Parenthood is tiring but fun

[miss_s_b]

So, you want MOAR stuff about amazing_holly, do you? Right. Here is an afternoon in the life of a busy six year old, after mummy picks her up from choir practise.

First was trying to teach her to tie shoelaces on her new shoes (fake converse, in black with white rubber, and shiny butterflies in rainbow colours on the canvas) when she got changed out of her school clothes. This went... Interestingly. She's not really got the hang of perseverance yet. After her second attempt, she got the pouty face, and said Oh it's NO GOOD! I might as well just GIVE UP! I gently explained to her that some people take YEARS to learn to tie their laces, and some people never learn at all. She then had another go, and almost got it. Still, MOAR practise, I think.

Then we went to the park and played football with her shiny pink KickMaster football which was her choice of birthday present from mummy. She's done really well at grasping that it's only to be played with on grass, and was carefully carrying it over the road. She likes being in goal, for football, and has a fair deal of natural talent at it. We had a few minor tantrums when Mat played as he would against another adult a couple of times, and one very hairy defender tripped her up and made her miss a save, but apart from that it was great fun, even though I did have to spend a small amount of time being a goalpost so that I could rest.

After that we went to Tesco (which is next to the park) and bought ice cream because it was SO HOT. Poor Hol was literally dripping with sweat. Whilst in there we spotted something we might buy with next month's sponsor money - which arrived today. I now have a queue for sponsors, which is rather disconcerting. July, August and September are all spoken for... Although Mr September is someone I owe money to anyway, so that will be reduction of debt rather than increase in cash... But still! The thing we saw to buy was something we wouldn't otherwise be able to afford, and something all three of us will love, and most importantly something that was on special offer ;) If they still have it when we next go in we shall buy, and all will be revealed.

Then we came home, had a bath, and watched last night's Top Gear. For the record, Holly wanted James to win the challenge, and thought the others were being very mean to him (she likes Bach), and thought the McClaren F1 was much prettier than the Veyron (I concur with her on this) and told me I ought to buy a Murchielago. I'd rather have the Vincent from last week...

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Comments

[telegramsam]

Urgh, shoelaces. Those things are tricky. I think I was in velcro-fastened tennis shoes, slip-ons and sandals until I was about seven. I still forget how to tie laces now and then if I'm sleep-deprived and over-think the process.

You can tell Holly she's not alone in her shoelace frustrations. X(

[miss_s_b]

It was really weird like that, actually. When I'm doing my own, I just DO it. And then, having to explain the process to her made me go all fumble fingered.

[telegramsam]

I think it's as hard to properly show someone how to do it as it is to learn how to do it.

Possibly because sitting in front of someone and watching them tie their shoes is not the same as looking down at your own shoes and doing it, it's the opposite perspective. Maybe sit her on your lap and tie her laces for her over her shoulders so she's looking at them from the right direction?

That was always my problem with it, everyone wanted to face me and tie my laces for me or their own laces and then expected me to turn the process around and it took me years to cotton on to it. My spatial skills are significantly improved these days (ironically this improvement coincided with the time I first got video games and started playing them - take that people who say they make you stupid!) but they were pants when I was 5 and 6.

[karohemd]

I think everyone has their own method. The principle is the same but the order/direction of the individual moves (which end you pick up first and which way round you wind the other bit etc.) is different. I bet that if you filmed 10 random people tieing their laces, you'd get 10 different ways of doing it while the end results will look the same.
For example, pmoodie does it in a real paranoid way: he ties a knot, then a bow and then ties the loops of the bow into a knot.
I just do a knot and then a bow but it took me ages to get the dexerity in my fingers to do the bow without twisting it by 180 degrees (which makes for a more unstable bow).

Gah, if you asked me now how I do it, I couldn't describe it, I'd have to physically do it.