Who’s Normal Anyway?

We’ve been in Norwich today for some home ed events, which meant we needed to be out of the house just after 8am. I had to wake L and put him straight in the car. We used the park and ride and then walked to the Regimental Museum with L on my back in the Mei Tai. He had on his fleece hat and he has a bad habit of pulling it off and dropping it. M and I were supposed to be going to keep checking he still had it on, but we got talking and forgot. When we got to the museum I realised L was hatless and we ended up walking right back past the castle and up the road searching for it. Luckily we did find the hat discarded in an alcove and managed to get back to the museum in time for the start of the workshop.

There was a mixed age group of home ed people from little ones up to teens but we’dbeen put in with a school class who looked about 6, so it was probably aimed at key stage 1? The museum receptionist didn’t look too pleased to see us and couldn’t make sense of an “Education Otherwise” group, she was convinced she had 2 school groups booked in. The education officer was nice though. We rotated through 3 groups but it was all very basic. M said he was glad he’d gone though, so that’s the important thing. The first group was about living in Norwich during the second world war and there were artifacts to look at like a gas mask, a chamber pot and some old toys. The next group was “make do and mend”, making flower posies using wire and buttons. M managed to cut his finger on the end of a wire. L made friends with another of the babies there. The last group was about evacuation and what evacuees were allowed to take in their suitcases. They seemed to have to fit in some writing just for the sake of it - filling in labels with their names, favourite toy they’d take with them and their favourite food. I’d rather they’d spent longer learning about something interesting but never mind.

We went to McDonalds for some lunch and then walked across to the Forum for the ice skating session that was booked for the home ed group in the afternoon. The current session was almost empty so they let us on early. M got on to the ice and realised it was much more slippery in ice skates than he remembered. It took a while for him to get some confidence but at least he let go of the edge. You can’t balance and hang onfor grim death at the same time and going around the edge meant he kept having to skate round people with random limbs all over the place. L wanted to go on the ice too but had to make do with watching through the perspex and then he found some puddles to splash about in and got his trousers soaking wet. I was just about to take L off to the library for a bit when M came up and grabbed on to the edge to stop closely followed by another boy with even less balance who grabbed, missed and took both of them down. They clashed heads and M hurt the edge of his eye so came off the ice for a bit. One of the marshalls fetched some ice and filled in the accident book but he was fine really. He went back on and was soon skating around again so we went off to the library.

The library was full of school children having a tour(??) but we sat and looked at some books together until L got more interested in a little girl’s balloon. I found some different Asterix books to take out for M and then went back and found The Secrets of Vesuvius for him because I remembered he’s just finishing the first one. When we got back to the ice rink they were just coming off the ice. Then I realised I’d lost M’s cap somewhere. We walked back to the library and looked around and eventually spotted his cap. I’d put it in my pocket while he was on the ice and it must’ve dropped out while we were looking at the toddler books.

We went for a coffee and cakes in M&S. I was carrying L on my back again and once I’d paid and found a high chair I unfastened the carrier, grabbed L’s arm and swung him down into my arms - he was sound asleep! Some little old ladies stopped to chat and remark how they couldn’t believe he was still asleep after how I’d taken him off my back! He slept on my knee through latte and cappuccino cake. I asked M to hold L while I went to the loo and when I got back he was awake, in the high chair and happily munching on M’s crisps. So we finished up there and went for the bus.

This evening M has been out to roller skating - he’s going to have such sore legs and ankles tomorrow! I made leek and mushroom pie for me and A and a small pizza for M and L and then we’ve done baths and bed. Which is where I really ought to be and get caught up on some sleep!

We got up early this morning to be in to Norwich before 10am, in fact L was rushed to the loo and then into his clothes and into the car with no breakfast because he didn’t wake until 7.45am. That probably turned out to be in our favour though. He was awake but just looking out of the windows all the way to the park and ride, calm in the Ergo hurrying to the cathedral and then happy to cuddle and feed once we got there. He fell asleep near the start of the session and slept soundly in a spreadeagled position (most unlike him!) through several changes of location (bit of a problem carrying him all round the cathedral with a bag full of coats etc as well, but one of the other mums offered a hand and we managed).

