Thursday photo #268

We’ve never really been the sort of family to do things by halves. We’re either ridiculously busy or bored. Really good at things or absolutely terrible. Everything is going swimmingly or it’s going wrong in spectacular fashion. And it turns out, our pets got the memo on how to fit in with the rest of the family.

Rupert the family cat

Since I’ve been with my husband, we’ve had one dog so lazy he ran home when I tried taking him for a run and two dogs so bouncy they’re impossible to wear out. And then there are the cats. Jamer was an incredible family cat. Into everything, always joining in with the children’s games and really, really dim.

When Rupert came along, we had high hopes for him. He seemed very straightforward. Quite cuddly, not too worried about the dog and able to hold his own with the children. What we didn’t bank on was how clever he is. Keeping him inside is almost impossible. He can pick the lock on the cat door. If we stick paper over it, he pulls it off. We put heavy objects in front of it and he puts his back into it and moves it.

If I don’t feed him soon enough, he rips the cat food bag and helps himself. If he wants the blinds open, he wraps himself up in them and walks along the windowsill. He has outwitted us at every turn. He’ll fit in here just fine.

Swimming club

For the past few months, Libby has been asking to go to swimming club. Her teacher has advised us to take her because she’s a good swimmer and really keen. So, I contacted our two local swimming clubs. And they wouldn’t take her. One would be interested after she passed her stage seven. The other didn’t seem particularly keen to recruit new swimmers at all.

Recently though, I decided to contact a club I’d swam at as a teenager. It’s a bit of a drive from us, but they were friendly and invited her along for a trial. The trial was on Tuesday, and they welcomed her with open arms. So, we’re on the swimming club path. And Libby couldn’t be happier.

Thursday photo #268

Lia had a bit of a triumph at ballet this week. She came out of the lesson with a star of the week sticker and sat down with me to do her school reading. She was a bit frustrated that her book hadn’t been changed and she’d already read it, so she decided to read Libby’s book. We had a surprisingly successful ten minutes of her reading about the Titanic. I helped with the particularly difficult words but it was good to see how much she could read. They’re both in white outfits now. Lia is in hand-me-downs as usual but she hasn’t yet got to an age where she minds.