Yoga In The Park And The First I Love Mummy

We are coming to the end of the summer holidays here. Only four days left. Again, the time has flown, and the anticipation and worry at the beginning, for which I experience every year, was unfounded.
Yes, the weather has not been as hot and sunny as it was last summer, but we've still managed to get out and about, albeit nowhere too busy or populated.

J loves to be outside, whether it be in the garden, the beach, the woods, or the park.
Today's walk was in our local 'flower' park (so named by us as it has lots of flowers!). The dogs were off meeting their friends and having a play, and I was chatting to the other owners, whilst my youngest son, W, was stroking an 11 week old puppy who was absolutely gorgeous.
I always span the area my children are playing with, even if I'm deep in conversation, and upon one of my glances around, I spot J in the middle of one of the grassy areas, doing movements I think are related to the yoga he has been learning at school.

I captured several movements he made. He would hold the pose for a few seconds, then change. He adores being in nature, and now it appears yoga is a part of this too. 

    

Changing direction, we had a rather odd encounter with a stranger the other day. I had parked the car in a car park, and J was sitting in the back eating some lunch. I looked round at him, to talk, and noticed a woman in her 40's, parked right next to us, staring at J from her driving seat. She had a teenage son sitting next to her, and a younger child in the back. I suddenly realised she was mocking J and his eating. She thought she was hilarious. I noticed her children (I presume they were hers as they had a look of sheer boredom on their faces) were not participating in her charade, and were not really bothered by her impressions as they were not laughing or looking at J. She then spies myself, and knows I have seen her, and then proceeds to mock him some more, make faces akin to what children do in the playground when someone makes a mistake (that kind of gurn expression) and pull fake smiles at me and waving. 

A very odd and strange woman!

But back to a positive......

J said he "love mummy" the other day. Totally out of the blue. The first time he's ever said it without being echolalic or prompted. He made it in reference to being told I would be back soon. My other sons always say they love me, and vice versa, when I am going out without them, or dropping them off somewhere, and I believe J has learnt this from them. A very simplistic thing, but one that has such gravitas for me. It's only taken 13 years and 3 months for me to hear him say it off his own back, and oh my goodness it means so much to me. 

Summer Holidays

We are half way through the school summer holidays, and J has been struggling with the complete stop of school.
I made a large calender with a big square for each day of the holidays, and highlighted the day school re-starts for him. I cross off each day as it ends, so he can see we are getting closer to the day he can return.

As he has two younger brothers, the youngest who has a vision impairment, going out and about is more of a challenge, and I tend to stick to less commercial places, and the big outdoors.
We love visiting the local lake and nature reserve, and can make a day out there, with walking, a picnic, paddling, playing ball games, and sitting on the shore watching the ripples on the water.

A visit to the local lake and nature reserve.

He has also been his usual artistic self. Creating art from the supplies in the cupboard.
The giant chalks are always a hit with all three boys, and the garden patio area is a fantastic canvas for them to create their masterpieces.

J creating a chalk drawing on the patio. One of our labradors sitting in the foreground.

J's chalk drawing. When asked what it was, he replied "Space",

J and water are still a big obsession with him. He loves the garden tap, and turns the hose on to spray around. Unfortunately, yesterday we had a mishap. I went to turn the kitchen tap on, and the water pressure was low. I asked my middle son to go outside and check the tap was off properly. He came back in and said there was water spraying everywhere.

I went to investigate myself, and came across a burst pipe that was spraying every way possible. 

There was a make shift attempt to stem the flow, with kitchen roll and paper, which I knew would have been J. He had tried to stop it himself, the superstar.

Turning the tap off made no difference, and turning it on reduced the spray from the pipe, but not much. 

The garden pipe, with its paper towel wrapping by J.

I have water pipe cover and so arranged a call out within the hour. I did have to be persuasive to the call handler, as I wasn't able to turn the stop cock off (located at the bottom of my drive, under a cover, that would not lift up), and thankfully it was all fixed before tea time. 

It's all fun when you have children!