Bird and bee related questions

Jack has been asking a particular question lately. He's doesn't like not having his questions answered completely and often repeatedly, he's also to smart now to know when he's not being given a proper answer. So when he asked Helen about where babies really come from she told him that she wanted to speak to me before giving him an answer, he was pretty annoyed.

I was surprised at just how strongly I felt about this particular situation. The liberal part of me says just tell him, if he's old enough to ask then he's old enough to know and he's too young to really understand anyway but with all the talk recently of the 'loss of innocence' I find myself on the fence. Whether or not he understands I'd still rather he remain totally unaware for at least a couple more years. He's got lots of other things to learn about first.

So after some soul searching, we did a little research and purchased a book. It's basically the answer to the question from a child's perspective with matching illustration. I had a look over the book before reading it to Jack and generally I have to say that it was alright. There's only one page in the middle that I don't quite approve of (a space hopper in involved) but we gloss over that page.

I'm still not entirely comfortable with the idea but I'm getting there. Jack was happy with the answer the book provided and hasn't enquired about it again.



The book is titled 'Mommy Laid an Egg' by Babette Cole and has apparently been banned in some places.

1.2m ish

We spent last weekend at Alton Towers. We're annual pass holders so this is simply the first visit of the year. To mark the occasion we even stayed in the hotel to make sure that we could really take advantage of the pre-opening hour we're awarded as annual pass holders.

We went on a couple of rides that Jack has been to scared to go on in the past. As we came out of Hex Jack said to me, Daddy we beat the curse and I didn't even cry. Last time we rode Hex he hid, cried all the way through and I guess we didn't beat the curse. We also rode Duel, which he insisted he was up for but we still had to talk him into, "It's not scary Jack because they give you a laser gun, so when the monster jumps out, you just blast him". He loved it.

Jack is no longer interested in places like Storybook land and all the kiddie rides and he wasn't quite tall enough to go on any of the bigger rides. This became more of a problem as being the first day of the season, many of the rides that Jack could go on we not working. They seemed to be breaking down one by one as soon as we arrived. Jack really wanted to ride Sonic Spinball but when we got to it we found that it was a 1.2m ride, not 1.17m like we'd thought. So I suggested that we get Jack measured, we'd only measured him at home a few weeks before and he was about 1.18m tall. He had to be 1.2m to ride any the bigger rides, we knew it wasn't likely but I hoped that maybe he'd grown a little more since then and was hopefully tall enough that we could maybe fudge it a little by having him breath in deeply or spike his hair.

So we set out to find a staff member with one of those batons or a triangle. I don't trust those height boards, I never have, I'm convinced that they're all different and all wrong. After a surprisingly long search we found a staff member to give us an official measurement. 1.19 and maybe a bit, very close but definitely below the 1.2m line, not fudgeable without lifts or something...

Jack took the news well and fought back the tears by hitting a near by playground. While Helen and I discussed our options. We were nearly out of rides and it was only about 10:30 and it was freezing. We decided to stick it out and make our way back toward the 1.0m rides that we knew were working, but first we needed to get Jack a pair of gloved because it was arctic.

"Gloves." I said to Helen in a sudden flurry of inspiration. "That'd do it."
We purchased the gloves near at a shop near one of the 1.2m rides and rushed Jack off to a staff free location where he could 'try them on'.

With the new gloves 'on' we pushed Jack up to one of the measurement boards and took a look... This could work. My only concern now was that it was still close enough to leave us at the mercy of a staff member's discretion but we could always use Jack's cutes if it came to it so we took our show on the road. A helpful staff member guided us to a baggage kiosk on the 1.2m ride where they confirmed Jack's height as 1.22m. They then provided Jack with a wristband, officially stating to any other would-be measures that he was over 1.2m, AND because they were having to close the ride soon they pushed us straight through to the ride. At which Helen snuck the gloves onto Jack's hands.

So Jack rode Thirteen, his first real roller coaster at Alton Towers. He loved it and would have gone several times had it not broken down, while we were still on it. He also rode Sonic Spinball which he adored and it looking forward to going on it again. The wristband was great, Jack just flashed it at the staff and they didn't question.

Officially a big boy.

The one drawback to his newly acquired height was that at there are some little things that he still really likes, like Wobble World which has a maximum height restriction at 1.2m. It wasn't a problem today because we just made sure we went there last and took off the wristband but it will be a problem very soon. However the fact that this was possibly the last time he'd be able to go in there made him quite sad.

We're now looking forward to the rest of the season. This new height will open up a whole host of new experiences for Jack and bring some of the fun for Helen and I back as well. The knowledge of the write band will also serve us well for when we approach the 1.4m milestone.

The Christmas Play

12-12-12
This morning we attended Jacks Christmas play.

It was interesting to see the evolution of the class. Last year the play was painfully stretched to 30 minutes, there were a few tonelessly sung tunes and a script read or shouted out a sentence at a time by the children. The dancing consisted of the kids walking around the stage and waving their arms. The costumes were mostly just variations of painted pillow cases.

This year the singing, while it was backed up with a tape of a children's choir, was much closer to pitch. The costumes were good, the stars looked like stars and the angels looked like angels. The three kings costumes were complete with sunglasses due to the luminescence of the star they had to follow. There were props, scenery and choreography and dare I say it, acting, from the inn-keepers wife especially.