The workshop was about the Civil War and run by the cathedral education officer who was very good. He was dressed as a Parliamentarian pikeman and talked to the group about the two sides in the war and a very basic explanation of why it came about. Then he went on to explain how the new model army was organised and explained the uniform they wore and the roles of the pikemen and horse sections. All the children who wanted to could dress up as roundheads and do some pike drill. They did some of it inside because it was cold and raining (we had ice on the car this morning!) but then we transferred to the cloisters so they could march up and down and then do a charge in formation.

The session ended with another talk about Charles I being beheaded and Norwich cathedral being ransacked by soldiers and then there was a trail to do around the cathedral. By this time M was complaining about how hungry he was, so we left and we’ll have to go back and do most of the trail another day. L woke and we went for McDonalds and then caught the bus back to the car and came home.

We were back about 2ish but M was really lethargic and didn’t want to do anything except play on the computer and watch TV and he was getting easily wound up. He settled for a little bit doing some suncatcher painting and then the lad next door called for him so he went off to play next door. That’s the thing with these home ed events in the morning, it just takes up the whole day.

It would have been a much harder session if L had been awake because he’d have wanted to run around alot. A few people commented about how good he was and always quiet (mustn’t have been at the soap talk!) but I can’t make him sleep on cue, we were just lucky today that he was ready for a snooze at a convenient time.

We went to Church this morning, where I possibly upset the vicar when he said it was a back to normal standard C of E type service and I said (sort of joking), “Right, shall we just go home then?” He is a nice man though, I should be nicer back. M went out to Sunday School after the first hymn and it sounds as though they did something on topic and meaningful this week, which is better than them just chatting or running riot up and down the corridor - which is what it sometimes sounds like might be happening. L played on the floor pulling things out of my bag, then had a fight over a toy with the baby girl in the row behind, with both of then sitting under my legs and pushing the toy back and forth and protesting. I took him out to feed him in the end, not that I normally would, but he was trying to breastfeed during the Peace so everyone was getting up to shake hands while he was pulling my top up and latching on an off to breath through his mouth. I thought that was a bit much for most people to cope with and he was getting very distracted, so I took him for the toilet and then sat in the coffee room for a while til he settled down.

We came home for some paninis for lunch and then I made some bread dough before we went out again. Today was Gressenhall’s apple day. I hadn’t realised what a major event it is there, the car parking site was huge and the whole place was very busy. We looked around the apple tents and the craft/produce tent and I wished I’d taken a cheque book. We bought some more jam and pickles from Essence and tasted and then bought some local varieties of apple. There was a stall selling the most gorgeous woad-dyed things, including bamboo towels which were amazingly soft and I’d love to get some! We bought some woad seeds to try. There was a wooden toy stall there that I would have bought from if we’d had cash left. Oh, and I tried some organic chocolate truffles that were to die for!

We bumped into some friends and chatted for a couple of minutes and then we went off to the playground for a run around before it rained. We took it in turns swinging L on the swings while we forraged for sweet chestnuts at the edge of the playground. Once the rain started though we quickly went back to the car to come home.

This evening we’ve finished off the bread and made a roast chicken dinner. I showed M how to make “exploded apples” (cooking apples cored and filled with brown sugar and then cooked until they puff up out of the skins) and we also baked some bananas with chocolate drops because they were turning brown. L couldn’t get enough of the chicken or the apple and banana.

Yesterday was A’s birthday and he had the day off work, so we’ve had a nice long weekend.

On Saturday we spent most of the day at home, only going out briefly to the library. We did some stuff in the garden and A cut the grass. M painted his model aircraft that he’s been building with A’s help - think it’s going to take a few coats of paint. We had a gorgeous roast beef dinner at tea time - but can’t think of anything else we did.

On Sunday we were up and off out to Lincolnshire to visit friends we hadn’t seen in a year or two. They also go geocaching (do much more than us) so we did one of their caches when we first got up there, walking along the side of an old canal and then scrambling down a banking to find the microcache (no drugs luckily!). We went to theirs for a cuppa and then out to the pub for Sunday lunch. We haven’t been out for a pub lunch for ages and it was very good, though L was restless and wanted to wander. He’s not been himself the last few days and has a lingering cold which is possibly more a reaction to teething, but he’s snuffly and a bit irritable.

