Taking chances and diving in

Taking chances and diving in

Another week and a few more surprises from my son, he’s been taking chances and diving in.  He’s also got a few things on his mind at the moment and finally decided that telling his Mummy the truth was the right thing to do.

One evening last week Monkey was in bed, I read him the latest instalment from book 11 of How to Train Your Dragon and we were going through the whole nightly delaying tactics.  Anything to avoid going to sleep.  When he went very quiet and looked rather guilty.  Mummy I’ve got something to tell you but I don’t want to tell you.

Uum, this sounded a little different to the normal 99 reasons why it wasn’t time for sleep.  Ok, what’s up? He then proceeded to tell me about a couple of playground incidents.  I’m still not 100% sure of when these actually happened, but it was clear he was troubled by them and knew he wasn’t coming out of the confession as a glowing angel.  But he did tell me, however painful that was to do, and one of the incidents seemed to be ongoing as a teacher was apparently going to be looking into things further.  Three children who could be the culprit, one being Monkey.  Something had been thrown at someone, which could have been serious.  Almost a week later and the whole affair is still troubling Monkey.  Mummy, I didn’t do it, I threw something but it was light, it wasn’t that.  Well Monkey, perhaps the moral of the story here, is to not throw anything in the first place.  Have you been totally honest, yes.  Ok then you don’t have anything more to worry about, do you.  But learn from this, don’t let yourself be found in this situation again and thank you for telling me what’s been going on.

I’m under no illusion that my son is an angel, he’s a 7 year old boy.  He gets physical when he can’t express himself properly.  But he needs to understand right from wrong, and he’s obviously been thinking through the events in his mind a lot over the last week.  He also told me, when clearly he didn’t want to, I’m proud of him for that, whilst hoping that’s the last we’ll hear of anything like it.  Fingers crossed at least.

At the weekend we put school behind us and headed up to Birmingham to spend the day with my niece N and her boyfriend H.  Although Monkey was rather quiet around them to start with, as the day progressed he chatted with them a bit more, took their guidance and asked for their help with things.  We’d decided to spend the day at Thinktank as it’s very hands on and would keep him entertained and hopefully give us the opportunity to catch up a little too.  We’d been there with N when she’d first started Uni a couple of years ago, and it was interesting for us both to see the changes in Monkey since that last visit. Taking chances and diving in saw him taking more time at each exhibit and really trying to work things out.  That is all except the recycling challenge which he decided was just a free for all, but it was nice to see him relaxed in company.

There were a couple of stand out moments from the visit.  Firstly he asked to dress up as a pilot.

Taking chances and diving in

My son dressing up, in public!  This is still something I’ve to get used to, it’s still s very new experience.  But the joy on his face was evident for all to see, it was just lovely.

But he wasn’t done with surprising us on Saturday.  the last time we’d visited Thinktank the outdoors Science Garden had been closed.  On a rather sunny afternoon we finally got to explore all the outdoor activities, which Monkey loved.  I’d noticed a seat that you could sit on and then be hoisted up into the air on ropes and pulleys.  Not for one moment did I think Monkey would try that.  Wrong!  Mummy, can you strap me into this please.  Ok, you know that you’ll leave the ground in this don’t you.  Yes Mummy.

Taking chances and diving in

Wow, just wow, taking chances and diving in and the squeals of delight came ringing out.  He was trying something totally new and unknown without a moment’s hesitation.  This was the same buy who didn’t even like slides a year ago.  It wasn’t the easiest thing to pull him up on the ropes and it took all three of us at one point, but he was just in his element and again it was so lovely to watch.

What a little star.

On Sunday we had no plans and Monkey was eager to show his Dad what he’s been learning in his school swimming lessons. It was lovely to see his ever-growing confidence, but even I wasn’t prepared for what I’d see on Monday at his school swimming lesson.  He was doing lovely front crawl arms but he needs to put his face in the water.  It seems that although we were told the children couldn’t wear goggles for their lessons, that pretty much every other child is.  I know they’d insist on them in normal lessons and I’m going to suggest to Monkey that he wears his next week.  After some time spent on their front crawl and backstroke, all the kids in his group got out of the pool and walked up to just below the 1.5m mark.  Then they each had to jump in, tread water and swim under the dividing rope back the shallower section.  I wouldn’t be able to jump in to the pool, even after all my lessons now.  How would Monkey do?  He’d never managed this in the lessons he’d had a few years ago in the junior pool.  Well taking chances and diving in appears to be the new norm.  Straight in he went, didn’t faze him at all, he trod water beautifully and swam under the ropes to the other side.  Not just once, but over and over again.  I’m so proud of him for doing something that I could never do, especially not without goggles.  What a little star.

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2 thoughts on “Taking chances and diving in

  1. Monkey really is growing in so many ways this year. I’m so glad he was able to tell you something that was unsettling him. I hope its sorted out at school soon. Amazing work at swimming too. I couldn’t jump in either.

    Thanks for linking up with Small Steps Amazing Achievements
    x

  2. Well done Monkey, it’s great to see him in costume and hear how well his swimming is going. He’s maturing with regard to the issue at school too. Hope he has a great half term #SmallStepsAA

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