Tuesday, October 12, 1999
Of Metaphysics And Football
On Sunday morning I took Kevin on the Short Legs Hike, which was the first we’ve done since last spring. On the way to Fontainebleau in the car he was very chatty and we had our first ever metaphysical discussion! The neighbours’ rabbit Puschi died recently and Kevin started asking me why he died and where he has gone. I explained that he died because he was very old and had come to the end of his life. I said he had gone to sleep forever and was probably in the sky where it is very nice (!). Kevin then wanted to know if he can go there one day and see him again!
The hike was a good two-hour leg stretcher and the sun came out at long last. We collected little pine cones and acorns with their hats on. We’ve washed the sand off them and will paint them gold to use as Christmas decorations. In the afternoon we did some gardening, raked up the first autumn leaves. Sadly my spinach has failed to germinate, I think all the seeds drowned during the three weeks of incessant rain.
Later I took the children to the playground where there were some big boys playing with a football. To my surprise, Kevin and Pauline tried to join in, shrieking with laughter, and the teenagers very kindly tolerated them - probably because they thought I was watching carefully! I was in fact sneakily reading a book, as usual (‘No Name’, by Wilkie Collins, published in 1903!). Then the boys gave them a broken cassette tape to play with, so they ran around the playground for half an hour, pulling out the tape and making wonderful loops and knots with it. A great day!
The temperature has dropped sharply over the last week, so our heating is now on again. This afternoon I’d like to put away all the children’s summer clothes and get out all the winter ones. It’s a job I hate doing when they are with me because they jump on and mess up the tidy piles of folded clothes to be put away, and when they see their old favourites that are now too small they get very upset when I put them in the “to be given away” box!
Good news - we have finally solved Pauline’s sleep problem! Last Wednesday I made her up a bed in Kevin’s room with the brand new mattress, quilt and sheets that P. bought for her ages ago. We also plugged in a tiny night light and the two of them have been sleeping perfectly well ever since. I was sure that she was lonely and felt isolated from the rest of us, but P. was convinced that she’s afraid of the dark, so we have found a compromise. A shame it took us so long though! It’s so much nicer having both of them downstairs with us and they don’t even talk much after lights out because they are usually so tired from their day at school that they fall asleep very quickly. So the big upstairs room is a playroom again. We are all feeling more human now.
Kevin has brand new, bright yellow gumboots, which he insisted on wearing to school for two days, even though it wasn’t wet!
The hike was a good two-hour leg stretcher and the sun came out at long last. We collected little pine cones and acorns with their hats on. We’ve washed the sand off them and will paint them gold to use as Christmas decorations. In the afternoon we did some gardening, raked up the first autumn leaves. Sadly my spinach has failed to germinate, I think all the seeds drowned during the three weeks of incessant rain.
Later I took the children to the playground where there were some big boys playing with a football. To my surprise, Kevin and Pauline tried to join in, shrieking with laughter, and the teenagers very kindly tolerated them - probably because they thought I was watching carefully! I was in fact sneakily reading a book, as usual (‘No Name’, by Wilkie Collins, published in 1903!). Then the boys gave them a broken cassette tape to play with, so they ran around the playground for half an hour, pulling out the tape and making wonderful loops and knots with it. A great day!
The temperature has dropped sharply over the last week, so our heating is now on again. This afternoon I’d like to put away all the children’s summer clothes and get out all the winter ones. It’s a job I hate doing when they are with me because they jump on and mess up the tidy piles of folded clothes to be put away, and when they see their old favourites that are now too small they get very upset when I put them in the “to be given away” box!
Good news - we have finally solved Pauline’s sleep problem! Last Wednesday I made her up a bed in Kevin’s room with the brand new mattress, quilt and sheets that P. bought for her ages ago. We also plugged in a tiny night light and the two of them have been sleeping perfectly well ever since. I was sure that she was lonely and felt isolated from the rest of us, but P. was convinced that she’s afraid of the dark, so we have found a compromise. A shame it took us so long though! It’s so much nicer having both of them downstairs with us and they don’t even talk much after lights out because they are usually so tired from their day at school that they fall asleep very quickly. So the big upstairs room is a playroom again. We are all feeling more human now.
Kevin has brand new, bright yellow gumboots, which he insisted on wearing to school for two days, even though it wasn’t wet!
# posted by Antipodeesse @ 5:49 pm 