The plan was that we’d go and do another cache with our friends that starts at the pub, but while we were eating it started to pour with rain and it was so heavy we abandoned caching plans and just went back to our friends’ house for the afternoon. They have 2 boys a few years older than M and so he and they played on their PS2 showing M how to get through some higher levels of the Lego Star Wars 2 game. L roamed about and seemed to especially like something in their bathroom and playing with the doorstop in the toilet. They have a dog and L gradually got braver about approaching her.

A did some male bonding over laptops and GPSrs (he bought their old one as a birthday pressie) and mapping software and I chatted to S about schools and teaching assistants and her OU course. It was nice to catch up again.

On the way home L fell asleep in the car (thank goodness cos he was getting fed up of the car seat poor lad) and we couldn’t decide what to do for tea so called in and picked up a Chinese takeaway. L woke up in time to eat some prawn crackers but not much else. M wanted to play his Lego Star Wars 2 after tea so stupidly (given he’d played on computer games all afternoon) we let him have 20 mins but he had a meltdown about not being able to do it like he had on the PS2 and shouted and raged about and got told to come off the computer and then he got even worse and we all had a big row until he’d gone to bed. So not a very good end to the day.

Yesterday I woke up first for a change (rare to wake before M) and decided to try making Chelsea buns as a special thing for a birthday breakfast, thinking A would lie in til 9 or so, but he was next up at 7.30am. The buns were done by about 9.20am which would have been OK if he’d stayed in bed, but we had already had breakfast by then so had them for elevenses instead. After opening cards etc we went out to Thetford to look around and do a cache down there trying out A’s new GPSr. I don’t see the need to ever go to Thetford again and if you’ve never been you’re honestly not missing a thing. It was like Aldershot only more so. On the plus side I did find some undies and socks I liked for L’s Christmas stocking in Woolworths (one of those traditional things we always put in).

We finished the cache and decided there was nowhere in Thetford we fancied going for lunch so we ended up driving to a garden centre near there where the food is OK and had a late lunch and a look around, then came home for pizza for tea. M went out to Cubs and learnt about knots and that was about it.

We had a laid back morning, not having breakfast til 8.30am and then taking ages over getting showered and dressed. We went to Gressenhall for the day for their Blacksmithing event. They had a marquee with lots of blacksmiths with small forges who were making panels representing aspects of Gressenhall, which will be going up by the entrance when they are done. We watched them setting up and then went to the playground for a while.

We’d arranged to meet another HE family there but didn’t set a time and M was getting upset that we hadn’t seen them yet. We went for an early lunch in the lovely cafe there and M spotted our friends through the window and dashed off to say hello. We finished our lunch and went to find them and spent some more time in the playground.

The workshouse had reenactments of people being interviewed on entering the workhouse so we all walked up to the building for one if those. M joined in with S, S and L as the children and grandmother (!) of a family being admitted. L wasn’t impressed with sitting and wandered off to play in the main hall.

Afterwards we had ice creams and watched the blacksmiths some more. Then we walked back down for a final play in the playground, going via the 1930s cottage which I’ve never looked around before. Might have to go back tomorrow for the craft fair and see how the blacksmiths are getting on, but we’ll see what the weather is like.

On Sunday morning we sorted out packing for our trip away and went to Church, then had a quick lunch and got set off for Slough. The journey wasn’t too bad and L slept alot on the way. We got to the Innkeepers Lodge in Slough about 4.30pm so we sorted ourselves out and then went for an early meal in the Toby carvery. M and I had carvery meals, A had a chicken tikka salad and L had bits from all of us. The waiter we had was fab, obviously enjoyed babies and he made the meal pleasant for us all, topping it off by bringing L his own mini ice cream sundae, which got spread all around the high chair, floor etc etc. After eating we went back to our room and had showers and everyone but me was in bed and asleep by just after 8pm, so I read the newspaper by myself and then had an early night too cos there was nothing better to do.

