So I’m glad to report that as of this morning, our happy, helpful little Harry is back, as opposed to the ‘he devil’ we’ve seen this week. Okay, he’s been tired and full of bogies, but still!
The Twinkles have a friend at big school, Oliver, they hero worship him. Every afternoon at pick up they cuddle the bejesus out of him and they are literally devastated if we leave without Oliver as they cherish the extra 30 metres they get to walk with him, it’s not like they’ve just spent the whole day with him at school or anything?!
I’ve taken to standing near Oliver’s Dad, might as well, but I sometimes struggle with small talk with him as he’s happy to stand in silence. I even told him out of nowhere we were going to have jacket potatoes for dinner the other day and he simply nodded and said “nice”. His son isn’t much of a talker either, but I have managed to get a few smiles out of him.
So as the children queued up to come out yesterday, Mrs Backler beckoned me over. “Uh oh” I instinctively said.
Being of a kind nature she whispered to me that Harry had punched another boy in the face and when questioned about it had said he hadn’t seen him there. She reminded him about kind hands and to keep them by his sides and said we should do the same at home. I apologised, then thanked her and then apologised again for good measure.
If I thought I was embarrassed then, it only went on to get worse, much worse.
As I walked back to Oliver’s Dad, my Ollie came running up to me,
“ you’ll never guess what Mum, Harry punched Oliver in the face and made him cry”
Ground open up and swallow me whole and spit out the remnants!
I looked at Oliver’s Dad who either a) pretended he didn’t hear, b) didn’t know what to say or c) a mixture of the above.
I decided to put my big girl pants on and tackle the situation head on.
I relayed the information to Oliver’s Dad who seemed surprised. I probably shouldn’t have responded that I was also surprised and that there were plenty of other children in his class I’d have thought he’d want to punch first.
We agreed that he’d talk to Oliver and I’d speak to Harry over the weekend and exchange notes Monday.
In fairness to Harry, the three of them still ran up the alley together and I couldn’t see a mark on Oliver.
As soon as I got Harry strapped in the car the Spanish Inquisition started.
From all accounts it was actually an accident and Harry had immediately apologised and felt awful and it wouldn’t happen again.
Ollie chipped in that it was an accident so hopefully this is the same story that Oliver’s Dad is getting.
It’s still going to be a long old walk up that hill for collection Monday.
As I said though Harry has his ‘it’s nice to be nice’ socks firmly back on.
We had Uncle Joe over last night and the boys adore him and made sure he was very aware of it. They completely filled his happy tanks back up with oodles of love.
I slept in the boys room as Ollie has a nasty head cold and woke up to Harry climbing in to bed with me, giving me a big cuddle and telling me that he loves me. Shortly after he asked me to take him for a poo, but I still lapped up those first few delicious moments.
It’s a good job I’ve ordered some kindness elves. I never really bought in to Elf on a Shelf on account of the naughty elves freaking out my stepmonsters the first year we got them. The elves not my extended family! Kindness elves appear for the 12 days of Christmas and set daily task for the children to complete like baking cookies for friends, donating clothes and toys to charity, litter picking and it comes with a storybook. It’s a lovely little family business and I will obviously be talking about it very loudly in the playground on Monday to make up for last weeks shenanigans.
Looking forward to a relaxing, quiet, family weekend. We have the boys birthday weekend next week and that is obviously going to be a little crazy!!
Don’t forget to hug your loved ones, you never know how much that cuddle could mean to them. A little cuddle goes a long way, xxx
A cheeky little Twinkle update xxx 