I'm a walking...

I went for a walk yesterday evening to clear my head. I find that by the time I'm walking back up the hill the original thought has long passed and I'm pondering less stressful matters. By the time I got home I was almost ready to celebrate the little things that have cheered me up recently.

Brown Bear really enjoys forest school and Blue Bear is fascinated by insects and minibeasts so I bought this insect and bee house for the garden. It doesn't have any occupants yet, but we are keeping a close eye to see if any take up residence. 

Neo loves the sunshine and it's one of my favourite pastimes to try and spot him during the day. Thanks to the overgrown front garden it took me a little while to spot him at the weekend.

This is possibly the most beautiful cinema foyer I have ever seen - it's the Picturehouse on Shaftesbury Avenue and I'll definitely be going there again. 

Brown Bear is obsessed with Star Wars and at the weekend we went to a Star Wars party. I love this action shot of him with the entertainer.

This really baffled me the other day. When we visited Kerala we were greeted at the hotel with fresh coconut with a straw in the top so we could have a drink. The natural step from all that faffing about cutting a hole in the top is - of course - to add a ring pull. Isn't it ? No it's not.

Anyway, just thought I'd share :)

May the fourth be with you

It's all about Star Wars in our house these days. "Mummy can I play with the lightsabers please ? " is a frequent cry I hear from Brown Bear.  As he grows up he will realise the significance of today.

I've gone retro because, let's face it, they're the best ones anyway. If you need me I'll be in the kitchen with cinnamon buns on my ears :)

Where on earth did he learn to do that ?

As many parents are traumatised by their little darlings starting reception this week I feel I may have taken a lackadaisical approach to Big Boy's impending launch into full time school life. To be fair he has been at the nursery for one year and we had all the 'starting big school' drama last summer. 

He has a fab teacher this year and I hope he will be happy. I am relieved we went through all the teething issues of starting school last year as I don't think I could have coped with them now we also have Baby Boy starting pre-school settling in days this week. 

Both my boys are pretty sociable and respond well to play and learning settings. They can find things to do and will engage in imaginative play as well as interact with other children which is wonderful to see and hear about. 

What I cannot get my head round is some of the strange capabilities Big Boy seems to have.

Yesterday at football he managed to persuade Daddy to give him some money then proceeded to 'buy' a bag of crisps for 20p at the shop using what I can only imagine were wiles or menaces ! 

He's clearly destined for a life of crime or a place on the Apprentice with those negotiating skills ! 

When we were on holiday at Coombe Mill I spotted a bite mark on Baby Boy's arm and asked Big Boy if he knew how it happened. He said he'd seen the whole thing and a donkey had bitten his brother. I said that was odd as the bite marks were too small for a donkey and he said, "Oh no it wasn't a donkey, it was a chicken." When I pointed out that a chicken has a beak and not human teeth he finally admitted it might have been him who did it. 

That is a criminal level of dishonesty. He is going to be a politician at this rate ! 

His ambition has gone from being a fire officer, to a police officer, a knight and then to wanting to be Prince Hans, "because he has a sword Mummy." I was becoming suspicious that he admired duplicity and cunning a bit too much, but now he wants to reach for the status of Master Yoda. Green and grammatically challenged that path may be, but a vast improvement it is. (See what I did there ?)

On a daily basis he will invent some partial truth that he makes sound so plausible I almost want to believe him even though I know it's complete baloney. He's had a secret jelly baby eating pact with Grandpa for over a year now, they have been in cahoots without me or Hubbie knowing. That is a disturbing amount of deception right there ! 

I'm not sure how helpful any of these skills will be in his school life, but I do hope that he manages to use his powers for good. I want to believe that he has the capacity to be a Captain Mal* character and to have good intentions even if his route to them is a little dubious. 

Let's face it, even Darth Vader had a mum, come to think of it so did Yoda. When they observed their sons I'm sure they had moments when they wondered what would become of their beloved boys too ? 

All I can do for now is ensure his shoes are shiny, his clothes have name tags in and that he's brushed his teeth and hair as he sets out on this new chapter. I will give him a supportive hug and whisper, "be careful out there' and chuckle to myself at the reference he won't get.**

If your little one is starting reception I hope it goes well and that you're not too upset by it. If you need a cuppa, a biccie and a virtual hug, I'll be here :) 

*if this reference is lost on you then google Firefly and give yourself a telling off for not knowing. 

**Hill Street Blues - seriously don't you watch any decent telly ? 

Is there such a thing as genetic memory ?

Do you remember that bit in Sliding Doors when John Hannah's character refers to the 'Foetals' - the fact that everyone knows the music of the Beatles even if they weren't born when the band was around. Like a genetic memory. I am becoming convinced there is such a thing as Big Boy has a sudden obsession with lightsabers despite never having seen any of the Star Wars movies. He will,  of course - I'm not a heathen - but he is far too young yet. So how is it that he has any idea what they are unless it's been passed down through some cultural shared memory ?

