Things I’ve learned from my children.
In a week in which I’ve been so busy I’ve spent more time writing about my children than actually in their company, I still learned a few things.
Mask manufacturers don’t accommodate spectacles.
Thomas Cook travels further than you think. Boys One and Two were discussing explorers over breakfast. Boy One is something of a purist on the subject. Columbus doesn’t qualify because, apparently, the Vikings got there first. So they agreed on Marco Polo and that chap who went to the Arctic.
“Thomas Cook, wasn’t it?” suggested Boy Two.
“That’s it,” agreed his brother.
Knowing the word for them doesn’t help when you’ve got someone else’s shoes on. “Shooo,” said Boy Three nodding wisely as he pulled yet another pair of mine off the shelf. Great, but not much help when you come home from nursery in someone else’s.
Halloween’s main function is the redistribution of the neighbourhood’s sweets. Boys One and Two are getting excited about guising tomorrow… or trick or treating as they have it. Boy One doesn’t much like scary things which, for him, includes going out in the dark. So what’s the big deal? “We get lots of sweets,” his brother explained. When I point out that we have lots of sweets in the house already, he answered: “That’s different.”
Being a Chilean miner isn’t all bad. I made the Boys turn off Phineus and Ferb to watch the miners resurfacing. It’ll be one of those things in years to come that they’ll remember. The moment they saw the miracle of the Chilean miners’ rescue. It sparked a conversation about what happened and just how life was underground, the fear, the dark and the men’s escape. Suitably moved, through tears I explained. Then boy Two said: “I think the coming out bit would be best, getting pulled through the tunnel looks awesome.”