One of the best experiences of Finn's life came in March - as he so excitedly referred to it afterwards himself.
A visit to Manx Radio to be a guest on the rather relaxed Manx language Friday afternoon show, Jamys Jeheiney.
The school has been making little pieces of Radio clips, with stories, songs, jingles, and even jokes being put together. These were all passed to Jamys at the Radio, who then played then along with the request songs of the children. They put a call out for children who wanted to come in to be a guest on the show, and, surprisingly, I was one of the few parents to put Finn's name in. So it was that we got an open invitation to come along, so I asked my colleague at work if her daughter wanted to go. So it was that Finn and his friend from the year above went in.
They had a wonderful time:
It was clear what Finn's friend was going to do, as she's an excellent singer (though it did take some brilliant persuasion from Jamys to get her to do it in the end, but what lovely singing!), so we thought that it would be good to work on some jokes with Finn, as that is what he enjoys doing in English, and it would be fun to try and get something into Manx.
We lent our ears to the jokes coming out of the joke books they have, but, to our surprise, almost all of them were built on word-play, even for children, but we still managed to pull together four jokes. These went through a colleague at work to make sure they were good Manx, and they were typed out for Finn to read out, and he did it wonderfully:
As is obvious, Jamys hasn't heard these jokes before, and some of his reactions are lovely, as are Finn's to them working, or to his being told by Jamys that his was the first ever 'Knock knock' / 'Crank crank' joke he'd ever heard in Manx.
In case you're interested, the second joke is one worth understanding:
Why did the chicken cross the road?The lovely pause between the telling and Jamys getting it is a delight. It was hard for me to remain silent in the corner as I laughed hard (hence Finn's looking off to his left, in my direction).
I don't know.
To go to to fool's house.
... Ok...
Knock knock!
Whose there?
The chicken!
Finn had a marvellous time there and he not only really enjoyed it but really thrived in the experience. He was nervous before going in, worrying that he'd not do well, and as soon as he was in the studio, he relaxed into it completely and was just his usual happy chatty self. It was lovely to see.
He made a good impression on everyone who heard him too, and Finn was delighted when someone he didn't know (who I did know) shouted across the street that he was great on the radio a few days later. Finn was beaming!
After emerging from the studio, the two children were delighted, and Finn couldn't wait to get home and tell Cori all about how much he'd enjoyed it:
One Sunday around the dance practice brought a pleasant enough trip to the beach. Although windy and cold, it felt like it was the last throws of winter, and that better weather was emerging. A nice thing to feel at last:
What's not changing, at least not for the better, is Orry's fear of animals.
He is petrified of them. We've stopped trying to convince him to brave it, as it's clearly something very large and scary in him, and so we're now getting used to crossing him over the street when we see dogs ahead of us, or picking him up what there are dogs on the loose or the like.
And this is not just of wild(-ish) animals like dogs - it also includes completely innocuous animals, like meg lambs only a week or so old:
Picture here is Oshin fearlessly tugging at the thing. Not pictured here is Orry, literally, stood on the table on the other side of the room.
It is really remarkable his out-of-the-ordinary fear of animals.
And it's probably getting worse.
We had to warn his nursery not long after this of his fears. We suspected that a farming parent might bring in a lamb, so we were pro-active in making sure that they knew not to even try and have him in the same space. So it was that he was led out into the garden to play on his own a few weeks later when the lamb came in. - The nursery workers were very surprised at it in him, and to such a degree.
One thing Orry does like though is cooking.
Or, at least, the idea of cooking, inspired by a show he watches on the tablet when he's able. Mysteriously, one of his favourite shows at the moment is a children's cooking show, which he watches avidly, and then immediately comes to ask us if he can help with the cooking. Of course, he can't on the whole, as our cooking isn't child-friendly like that. So, after too long disappointing him, Cori decided to make something with him especially, and Orry loved it:
He felt very special doing that, and entirely fulfilled (even if his normal level naughtiness and not-listening certainly crept in towards the end!) especially when he got to take in a basket of bread rolls to nursery and share them out. It was lovely to give him something to be proud about!
Another person who likes cooking, or, at least, food, is Oshin... Cue cute pictures and films of Oshin eating:
You'll see from the film there that Oshin is getting pretty good at his eating-coordination these days. He's not at knives and forks, but he's doing pretty good, we think!
Not an eating video, but a lovely thing filmed at the lunch table is this of Oshin having a happy hum / chuckle:
There aren't too many things to fit in now for the end of the month, so let's try and whizz through them...
A beautiful card Finn created for a friend's birthday - he did a unicorn especially, knowing that that was something which she really liked, and the "3D" feature of the cake is something Finn loves to get into his pictures these days:
Here is Oshin and I playing the guitar rather nicely, I think:
My walks out with Oshin continue to be very special, thanks to living somewhere as lovely as we do:
A nice picture of the family (who sit on the other side of the table to Finn & I):
And - drum-roll, please.... this:
We've not had a drier before, for all of our British-Isles lives. We've had it in our heads that they were energy-wasting, especially when things will dry on their own hung out. But, without a garden space, things have to be hung out around the house, which makes the house damp, and the clothes have to be out for a week or so before they are dry enough to be put away, which means that there are always clothes out hanging around the house.
Cori decided to actually investigate whether our prejudices were correct, and discovered them to be complete nonsense, and so got ourselves this beautiful thing. Our lives will never be the same again!
Towards the end of the month there was the unusual event of its being Cori who took the boys to the library (I forget what I was doing - probably something work-like). She sat in the corner with Oshin and let the boys gorge themselves in some books, including Orry, who obviously knew that what he was reading was a song, but perhaps didn't know how it went as well as he should have done...
This is yet another good example of Orry's phenomenal reading, and also of Finn's wonderful absorbsion in his book to not look up or be distracted at all throughout Orry's singing!
We boys went for a walk up Bradda Head (the first time for the boys) and saw the "Fairy House" (which was to be taken down not too long after due to vandal & weather damage):
And, to finish with, a picture Finn suggested I take, and I was glad I did - that little dude...
... And, finally, the pictures I actually got the camera out to take - of that cute (if somewhat messy) dude Oshin:
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