The kids have been playing together more recently and it’s been nice to watch. They mostly play with the same thing together, Alex gets toy envy very quickly if he sees Daniel using something. Lts of the time is spent on the trampoline, using play dough or playing trains, but in this case the kids were using the duplo. Alex has always made towers out of duplo. he aims to get it taller than him and talks about stability (son of an engineer??!!) On this particular day he brought in a chair and made it taller than me and took great pleasure in crashing cars into it. It was interesting to watch where the tower would break. Daniel likes playing with the duplo animals and I helped him make a little barn. Then he made the duplo train and pulled it round and round Alex’s tower. I enjoy the harmony of these days, and don’t feel pulled in two directions. It’s also helpful to have enough of a toy for 2!
That will definitely be a consideration in future purchases. I’ve actually done another small cull and sold a few bits the kids weren’t interested in. Alex seems to dislike anything that looks like it belongs in a classroom, even though he’s never been in one! I had a montessori phase whilst Alex was in kinder and thought that being a good parent meant adding to his education (with school like activities). This didn’t last long, Alex didn’t let it and I’m glad i listened to him! But montessori materials are not cheap and i bought only a few. but now they are all sold 🙂 Also I removed some of the workbook/flashcard style things that i’d just left lying around which had been gifted by well meaning people.
After
a bout of sickness, we decided to take a trip to the zoo. Alex had been wanting to visit the new ‘world of frogs’. We got around so much, the kids know the zoo well and they still love it. Daniel loves the monkeys and giraffes and of course everyone loves the reptile house! We walked through the bird aviary and got to see a cassowary at feeding time, it was really interesting! I think Alex was fascinated to see them being fed mice!
We finally made it to Crafternoon with my sister in law and her kids. Alex and Emily get on so well and often ask to see each other. Daniel is also talking about Jacob often, they are very close in age so it’s nice for them to have each other as they are unable to really play well with the older ones just yet. Crafternoon is a cafe with a difference, the kids get to do craft activities. the set up is amazing and relaxed. the food was good too, no junk and local produce. Whilst i wouldn’t do this often – we don’t do cafe lunches much as it’s expensive and we just don’t value or enjoy the experience. The boys are unable and unwilling to sit down in such an a way that is full of expectation. And it is not fun for Vio and I to constantly remind them of etiquette, as much as it must be annoying to hear it, so right now this is just not us.
The rest of the week went along as usual. park day on wednesday. It was damp and so the group was small and we didn’t go to the river, but we did go for a walk where we haven’t before. The boys had fun nonetheless. As the kids and I had been sick the week before, they had not seen their grandparents and so they visited them on thursday. They spend a lot of time with the many birds, Alex is very passionate and Daniel seems to have the love for it too. We ended up bringing home the canary pair and their 4 babies! So we’ve been feeding and observing them. For the rest of the afternoon we played trains. Friday was gymnastics and football.