Hedgehog encounter

Smalley was this days old when he met a hedgehog in the wild. 

We were out on the evening dog walk, boys with wizard staffs in hand, and almost home when Smalley spotted something scurry across the street. At first he thought it was a rat but was thrilled it turned out to be a hedgehog who kindly stayed still against the wall allowing Smalley to get so close he could touch it. 

We broke up some dog treats (organic and wholesome) and he put them down for the hedgehog then retreated back so as not to scare the little creature. Curiosity soon got the better of him. This led to a very gentle creeping forward following by huge jumps of joy, arms spinning, silently screaming with happiness as the hedgehog had grabbed the treats with its front paws and within two minutes had scoffed the lot. 

Overwhelmed with happiness at the whole encounter some tears of joy flowed when we made the final part home. Happiness comes by way of healthy, hungry hedgehogs. 

Childhood dreams

 Bean came home from art activity on Thursday with a telescope made from a repurposed kitchen roll and some wrapping paper. It was like he’d won the lottery. Or as he said it: “I can’t believe it. It’s always been a childhood dream of mine to have a telescope made from kitchen roll and now I have”. 

Clearly the toilet roll binoculars we made when he was 2 weren’t as memorable for him as they were to me! 😂

I feel like I’ve had a real upgrade

Yesterday we went to the independent children’s bookstore in town to spend Bean’s birthday vouchers. Inevitably we spent twice the amount we had vouchers for. Inevitably he chose

a book I thought wasn’t the wisest choice; it’s from a series I don’t know and is a chapter book which he is still far from reading. Or so we thought. 

We were out for dinner and the boy just sat at the table and started reading. He wanted to get to the end of the page and just cracked on. Beyond himself with pride when page one was done, he went onto page 2. And continued until the whole first chapter was done, breaking only to ask me words. 

This morning, he was reading again. Breaking only to look at a different book he’d bought. 

This is not normal behaviour but he is so impressed with himself and I love he feels rewarded with self-annointed happiness for his efforts. At the table just now he said: I think I’ve grown up. I feel Like I’ve had a real upgrade. If I were a computer game I’d be up two levels with this reading.