' I said calmly, 'You have 10 seconds to tell me the truth or you will be in big trouble."

To be honest its an old rug and I'm not overly concerned but the point is that I was being blatantly lied to. Unfortunately the lies continued, 'The corner of the rug came undone by itself." 'Perhaps my guinea pig got out" and my personal favourite, 'Maybe we have a ghost."

So now TJ is sitting behind me on the bed having a 'time in' whilst I write my blog and he thinks about what he has done... What child ever truly 'thinks about what they have done'?

...

But now I have finally had the truth out of him. 'Yes, I did it Daddy,' he said, 'I just started to pull and then it just kept on coming and splitting up.'

'Thank you for telling me the truth, now what should your consequence be - as well as no more ii for the rest of today?" I then went onto explain that his consequence was actually for the lying, the no wii is for the rug... He thought about it, "I think I shall help with dinner and help you wash up." he said. Their therapist would be thrilled - they are suggesting their own reparation, where they have to do something good to make up for the damage they have done.

Of course, he may just be playing the game in order to watch Spiderman on tv - but to be honest I don't care - I think its a step in the right direction.....