The writer

Sean was at Ross's house for a sleepover last Saturday. In the course of that stay, they made several "books" (Ross's uncle is a publisher, apparently, which must have inspired them) consisting of pages of paper stapled together. No content, just pages, and, in Sean's case, numbered with a contents page listing twelve or so chapters. On returning home he began writing a story which I hope to transcribe here. It may lack some structure and be a trifle repetitive in its device of Sean and his friends being attacked by thousands of baddies but it apparently had his classmates enthralled when Mrs Cameron-Mackintosh read the first instalment to them earlier in the week. Sean didn't tell us this; she did. He's finished the story now, so he is going to take it back into class so they can hear the second and final instalment.

It really is a very good effort by him and whilst his spelling could do with a little more thought it shows that he is starting to be influenced by his reading. Not to mention The Incredibles and Zoom, another superhero movie they've watched on telly. Both him and Finn got their first little stickers of the term at swimming on Monday.

Rowan was at the dermatologist today. His spot is not a cyst but a lump of hard tissue (Sharon will have to supply the medical name for it) which may go away in a few years or which may require plastic surgery to remove. I've been air-brushing it out of some of his photos of late but it won't be that easy to remove in real life. All the boys were very good at the hospital: at one point Sean and Finn had Rowan up on the couch and were "listening to the baby's heart" in Rowan's tummy. This was a spin-off from Finn and Rowan accompanying Sharon to her midwife's appointment earlier in the week. All is fine there; even Rowan got a chance to hear the baby's heartbeat.

I got out on Sunday night, heading round to the Pavilion for a drink with Iain Valentine. It was good to get out especially as Rowan and Finn had been at each other the whole weekend, it seemed, which was less than enjoyable. I took the boys into town on Saturday to the joke shop in Victoria St. (Finn was amused by the poos and bought a whoopee cushion) and across to Mr. Woods' Fossils which had Sean and Finn enthralled, looking at the fossilised dinosaur and shark teeth, fossils and polished stones. They bought a few stones each and Sean bought a fossil.