Saturday, December 17, 2005

Snow Bear's cave

One of the unexpected pleasures of having Eben is discovering children's books. There are some absolutely amazing children's books out there. Fabulously illustrated and very entertaining, I've come to the conclusion that it must be one of the hardest forms of writing, because it has to be so concise, so as small minds don't wander (and that's just me) but also engaging and with a rollicking story.

Anyway, Eben's current favourite book inspired me on Nic's pressie from Eben and we've spent the afternoon making Snowbear's cave. It's a funny one, I'm lucky to have so much time with Ebs I see him for a couple of hours in the morning and then an hour in the evening - I have friends who basically reacquaint themselves with their children at the weekend - but I tend to read with him or play cars or bricks or whatever and then at weekends we're out. However, there are loads of things that Nicky does with him that I don't get the opportunity to see. She bakes a lot, paints, goes to music classess and minigym all of which I never see, but get reports back from. So it was really lovely to spend the afternoon sitting with him and making Snowbear's cave. We hopped over to the park to collect twigs and little flowers and berries and then I spent most of the afternoon trying 50 different methods of distraction to stop him eating the glue, spraying silver paint in his eyes and throwing glitter all over the house, but we've got our picture all ready and hidden. All I have to do now is avoid Ebs blurting out what we've done all day, which I'm not sure I'll get away with.

14 comments:

Span Ows said...

...off at a tangent...have you ever read Viz?...is it still in print!...anyway, they had a character called the 'Snowman' (after happy-smiley Christmas TV 'walking in the air' snowman with accompanying choir boy Aled).....anyway, Viz's first Annual came out in 1987/88 or tehreabouts,I was in the wilds of Venezuela at the time but had bought it on UK leave...it has so many really funny (to me!) characters but I loved the Snowman, and Parky, and Mrs. Grady (Old lady) Fat Slags and many more....sorry...I'm waffling again

flyingfinn said...

It wasn't until I had grown into an adult when I started to appreciate just how much time my parents, but especially my mum, spent with me doing activities, taking me to Judo ore football. I'm sure your son will let you know oneday, that he appreciates the time you spend with him now, reading etc.

Anonymous said...

Six, I recommend the Hairy McClary books. They're great fun to read..

Linda Mason said...

Admit it Six, you were doing it for yourself! I always kid myself that the craft afternoons that I have with my children are for them to express their artistic inner selves but that's crap, it's for me to pretend I'm a Blue Peter presenter being paid zillions for peeing about with sticky back plastic, paint and old boxes!

Span Ows said...

hehehe...Mags...the truth will out!

I only found out a few years ago...after decades of wondering,that sticky back plastic was sellotape but that the dumbo wallies at beeb couldn't 'advertise'!

what about sticky tape...or something equally sensible!

...that's weird...have you changed something six?...my comments appear in a coloured box...but also below in comments box, as if they ahven't been posted...is this some sort of filter to prevent kids seeing dodgy comments?...tits fannies, shit, penis, hairy bottom...just a test you understand...

Span Ows said...

DOH!

Gavin Corder said...

Great work Six!

I was going to be doom laden and say that if the ice continues to retreat (as reported in the Sunday Times today) they'll be no more snow bears by the time Eden is a man. They can make it 100 miles in open water but not 200.

But I won't! Eben will build snow caves and the bears will survive!

Hurrah!

Crispin Heath said...

Mr Simpleton,

I agree, I have one of the Hairy Mclarey books which I love and we bought one the other day for christmas.

Now I'm off with yowl and howl and a wagging of tails.

Gavin Corder said...

I've cheered up now! :-)

Sticky backed plastic is sheets of stuff that you cover books with, not rolls of sellotape! (Some people have not watched sufficient children's telly!)

Personally I am a dab hand with kids' make and do! Here's one I made earlier:

Gavin Corder said...

Oh it didn't like that html - in the best spirit of children's telly it's all gone horribly wrong so try this:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/GavinCorder/Guido.jpg


You should have seen Imhotep - (from the film the Mummy)...he was partially regenerated but semi decomposed ...euk. He spent Halloween last year as bouncer at our local - the Landlord kept shouting across the road to a rival publican, "My doorman's harder than your doorman!"

Linda Mason said...

Six, your wife shouldn't feel stupid at all. Her Mom was probably overwhelmed following the call.

It wasn't until I had my son, when I was on my own and struggling like mad to exist let alone live, that it dawned on me just how much my Mom had done for me and my siblings when we were children. My Dad worked away from home see and was only ever there for 2 nights a week.

One night I sat down and wrote her a letter and poured my heart out saying how much I loved her for everything she had done and that it was only then that I finally appreciated just how difficult it must have been for her. I posted that letter and a day later had a very tearful Mom on the phone thanking me and saying that a letter like that had made her feel like she was a queen.

And Gavin is right about the sticky back plastic. It was awful stuff used to cover work surfaces and doors and stuff when I was a child. Sellotape was sellotape, used for taping not sticky back plasticking!

Span Ows said...

No, no, no Gav and Mags..Blue Peter did not use rolls of 'sticky-back-plastic' to cover books etc...they used strips of 'sticky-back-plastic' ..STRIPS... to tape things together...do not try to justify their evil lying misrepresentations...it was SELLOTAPE I tell ya!

Gavin Corder said...

Span, you are wrong! We Blue Peter buffs are right! Sticky back plastic was the euphemism for the brand name Fablon.
http://www.hainteriors.com/decorative/index.html

Kayfer Kettle said...

You lucky man Six!

I'd love to live this all over again, and maybe it's not too late.

My mum, my sister, me and my brother once built an indoor snowman out of bags of old clothes , covered in balls of cotton wool.

There are photos of us around it.

Happy Christmas.

K x