Busy Year

I haven't had much time to update George's 2010 blog. School has kept us ticking over - George has learned to read and has just received an excellent school report which I am very proud of considering what happened just after he started school.

Last month we went on our first family holiday without George's dad. Aunty Mandy, Aunty Fiona and cousins John and Daniel came too. We had a fabulous time, and all three children would love to go again.

This is George and Ben the school bear in Whinfell forest.

Easter

I took George away to a caravan in Rhyl for the easter weekend. He told me that his daddy had come too, and even pointed to where he was sitting. When his daddy died, I downloaded the photos from his sd card, then deleted them all. Since then I have used the sd card constantly, and downloaded many photos. The first photo I downloaded today when downloading our holiday photos was one of the ones of Paul that I had deleted. Maybe he came with us after all.

On easter Sunday George asked me if I was born before chocolate was invented, or after. I wonder how old he thinks I am?

Ambush

George's naughty cat thought of a new game tonight while George was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. She hid in the linen basket, and as he walked past, she jumped up, bopped him, and dropped back down into the basket. George was a bit taken aback, but I thought it was funny, and so did the cat apparently because she did it twice more. She never uses her claws, she just pats him and runs away. She has always liked creeping up on people and gently boxing their ears - now we may have to watch out for cat hiding places too.

Parents Evening

Tonight was parents evening at George's school. My friend minded George for me while I went for my 10 minute chat with his teacher. Apparently he needs to concentrate more, but is coming along nicely. I can see the improvement in his reading myself, and his vocabulary is extensive, but he needs to practise his writing.

His teacher says he is friendly, chatty, and a pleasure to have in the class room. Yay for George !

Busy Day

We have had a busy day today. We have been swimming, had lunch at McDonalds, been shopping and we have seen art.

We live fairly close to Port Sunlight village which has an art gallery founded by William Hesketh Lever, soap producer extrordinaire. After we'd had lunch I suggested to George and his friend M that we should call in there on the way home. They were fascinated by the sheer size of some of the paintings and pieces of furniture. The two of them are like human question marks, so there was a fair bit to answer, but the male marble statues caught their attention the most - for all the wrong reasons I hasten to add. M's eyes were like saucers (she's 10).

The piece that had the most attention was a statue of a hermaphrodite. "But mum, it's got boobs and a willy" said our hero in a voice that could well have been a tannoy broadcast. He wasn't wrong.

Clapping games

Tonight I started to teach George some clapping games for fun. We did "A sailor went to sea, sea, sea" which he thought was hilarious. I don't remember boys doing clapping games when I was small, but we had a good time, and if all else fails, he will be popular with his female friends if he can teach them how to do it.

We also had a snuggle on the sofa. He was tired because he woke at 4:40am this morning. That's a 20 minute lie in from the past couple of mornings though.

Club Penguin

I think it's fair that George's new hobby should have a mention. It hasn't quite taken over his mermaid obsession, but it's coming close. He plays club penguin on the computer with his friends a lot, and is also enthusiastically trying to talk me into becoming a member. This is not going to happen. I have to give him credit for persistence though - he has been asking me every other day for about a month now!

He is still getting up at 4:20am in the morning - a habit which i was hoping his daddy would help me cure, but of course his daddy never came home. I am at a loss as to how to deal with it at the moment. There is early, then there is stupidly early. If I ignore him in the morning then he will wake the neighbours up, which isn't fair when they have work too. The doctor was no help either - she said it's a sign of intelligence and her daughter does it too. Oh joy.