More Birthday Betsy

Betsy with her Knight Bus - one of her birthday presents.

Was up early and just about to fulfil my promise to Betsy to go on a long bike ride when I tripped over Al's rucksack in the hall. It was suspiciously heavy; I realised his lunchbox from Friday was still in it. But a stinky crust-filled tupperware box was the least of it. I also found it it some spellings to learn and some maths homework that Al had not mentioned.....

I have heard rumours of children just sitting down and doing their homework, and I don't know how true they are. In our house, doing homework is like pushing over a Coke machine. You need to have a few goes and rock it back and forth a couple of times before it topples over.

It got done, but as the end was in sight, Al then uttered the fatal words, 'my head is itchy'.

Later I thought to myself that this weekend I've faced rather a lot of the classic parenting drama moments. I texted Nibs to say that all I need now would be 'Mummy, will you die one day?' and I'll have a full house. I was tempting fate; later I had to deal with, Is there a God? Can people in Heaven see you? Can they hear you? What happens when you die? What happens to your clothes when you die? (What???) If you stand on your head for ages will it kill you? When you die does your body disappear?

All inspired, it turned out, by Roald Dahl's The Twits.

So, it was rather later than planned that Betsy and I got out on our bikes. The park was beautiful, sunny, crisp and looked like it was waking up for the first time in months. It was very busy too, everyone enjoying the sunshine. It seems impossible that only a few weeks ago we were there in the snow. Can't wait to go running tomorrow.