April 2017, Week #1 (without Cori)

First the monthlies (which we again forgot! We're getting awful at this!)

29 months (2 years 5 months) old

30 months (2 years 6 months) old

66 months (5 years 6 months) old

67 months (5 years 7 months) old

Cori was away for the first week of April, working back in London, so I took a week off to look after the two boys.

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:

Lovely!
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.

March 2017

Monthlies:

28 months (2 years 4 months) old

29 months (2 years 5 months) old

65 months (5 years 5 months) old

66 months (5 years 6 months) old

As I write this, in May, we're pretty much just going on the photos and our Facebook posts, so I'm not going to pretend to really remember what went on months ago...

We had Pancake Day races at Maughold:

This is a picture of those experienced pancake racing cousins:

Sadly, however, Finn refused to run when the whistle went, so he didn't get off the line. Orry did slightly better but soon got to shy and refused to go any further with people looking at him. Never mind!

Both were happy to eat pancakes though, even Orry, who had his own ones especially brought from home (which were lovely, despite what they look like!):

Rather excitingly, Cori and the boys were in a crash when on a bus, reported by the police as:

"We are currently dealing with an RTC involving a horse box and a bus on the TT course just prior to Ballaugh"

... But reported on Cori's Facebook as:

"Me, Finn, and Orry were on this bus!! All fine of course but scary! To me at least - Finn thought it was all terribly exciting and wouldn't stop asking the police questions and Orry simply noted "whoa! That was loud!" and went back to his colouring. Meanwhile I was smothering my babies in kisses and shaking in relief that it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been..."

There isn't a picture for it, but here's Orry borrowing his friend Sal's hat:

The Manx National Heritage sites opened again for the season, and Finn was very excited to get to the Laxey Wheel again:

Orry, however, was a bit poorly for the trip (this is his best attempt at a "Cheese!" smile):

It was lovely though:

Finn's cousin Georgie (& aunt & uncle) came for a rare visit over. It was great fun, especially with Georgie leaping into the cousin-fun, marching with Finn and Orry's band around the house, or else piling into the great ruckus with all the cousins in Ramsey. Great fun. We were very sorry to see them go, after a final trip up the Albert Tower:

It was when visiting the cousins in Ramsey that Cousin Thomase showed off his worm breakdance move, Orry was very impressed and so decided to do it himself later:

Finn celebrated Mother's Day in a very heart-felt fashion, as Cori reports:

"For Mother's Day this morning Finn made me a card with a picture of the thing "he loves most in the entire world."It's the stick he found on our walk yesterday and accidentally threw in the river and mourned the loss for the rest of the day.
But he wanted me to know on this special day that "I love you almost as much as my stick.""

This is the accompanying picture:

This is a picture of Orry (just because it's nice) whilst on that fateful trip up the river where the beloved stick was found and lost:

Orry also made a beautiful thing, in their Possan Cloie Manx play group [gura mie ayd = thank you]:

On Mother's Day itself we went up for lunch with my mother. It was probably something which he ate, but Orry ended up vomiting in the car, all over himself. His Sunday Best clothes were not going to work for the Golf Club any more. Luckily Cori had packed a change of clothes, or else this is how he would have been dining:

Also whilst in Ramsey, we took a trip to the Mooragh Park, which was great fun:

Orry did have a certified allergic reaction in March. This happened when Cori had a glass of milk, finished it, and left it on the table. Orry then got a hold of it and drank the dribble at the bottom of the cup. This was the result:

In actual fact, we're rather pleased with how it came out; he has obviously come on a long way since last year, when this would certainly have been much more serious and certainly a trip to the hospital. Compared to that, a mere swollen lip is a great thing!

In March Orry got really into Finn's wipe-clean drawing books:

This was be the first thing he'd want to do for weeks upon entering the play room. And we were very impressed by what came of it at times:

Something else that Orry got really into in March was the Brown Bear book, which he was soon able to recite by heart (thereabouts):

It had been going on for a while, but it became constant in March (and it's still going on now at the end of May): Orry's finding comfort in touching the mole on Cori's cheek. It began as a thing he would do to get to sleep at times, but then it spilled out into the day; when in the carrier, when sat in her lap, when kissing her goodnight etc. Of course, this soon became very irritating for Cori, as you might be able to tell from this picture from in the midst of an evening meal:

Without any sort of attempt at a story, here's some silly dressing up with the rack of costumes they only very rarely use:

... And also with the sieve in the bath!

Finn is a good one for asking questions, even of strangers. So when we saw a police officer checking people's speed at the car park near the school, Finn confidently went up to ask when they were doing. Manx police officers being as they are, Finn was immediately offered to wear the hat and hold the speed gun thingy:

We and the other parents arriving at that time were all very impressed. Finn, however, had had his curiosity satisfied, and that was about it. Such is Finn.

In contrast, Finn can also be very shy at times. This is certainly the case when it comes to Taking Part in things with groups of other people. This is certainly a part (if not the whole part) of how Finn has yet to take part in the Manx dancing which we were trying to take him to throughout March. Even though 70% of those in the place are his schoolmates, and even though he regrets not taking part each Sunday evening after he's missed his chance, there is just no way to get him involved in the thing when it's actually going on. Very frustrating: because we want him to be a part of this good thing, because all his friends are doing it, because it's a good community thing, because Cori's a part of it, because he would benefit massively from doing it, because (at some level) he wants to take part etc.
We continue to hope, but hope is all we have at the moment.
Here is a picture of Orry on the bridge in Peel in those naive early days when I thought that we'd go along to collect Finn after his hour there with Cori and he'd be beaming with accomplishment, rather than bitter and twisted with dug-in heels and self-hatred... Sigh...

...But here is Finn in happier times, in wellies on the beach:

But, to close on, here are those two silly boys enjoying life in Peel: