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| 29 months (2 years 5 months) old |
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| 30 months (2 years 6 months) old |
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| 66 months (5 years 6 months) old |
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| 67 months (5 years 7 months) old |
It has been sufficiently long since I'd last been properly in charge of the children for a long time that I was a bit concerned about it all; not that I wasn't going to be able to cope, but more that I had simply lost the confidence that I could so cope. In the end, it was all quite a positive and enjoyable experience. This was mainly because of two things...
Firstly, that Finn was in school, which meant that I could spend most of my time getting out and hiking around parts of the Isle of Man I'd been itching to visit since being back.
And, secondly, when Cori isn't around, the boys are much more responsive and willing to listen to me. This makes things a lot less frustrating for me, and we can even become a bit like a Team at times, all working together for the same end - a rarity with toddlers & 5-year-olds!
We got up to lots in Cori's absence, even immediately after dropping her off at the airport on Saturday midday, we went round the corner to a new-to-Finn Museum; The Manx Aviation Museum (preceded by our packed lunch):
Inevitably, there are no pictures from inside the museum, as I was too busy trying to protect the exhibitions from being fingered or clambered on, but trust me when I say that Finn really liked the plane crash materials and engines/machines on display inside (though not as much as the display of Airfix on offer in the shop!)
We've been having trouble with Orry's sleeping lately, mainly with his waking up in the night / very early and deciding that he needs to sleep in our bed. I was expecting a fight over it in Cori's absence, but in fact, Orry came in looking for her but just went off sadly crying to his own bed when he found her not there. He did it twice that first night, without needing anything from me other than to put his blanket on and walk out the door, and then there was no such wakings from then on. Achievement!
The next day, Sunday, was the only whole day we had all together (since Finn was still in school), and we managed to survive it rather well.
Firstly, amazingly, Finn made a Lego model all on his own, without anyone else helping him at all. This was the first time he'd done so, and he did it without fuss or moaning at all (once he'd figured out that I was otherwise occupied and so wasn't going to get involved). I was really proud of him, as it was a great achievement - both in the making of the thing, and in his quietly getting on with something like that. Great work!
After that, since it was a glorious day, we decided to get out:
We took our packed lunch (we had a lot of packed lunches this week!) off to Peel Castle, which was only in its second day of being open for the 2017 season. One of my favourite places in the world, and a spectacular place for a sandwich!
The boys, however, were complaining soon after getting into the Castle about going home, which was worrying; hopefully that won't keep us away from the place too much over the summer!
I was relieved that, after Orry's nap, we had a kid's party to go to: Anouk, Finn's classmate, out in Douglas. It is rare for me to be especially pleased about having a children's party to go to, but this was a something in the day. And, as it turned out, it was very pleasant. However, the ball pit and bouncy castle all got a bit heady for Finn by the end, but we avoided too much drama, even despite Finn's trying to run away from me at one point (which was a first!).
Finn's schooldays all followed the same format: drop Finn off at school, and Orry and I go off to walk somewhere, before returning in time to collect him and get on with the cooking-eating-tidying-bed routine at home.
Knowing that Orry isn't going to be in the carrier for much longer, I realised that this was the last chance I would really get to go out on long hikes for perhaps years, so we went at it, beginning with a lovely walk with friends up in Sulby:
(Thanks are due to Katie for the lovely pictures, though it should be noted that I am not actually sat on Samuel in that final picture!)
Then a lovely walk with Orry's granny to an old Keeill in Maughold:
Then it was just me and Orry enjoying the countryside around Slieu Whallian, Lonan and Glen Maye:
The Slieu Whallian walk started from the school gates, and ended up with us having our lunch on the field opposite Finn's school. I didn't think that we'd be noticed, but there was soon a group of children shouting across at us. But it was a very pleasant thing to have the leisure to go over with Orry and chat to Finn and his friends leaning over the school wall. - I like our Manx life at times!
Experts will note that Orry and I went to see the 10th Century Lonan Cross, which was inspired by a new book I got that week. It also inspired us to detour out to Jurby to see the norse-era crosses there also. Orry is now an expert...
It wasn't all plain sailing though. On the Sunday or Monday evening, as I was cooking, Orry managed to happily do this (note that he has not just drawn on the paper):
The naughty step was used for this, but to little affect. Within five minutes he had not only pulled a book off the outlawed bookshelf, but done this to it:
He returned to the naughty step, but spent most of his time happily singing there. Such is Orry.
It did inspire us to read the book though, which Finn really enjoyed. It was our first "chapter book" and it was the highlight of Finn's days, what with the drama of King (bear) Leander's fighting giant cats or armies of boars in search of his kidnapped son, Tony. We're only sad that it wasn't longer!
The final thing in our week, and the peak of excitement, was Finn's show at school. It was themed on Manx heroes and so all of the children were supposed to come dress as Manannan, Finn McCooil, the Moddey Dhoo or the like. As is sadly typical of Finn, he refused to consider getting dressed up in costume when we first spoke about it, fearing that it would draw attention to himself in front of everyone. I asked Finn's teacher about what else to wear the day before and she obviously decided that have a word with him, and he came home saying that he wanted to be Finn McCooil - amazing! So it was that we rustled up something appropriate on the morning, and I think he looked pretty good:
You will note that Orry is also wearing the Finn McCooil sock things & the headband - Finn wasn't going to stretch that far, but Orry was only too happy to get the cast-offs!
The afternoon event was 1 1/2 hours long, from 2pm through to 3.30pm, with lots of singing, dancing and drama etc. Finn's class went up and sang, and Finn was a part of it all, fearlessly singing along with everyone else. I was amazed that he didn't bat an eyelid at doing so, especially as he'd apparently not deemed it important or significant enough to mention in any of the days leading up to it.
Here he is repeating his own performance with all the gusto to be expected of him after dinner that evening:
Then, even more impressive was that Finn took part in the "fashion show" where all the pupils strutted down the cat walk to show off their costumes. With an older Finn McCooil, Finn took a stroll down the cat walk and back - a phenomenal show of confidence! I was very proud.
It was just a shame that Cori wasn't there to see it, but she was back that evening, and all the boys enjoyed the trip out late to meet her, and even more the late night drive home chatting away to her about all the exciting things that they had got up to.
Fun times.
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