market day

Awakened early by an excited boy. "Is it time to go to the park?" Sunday was play date day with D. The rain cleared and it was sunny but not too hot - perfect for two boys to race monster trucks down the slide and in the woodchips in between climbing, sliding and running.

After play time we went to the market. T helped me find a parking spot in the shade and we set off for the market. Local strawberries didn't look that good (last day already!) but the raspberries and cherries were good - T ate a lot to test them while waiting to pay. I also bought new potatoes, bread, zuccini chocolate loaf and hazelnut spread. On the way home we passed our favorite fruit and veg stand and I bought strawberries (yum!) and peas. T had fun shelling and eating the peas without realizing he was eating green vegetables!

Supper was vegetarian moussaka adapted from a recipe from Country Living UK:
sliced potatoes, cooked
2 sliced eggplants, roasted
1 jar tomato sauce
cheese sauce (50 g butter and 3 tbsp olive oil, melted together until sizzling. Add 120 g white flour and mix, cook for 30 seconds, add 800 ml milk, stir and cook for 3 minutes. Cool for 5 mins and add 100g each of feta and parmesan cheese and 2 eggs. Mix together. Season with salt, pepper, chili and ginger to add some zing)

In a greased 9x13 dish - layer half the potato slices, spread 1/2 the tomato sauce, half the eggplant then spread 1/3 of the cheese sauce. Continue with the potato, tomato sauce, eggplant and top with the remaining cheese sauce. Bake at 350 deg F for 50 minutes.

Dessert was strawberries.

channeling Grandad

Where does T's social streak come from - not really from either D or myself. So it must be from his Grandad. I never met D's father but by all accounts he was a charmer and very social. He could be plopped down in a crowd and would start making friends all around. "T.M, Canada" he would say and instantly have a crowd of new buddies. So last Sunday, T decided he would take three of his trucks to the park to "share" with other children. He was as good as his word - he shared brilliantly and I only had to step in when one little boy tried to take the bulldozer off with him. T wades into groups of kids (younger and older) and says "Hi, I'm T" and off he goes, making new friends. It's wonderful to watch - I just wish I had half his ease with people.

He's becoming quite his own person. He's very bossy and is constantly telling D and I, especially when we lay down the law (eat dinner, listen to mummy and daddy, pick up your toys, etc) - "you don't talk now", or "I'm important, you're not". Which depending on our frame of mind, we either find very funny or very irritating!

Last week at daycare, he lifted up his bowl with his fork and announced "Look, a forklift!" Brilliant! (actually he would have said "forklibt")

Today we are off for a "Day out with Thomas" - T has been wanting to get started since he got up this morning. Just waiting on his Auntie and we'll be off.

shoes and dirt

Summer seems to have arrived during the time we were away. I dragged the remnants of my summer wardrobe from the bottom of the storage chest they hide in off season and took stock of T's summer wardrobe as well. Several additions needed to be made to both so off shopping I went on my day off. I hoped to find a pair of sandals that would fit T and that he would wear. I ended up buying a pair with a small construction vehicle on them (earth mover/ bull dozer) that also light up. He loves them. He had to wear them to bed the other night. I tried to remove them once he was asleep but no dice. I did not have similar success with the new sun hat - it is too hot apparently so today T and I had to swap hats...he wore my big straw hat and I wore his turtle/lizard/frog hat.



I've been doing more gardening this weekend. The peas sown are coming up, as are the potatoes and the radishes. I added basil plants to the tomato containers and planted a herb container as well (oregano, sage, thyme and a different type of basil). I added some zuccini and cauliflower to the vegetable plot as an experiment. I also planted some sweet peas along the fence - hopefully we get lots of flowers and the leaves will help hide the fence! The clematis D (and T) gave me is blooming well and spreading nicely.



I hope we get some success with the vegetables - I'm afraid the location of the plot is not the best and contemplated yesterday the idea of creating raised beds in the sunny part of the patio. It would be a lot of work and I need to convince D that it would be a good idea.

talking to the animals

T was so happy to see the cows in the field behind my brother's new (newish) house - as promised. And the day after we arrived, while I went shopping with C, D took T across the river to meet the cows in their field. He said the same thing to each cow - "Hello Mr Cow and how are you today."

None of the cows approached or spoke (mooed?) back so T was a bit disappointed.

We took all the boys to the Cotswold Wildlife Park - the day was cloudy and overcast when we left but sunny and hot by the time we reached the park. We looked around at the tortoises, camels (shedding coats in bizarre patterns), zebras, rhino, lions, leopard, mongoose, ostrich, emus, owls, falcons, kestrels, monkeys and then went into the walled garden where the penquins and otters and various birds live. T loved the penquins (pink ones) and wanted to climb into the enclosure.

He talked to one penquin - "hello Mr penquin. How are you today? Why don't you want to go swimming - I'm sure the water isn't too cold." After the penquins and otters, we went to the slide and the carousel, more monkeys, snakes and lizards. T even pet a python!

cows and other animals

Well, here we are in England. I'm busy adjusting to driving on the wrong side of the road, which everyone over here says is the right side of the road (left side to be accurate!). D keeps opening my door which makes him look gallant but in reality just means he forgot which side is the passenger side (he doesn't want to drive over here).

T is having a wonderful time - he's still waiting to see English lions and penguins but that has to wait until the Cotswold Wild Animal Park. We've had sheep in Wilts and horses and ducks at the farm but T had to wait until we got to Uncle K's house for the cows. He was outside watching the cows tonight. One of the cows was drinking from the stream (sorry - the River Frome) and T was worried he would drink all the water and the ducks wouldn't have any water to swim in. 

getting ready for holiday!

Last night I got out the suitcases to start packing for our trip to England. T was enthralled by his own suitcase and ran around "packing" it. Colouring paper roll and crayons, sponge bag full of trucks and jeeps, soothers, blankets and a big pile of books. And to top it all off, a big bulldozer. Then he announced to me "all packed, mummy. Close it now". So I zipped up the case and he toddled off down the hall, pulling it behind him. It had to stay in his bedroom so he could see it in the night. I thought we would have issues at bedtime as he had packed both his blankie and soother but he wouldn't let us open the suitcase to get them out for him. He didn't end up falling asleep til just about 10pm by which time D and I were beyond exhausted!

This morning he wanted to take "his" suitcase to preschool this morning. I think he's a bit out of his comfort zone, what with getting ready to go to the farm on the airplane and getting to wear PJ's to school today and tomorrow for PJ's days.

mother's day

My boy gave me flowers for mother's day. One he made himself at preschool along with two cards (he goes all week so he's in both the T/Th class and the M/W/F class so I got two gifts!).

And it seems that he talked D into buying me a clematis. I had to dig out the non-producing kiwi vine to put the clematis into the bed (and that sucker had roots that went down for miles and wrecked one trowel!)

We had a lovely day playing in the sandbox, having tea with Auntie K but in a fit of pique over a mummy rule late in the day, I did get "I don't want to be your friend anymore" from T, twice but I got a big hug before bedtime. Ah - life with a 3 year old.