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Yesterday, I took Anna, Iain, and Lucy along to Thomas's football match. Usually he has two matches on a Saturday, one at 11:20 and the next at 12:30. The break between them is too long, and the others tend towards chaos. But yesterday it was just the one, at 11:20. Lewis had work to do, so I thought I'd take everyone out.

Lucy fell asleep on the way there. So when we arrived, I took a few plastic shopping bags (you know, the strong, reusable ones you keep in the car) and put them in my tote bag, so we'd have something to sit on. If I have to hold Lucy, I can't stand around for an hour, and the ground is always damp. Always. Of course, as soon as I put Lucy down on them, she woke up, and I thought we might be in for a lot of fussing. But no. We had a snack, then moved to where Thomas's match was about to begin.

Iain played behind us, and Anna found some stickers in my bag. Lucy happily stuck them to her top, and I actually watched Thomas play. I thought, as I looked around, 'this is what I thought it would be like...' Girls playing happily, Iain staying close, allowing me to support the team.

Of course, it only lasted about 5 minutes. Then Anna spotted someone's dog, and we never sat down again. But it was nice while it lasted.

Half rubber

Here is Thomas, on the last day of our beach holiday. Above, he's pitching, below, batting.

It looks like baseball, from this distance. The bat is the same. The ball is different. Apparently during the depression baseballs were cut in half, so you got more baseball for your dollar (or probably a lot less than a dollar). A game developed around these oddly-shaped balls: half-rubber. In some places in the south, it is still played, and we met a family who are enthusiasts. Because the father who invited Thomas to play with his sons came from a large family, the siblings and their children can get a pretty good game together now when they gather for family holidays in the summer.

Thomas gravitated toward the action as soon as it started, of course. His instinct that a sport is being played is uncanny. And he's instantly riveted. I was glad for the hospitality of this big family, who included him in the warm-ups and taught him how to hold a baseball bat. Thomas took to it straightaway, and would have played all afternoon and the next day, too, but we were winding up our time on Tybee and parted with great disappointment.

Our time at the beach was fantastic: a good time was indeed had by all.

One red VW

If I ever do write the memoir of my time in Durham, which I want to call 'Driving in England', the story of Anna's ascent of a neighbor's car will have to find its way in. She has always been a climber, and is pretty skilled, actually. If I hadn't seen her standing on top of our car a number of times already, I might have freaked out and not just told her to get down. Might have been better all around if I had. Because of course she didn't get down, as she could see I was in a conversation with a different neighbor. As I turned back to check, the owner of the car and his parents (?) emerged from the house shouting, first at Anna, and then at me.

 

I am pretty sure nobody has ever shouted quite so abusively at me before. The man yelled about his car, worried that Anna had damaged it (with her crocs?), while the other two people shouted rhetorical questions about the quality of my parenting. Shocked, I took Anna by the hand and walked away, utterly speechless. He demanded an apology and threatened to call the police. Nothing I said made any difference, though; he just kept getting angrier and eventually swore at me in front of the children. By the time I got Anna back to our house she was crying. The man and the two older people with him spent the next 45 minutes wandering around the car musing loudly over the damage Anna caused. So when I had to walk past a few minutes later to collect Iain from another neighbor's, they started in on me again. Thankfully the other neighbor offered to keep Iain a little while longer and walk him back, thus sparing him the ordeal. Eventually the owner of the car called me a moron, and demanded to speak to my husband, since I was useless.

 

Obviously Anna shouldn't have been there. But I was (and am) completely flabbergasted by the response. Really? This is the procedure for dealing with an 11-year-old girl climbing on your car? I apologised; I offered to pay for the damages. He didn't seem even to hear that. He followed me home and returned later to speak to Lewis.

 

Tonight as Anna was getting ready to go to bed, she clung to me in the way she does in a scary scene in a movie. I asked her what she was afraid of. 'Him', she said.

 

I didn't have to ask her who 'he' was.

 

 

 

 

'fashion paints'?

