Due to a slight oversight on my part, I failed to book Five in for any activities at all this week and thus have had what she would call, delightedly, an entire ‘Mummy week’ where I get to entertain her at every waking moment. This was not quite how I saw motherhood during those misty-eyed moments when I was lovingly folding tiny white, fluffy babygros into the as-yet-unscratched chest of drawers in her room, but it turns out that her favourite refrain at five is
“I’m BORED! What shall we do?”
And I, in an eerie echo of my own mother, reply
“Well, why don’t you think of something interesting to do? Like look at a book? Play with your toys? Water the garden?”
“No that’s all BORING!”
Then I pull out the big guns.
“If you don’t think of something yourself by the time I count to three I will entertain you by having you help me empty the dishwasher. How is that?”
You’d think this would miraculously send her off to find something edifying, and 50% of the time it works, but the other half it sends her onto the floor in a dramatic slump, hand draped across her forehead with a huge groan, saying;
“I can’t believe you’re so MEAN! And I’m so BORED! I just want to go away forever and be somewhere and you’ll miss me and CRY!”
Wasn’t this supposed to happen a bit later on?
So there has been a fair bit of tongue biting going on around here and countings to ten (that’s me – she can already do that with great savvy, of course). But there have also been many delightful outings to the library, beach, coffee shop, museum etc. Today we took a train to a neighbouring town to have a picnic breakfast which was tremendous fun, particularly as we could see cars overtaking our carriage – can this be the only country I’ve lived in where the cars on the highway, traveling a modest 65mph can outstrip a diesel locomotive? But in amongst all the holiday shenanigans there has not been much time for post writing or adult relaxing and certainly no time to add to my novel (past page 1 now, but perhaps not as far as I’d like to be).
I did, however, manage to squeeze in an email to Max, and was very pleased to get one back the same day. I thought you might like to hear what he had to say, too, so here is the text of both.
Short and sweet, just like him.
On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 11:11 AM, mothership <> wrote:
Hi Max
Just wondering how you were getting on and if you had liked any of the other bands on the list we gave you on July 4th. Hope your summer is going well and you’re practicing that guitar!
Rock and roll!
Mothership xo
Great! I especially love the Buzzcocks and the Rites of spring. But my overall favorite would probably be the Avengers. I also heard of some other hardcore bands such as The Freeze and Flipper. Speaking of witch, I just got a new electric guitar.
Bless his hardcore socks!
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He sounds so happy and contented that it warms your heart. It sounds like you have had a busy week with five. I think she has been lucky that you have done so much!
brenda’s last blog post..Lovely Day
Luckily, this does get BETTER as they get older. They become better at entertaining themselves.
Or at least better at avoiding mommy’s suggestions about what they could do with themselves.
The Mother’s last blog post..Just Say No
That was obviously a real breakthrough with Max.
Littleboy 1’s favourite thing is to water the garden at the moment (he’s four) However, seeing as this involves squirting everything in sight, including me, with the full force of a power hose, I do not suggest this an activity unless I can possibly help it…..
nappyvalleygirl’s last blog post..Not waving but drowning?
Bless him. And I believe I recommended Rites of Spring, M and I being major groupies.
My middle is learning the guitar at camp so maybe they can jam in the future.
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