These boys...little smile makers

15 October.

Smalley Bean was super excited when I picked him up from school and was desperate to show what was in his bag - his first ever reading book. He boy couldn’t have been more proud. During the walk from the classroom to the car he told me five times how it had come about - having correctly read the sounds on the board he was rewarded with his first book! The book is the letter ‘p’. As soon as we came in the door he asked to read it. He reads ‘p’ and then the pictures he sees: pencil, penguin, pear.. Bug thought he was reading all the words and was amazed, Bean didn’t care. He read his 10 letters as though it was a prize winning novel.

Bug meanwhile also demonstrated himself as a star too. I had a message from one of the other mum’s writing: Hi  Had to pass on my son's lovely remarks about your boy today. Apparently he was ‘completely selfless’ in a pass he made to R in rugby allowing him to score a try - what a very kind team player! 

R has only just started at the school and until a few weeks back had never played rugby - but is a whiz at football. He hadn’t yet had the chance to score in a match so as Bug approached the try line he decided to pass instead to R instead of claim the try for himself. 

As I say, these boys are smile makers.

This week is a good week for a good week

A post from mid October when Mark was away and life turned rubbish for a bit.

Hubby has been away for four weeks. The first week was rubbish. Yes the boys bring smiles and all the hugs but overall it felt like a week of disasters: the garage flooded, the car had a flat tyre noticed as we were rushing out the door, I forgot school kit and had to fit an extra school run into an already packed day, I smashed my phone so completely I could only see a quarter of the screen and there were so many tears from the boys it felt like plates were just smashing around me. 

Of course when tested we get to witness the best of people; my parents wading through the water to save the contents of the garage,  making no fuss at then having to navigate the obstacle course that the house then became when the garage moved into the ground floor. 

The man at the garage was my hero when I drove in with my flat tyre replugging the air from the huge piece of kit they were using it on and getting me road safe again. 

And my community being there for late night calls to work through challenges as a supportive, reassuring voice. 

And the boys. The boys being patient and calm when needed, standing back and playing beautifully as I did the overwhelmed mum routine. 

But then a revelation. I saw a poster recently that made me smile. In bold rainbow colours it announced: Today is a good day for a good day. 

Well that Sunday evening I decided Monday morning would show that the next week would prove a good week for a good week. And so far, so awesome. 

The boys had Monday off school. Once we got my phone fixed we hopped on the train to London and spent the day at the Natural History Museum admiring fossils, gem stones and all sorts of stuffed species. We found Andy’s clock, walked under dinosaurs and stood on an earthquake simulator. 

And - biggest success of the day - we were back in home for tea (although we ate chips and bagels on the train so even bigger win as I didn’t have to cook!!) 

And since then it was pretty much plain sailing. All kit in school on time, uniform cleaned and dried and cleaned and dried on time, smooth journey to Scotland and back and another generous garage worker changing my tyres free of charge. 

Week three proved more challenging; a weekend of disturbed sleep nursing a poorly dog meant I started the week having clocked only 11 hours sleep over three days. However, the tyres stayed pumped, the garage didn’t flood and home work and kit we’re all correct and nothing got lost! (Or at least no knowingly). 

One dog themed birthday party later and we’re into the final stretch!! Knowing my love will be home soon has put a spring in the step this week and given the energy needed to get over the final hurdle. Once again, I’m embracing the idea this week is a good week for a good week. 

Nativity!

We appear to be hurtling towards Christmas at the moment. The nature of my job makes December the busiest time of the year for me. The same can be said for the hubbie - more due to social fun than workload but it all compacts. And so it was that I turned up at Bean’s Early Years Christmas Show without having given two thoughts the what I was walking into. 

The nature of Bean, is that he’s been a bit quiet about the play. We’ve talked a lot about baby Jesus recently and how much love he has for Baby Jesus and we’ve talked about the first Christmas and that his teacher had been to Bethlehem and it’s a real actual place on this world - which is confusing for a four year old trying to make sense of god, heaven and things that happened 2,000 years ago. But despite all this chat I just hadn’t thought about his play to the extent I was busy on my laptop answering work emails minutes before he walked in.  

  

Oh my goodness did that little boy blow me away today. I know I am stupidly biased but he was the cutest shepherd, so cute I didn’t even notice him when he walked in. 

He takes his seat, looks about for my mum and I (eager fans that we are sitting in the front row) and after a smile we get him wiggling his eyebrows at us before deciding (having been told by Alby that he shouldn’t wave) that the best way to address your audience is by giving them a wink. 

Having my 4 year old dressed as a shepherd and winking at me completely disarmed me. Little smasher. My heart swelled. 

And then he did brilliantly.  I’d been to his class assembly recently and he did good but definitely got bored half way through and just stopped singing and started looking around. Today he sang every song all the way through, actions attempted perfectly (which may not sound impressive but there were a lot of songs) and he even sang so confidently you could pick his voice out from amongst the other children. 

Bug has always been loud and proud. I remember his Reception school assemblies and you could hear him above the sixty other children (not necessarily in tune but at that age your just told to be loud). This time last year he was the main part in his school play. I never got round to writing a post about it because I didn’t know where to start. He practiced his lines (and there were a lot of lines) every day for six weeks. We had emails from his teachers saying how well he was doing and bar one missed cue, he did a great job two days in a row. The play was meant to be ‘The Bossy Christmas Fairy’ but they changed it to Bossy Star because they knew they wanted Bug in the role but aren’t quite liberal enough to make a boy a fairy. 

 Bean is a different boy. He’s my little, cheeky, oh so easily distracted boy. He can be shy and is quick to claim that he’s too tired to feed himself, walk, brush his teeth, get dressed.... and then charge around like an idiot the minute you’ve helped him with the task. Where Bug has always really cared about pleasing people, Bean seems to have accepted he can’t be as quick or clever as his brother so why bother wasting his energy trying?

As a Ninjago fan he often talks about needing to reach his full potential.  Today, his class did brilliantly and he did too. He did his class and his teacher proud. He showed all of us how smart and attentive he can be when he wants to - something we don’t always get to see. He had a great time and I finish my day with my heart swelling!