There are plenty of stories from our visit to the US this summer. Iain improved his swimming dramatically, Lucy discovered the joy of water wings, Thomas learned to handle a kayak, and Anna found that she likes crab. Consider this post the first installment of the 'holiday' series. Hopefully it will be cheering for all (not least of all, me) as the seasons change and our tans fade.

We vacationed on Tybee Island during the summers when we lived in Atlanta, so we were delighted to go back to somewhere fun and 'foreign', and yet familiar...and hot! Dressing for the day involved choosing which bathing suit to wear for the beach or pool. Wonderful.

One day, as Anna and I were walking back from the beach together, she insisted on 'fashion paints'. It wasn't the first time, either. The day before, when we were sitting at the table, she had said she wanted 'some of those paints'. Which paints? I asked. 'Those fashion paints', she replied. Fashion paints? I wondered. Some new nail polish maybe? No. That wasn't it. Clearly, it was something we had seen together before, but I couldn't figure out what. Eventually I said that she would have to point it out the next time we saw it. Patient girl!

Somewhere in the back of my mind, though, I must have been working on the puzzle. When she asked me on the way back from the beach, we rehearsed some of the same things. Then I remembered something we had seen and talked about: airbrush tattoos. Ah-ha! Which one do you want? CAT. She even knew that she wanted it on her leg:

Mystery solved!

Iain enjoys sports day

Iain isn't a competitive boy like Thomas (who, incidentally, came first in the egg-and-spoon race and second in four others, including a sprint). He's perfect for sports day, actually, because it's all about taking part. The big finale is the relay. As Iain took his place, he made certain I was going to take his picture while he was running. So I did:

 

Lucy was tugging at my skirt, as I had put her down to take Iain's photo. I picked her up and looked at the field in time to see Thomas coming...but not in time to take a photo. Oh well: here he is preparing for an earlier event:

 

He's determined, there on the starting line. The race was a sort of modified steeplechase, I think. Thomas came...second.

 

It was a great day for the event. Beautiful and sunny, with a nice breeze, and occasional cloud cover to give everyone a bit of a break. I missed the morning events, as I am getting us ready for a trip to the US. But I was there long enough to see the boys compete and to chat with a few other parents.

 

Apparently this year there was a new mums' race--some sort of dressing up thing. I missed it, which was probably just as well. My last mums' event at sports day is probably the reason there isn't a sprint anymore. Also the reason I don't sprint anymore. But that's all right: Iain (and Thomas) really enjoyed sports day.

 

 

hand-me-downs

We love hand-me-downs! Our grandma always brings us loads of things when she comes, and we enjoy wearing many of them. Of course, we can be particular about what we wear, so some of grandma's finds become a blessing to other friends--or to their friends! Here's what our mum has to say about our clothes:

Hand-me-downs are economical, of course. Lucy has a friend at nursery who passes on the most posh things--the best way to get clothes from Zara and Monsoon! And it saves time, as the business of clothes shopping might otherwise mean long days at the Metrocentre or Dalton Park or Newcastle.

But that's not the real reason I like hand-me-downs so much. The truth is, I am terrible at deciding. If I am going to pay for something, I have to be certain that it's really what I want. I have to like it. And quite often I am just not sure about that. So a bag of clothes to explore and try, and like, or not-like-so-very-much, is a great gift indeed. Anna loves trying on the things her grandmother brings (of which there are usually loads). Sometimes there are things too small, too big, or just not suited to Anna. So we pass them along. Sometimes the things Lucy and Anna receive are not quite new-looking. Then I never worry about them being spoiled.

There are times, of course, when shopping is necessary. School uniform must be bought, most of the time. The school year always seems to start better with fresh white shirts and new cardigans. And we'll shop for smart clothes for a dear friend's wedding this summer.

But by the beach and by the pool, you'll find us in hand-me-downs.

Ishy

Until yesterday, that's how Lucy referred to herself: 'Ishy.' It had been sounding more like Oo-shy lately, I admit. But last night there was no mistake: she said 'Lucy'!

 

 

She wouldn't stand still enough for me to take her picture, though :)