It seems a lot from the past is making a comeback and it's like time has gone backwards sometimes. I fully expect my son to revisit some of the experiences of my childhood. It's almost as if having the internet and mobile phones wasn't enough to keep this generation fully occupied with youtube clips of dancing cats and addictive mobile gaming. I've handpicked a few of the cultural icons from my youth that have made a reappearance.

Dangermouse has been reimagined with Alexander Armstrong as DM and Kevin Eldon as Penfold. This reminds me of two awesome things - when asked what animal Penfold was my sister used to insist that he was a potato (mind you she also wanted to be a strawberry when she grew up). The other is that my friend whose surname is Penfold has not had to endure ridicule about this for many a year and now it's all going to come flooding back - he is equipped for this, but I suspect that his wife will find all of this a bit new.

Rubik's Cube I was never able to do this, however hard I tried. In recent years they've come back and Hubbie picked up two at a promotional event so we keep handing them to the boys to test which one is a genius - we've yet to find the answer.

Sonic Boom yep that old fave Sonic the Hedgehog is back and has his own show on kids' tv. Since I let Big Boy use my Nintendo DS he's also been playing Mario games and refers to Mario and 'Weejee' which makes me snigger every time. I'm waiting to see if he starts to play Donkey Kong and Frogger next.

The Clangers so the BBC have thrown a lot of money at this remake of the classic show and my boys seem to love it. The wholesomeness and simplicity of it is quite sweet and soothing. For me it just reminds me of the time my car was broken into and the toy clanger my friend Phil had given me was stolen along with a lot of other things that I kept in my car including rollerblades, CDs and my favourite denim jacket.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles At a Build-a-Bear party we went to most of the boys chose Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles despite never having even seen the show. Of course they have moved on since we were kids and where they used to be called Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michaelangelo they are now Leo, Raf, Donny and Mikey - good grief ! It also appears that whereas they had to be called Hero Turtles when I was a kid as Ninjas were considered far too violent for children it's apparently fine now for the delicate flowers that call me Mummy. When two of the turtles did a live appearance at a local shopping centre I took Big Boy and he was over the moon to meet them despite that fact neither of us knew which ones they were. It was when we found some episodes online for him to watch that we decided they really were not age appropriate for him just yet.

Some characters are just ageless, like Sooty and Basil Brush who are still performing live in what must surely be their golden years. To be fair they are probably the only ones from my childhood who are not eyed with suspicion. I expect that they will still be going when my boys are far too cool for kids' shows.

For now I am enjoying freaking out my boys when I tell them that the things they are really into were mine and Daddy's favourites when we were little too.

My eighties retro baby boy

Not a week goes by without some hokey research study into something that is either startlingly obvious: "Scientists reveal that not sleeping enough makes you tired" or deeply patronising: "Doctors reveal their concerns that pregnant women are not stopping work early enough to protect their babies." Don't bother looking for either of these studies as I made them up. It doesn't mean that someone hasn't done them though. I don't think there has been any scientific research into the effect of maternal behaviour or music tastes in utero though. Well beyond the whole, 'play soothing music to the foetus and it will respond when it's a baby' type thing of course.

The reason I wonder this is because I'm convinced that my son has developed music preferences based purely on what I like to listen to. I went to a lot of gigs when I was pregnant with our boy. We went to Ben & Jerry's Big Sundae on Clapham Common and the boy bopped along to Billy Bragg. He also enjoyed the mellow tones of Norah Jones and even managed to keep up with the Primitives. I am delighted that he loves music now and he seems to have a wide ranging taste (as I've said before on this blog). What I wasn't prepared for is his love of music that is so outside his experience I'm fascinated to know how it's come into his consciousness.

For weeks now he has been singing. "Let's do the Timewarp again," and "Monster Mash." I'm a massive fan of Rocky Horror so I can see why he'd like that although I can't recall ever having watched it or listened to the music in his presence. He's also been saying "Go Flustered," which we've spent weeks trying to work out - while also hushing him in case it's something rude. After some questioning and not a little head scratching we finally realised he's been singing, "Ghostbusters." Seems startlingly obvious doesn't it ? Except he's never watched it and as far as I know it's not been on the TV lately. It was one of my favourite films as a child though so I can only conclude one thing - he's inherited my tastes from the eighties !

Once we'd finally worked it out I tracked down the cartoon series on Lovefilm and he watched it this afternoon fascinated and enraptured. I was never that keen on the cartoon if I'm honest, but his concentration levels don't extend to the movie yet. Unlike his friend Attie who regularly watches "Starhorses" (Star Wars) starring "Threesweepio" (C3PO). Mind you she also used to regularly watch "Hamadations"(101 Dalmations).

I'm wondering if all this talk of an eighties revival is also revealing itself in the DNA of our toddlers. What can we expect next ? Will they all turn their baseball caps backwards and fight for the right to party ? Maybe they will start doing the MC Hammer dance - well my boy already does that if he needs the loo and doesn't want to admit it. Maybe they'll go all shoulder paddy and big haired too. Oh wait that's just pageant toddlers isn't it ?

Whatever it is that's happening I'm a bit freaked out by it.

There is something strange in my neighbourhood. All I can say is, "Go Flustered !"