Yesterday morning we woke up about 7am and M opened all of his birthday cards and a couple of pressies we’d taken with us to open on the day. We had some breakfast in the lodge to set us up for a busy day. While Travelodge are good for getting cheap rooms if you book far enough ahead, if you can’t get one then Innkeepers Lodge is much better value when you need to pay full price. The rooms are generally a higher standard with more thoughtful touches (not massively important things, but enough milk and some biscuits on the coffee tray, shower gel and tissues provided etc) and the price includes a decent breakfast with cereals, juice, yogurt & fruit and toast/croissants all laid out to help yourself to.

We arrived at Legoland around 9.30am so had time to do toilets and a quick look around the shop at the top while we waited for the park to open. Then we caught the hill train down and A and M did the fire engine ride and then we all went on the boating school. We managed to do all the rides we wanted to do and the queues were very short / none existent now the schools are back, even though the weather was glorious. L is far too short for lots of the rides so A and I took turns carrying him or accompanying M on the rides. I took him on the Dragon’s Apprentice (I don’t do rides any scarier than that LOL!) and M lost his cap as we went through the tunnel, so that put a slight downer on things. Customer Services are supposed to be going to retrieve it for us and post it on.

M was wearing his birthday badges and got given a Legoland one too by one of the Duplo shop staff. When we sat down to wait for the stunt show to start the roaming staff who talk to everyone in the build up stopped to ask M if he was having a nice birthday and then invited him to walk on stage waving a flag near the start of the show! He got a costume to wear and was excited to have gone in a Staff Only area.

While A and M queued for the wave surfer ride (only significant wait all day) L found a little toddler friend and they followed each other around for ages, which was cute to watch.

By mid afternoon we realised we only had a couple of hours left and headed back to Duplo land to do the Fairy Tale Brook (we always go on that!) and then the water play area. Both boys loved the water jets and raced around like loons for a good 20 mins and then L started getting cold so we moved on to Miniland and then for donuts.

At the top of the park we went into the shop again for M to spend some birthday money and this year we went armed with price lists from the Lego shop at home website, cos last year they ripped us off in the shop with some very inflated prices on some items (I complained to customer services afterwards and got nowhere - apparently it’s a privilege to buy while you are there and they are a separate company to Lego itself and can charge whatever they please!!) Then we met a Lego brick on the way out of the park so stopped for a photo of us all together.

Lots more photos on Flickr. We had a great day out for M’s 8th birthday.

A’s parents came down to visit on Wednesday and are staying locally until Monday, visiting us and some other relatives about an hour from here. It’s worked out well with it being M’s birthday on Monday. They’re not staying with us partly because we don’t have much space and our house isn’t exactly restful with us all getting up so early and I think they might be worried they would disturb us. They’ve come to spend late afternoon/early evening with us Wednesday and yesterday and they’re coming over tomorrow afternoon for an early birthday tea and presents with M.

Today though, A was in work and the rest of us went out for the day to Gressenhall. The weather was gorgeous for a day out and we had a fun time. When we first got there we had a walk down to the farm section and a look around the animals and the farmhouse. We all tried milking the “cows” and admired the new piglets (thought of you and your fellow BFer comment Tech!) and dodged the stray goat. L stalked the farmyard cat who studiously ignored him.

By then it was lunchtime so we walked back up the hill and got sandwiches and other goodies in the cafe and sat for a while. Then M wanted to go to the playground so we spent a good half hour or so in there. M raced about with all the big equipment to himself as the only other children were small toddlers. L pottered around the swings and slide and tried eating bark chippings. M got brave on the death slide and I struck up a conversation with a mum who had a preschooler and a baby. She asked how old M was and then didn’t ask the school question at all LOL. We finished off the afternoon by looking around the old shops and the museum.

When we got home A had just got in from work so we had a cup of tea and then he and FIL went out for fish and chips and we chatted until it was time to put M and L to bed, then the in laws drove back to their hotel. This evening I’ve been checking M’s birthday present (rumblepad) installs OK and wrapping up and writing cards and A has been putting the picture onto M’s cake. I’ll take photos and blog about it tomorrow. I managed to spill lots of icing sugar all over A and the floor while “helping” him, but he was quite good natured about having white streaks down his shirt and jeans LOL. I think the rest of the “party food” for tomorrow’s tea is going to have to be courtesy of Tesco though.

