shenanigans

Me: Bee, can you go to the loo before bed, please.
Bee: Mummy, I'm not Bee, I'm Princess Leia! 
Me: Alright. Princess Leia, please go to the loo.
Bee: I can't! There are Stormtroopers in there!
Me: Just use your lightsaber, it'll be fine.
Bee: But I don't have a lightsaber!
Me: Ok, use your gun, then.
Bee: I don't have a gun either!
Me: Fine, use mine *hands over imaginary gun*
Bee: But it isn't loaded!
Me: Will you PLEASE just go to the loo?!
Bee: Fine!
    *slams bathroom door*
    *opens bathroom door* 
Bee: You nerfherder!!!
    *slams bathroom door*

I'm not a Jedi

I tried really hard to convince Bee that I'm a Jedi, today. She didn't believe me for a moment.

She does, however, accept that fairies come through her fairy door at night and use the potions she makes in the garden for all their magic spells, so I'm taking it as a slur on my capabilities rather than an intellectual objection to fantastic/unproven ideas in general.

lego, lego, and some lego

This is the freeform Lego castle Bee and I made on Friday. She wanted to build a castle for the twin unicorns I got her for Valentine's Day, and we had a few random castley bits in our Immense Bucket of Lego Joy, so we spent the afternoon building. Features include a jail with a barred cell, a grand patio type area with decorative tiles (actually tarot cards from our fortune-teller minifig) and lots of little arches and windows. Oh, and a special pet entrance for the Royal Cat, with a red roof.

 

Today, Bee and I started on our Lego ghost train. As we were tipping the pieces onto the floor to begin, she enthused "Wow, Mama - this is going to be WAY epic!"

 

heads held high, touch the sky, you mean everything to me...

"Can I have some chocolate, please, Mummy? By the way, you smell bad."
That girl needs to work on her diplomacy.

 

Bee took this hilarious and terrifying self-portrait, today.

  Look what came in the post today!!! My bestest is the very bestest who ever lived. 

And he deposited some rocks for me today, for the February Love Project.

 

it's that lady on my knickers

"Mummy! Look! It's that lady on your knickers!"
(she means WonderWoman. I have WonderWoman pants.)
Yesterday was a Dungeons and Dragons/ Lego day. I built a Lego spacecraft of some kind, we built a Megabloks Moshi Monster thing (Mega Bloks are pretty crappy compared to Lego, but it's a cute kit, and was on special offer) and we put together Bee's new Lego Darth Vader watch. She's been periodically announcing that it's "Darth Vader one o'clock" or "Darth Vader past three" all day.

I also made my little mini At-At (I have resigned myself to the fact that I'll probably never own THE Lego At-At) and I am actually mega excited right now, because my wonderful lovely Bestest has bought me the Lego VW Camper I've been mooning over for the last 18 months! Eeeek!!! I'm a very lucky girl indeed.

And today, we've been finishing off our rocks for the February Love Project, and I released my first one into the wild, tonight. Wonder if it'll still be there in the morning?

Bee: Mummy, will you get me a Valentine's card for Love Day?

Me: Yes, of course. I always do, because I love you.

Bee: Great. So I'd like a Darth Maul one please. But it has to be a Love Day card which says Valentines on it, and a picture of Darth Maul, OK?

    This random cat totally photobombed my origami swan photo.

Getting drunk on rum and attempting to follow complicated YouTube origami tutorials at 2am is not recommended. You know, just for the record. I used this tutorial for the awesome heart-bat. It probably would have turned out better without the rum, but the attempt may have been less amusing.

lobster poo

"Mummy, do you remember when I did a poo and there was a lobster in it?"

Er, no. No, I don't. And I feel like I really *would* remember that. (Turns out that she meant "sequin" rather than "lobster", and yes I do remember the mysterious day she pooed a sequin.)

    We've mostly been collecting and painting rocks for the February Love Project.

And we did a bit of chalk bombing on our travels too. There was a council employee with a leafblower by the bus stop, and it was attached to a big backpack thing. I tried really hard to convince Izzy that he was a Ghostbuster, but she wasn't having any of it. She's a lot more sensible than her Mama.

everybody wants to be a cat

YES!

This morning we watched The Aristocats in bed - first time in maybe 15 years for me, and I still remembered it perfectly. Afterwards, Bee was singing the Thomas O'Malley song, then suddenly stopped and said "Of course cats don't really do any of those things like Alistaircats (!) cos actually, all cats do all the time is miaow for food ALL DAY."

There is some truth to that, in my experience. 

