Flourishing

R and I had an excellent day with the Boy Wonder. After a couple of visits in which he was somewhat terribletwoish, and we found it tricky to avoid conflict, today he was back to his usual self: chatty, and full of jokes and mischief. This made it easy for his oldies to be our best selves too, and thus a virtuous circle was born.

Despite a poor forecast, the rain held off for most of the day, and only arrived as the Boy was waking from his pram nap. Even then we ignored it for a while, because he was enjoying himself in the playground, being pushed on the swing and trying out one of the climbing frames. As we walked past this springy thingy I asked if he wanted to ride it. "No," he said. "I's all wet." I fished around in my numerous pockets and eventually came up with an old bit of kitchen paper, which he then used with great concentration and diligence to clean the raindrops off the toy, while commenting, "I' keeps comin' back!"

This endeavour went on until the kitchen paper was a soggy and rather grubby rag, by which time we were also quite wet, so we bribed him into the pushchair with a promise of cake, and whisked him back home to do indoor play for the rest of the afternoon. One of the most interesting bits for me was when he asked me to read We're Going on a Bear Hunt, and after hooting with laughter at the various environmental challenges the family put themselves through, he wanted to discuss very seriously the situation at the end of the book: does the bear follow the family home, or stay in his cave? Is the dog safe? Is the baby's toy bear better than a real one? It was interesting and quite poignant to see his imagination taking flight, and I was careful to reassure him that the story ended well, with everyone safe and happy.

As we were leaving, by which time B was sitting on the sofa watching television with his father (an animation about a bear - at his request, interestingly), we reminded him that he'll be coming to stay with us at the weekend. "See you on Saturday!" said R. "Sat'day!" said the Boy with a cheery wave, turning back to his programme. We can hardly wait.