Lauren & Sam

Uniform

Paul — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:09:27 +0000

Sam has to attend Brownies from time to time, if I’m going to be late back or have a school governor meeting. In this he is rather like his father; until I was old enough to stay home I used to go to Brownies with my mum, left on my own in the kitchen while she looked after other people’s kids.*

One difference is that Sam apparently feels it’s a somewhat formal occasion, so if he’s going to be there for more than a few minutes he likes to go in his Cub uniform. The Brownie leader assumed he had a meeting straight after, and was quite taken aback to find that wasn’t the case.

* I know that Brown Owl reads this, so I feel honour-bound to point out that I deliberately made that sound worse than it was! In fact a lot of the time one of the Brownie mums took me home and stuck me in front of the TV with a packet of kids in their big fancy house, which impressed me greatly at the time.

Peaches

Paul — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:01:29 +0000

Transcript of a conversation between Lauren and me this morning, on the subject of peaches:

Me: And where do peaches come from?

Lauren (in a resigned, humouring Dad voice): A can.

Me: And who put them there?

Lauren: A man. In a factory, downtown.

(Explanation: This video is what we’re talking about. What impressed me is that it’s some years since we last discussed this important issue, so I can only conclude that it is now a permanent part of her childhood.)

Sleep

Paul — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:49:11 +0000

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.

Interruptions

Paul — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:55:35 +0000

Sam is currently watching The Clone Wars. He has no problem having a conversation during it, and I only just realized that it’s because he knows he’s going to watch it several dozen times, so why worry about missing a bit this time round.

Panto

Paul — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:35:50 +0000

Sam was in the school pantomime this week. He takes these things very seriously, so throughout his time as a field mouse he didn’t smile once. Field mice don’t smile, right?

(Click on link to embiggen).

Babysat

Paul — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:29:38 +0000

We went out with Janet and James last night, and for what I believe was the first time the kids had a ‘stranger’ babysit for them. Stranger is a relative term; we’re part of a babysitting circle, so everyone there is at least a ‘friend of a friend’, and our babysitter’s daughter is one of Claire’s Brownies. All went well, we received a good report, and my only fear now is that I’ll be expected to take part in a game of charades like they played last night. For the record, Sam chose a different Star Wars movie each time.

The update of shame

Paul — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:24:33 +0000

OK, it’s been too long since the last update, as evidenced by the amount of stuff I don’t seem able to recall. Here’s what does spring to mind:

Parent-Teacher meetings for both went very well. Lauren is likely to be entered for the standard SATs they do at the end of year 6 plus the following year’s SATs, which apparently gives the high school a head start on placing her in the right groups. She was complimented particularly for the enthusiasm she displays in most subjects; she works hard to do more than she’s been asked to do. We laughed about this, as it’s very much the opposite of Sam, who while every bit as smart as Lauren will do the minimum required so that he can concentrate on things that are important to him. At the moment that consists of a 3 page explanation of the Tudor elements of a game he likes, with annotated diagrams and an impressive amount of text. None of this was required, but he wanted to do it so it happened.

Christmas lists have been compiled and tweaked, using Amazon for the first time instead of the previous list of Argos catalogue numbers. In another contrast between the two Lauren has a carefully crafted list of 11 things she’d really like, whereas Sam’s list is a scattergun collection of over 40 items. He would say, nonetheless, that he would really like each one of them.

Lauren went on a residential trip to Beaulieu for a week with school. She appeared to enjoy it, at least judging by the number of “This one time, at band camp” stories we’ve heard. Sam reacted similarly to a weekend away with his friend Kyle during the summer. Given the number of anecdotes he had to relate it appears a weekend camping in the New Forest is equivalent to at least a week in the real world.

That’s it for now, I’ll promise to try to do better with updates (which isn’t the same as actually doing better, of course).

Tudors

Paul — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:45:52 +0000

Sam just brought in a book about the Tudors, asking if he could take it to school as they’re studying that period. I agreed, but was thinking that it was an odd thing to do, and that the teacher would presumably have to feign interest. And then I immediately remembered doing exactly the same sort of thing when I was his age, and how pleasing it was to be able to do it.

Orlando Day 4

Paul — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 13:10:32 +0000

Today was Magic Kingdom, the centrepiece of Disney in Florida. I was struck at how few big thrill rides it and the other parks have; in part that’s a false impression based on our lack of interest in such things, but I still think there’s a deficit compared to, say, Alton Towers. The emphasis on the overall experience instead is what has charmed me.

Lauren: At Magic Kingdom we went on the Runaway Train but I was the only one who enjoyed it. We also went on a jungle cruise which was really funny because the man was cracking jokes.

Sam: My favourite bit at magic kingdom was the runaway train but I also liked the buzz lightyear laser game.

Orlando Day 3

Paul — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:27:11 +0000

Friday was spent at Epcot, or at least half of it; we still have to go back for the world tour bit. This was probably the bit I was looking forward to most. I have a memory, which I may have manufactured entirely, of an uncle telling me about a visit to Epcot. It seemed entirely foreign, a million miles away, and glamorous beyond words. And now I’ve been.

Lauren: My favourite thing at Epcot was by far the Universe of Energy when you saw a ladies dream where she met Dinosaurs and there was lots of anamatronics.
I also really enjoyed the test track where you go really fast

Sam: my favourite thing at Epcot was was defiantly the test track but I also liked the universe of energy