Yesterday
was an amazing day. Just one of those days where you're just ambling through it
at a nice pace, doing things you enjoy, with people you love, and it seems to
go on forever and it improves everything - your mental health, your view of the
world and your general wellbeing. It was a really simple day too, and completely
unplanned, which makes it all the more delicious and special. We were up early
due to a Rian-related issue that thankfully settled down, so I threw together a
bit of a cooked breakfast for us all. One of Mathew's favourite things at the
moment is to find the most unusual food item with which to break into the yolk
of a fried egg. It's like an ongoing experiment that he's running, with a
steely determination to find the ultimate combination of tastes that work
alongside a satisfying dunk. It's strange too, because he's not a huge fan of
soft-boiled eggs and soldiers (or 'dippy eggs' as we refer to them). I remember
having a whale of a time stuffing toasted bread fingers into the top of an egg
and watching the innards ooze out over the side, but he's not really taken to
that at all. But give him a couple of fried eggs and an assortment of hard foods
to stab into them and he's in culinary heaven. He has also discovered an
unexpected love for tinned tomatoes, which is great as they contain a lot of
vitamins for his young, developing body. So yesterday he had an adult-sized
plate with half a tin of tomatoes to himself, two fried eggs sitting on brown
toast, and various accessories for dunking purposes. He had a great time, and
also ate a hell of a lot of good food for a seven-year-old!
It does annoy me a bit when people try to get their children to 'eat properly'
and 'not mess with their food'. Isn't the most important thing that they just
end up eating what they need to eat? Who cares if you have to make a game of
it, or it all gets a bit messy? They can learn to eat like reserved Victorians
at any time in their lives; I'd rather just see them have the right intake of food
when they're young, and enjoy it.
Anyway, back to The Story of Sunday:
After clearing away the messy breakfast stuff, we decided to take a drive to
the coast. It was a lot chillier by the sea, so after a brief play on the sand,
we ventured back inland and had a walk through a lovely wooded area that also
contained a large play park next to a boating lake. There were men in their 50s
there with remote-controlled boats of various types, and a few families
enjoying the swings and slides and assorted obstacles. Mathew made a couple of
new friends (isn't it great how kids of that age will just muck in and start
talking and playing together with no social embarrassments getting in the way?)
and we got chatting to some other parents who were really friendly and
interesting to chat to.
Once the boys were exhausted and the temperature started dropping again we
heading home and I did my second stint in the kitchen to rustle up a rather
splendiferous Sunday roast, of sorts. Not a big joint, and not all the
trimmings, but plenty of veg and pork chops that I grilled with a dusting of herbs.
After tea, we all did our own thing for an hour and then we had a couple of fun
games before bathtime for the boys (which involved making up fun stories with a
toy submarine and a Pokemon). Once they were settled, Philippa and I cuddled up
on the sofa and watched an episode of some drama or other that I'm not really
interested in, but was happy to sit through while my wife enjoyed it.
And that was my day, and it was beautiful.
RC 23-3-26
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