Is it raining a little? Ah, never mind! If mummy has to stay indoors one minute longer without being allowed to go to sleep, she'll go crazy. Great job then that we'd dropped by the shops earlier and got a mini shovel to do some gardening with. I must get rid of these random weed flowers in the middle of the garden before summer strikes, and given my limited experience with gardening, I'd best start early!
Tara has a go too... but it's not for her!
Of course we have lots of appropriate entertainment for her up our sleeves, so out comes the ball! Tara discusses its design at length - "
mumble mumble mumble teddy mumble mumble" - is persuaded to give kicking it a shot, but turns out to be of the "mummy the ball got stuck in the weeds and I'm certainly not bending down to touch it so you go and get it out" school.
Ball, what ball?!
Ah well, never mind, we still have a brand new bobby car up the other sleeve, so out that comes. Meanwhile mummy realises that for digging one must pay more for a shovel than 80p, as this one bends backwards when faced with my weeds' roots. It is, however, very good at chopping, which turns out to be even more satisfying than digging. Mummy goes, chop-chop, and Tara... hang on... Tara tries to
what? stand (video) on her car?! But but but, Tara!
One last bribe up our sleeve, so down and out with it! Food! It would work on me for sure! On Tara? Briefly! Until she decides that two raisins are well sufficient, and that fiddling with gravity is far more interesting.
Gravity "attacks"Of course, when one has deliberately thrown one's raisins
and the plate onto the floor, slowly and one after the other, one shouldn't really go "oh-oh", Tara. Oh-oh is reserved for accidents only.
"Oh-oh!"
That's when Tara gets up, takes me by the hand (
tries to), pulls me to the gate (
tries to), demands "auf!", and makes it crystal clear that she's had enough of gardening, and wants some real action. Read: Mother, let's go to the beach or promenade, whichever,
now, and I don't care if I walk all the way, so we can find some dogs, or cats if there are no dogs, and
come on now!
"Auf!" Meaning, let's get out and find ourselves some dogs by the seaside.I give in and we compromise. A walk down the street, sitting on No. 12's doorstep, balancing on No. 5's wall, standing outside No. 4's garage for 10 minutes (cause number 4 disappeared through it with a DOG), decidedly
not staring through No. 14's window at the TV, and spending 15 minutes outside No. 1's window, waving and calling HIYA nonstop, cause there's actually a CAT in the window, lazily looking us up and down. Then back home through the front door at No. 8 (that's us), back out through the back to retrieve plate, car and ball, and back in to wait for Papi, who will arrive any minute now, to take over play time. Great, cause I'm quite out of ideas.
Salad? No, satisfactory gardening!Not that I got very far with the garden, but chopping up some weeds has been greatly satisfying. And after all, I'm as much a newcomer to gardening as Tara is to the bobby car.
There. Another afternoon well spent.
PS: The most worrying fact about that slightly worrying combination of pink trousers and red jacket? I was absolutely sure that the trousers were red before I put the jacket on her!
An aesthetic hick-up over breakfast
Dinner looks suspicious...
... and tea? Not even served!
(That puzzle, of course, is only one of the many wonderful things Claudia and Tara did together all week long. Mummy essentially did nothing other than provide nourishment and the occasional cuddle and nappy! Ah, how relaxing... or have I said so already?)
The women of the family