Yesterday we had a day out to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. We won the tickets in a draw - otherwise it would’ve cost us £66 for basic entry and we wouldn’t have gone at that price. But we had a lovely day because we weren’t paying. It was the Spitfire anniversary airshow so there were lots of trade stalls and aircraft being displayed outside and a flying programme in the afternoon, as well as the usual display hangars. The whole set up was pretty money grabbing though I have to say - we could also have paid another £12 to walk along the flight line to see the aircraft parked up there and various amounts to climb up and look in cockpits of aircraft.

We went in the Air Space hangar and M got into some of the hands on models demonstrating thrust and drag and how aerofoils work while L wandered and fiddled with whatever he could reach. The hangar is not fully open til next summer but they already had alot of aircraft on display and dangling from the ceiling.

We also looked in the Battle of Britain hangar and the American aircraft hangar and M was interested in the Blackbird spy plane and the anti aircraft guns. L rode on A’s back in the Ergo most of the time so that he could see and wasn’t toddling off beneath the planes.

For lunch we shared a portion of chicken pieces and chips and a bottle of coke and it came to £6.50!! L insisted on having a fork and spearing chips for himself LOL.

In the afternoon we looked round some more aircraft and the trade stalls and then watched the flying displays and got sunburnt. It was rather windy but the displays were still good and the Tornado flying over wasn’t as loud as it might have been for the wind carrying the sound away. I enjoyed the Chinook’s aerobatic display - amazing what such a huge helicopter can do in terms of fast turns and tipping in all directions. We didn’t stay for the Spitfire displays at 5pm because we wanted to get home for tea after a long day and the queues out of the car parks would’ve been mad at that time.

I haven’t felt like blogging for a little while - partly because we haven’t really done much I feel like commenting on and partly because once I stop it’s hard to get going again. Let’s think what I might be interested to read back about, hmm…

Last week we got L his first pair of shoes. He turned out to only have size 2.5 feet, so they didn’t have much in to fit him (being an end of line/factory outlet type of StartRite shop too). I think the shop assistant thought we were dead pushy parents because he does look small for his age and as soon as the shoes were on he refused to walk and reverted to crawling, despite having been tottering about quite determinedly for several weeks. We wanted to get him shoes to keep his feet dry when we’re out places. He figured them out in a couple of days though and is quite keen on them now, bringing them to us to put on or trying to put them on himself. We could only get the “pre-walker” type in his size, but they do the job.

A week ago today we got a new tumble dryer. We have a washer/condenser dryer but the dryer part is rubbish and takes hours to not dry things properly. So a proper one that works is a big improvement and saves having damp washing hung everywhere. The things I get excited about these days, eh?

This weekend we went to a mediaeval day at Pensthorpe nature park. There were loads of re-enactors there doing different things than we’d seen before. M got interested in the old games and sat down to play a dice game (OK cos it wasn’t a Sunday LOL) and the man showed him how to play drop down dead. You shake 5 dice, take out any 2s and 5s and tally up the other dice to get a score. Then you shake the dice that are left in and do the same again, repeating til you run out of dice. On M’s first throw he shook 3 5s and 2 2s ROFLOL. The man was so flabbergasted at him doing that that he gave M a pewter token prize.

A got a new mobile phone during last week, because the previous one died of shock receiving a text message. He unpacked it all and swears he put the charger somewhere safe, but he hunted high and low later and couldn’t find it. So on Sunday we went to try and buy a cheap charger but ended up just getting one online. I can’t think where the other one can have gone unless L found it and binned it. He has a thing for posting things into the kitchen bin at the moment. I’ve rigged it so anything dropped in the front misses the bag now though.

Yesterday we went to a retail outlet place at Spalding to have a look around generally and also try and find M some decent trousers. We have a bit of a do related to A’s work to go to next month and M only has too short joggers and scruffy jeans. Nowhere is selling proper trousers at the moment, unless you want school trousers. So no success there, but we did find a big horseshoe magnet that we’ve been keeping an eye out for. They have a crazy golf course in the gardens behind the shops so we had a game between showers and L toddled about finding all the muddy puddles to sit in and dibbling his fingers in the water in the holes.

Oh, and we’ve been listening to Truckers for our audio book this month - got to recommend it. It’s very funny and clever how he comes up with these quirky takes on the world.