6/29 bounce

Wow my boy has energy. Oodles of the stuff. Way more energy than me. He has boinged ALL DAY.

This is him boinging. He does bounce. Lots.

Here's some of the other shots from today.

We went out to the Montessori preschool today for a visit. I was full of nervous apprehension, hoping Ben would like it there as he's been saying for a few weeks now that he wants to go to school. I think that's because his friends go to school, and he goes along sometimes to help pick them up.

I needn't've worried, he dived right in, talking to the staff and other children, taking his coat off and starting to take his shoes off as well - started making himself right at home! An hour's visit went so quickly. He loved it. I loved it. I think he'll do really well there. He can start after Easter if we want the funded places! 2 afternoon sessions a week until September. Fantastic.

Came home via the shop, so we could buy a bar of soap and some other groceries - the soap was intended for an activity this afternoon. Soap balls! But almost as soon as we'd got in, Charley had some milk, and was then spectacularly sick all over himself and me. I ended up having to put him in the bath, so offered Ben a bath as well. Charley was happy. Ben was happy. They both got clean (ish). Charley cried - tired - so took him out and dried, moisturised and clothed him, went to feed him in the bathroom so I could watch Ben but that didn't work so took him into the bedroom to feed him, hoping he'd fall asleep.

Leaving Ben unsupervised.

In the bath.

Well, he enjoyed himself.... the bathroom was soaking by the time I was able to go back to him!

So, both boys bathed. Lunch next.

Oh my word. Ben's energy. The boy couldn't sit still over lunch. Actually couldn't. Like he was literally fizzing over with excess energy and as it couldn't find an outlet he just wiggled and ran and jumped and clapped and ran some more and slid and slipped and put slippers on and didn't skid quite so much after that.

He had my phone to play games on but ended up with the Wii being put on while I ate and fed Charley some more and got the stuff ready to make the soap balls. Naturally Ben wasn't interested in grating the soap, but he spent a long time snipping the lavender that I'd picked from the garden with scissors. And, quite surprisingly he enjoyed squishing everything together! Lost interest in actually squidging the soap into balls but I'm not surprised to be honest, I finished them off and it was tricky. But it felt nice!

He spent the rest of the afternoon washing up. Seriously. Loved it. Made one heck of a mess. I sensibly decided to go elsewhere to feed Charley so I wouldn't get stressed, figuring I'd deal with the mess later! We ended up mopping the floor together too. And then taking pictures of him splashing instead of telling him to stop. And then taking pictures of him jumping off the stool... But it kept him occupied for AGES, even while I made dinner!

Here is a snippet of the kind of thing that he comes out with on a daily basis. This one started as he was looking out of the window trying to find the moon. The moon was not in his field of vision, and so......

"There was a dinosaur eating the moon, then it went away in its garage, and it wouldn't get fires coming out of their mouths because it wouldn't hurt their teeths and BAM went their teeth and break them because of the fires in their mouths in the dinosaurs mouths."

I stopped transcribing at that point because he went off on a shooty tangent...


Steve has come home and Ben is STILL boinging and has utterly worn him out - I think we'll both be grateful for bedtime!!




Y'know what?

I'm not stressed. Ben has been non-stop boinginess all day and I've stopped and stared in many occasions and wished I could glue him to the sofa on a few occasions and been slightly exasperated too, but not stressed and not shouty - not even close.

Maybe the knowledge that in a month and a half he'll be channelling some of this energy in a constructive environment has lifted some of the stress. Maybe I'm finally learning to juggle! Maybe the demands of the boys right now are complementing each other, as opposed to fighting for priority. Maybe I'm finally learning about grace :-)