^ This is Bee's psychedelic cat picture, on Daddy's ipad. Every time she selects a colour or an image, she looks at her finger, expecting to see it stuck on there! So adorable.

Today was Saturday, and Saturday is Daddy Day, when Bee's father comes over and takes her to football club. As he was leaving, I was playfully teasing him a little, as I often do, and he said, "Mummy just loves winding me up!" I replied, "It's just too easy! It's like shooting fish in a barrel" and Bee enthusiastically declared "Yes! It's like shooting fish in Daddy's face!"

Today hasn't been a great day, really. Our rabbit, Fergus, has gone missing. Some builders were doing work next door over the last couple of days, and without my knowledge they removed the paving slabs which blocked off the gap in our rear fence. Fergus is a free-range bunny (though we shut him in a hutch at night) and the whole garden is fenced with rabbit-proof mesh except the wooden fence at the back for which we used the paving slabs. I'm so upset, and there is no sign of him.

Isn't he beautiful?

I'm also having terrible stomach cramps whenever I eat, because of the awful sickness bug we had. Oh, and Bee found a dead bird on our patio. He looks as though he flew into the window and dropped dead.

So yeah: quite a horrible day. I decided to try to turn it a little bit positive tonight, by focusing on the February Love Project.

It's a very simple premise: Throughout the whole of February, paint stones with hearts, in bright colours and patterns, and leave them for people to find. The picture shows our stones from last year - this year's are in progress. 75 people have joined the event on Facebook so far, and I'm hoping it will grow and grow. How amazing would it be for little lost stones to appear all over the world, spreading joy, this month? Pretty awesome, I think. And we are just one of many groups of people doing similar things across the globe... stones, letters, origami... yep, human beings are awesome.

hurrah for lovely love

Bee woke me this morning with a question: "How old are you, Mummy?"
So I told her. She said "So you're getting closer to when you'll die one day."
And off she went to play. Thanks for that, darling!

This cheered me up, though...

(Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, along with Wild Kratts, is Bee's most recent obsession)

So it's been a gentle recovery day, today.
I ordered some pretty ribbonses from Scrapunzel (the pics are clickable)

...and I'm starting to get all Valentinesy. 

I think Bee and I need to make some of these!! From Spoonful.

I know it's not very cool or whatever to enjoy Valentines Day. I know I'm supposed to say "it's all commercial nonsense, capitalist trickery, I don't need to be told how to show people I love them, I do it every day etc. etc." but you know what? Holidays are what you make of them, and you get to choose whether to participate. And I *love* an excuse to spoil people and spread happies.

Which brings me to the February Love Project.

Last February, we painted rocks (in acrylics and nail varnish, for waterproofness) all different colours, with hearts on them, and we left them all over the place for people to find. I decided to make this a tradition every February. This year, we're doing the rocks at our monthly home-ed group (tomorrow) and then some laminated cards to tie to railings and bus stops etc at our weekly group (on Valentine's day) as well. Yay! Want to join in? I'd love to hear about it, and see photos :)

We got started a little early this year, as you can see in this post.

HURRAH FOR LOVELY LOVE!

gee thanks, kid

Today, Bee and I have been knitting together - she's been winding the yarn around the needle, while I take care of the fiddlier bits. I had forgotten until she suggested it, that I'd done the same when I was her age, with my lovely Nana/Bee's Greatnana, who we don't get to visit as often as I wish we could.

"Are you the nicest Mummy ever? Even nicer than Greatnana?"

 
- "I don't know. What do you think?"
 
"I think Greatnana is, definitely. You are nice, but she is the nicest ever. Let's phone her and tell her that, Mummy."

Since we're nearly in the month or lurrrve, we did a quick valentinesy craft today - just a little sewing card made from a cardboard box, which Bee decided to hang in the window when she'd finished. 

We've also been playing a lot of Reading Eggs and Star Fall (which is free and quite fun, but confusing for English children as all the phonics sounds are American!) to supplement Bee's reading practice. And look who I remembered today...

 

I loved that guy.

As for *my* reading - I'm revisiting Wuthering Heights, to see whether I still love it as much now I'm no longer a dramatic teenager. And I came across this wonderful quote:

"He was, and is yet, most likely, the wearisomest, self-righteous pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses in his neighbour."

Isn't that wonderful?

And look what arrived today: our first fruit and veg delivery! And oh, doesn't it all look scrumptious?! And we're FINALLY almost well again, so I reckon this is just what we need.

So now Bee's in bed, I'm going to have a cup of tea, and get to work ripping all the CDs my bestest has leant me...here are about a quarter of them. Yeah, that's gonna take me a while.