The Incessant Questions of a 5 year old.

I have posted in a while so I thought I ought to. 
I have been a bit distracted making future plans and finishing a set of flags for our local colour guard dance troupe, so I haven’t had much to say, but I thought I’d mention the small things that have been bubbling away with us. 
  
The first is that Ed brought home a very precious piece of paper with what might be his first written sentence. I spoke to his teacher this morning and it turns out he may have done it completely alone in his play time which makes it even more amazing. I photocopied it and took a photo quickly (he likes to fold up pieces of paper and they always end up washed in his trouser pockets).

Translation; “I am flying”.

I’m so proud of him.  

My other thought this week is about the constant stream of questions.

Ed is always asking questions, and even at the most inappropriate times, like when I’m trying to get him to go to sleep or eat his breakfast, I always try to answer him to the best of my ability, because I think it’s important to encourage him to explore his world and learn as much as he can from it. At this young age, I’m not going to stifle him.

Today’s question, as we walked to school, was;

“Do spider’s poo?” 
I’ll be honest, I had no idea. My thinking theory was that because they liquefy their food, maybe they are super efficient and have no waste. I have since learnt that apparently there is one basic in life; if it eats, it poos. 
I have Googled it and I look forward to telling him when I pick him up from school that yes, they do poo. They expel both urine and faeces at once in a kind of paste. Although I have never knowingly come across it, according to the answers I got on Google it seems to cause cleaning problems for boat owners and shed tidiers. I don’t have enough time to look into it more thoroughly, so I might be slightly misguided but hey ho, I’ve answered his question. 
It’s safe to say I’m not going to be looking for spider poo around the house or in the sheds (where there’s spider poo, there’s spiders). 
Anyhoo, I think it’s bloody marvellous that as a parent, thanks to the brilliant advances in technology, we are armed against all the strange and sometimes silly questions our children ask us. 
Only the other night as I tucked him into bed, he asked me what ‘these bones are’ poking his ribs. I was able to Google it on my phone and show him pictures of his Skelton and what lay behind his ribs to explain why they are there. Amazing.

I know this has all been said before, but I’m so grateful for my iPhone. It’s educating my kid’s one question at a time and they when they need it, it entertains them with its many young child friendly games.

Playing with Spiders.

I'm scared of spiders.
They make me feel a bit sick in my mouth.
But raising two children, I don’t want to let them know this, and I definitely don’t want them to feel this. So I try to be brave.

This happened yesterday.

Busy cooking dinner, I overhear chatter about a spider.
I wander into the living room to find Ed trying to scoop up a spider onto a tiny peice of paper.
The spider breaks my ‘bigger than a 50 pence piece’ rule.
Little bit of sick in my mouth.
“Please stop!” I yell.
Remembering that I have to be brave, I re-assess my attitude and say;
“We need to put him back into the garden where he lives. Let me go get a glass.”
So I run off frantically trying to find a glass and an envelope/piece of card, anything that will hold firm. I end up with the ‘too floppy for comfort’ leftovers of a notepad.
Having placed the glass over the spider, gently squeezed the paper underneath without breaking all eight of his legs, Ed then starts to sob.
“What’s wrong?” I ask
“I wanted to give him this spider house” he replies holding the tiny bit of paper, now folded in half to make a tent-like shape.
“So let me get this straight” I ask, “you want me to lift the glass, risk the spider running away, just so I can put the spider house in there?”
“I just want to see him walk through it” he sobs.
Great.
Oh my.
Somehow, from somewhere, I gather up my nerves and quickly lift the glass, place the spider house in and put the glass back down on top.
Phew.
Cheers then fill the house as the spider walks under the spider house, back out the other side.
Then I’m allowed to go put him in the garden.
I empty the glass outside the front door, finally happy with the situation until Ed announces that he needs the spider house back.
So I have to go out in the rain to collect a little crappy piece of paper, narrowly avoiding the spider who is making fast tracks straight back to the front door.
I think I got the door closed just in time.

I live in hope that I won’t always feel like this towards spiders. There were days when I wouldn’t have been able to do that and I would’ve just squished it. But I don’t want to raise kids who kill everything they’re sacred of. What would the world come to then?

Ed's spider house under the glass.

Butternut Squash Gratin Recipe.

Ok, so I'm not a great cook, but that's no reason to not try.

I loooove butternut squash, so I thought I'd try this recipe. It is super yummy.

I find it impossible to follow instructions to the letter, so of course I have tweaked it a little.
Here's my version of Butternut Squash Gratin. 
I apologise in advance for it's vague-ness. I'm sure I've said before, I belong to the dollop and slosh school of cookery. Feel free to blame my Mother.

Ingredients;
butternut squash, sliced
150ml double cream
tin of peeled plum tomatoes (or fresh if you have them)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped (optional, but I put garlic into everything)
onion, thinly sliced
a slosh of olive oil
salt & pepper
tspn dried rosemary
grated cheddar cheese, just enough to cover the top

Throw everything into a baking dish and give it a good toss together.
Then cover with grated cheese, as much or as little as you choose.
For a better looking dinner, you could lay out the slices in nice layers, but I just left it as it landed.

Bake in the oven at 180˚C for about 1 hour 20 minutes.

I can't remember quite how long it took as I was busy with the boys at the same time. It also depends on how thinly you sliced the butternut, so just keep poking it with a fork until you're happy.

This one was a teeny bit over-cooked, hence the burnt edges, but it was soooo very tasty.

I hope you like it too! xxx

Ah, the joys of Photoshop.

Oh how I love Photoshop.
This is a photo of my boys wearing my bandanna scarves (available from www.etsy.com/shop/icanbeSuperMe) outside school one cold, wintery day.
I had recently made a batch and as usual, they nabbed one each for themselves. 
I always let them for two reasons; so I can take photos at random (I kind of prefer photos taken in natural circumstances) and because they make great walking advertisements. We always get compliments from strangers and I usually have flyers in my handbag haha.
Anyhoo, the original photo was lovely and colourful, but not entirely obvious as to what it was trying to sell, so I fiddled with it on Photoshop.

Very pleased.
Even more pleasing was the fact that the reason for making this batch was because I had received a request to make them in this larger size (they were originally only in 0-2yrs).
And it was my very first international order! How exciting!

Sneaky Sandwiches

This conversation really happened.
I'm so shocked I have to get it in writing asap.
This morning, as I helped Ed get dressed for school, he asked
"Have you made my lunch?"
"Of course" I replied.
"Have you made the sandwiches with the brown bread and the chocolate and peanut butter?"
(To explain; inspired by 'Embarrassing Fat Bodies' (Channel 4) I recently changed our bread from white, to 50/50, to brown, hoping they wouldn't notice too much. And he always eats peanut butter and chocolate spread sandwiches. Yesterday was the first day I put brown bread sandwiches in his lunch box.)
"Yes"
"I don't like the brown bread, I want the white bread"
"I didn't think you'd notice" I laughed.
"Actually" he said "I did eat it all (he did, it was all gone). It tasted the same as the white bread. I don't mind"
"Jolly good" I said.

Brown bread it is then.