6631/19551
Only 11 months to Christmas. It seems that month's now last for inifinty now though, so we might not get there. It's not just because I'm not drinking that January seems so long, is it?
The shit filled snowman still stands in the corner of our garden and snow is still not he ground, though now crystalline and icy. The kids were still keen to go out and play in it, of course and I took them on a walk so we could observe the difference in the condition of the snow. Which means THAT COUNTS AS SCHOOL.
Phoebe started making a snow ball, though it was more like an ice ball and wondered if she could make a small snowman. I thought that there wasn’t enough snow and what was there wouldn’t be easy to gather, but she persisted. To being with she had a tiny ice sphere, compacted harder by her tiny hands (she has inherited those from me it seems) but as we continued the walk the ball got bigger. She cradled it in her arms and called it Snowy and kept asking Snowy if it was thirsty. Then she’d roll Snowy on the ground for a while so that Snowy could “drinkâ€. I explained that it was unlikely that Snowy would be thirsty as Snowy was made of 100% water, (SCHOOL) but Phoebe persisted.
On the way home she rolled Snowy along the ground and it got bigger and bigger. By the time we were in the field next to our house Phoebe could no longer push it, so I took over. “Can you believe Snowy is this big?†asked Phoebe. I could believe it, as I had seen it happen and have observed the clinging nature of snow particles before. Also it wasn’t unbelievably big, by now something like a large beach ball in size. But I pretended that I couldn’t believe it. And in truth I was impressed that she’d achieved this in the un-snowman friendly conditions. It had taken a lot of commitment and persistence to get this far. I wonder where she got that from.
She was keen for her mum to see the snowball, which by the end of the final field had grown pretty big. But we had to get the ball over a driveway strewn with pebbles (not mine, I would never use stones in that way). So I had to lift up Snowy, which turned out to be heavier than the girl who ha created it. I managed to get Snowy to our front door though. And Catie came to look at the big ball of ice that her child had created. She had to pretend that she couldn’t believe it either. I couldn’t believe that I had carried it so far and ten years ago wouldn’t have guessed that I would have cared about a horrible ball of ice enough to risk breaking my back to get it home.
Children are insane and parenting draws you into their madness.
It is good.
More snooker tonight. Will be up in the usual places soon.
