Put Me In A Boat

Last week I swapped our usual Friday lunchtime swim for a trip to The Lowry museum and theatre, and a visit to their fortnightly arts and crafts session for children. Aimed at youngsters aged between two-and-a-half and four-and-a-half, it was led by a very enthusiastic woman who directed us to a table full of straws, coloured paper and paperclips, and challenged us to make something interesting.

I asked G what we should do. Given that we'd already been playing pirates at home that morning, she wanted a boat. The picture shows what we came up with. Neither art nor engineering rank anywhere in my skillset, but at least I managed to make something that stood up by itself.

G was quite excited, especially about the little gold bits of paper she cut out and added at the bottom to make treasure. So she wouldn't stand still for the photo, which is why it's a bit blurry. She had so much fun I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

Little Footballer

To go along with her ballet classes on Saturday mornings, we've signed G up to go to football lessons too. She has to go from one more or less straight to the other, which means changing from a pink outfit into a blue one. Her football kit arrived on Thursday, and she was very excited to put it on and run around the house in it. The excitement only dimmed when I took her into the back garden for a kickabout, and she looked at me over a curled lip and muttered "it's too windy daddy" before trudging back inside.

I was sleeping off a night shift on Saturday morning so Mrs J took her along to both ballet and football. She reported back that G had a great time at the footy, but that "her ball control is a bit of an issue". Having suffered through Scotland losing at home to Wales on Friday evening, I can say that this technical flaw may not necessarily hinder my Scotland-qualified daughter's prospects of an international call-up.

Her football skills need some work, but she did return clutching an Easter egg, which she won for doing the best colouring in her group. Up to now, colouring hasn't usually been considered part of an athlete's training programme. But given that the Easter egg is clearly far too big for G to manage on her own, I'd be happy enough for her to bring one back every week.

Art Gallery

Art is not really my strong point. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it is one of the things I actively avoid doing, along with going to drum and bass nights and visiting the Trafford Centre. Occasionally we do a bit together at home, but whenever G asks to get her pens out, I normally manage to get out of it by immediately suggesting something much more fun, and train-based. So most of what G knows about drawing and painting she's picked up from Mrs J, or at nursery.

But Thursday was cold with snow in the air, and I knew we were probably going to be stuck inside all day. So I got G's arts and crafts box down from the shelf on request, curious as to what she'd come up with.

She began with a series of drawings on coloured paper, like the one at the top of this post. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that it's a picture of me. I had to help her to glue on the goggly eyes, which she correctly pointed out were green instead of the hazel eyes both me and G have.

After drawing most of the extended family in similar style, she moved on to a stack of paper plates to do some faces. Again I had to help her get the glue out of the bottle, but my role was limited to squeezing in the appointed places, under her strict instructions.

The one below is, as I know you will be able to guess, a self-portrait. A bit of work required on the composition, but I'm glad all the faces she draws have such big smiles.

Picture Of Daddy

Another wet afternoon, and short of original ideas for things to do at home with G that don't involve TV, I settled for traditional entertainment in the form of paper and crayons. G likes drawing, although unless she's doing a rainbow, most of her artworks involve some kind of blob. These are usually adorned with a smiling face and arms and legs poking out in various directions.

Today she produced several, then went back over a couple of the blobs putting dots everywhere. "It's a giraffe!" she said proudly, then "Look daddy, it's another giraffe!" Given that she had already insisted on wearing her giraffe t-shirt, I think she's now dropped some strong clues about what her new favourite animal is.

Then, G drew another blob. As shown in the photo, she added a couple of stumpy feet at the bottom, arms and fingers, and a little tuft of hair. "Look, picture of daddy!" said G, excitedly. I can't really see it myself.

Green Lipstick

This is what happens when you turn your back for five minutes. G had one of her colouring books out on the living room coffee table, and I gave her some felt pens to use instead of the usual crayons while I went into the kitchen to do something.

When I returned, I found that G had taken her first steps in make-up. I was quite impressed at how accurate she was, there wasn't a trace of green anywhere else on her. Not sure it's really her colour though.

On The Fridge

This is G's first masterpiece. It was the end product of a solid quarter of an hour of determined painting at yesterday morning's playgroup, down at the local Sure Start centre. They only had two colours of paint out, but I'm sure you'll agree G used them to great effect.

No doubt it'll be replaced with something else in time, but this will always be the first artwork of G's to be stuck on our fridge. So I thought it was worth recording. Just in case, you know, it's worth a fortune one day.