Half on Holiday

This weekend we had holiday fever mixed with Christmas colds (three of us have sore throats and coughs to varying degrees, with more to succumb, I'm sure).  I also made an absurd attempt to finish off some project work before Monday, futile since not much time is left in the working year.  Anya and Callum were hanging around me while I worked, so I now have a piece of scratch paper with a mixture of work annotations and kiddie drawings.  It was surprisingly not too hard to work and play at the same time, probably because my project involves tweaking a computer model that goes very slowly.

In the afternoon, I tried to teach Anya to crochet, but realised she's still too young.  Left with a half-started project, I amused myself in the late evening by making it into a finger puppet.  No pattern, I just experimented with shaping it using different stitches, making loops for the ears, and finishing with a tuft on top.  It looks vaguely like a Fraggle to me.  I sewed buttons on for the nose & eyes this morning, and Callum has named it "Fa-fa."  Anya naturally has requested one for herself, so a blue cat puppet is in the works.

We've started some new games lately -- Spin the Bottle (at dinnertime), great for getting lots of kisses -- and Treasure Hunt, where we take turns being the treasure hider.  Callum absolutely loves finding the items, and Anya loves giving us extremely specific hints on where to look for her hides.  As with Hide and Seek, they both have yet to learn how to really hide and find things, but I prefer it that way -- less likely to lose them when we're out and about!

Some sweet moments from this weekend:

Callum sidled up to me, hooked his arm around my neck to help himself onto my lap, and said, "We're best friends, aren't we, Mum?"  (My heart melts and sizzles like butter on a griddle...)

Anya wrote "I love you Mum and Dad and Grama and Callum" on our fridge's whiteboard, right behind me, then delightedly pointed out the surprise message to me.  (Later, she got cross with me about something, and erased "Mum" from the message.  But this morning I noticed I was reinstated.)

I invited Anya to sit with me on the bed for movie time because Callum was pestering her too much on the couch.  The next thing I knew, both kids were nestled on either side of me, and I got a great 45 minute snuggle.  David also joined us for part of the movie viewing, but unfortunately, he mostly got Callum rolling restlessly around over him -- lots of bottom and feet action.  I had to threaten Callum with banishment so he would settle down.  Meanwhile, by movie's end, Anya had fallen asleep in her cosy position.