Oh how you've grown.

Nature Deficient

So it was my birthday a little while ago and my lovely sister bought me a copy of Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. I've been reading it on my train home from work and it's really had me thinking. Not just about how sad it is that we aren't giving our children the opportunity to experience nature, but also about how lucky we are to have the opportunity to experience nature and how we should make the most of it.

My knowledge of the natural world is limited and I want to make sure that Kit grows up being able to name trees as well as all the Toy Story characters, so I've been gathering field guides and info so we can learn them together. Fundamental to learning that though I want him to have natural roots. To run and play in nature. To watch, see, feel and hear.

Most of the time when we're out and about I just follow Kit's lead. He led me to watch him pick up twigs and hold them pretending to be a tree. He asked for paper and a crayon to draw the chickens, and he followed some other children who were drawing in the mud with a stick. We looked at the birds and tried to identify them and jumped in muddy puddles.

Happy Valentine's Day

I am sorry to have outed Kit as the sender of his Valentine's cards. 

He really does love you all, even when you know who he is.

Obligatory Pancake Post

We ate homemade sweet American style pancakes with maple syrup. Enough said.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

So I promised that we were starting our New Year resolutions at Chinese New Year this year so today is the first day for us. It's not looking entirely hopeful of the traditional New Year resolutions as the small child isn't very well and so we haven't left the house today, I haven't done anything particularly constructive (I did bake some cookies which is part of my plans) but I also drank at lunchtime (if a creme du menthe hot chocolate counts).

Tomorrow is another day right? We have big plans tomorrow, also not strictly following my New Year promises, but we'll be watching The Gruffalo's Child stage show (we went to The Gruffalo earlier in the year and Gruffalo-adoring Kit loved it), and spending the day with my parents.

So my resolutions for the New Year are in the form of promises to my son;
1. I promise to always tell you I love you, even when I might be telling you that I don't love what you are doing or have done.
2. I promise to do the things I say I will. I am going to make you a Tree-Fu Tom costume, an Octonauts hat and replace the pirate hat you lost with your Dad and all the other things I've said I'll do, it might take some time but I will do it as quickly as I can. I want you to know that you can rely on me to do what I say I will.
3. I promise to feed you fresh home-made food as much as I possibly can. I mean I'll bake a lot more than I have been recently and I'm going to use the slow-cooker a lot more, and remember to put the breadmaker on in the evening. I started really well when you were very little and I've been getting lazy, I'm going to stop using the cupboard-size kitchen as an excuse.
4. I promise to find us somewhere to live where you have your own space to run and play, to get you into a school that is good for you, not just good at hoop-jumping for Ofsted, where we can easily get to places that you will have fun, and where we can grow lots of yummy things to eat.
5. I promise I won't doubt my ability to be the best mother you could ever have. And when I think that I'm struggling I won't beat myself up for it but I'll do my best and ask for help to get us back on track.

So that's it. Tomorrow night I think I'll be making an Octonaut hat. I also promise to you guys that I will share what we are up to and what I do manage to make.