Friday, January 16, 2009

We Have the Lurgy.....

Yep, M and I are afflicted. Cough, headache, sore throat etc. Add on to that 2 nights of no sleep for me and we've been quite pathetic.

I have managed to read Magic Tree House 1, 2 and 3 to M though and played a few games of Junior Monopoly, McD's Monopoly (which is between the junior and adult version), Les Chevaliers Tumultueux and got the train set, so we haven't done too badly!
Obviously lots of tv watching has occurred too (Tintin, Walking with Dinosaurs, Peter Pan, Wallace and Gromit).

Hopefully the weekend will see a return to form, and we can get out and about again.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Back to it Monday

A was back at work today. Its been nice having him here for 2 weeks and makes me hanker for our long holidays. This year we had planned to go to Spain and North Africa for a couple of months in about April, but A's contract has been extended again until the end of June, so we'll do Melrose, and spend a week afterwards visiting relatives and then probably 'do' Spain for a month in July, although maybe we'll travel the length of Italy instead.
So really, we have no idea!
Of course all this depends on buying a camper van, and for that we need our swiss driving licences.

In the morning M did about 10 pages of a Wizard Whimstaff maths book. I asked, but he seemed happy to do it, and I didn't push him too much, so it was a pleasant experience. And to think that a few days ago I commented that he didn't seem like a workbook sort of guy!

I read some of his French magazine to him, and then we decided to go into town in the afternoon to get some more French books. I wanted to get the books suggested in the La Jolie Ronde book I have, but turns out that they were all out of stock or unreferenced. Guess I'll be getting them from Amazon then :rolleyes (need to get some emoticons on this blog, but no idea how)
We got 5 books in the end, Sur La Banquise (I am a bit concerned that the colony of penguins live in the north pole), T'choupi fait du vélo, T'choupi au square, Petit Lapin Blanc fait les courses and Je suis Puma Féroce. Should keep us going with the books I found in the charity shop the other day.
France 5 also have a kids section, Debout les Zouzous and Midi les Zouzous, so we watched that this morning. Samsam is a great hit (he's in our magazine too) and having Roary and Peppa Pig helps as he recognises them from UK tv.
We really want to ramp up the French now. It seems strange that M is so reluctant to learn it, as it would mean that he could speak to his friends at atelier, and he hears it every day, but I think that it is because he doesn't really have a choice. My stubborn little boy! (like mother, like son)

The evening was a bit strained, a combination I think of daddy coming home and being tired from our trip to town (we spent 90 minutes in the bookshop; M occupied himself looking at the Tintin books and was most put out when an assistant asked him to sit on the sofa to read it, rather than lying on the floor!). A and M played with a train set that A picked up cheap, but meant that M didn't want to go to bed and it descended into chaos pretty quickly. Thats what happens when you don't read the signs. I tried not to interfere, but I had to have words (with A!).

A bit of Wii fitting for A and I in the evening (loving the Step exercises, A not so much), and then I finished Sims Kingdom. Maybe now I will get to bed in a reasonable time. I should probably practice what I preach........

Monday, January 05, 2009

Isn't it great....

...when you have a conversation about stretch marks and veins before 7.30am?!

Saturday, January 03, 2009

A few of his new favourite things

As usual (well for the last couple of years anyway!) we spent Christmas very quietly. Christmas day was spent at home, just the three of us, with the usual present opening, turkey scoffing and film watching.

Then on Boxing Day we had friends round. I cooked a Hairy Bakers turkey and ham pie, which was lovely, even if the cranberry top didn't quite set. I also did a trifle and Christmas cake, which I'm not sure that they had ever had before. I'm not sure if that is because they are American or not, but I think that B made a valiant attempt at the Christmas cake considering he doesn't like dried fruit of any type, and he managed to fairly surreptitiously pass it onto N!
M had a few meltdowns, mainly over sharing his toys (and not necessarily his new ones) which surprised me, as normally he is pretty good at it. Its possible that we have shut ourselves off a bit just recently from the world, and that hasn't helped. It raised fears in A (and myself a little) that M doesn't meet up with others enough and the meltdowns are a result of home ed, but I have heard enough stories from friends with 4 year olds to realise that it is more an age thing than anything else. Whoever coined the phrase 'the terrible twos' was lying according to this little boy, as the twos were fairly calm, and we definitely have the 'foul fours'!

Then on the 27th we went to Leukerbad, as we did last year, and spent 3 nights in the mountains in a hotel. Thankfully I stayed in good health this year, as last year I missed the whole thing by staying in bed, ill. We went sledging, which was great fun, and M and A spent a morning skiing, with M going down the nursery slope on his own several times, which was a first for him. We also did a lot of swimming, and we definitely would rebook at the hotel, as it had a great thermal pool, which was fairly quiet as it is small and there are a couple of much more impressive public pools up the road, and of course the pool was free to hotel guests. M really seemed to enjoy the water this time, just using the frites to swim around and a few times even ducking himself by the edge. I have to start going regularly with him, maybe incorporating a trip to the new Bern swimming pool with lunch with A, if he can get over there from work.

Again, New Year's eve was quiet, which is just the way we like it. I've always seen the 31st of December as just another day, and actually resent the fact that (back in the days) nightclubs, taxis etc charge a lot more for that one night. I'm liking the idea that the 21st December is to be celebrated as the New Year (as read about on one of Gill's blogs ) but I guess I have another year to think about this one, and I'm not sure that A would be too pleased if I changed his year around (doesn't really like change much, does my dear hubby).
At midnight we went out onto the balcony to watch the fireworks at Ouchy, but were disappointed when none materialised. So we watched a Viennese waltz on ORF (which brought back loads of childhood memories for A), a troupe of naked Swiss Romande ladies dancing to a bizarre military marching tune, and then stayed up another hour to watch the fireworks in London, on the BBC. My nightmare evening was on ITV (honestly, an evening with Elton John, where's the celebration in that???) so the remote was hidden.

A took M skiing on New Year's day leaving me to do some end of year business accounts, which still aren't done, so I will be using Sunday to finish them off when the boys go skiing again.

So, what are M's new favourite things? Through copious amounts of Christmas tv watching (which I didn't think much of this year, although I did like Jonathan Creek and the Martin Clunes thing, The Man Who Lost his Head, I think it was) we found out that M loves slapstick comedy, Wallace and Gromit and darts, and he also has a new found interest in skiing, sledging and swimming. Things to be capitalised on, I think.