Wednesday 4 June 2008

Hello Man

Things have been hectic the last wee while. Mind you, things have been increasingly hectic since we had a third child. I don't suppose life is going to calm down anytime soon. Today's mini-crisis was a search for a last-minute baby-sitter to enable me to play cricket as the team had a late call-off and Sharon has her team meeting tonight. We seem to have managed it. Let's hope it was worth Sharon's generous efforts to enable her husband to play a bit of sport.

Finn has his pre-school nursery day-trip today, to Almond Valley Farm. He left in his smart red nursery sweatshirt, clutching his lunch-bag. They didn't have partners, he told me, they were to go on the bus and find a seat anywhere. As a parent, part of you wants to see Finn as part of the bigger group, how he interacts and behaves. However, the potential mayhem of two classes of 3 and 4 year olds is enough to make me glad I'm at work!

Sean enjoyed his P1 school trip last week to Butterfly World and then on to Vogrie Park where he had his picnic lunch. He touched a snake at Butterfly World so his bravery must be improving in the company of his peers as he wouldn't join me and Finn in doing the same last year at South Lakes Animal Park. There were some issues with regard to the bus for the trip (too small, filthy and with material unsuitable for minors left on the bus) but that seems to have passed Sean by. Quite a few parents weren't best pleased however.

Sharon managed a 22-mile training walk last week and found it hard going but is confident she can make the marathon distance, although the walking through the night bit and the weather will be the unknown factors. For someone who used to waken herself up in the night to do 2-hour stints on the rowing machine when training for Atlantic Endeavour, I'm sure her mental strength and stamina will pull her through. She got soaked taking down the stand from Gardening Scotland on Sunday after we had enjoyed a (wet) child-free afternoon at Taste Edinburgh in the Meadows sampling some food and listening to some chat and demonstrations. I'm not convinced it was worth the rather steep entrance fee, however.

Having battled through a bypass jam to Gardening Scotland on Friday Sharon had to turn round and head home as Fairmile Kindergarten was having to send the children home because the water was off. She managed to arrange for Sharon Munro (who had just called looking for help because she had a burst tyre in the vicinity of our house) to pick up Rowan and by the time Sharon found Rowan he was quite happy being looked after by Neil in a local playpark. "Hello Man" was Rowan's matter-of-fact response to being greeted by someone he did not know. He really just gets on with the job.

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