Math and mayhem

Today has been a busy day.

I got up in the morning with the littlest lady and bought some extra time under the covers with a few books. We got up and I made her banana pancakes, while she stood on the chair next to the cooker and tried to eat them as soon as they touched the plate.

Mr Buttons got up, got his breakfast and woke up enough for me to go out and patch up the fences after the ponies’ last break-out attempt. The fostering time with them coming to an end is getting easier to live with the bigger I get and the more I fall around in mud.

The kids played, I cleaned.

Mr Buttons is loving our kitchen scales at the moment. He is being super helpful by weighing my rice and pasta (not something I used to do pre-GD) and everything else he can find. Of course Captain sees this going on, hears the fantastically loud beeping sounds and wants to get in on the action. So at some point I could barely see the kitchen table for all the things we now know a very precise weight of. (Although I don’t quite trust Captain’s units of measurement like

“Three, like me!” and “A million dollars!”)

Buttons did a project on Minecraft, which taught me a lot. He is now making brilliant, sprawling mind maps, and using them to figure out what he wants to write.

The kids had a band going on for a while, with Captain on ukulele and vocals, Mr B on slide whistle and guitar. It was loud enough to completely drown out Linkin Park, which I had had playing on the background. Also, very entertaining. (And yes, the guitar could use tuning…)

Then we started playing games. I found this beautiful wooden bingo set Captain got last Christmas from my cupboard of mysteries. This gave us several good rounds. Then we played a very confusing game of Number Navigate, with very little concern for rules.

Bingo!

We all cooked a vegetarian curry with lentils and chickpeas, just to add to the cosiness of today. I’m fully embracing a winter menu, with lots of stews, soups and nice warming spices. They work well with gestational diabetes too, it appears, and there is always plenty in the pot. And lots of veggie prep for my kitchen assistants.

There were stories read by me, and Harry Potter by Buttons.

Captain and I made jigsaws, and she spend some time with her treasure collection. She has developed a fondness for my tealight stash. She loves opening and closing the “special box”, taking them out and putting them into various containers. They also work well as pretend cakes, gifts and stacking blocks.

Treasures

Hubby made a brief appearance between work and ukulele band, and found us sitting on the floor in front of the stove with various activities. He listened to the kids’ news, brushed Captain’s teeth before bed and headed off while I was reading bedtime stories and Buttons was playing Minecraft.

And when both kids were in bed, I added up that Mr B is 30 pages from completing the whole year’s math curriculum. Six months early… This is the same boy, who used to be near tears with his math homework. Setting his own target and having the support to work at it has clearly been a good way for him to learn.

So, tonight I am tired and my hips ache. I also messed up my knee at some point during my DIY fence fixing job, I think. But I am delighted to be taking a moment to appreciate my two crazy little friends and Hubby, who tells us we’re doing great every day. Even when he has to have his dinner surrounded by piles of books and days’ worth of art projects…