23/01/2015

Mooching about feeling meh, mostly in bed, till my munchkins turned up 1.30 ish I think, resplendent in their new waterproof outfits and wellies - bright very girly pink with unfortunately clashing pale turqoise "frozen the movie" wellies for the ridiculously girly girl 5 yo Miss Isobel and boyo blue with Avenger wellies for our 3 yo tomboy/trainee trans gender 3 yo Ms Josie. Bless.

Miss I immediately demonstrating her concern,  attentive and caring as every, helping me sip my (cold) lemon and honey, fetching my dressing gown etc whilst her little sister lost interest - possibly having established she couldn't bounce on the big bed as I was still in it! 

Spent hour or two (not easy as tetchy due to ill health) with them whilst their papa ran errands (including buying me the most ridiculously huge bananas ever grown?).

We played (they played whilst I supervised tbh) "donimoes", "sums" (using aforementioned donimoes), "school" (Miss I imperious as ever in the role of Miss Katie, our teacher, whilst 3 yo nailed the role of badly behaved clingy toddler Charlie, a newcomer to the school "who has come here today to learn all about our way of doing things before going back to his own place to do things his own way" (!), and I listlessly interpreted the role of Lilly - a very good girl in Miss Katie's reception class.

We finally broke out the Disney CD and storybook set one of Miss I's Xmas gifts, listening and reading together the Alice in Wonderland attentively, then 101 Dalmatians semi attentively (at least on the part of Ms J) and descending into anarchy during Dumbo.

I then offered Jungle Book DVD plus microwaved popcorn as I was flagging, but they instead did one of their shows, dancing first to R3, then demanding more dancy music, so I begrudgingly put R2 on! they did some energetic dance moves, including their by now famous "1 girl with 4 arms" surprise (ad infinitum, one never tires apparently), the skeletons from the panto, and then some very inappropriate (in their old aunty's book), arse wiggling which they know is my least favourite bit but ....

We broke out the building blocks. These never take their interest for more than 10 mins these days, before they usually turn to constructing, variously, trophies, prizes and surprises for each other which led us seamlessly to .....the improvised singing contest.  Miss I composed the usual very coherent little number, including several pretty good rhymes (heart/start featured a lot today) and remembered repeated little refrains.sung earnestly with her very heartfelt changing facial expressions as ever. Then Ms  J took over. How I kept anything like a straight face, whilst she RAPPED rhythmically, not always coherently but pretty steadily and with complete confidence including hand movements etc for a good 3 mins or so, is a miracle.  She finally noticed the teeniest crack of me smiling and of course immediately stopped with her frequent refrain of "it isn't funny don't laugh at me" and no amount of me reassuring her that I was smiling at the lovely"trophy prize surprise" her sister was constructing for her would do.  Oy vey.  Hmm, spell check doesnt like the word prize!

When their Papa retuned with the shop, he then very kindly dragged Garcon round for walk, unfortunately in quite heavy rain, so brief. Ms J was incensed to be left behind again, so I distracted her with a new game catchily entitled "using the torch to make amazing prismic light patterns on the hall ceiling through the new light fitting".  Peace and contentment reigned.  Till the minor squabbles over the torch sharing.  Then Papa returned providing equilibrium AND another torch.

No rant today. Would love to post the pic my brother took of the girls in their new waterproof ensembles but till I learn how to make proper use of this recently acquired and hated laptop it will have to wait (my snot filled sinuses and general thick headedness make even simple tasks hard, I couldnt even work the zip on Miss I's all in one today!)

Things that make me happy - well obviously my darling brother and his children are right on top of my list, but this link to the BBC TV programme on the Brecon Beacons with the lovely down to earth and eminently likeable Iolo Williams is amazing, featuring my heroes of the Brecon Mountain rescue half way in and even a glimpse of our Dom (partner to my eldest niece) on exercise.

iolos-brecon-beacons-3-summer