Under the influence

Rowan insists on calling me "Grampa" at the moment. Whilst I know that this is because he is stuck in a world of TV characters and insists on being called "Ben 10," it can still raise some eyebrows when he shouts "Grampa!" at me in a play park. At least he is answering to his own name occasionally. In Ireland he was insisting he was called "Manic" which, while quite apt as he rushed about like a headless chicken, is not the best name to use to refer to your child. Sean was "Shonic" and Finn was "Sonia" - characters from Sonic Underground, I believe. Undoubtably Rowan has been exposed to telly that we'd rather he didn't watch. While Sean was quite happy with CBeebies until well into P1, first Finn and now Rowan have moved on to more commercial offerings with predictable results. Their imaginative play is good but definitely focused more on cartoon offerings. Sean, when told he needed to get money for something, mentioned that he could sell an old mobile phone for cash!" Ah, the power of advertising.

Sean has moved on to reading Famous Five books. The boys enjoyed a couple of Famous Five spoken books I had on tape which whiled away some of the car journeys in Ireland and Sean is determined to read all 21 in order. He has fulfilled his "book keepers' quest" at the library and duly received his certificate, stickers and medal. Finn is doing more drawing and colouring lately and will write the odd word under instruction. Most of his drawings currently bear the legend FTOMAD which stands for "Finn to Mum, Angus, Dad." He's quietly excited about starting school, confiding to Sharon that he was looking forward to wearing a blue sweatshirt instead of the pre-school red one.

I took the boys to Peebles for a picnic on Sunday but we had to return home as Sean and Phoebe were booked into an activity at the library, to make a bug hotel. Sean duly returned home with half a melon, hollowed out and with windows, and a flag in its crown. He named it the Chicken Hotel, a phonetic response to the Cuiken Inn which we had passed on the journey to Peebles.