The cast was made up of around 80 children from years 1 and 2 and each of them had a part to play. The play was Jesus's Christmas party, which was a slightly comical take on the nativity scene. Essentially a huge party gradually amasses in the stables under the noses of the surly innkeepers. There were a number of genuinely funny moments. My favourite of which is when Joseph sheepishly disturbs the innkeepers asking for another blanket, baby sized.

Jack was a mouse that got put to sleep by a bunch of angles very early on in the play. He came out and danced in a sleepy way, then lay on the floor for a few minutes, we were very proud. Jack took the roll quite seriously, he practiced the songs at home when he thought that we weren't listening and he warned us that mommy might cry during the last song, pretty much all of his teachers had cried at some point over the performances because of this particular song.

We were impressed, proud and still glad when it was over. Helen didn't cry.

Our mouse.

Birthday Boy

16-11-2012

Jacks birthday has come up rather quickly for everyone. Even for him.
Jack has been very excited over the last couple of weeks, he's been theorising about his presents and getting himself all worked up about it.

We tried to take it easy this year as out house is full of toys and the like that he doesn't touch, ever. We've run out of room. So we figured that from now on, before each birthday and Christmas we'd go through his toys and make a little room for the new arrivals. We also planned to get shop more precisely and try to keep the number of toys down.

This year we figured it would be pretty easy. Mainly his wish list consisted of three things, Moshis, Lego Star Wars and and video games.

When we gathered all the gifts together for the wrapping and got a good look at the total number and its turned out a little bit more than we'd hoped. His last minute interest in Lego Star Wars is the main culprit, but aside from that we're not sure how this has happened. Being that it was a school day we divided out his presents into before and after school piles, and then told him about neither. In the morning there was a spontaneous pile of small quiet gifts for him to open and enjoy before school, then after school another pile appeared with even better gifts.

After the unwrapping the presents don't look so numerous, we've obviously done better than we'd though.

Jack is happy with his gifts and so far has spent more time playing with them than we've come to expect in the past, less really is more.

Decorating his cakes for his party

Favourite presents are Sonic Colors DS. Which he's already about half way through and the Star Wars figures. The Moshis seem to have taken more of a collection role, he's happy that he can now say he has some these new ones, he finally has an Iggy and and Oddy, but he's not very interested in playing with them in any sense other than toting them around the house in their bag from time to time. He got a Lego Star was x-wing fighter which he's delighted with, as am I because it looks like he might be a Lego-head like I was when I was a kid, I've been hoping for the days when we could build Legos together.

All in all it was a good birthday for Jack. Tomorrow he's taking a few friends to the snow dome for a tubing party.

The end result

Back to school

It's been a very busy summer.

Camping has again been the theme of the summer. We camped with friends at Clarach Bay for a week, we camped at Longleat for four days, and in Essex for four days for Jack's cousin Thomas's birthday.

a crab we caught at Clarach Bay, poor thing had no pincers.

Clarach Bay was good. It's a sea side campsite down in Wales where there's beaches and rock pools and little amusements for kids. Aberystwyth is just a few minutes drive where we went for a wander. We also stopped by a little town called Borth where their annual carnival was on. The weather was unpredictable, but generally good and there were three other families with us. All in all it's one of the best camping trips we've been on.

wild seals at Cardigan Bay

A week or so later we headed down to Longleat for a four day stay. Longleat Safari and Adventure park was great. We got a two day pass and we still didn't manage to do everything on offer.

We went to a gymnastics birthday party in Essex. Now and strange a theme for a birthday party as it may sound it was actually a lot of fun. Basically they took all the kids into a fully equipped gym and let them loose. They had trampolines and balance beams and rings and poles and everything. But with all that around the best part of it turned out to be the chips. Big yellow foam block in a pit designed to catch those who fall off the rings an such. Most of the fun of the party was jumping in an out of them, and throwing others in.

DON'T FALL IN THE CHIPS!

Now summer is over and Jack and I are both headed back to school. Jack is moving into year 1 and I'm moving on to the top-up BSc award.
Jack was apprehensive about going back to school. He didn't think that there was going to be any fun in his new class. He's met his teacher and seen the classroom and despite that, and our constant reassurance, Jack is convinced that his days of having fun at school are over. There's no Mobilo, his favourite building set,  in Year 1, there's no Star of the Day, there's no fun to be had anywhere. On a much more unconscious level Jack is also concerned about the change in routine. He keeps a little itinerary in his head and anything that disrupts it is feared and avoided at all costs. The lack of information about the new classes minute by minute activities really stresses him out.
Often just broaching the subject would be enough to being tears to Jack's eyes and tension to his body. After all moving to year 1 means that he's growing up. Growing up means change, and Jack doesn't like change.

I'm less apprehensive. Through the use of my internet researching school and knowledge of the inner workings of the university's online reporting tool I've managed to have a look at some of my upcoming modules and it looks bleak. Each module is harder than the last, and my optional modules are worse. I'm sure it's not going to be as bad as it looks and I'm looking forward to it.

Here's a bunch of photos.

Jack got to hold a snake.

His new teddy bat

this bird was moving full at speed and straight at me.

Jack and I got to hold and emperor scorpion

Alton Towers' gardens. Jack wanted me to take a picture.

I'd never seen an ant eater before.

This lemur walked right up to us.

very noisy sea lions.

Ready for school