Bowen Road Spider
One thing that makes Tess a great mother is her ability to spot fascinating things on walks and hikes for kids. I am trying to learn from Tess and be more aware of the little details but still, I’m not very good at that. Tess on the other hand is extremely good at noticing the smallest things to show people… little snails crawling along fence rails, squirrels in the bushes, or as we discovered last Saturday while walking along Bowen Road… huge spiders! Tess wrote about this yesterday on her blog so please read her account of the encounter. We took the time to stop, video and snap pics of the gigantic critter. You can find this below for your viewing pleasure. I hope you like spiders! I think this one might be a distant cousin of the spider in Annie Hall!
Scenes of Seb jumping @ Fintry…
Bouncy, Bouncy Baby – Part 1
Well folks, for the last few weeks I have been dwelling on the idea and potential of You Tube… voila, here is the first product of that dwelling. A clip of Carys having fun in the sun during the summer. This was taken on one of our last days at Fintry after watching Carys & Sela go wild everyday (for three weeks whenever they were in the pool) bouncing. They loved it and hopefully you will, too! SURPRISE: Part 2 is now up… please take a moment to RATE the videos, too. Thanks!
Yes, I know the videos can be embedded in the blog but I ran into some technical difficulties trying to do that today at lunch.
Kids are sick!
Well, the kids have been stellar at fighting off coughs and colds for months, but they have finally succumbed. This is remarkable considering Tess and I were both ill two weeks ago and the kids never caught our bugs… until now.
Tonight I arrived home from a Thunderers Dinner (think: men, black tie, dinner, cognac & cigars) to find a few restless kids in bed. It all started with a smelly nappy that turned out to be Carys. Tess changed her while I helped, until Jasper started to cry. JJ often needs a drink of water in the middle of the night and I figured that was the cause of his crying.
Not so… the poor little chappy was wheezing (refused water) so I gave him a few Ventolin puffs instead. While this was going on, Tess returned Carys to bed. Meanwhile JJ’s crying awoke Seb and Tess pulled him out of bed for a wee wee. As Seb returned to bed he was wide awake and said a few words to me… with a very croaky voice.
“Oh boy,” I thought, “time for some more medicine.”
I pulled out some night time cough syrup and loaded up a syringe. Then I climbed up some steps to Seb’s bed only to find him wide awake. (Normally he falls right back to sleep after a midnight wee wee.)
“Sebastian,” I said softly, “it’s time for a little medicine!”
“What kind of medicine?” He asked loudly!
Over the next ten minutes both JJ and Sela awoke coughing and spluttering, so I also gave them some soothing cough syrup. We might be in for a tiring weekend if the colds really do settle in, too.
Yikes!
Fish Skeleton
Sebastian, now in a new school and third year of kindy – SWCK (Small World Christian Kindergarten) – after two years at ESF Kindergarten (English Schools Foundation) is starting to settle in nicely to his new environs. Last week he learned about bones. "Without bones," Sebastian ethusiastically reports, "we would all be jelly fish!"
Last week SWCK had the kids in Seb’s class do a brilliant, two-day art project. First, on Day One all the students painted the backgrounds for their projects. The artwork was left to dry overnight. Then on Day Two they made fish skeletons… I think a little adult chalk may have helped the kids along, but after that glue was applied and toothpicks laid in place so the paper trouts didn’t turn into jelly fish.
Instead of bringing artwork home each day as it is completed (the ESF strategy) SWCK has the kids come home at the end of each week with an art folder full of the week’s accomplishments. Last Friday night we sat down with Sebastian who proudly explained each item as he pulled them out of the folder. Of course, the Fish Skeleton was the week’s finest masterpiece, with a deep, subtle background contrasting the pine-coloured toothpicks. When interviewed Mr. Caldwell explained, "This (the Q-Tip) is the ocean."
Fish Skeleton, possibly Sir Sebastian’s most creative tour de force to date, starts with a modest "priceless" comment. Can you match that? In the back please, yes, what do I hear?
