Lauren & Sam

Both kids had sleepovers this weekend; Lauren stayed home with a couple of friends, while Sam was at Kyle’s with 2-3 other boys. He claims that they didn’t sleep at all, and while we were a little dubious he may not have been exaggerating too much; without telling us he put his PJs on and went to bed around 5:30pm, and 12 hours later he’s still asleep.

Sam just took a call from a friend asking for technical support with a computer game. That’s my boy.

It seems a universal tendency for little boys to collect cards/stickers with popular motifs attached to them. In my day it was only footballists, but nowadays you can also get Pokemon, Bakugan and Moshi Monsters (amongst many others). Sam has settled on the last one at the moment. Normally this would be an expensive undertaking, trying to complete the set one random pack at a time. Fortunately nowadays eBay can provide a full set for a few pounds. Some might think this takes away most of the fun of collecting. Fortunately Sam’s desire for instant gratification overwhelms any such objections, so everyone is happy. Except when we have to have all the monsters explained to us.

My cousin is complaining that I’m slacking on the blog, so herewith, one update.

We went to school a couple of weeks ago for parents’ night. As always it was rather awkward – the teachers say how great the kids are, we thank them, and then we all look uncomfortable while we work out if we’ve sat there long enough for appearances’ sake.

Sam had to have a couple of teeth removed (either side of the front ones) to make room for more in his elfin-like jaw. He was apprehensive about it, understandably, but it turned out the dentist had some spare time after sorting out Lauren’s, so they were whipped out there and all was good.

We went for our first full-family bike ride today (at least the first where I wasn’t pulling Sam along). Everyone did fine, except for the bit where Sam hit the floor. He’s been limping somewhat theatrically for the rest of the day, except when he forgot to of course.

Yesterday we went to an open day at the National Oceanography Center in Southampton. Parts were rather dry, but overall the kids quite enjoyed it. Part of the incentive was a ride out in our new car (yay!).

Finally, we’ve ramped up the number of clubs quite substantially, so they’re both doing drama and music, while Sam is doing gym and Lauren’s in orchestra. All seems enjoyable thus far, so we’ll see what sticks.