H had a lovely long nap, and we spent most of it on our respective pootas. Did some more laundry. Just before H woke up, K and I went out to the green shed and took her oven and the kitchen toys out of the toy shop. I asked B to clean out the toy fridge, and she whinged and moaned so much about it being Her Toy Bought With Her Money that I eventually lost patience with her and told her that I was buying it off her for $5, which she would be lucky to get at a garage sale for the thing. She was happy with that proposal, and allowed K to carry it inside without further obstructionism.
H woke up at that point, and we played together with the threading beads which I had brought inside. H is able to put the point of a chopstick into the holes in the beads, although not yet a lace. He had fun playing with that, as well as tipping out the beads and putting them back in their pot, while I started to cook spaghetti sauce for dinner and the freezer. As far as spending more time interacting the screens-off idea was a bit of a washout, as for a long time both girls were holed up in their respective bedrooms with the doors shut. K was having a tea party with some furries, and B was sorting and rearranging her collections. Then K came out and played with H and the threading stuff for a while.
I’ve been bringing stuff off the line and putting it away immediately, which is a nice change. I’m now down to the last full load in the baskets, so unless there’s a secret stash of dirty clothes somewhere in the house, I’m done. K and H were playing with her “nicky-nacky mouse” (which she is now pronouncing “kyicky yacky” or something similar) until he got beaned with it when he got in her way, and much woe ensued. They played together for a while in K’s room but she was being very protective of her toys so there was a bit of argy-bargy going on periodically.
It really wasn’t H’s day, today. He and I went outside to put out the last load of towels and check the eggs, and he fell up the stairs and put his teeth into his lower lip, poor little sprout. He now has a swollen mouth, but at least it wasn’t as bad as when K did the same thing: her teeth went all the way through whereas he has a cut just on the inside.
B turned the computer back on at 4pm to watch POTC, and H and K played upstairs with the abacus and the plastic balls. K asked me to write sentences for her to copy, and then draw her a dog face which she has copied a number of times. Then she wanted me to turn it into a book for her, so I wrote down what she dictated. Then she started asking how to spell words…and wrote them down. I was gobsmacked. She knew how to form almost all of the letters, initially she was writing the letters randomly on the paper but then, without prompting, she started writing left-right. Well there you go, there’s that natural learning stuff happening right before my eyes!
Daddy got back, and I disappeared for a while. I came down to look after H when E took K to return DVDs and then for a bike ride. H didn’t want dinner, he just wanted bed. I know how he feels…