The moving castle tea room touches down for the 29th time

[UniS]

Welcome to the tea room. Open to those with one child and those with more and maybe some with none ( hi dave the trucker).

This time we are heading to the mists and mellow fruitfulness of Autumn in a moving castle with a mind of its own. The roaring fire is maintained by magic and Mellors the gardener handles wine and spirits along with massage duties.

The first rule of the tea room is this
No fisticuffs.
The second is this
Put the kettle on for and help yourself to a

Yay! G-maScout already has Mr Potato Head for ToddlerScout. Who doesn't love Mr Potato Head?!

(I have married a geek. I have always known that. Watching BBC Look East has proved it.)

Do you want some spare bits of Mr and Ms Potato Head, Scout? I think we have a few left after the last great toy clear-out.

Good night, dear ladies.

A barge!! would a river cruiser suit better? larger with more mod cons ( and room for the bishops in steerage) Maybe a paddle steamer?

Games to play with tots... Trying to remember what we played with boy at that age, failing so far. I THINK jenga came later, when he was 3.

LDeer - did boy listen... I think so. I did explain WHY it was a bad idea to play gun games, I did explain that someone in the village had been killed by a gun and their friends / family would be sad and would not like boys running about pretending to shoot each other. Boy is VERY empathetic and this explanation worked with him. Might not do with a different child.

I have told him ( a few times) that when he is old enough his uncle will teach him to shoot properly. Guns do come up in conversation and we talk about who he knows that shots, who wins prizes in shooting competitions, who shoots foxes etc., why some people shoot birds for fun and food. It's not been one conversation, its been lots of short ones over months.

Good night Maud

MiniThumb has just got into the shooting people games too. He has no guns in the house (I don't approve either) but will happily use sticks as swords or guns and likes fighting with his toy animals or balloons. Sometimes there will be a row of animals lying on their sides, which have been "killed" by others. . I'm working on the principle that he'll grow out of it!

I don't know whether or not you might find reading this helpful en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Dynamics - it's a theory of stages of evolution, primarily of the whole human race but can be applied individually to stages of development as well. So, beige = helpless baby; violet = early toddler; and red = late toddler and probably the stage where Little Deer is at now. It's a pretty violent stage - all Me Me Me - with no thought of consequences to other people because in this stage, other people don't figure as being relevant or important to the Red child. So, any hurt they may suffer, literally or figuratively, doesn't register as relevant (and therefore guns being evil and people who use them being mean/bad etc. doesn't quite register either).

I like the theory - as with all theories, it's not perfect, but when I learnt about it, we discussed where people sat in the evolutionary scale, both in personal terms and whole cultures (broadbrush of course) - and it was interesting to note that, for e.g., people like football hooligans and street thugs could be said to be stuck in the Red; or would revert to Red whenever they were in that situation.

Anyway - the book's better than the Wiki entry of course but it gives you a brief overview!

Jb also plays the "shooting things" game (although it usually comes out as "I shotted you" :o) and he knows I don't like it. i blame it on Toy Story. "Stop, Alien, or I'll blast you with my laser" - yeah, great, thanks Buzz Lightbeer .
He has water gun/ sprayer things, which he thinks are a hoot. Those really are fun to play with, but we've never given him real gun toys to play with.

A Tea Room Cruise sounds nice... :)

'lo dear tea roomers!
Yes to a barge on canals of France or a paddle steamer on the Mississippi. we don't have to worry about space, it will be like a tardis, this is the tea room!

games we love shopping list and also pop up pirate/ pop up dragon. Still play them. Don't under estimate the joy of a proper pack of cards either. And Uno is great, although perhaps a bit young and rummikub. And dominos. All sorts of adaptations possible.

guns long term inmates tea room habitues may remember the Gun/Banana incident with oxpox a few years back. I got hauled up by nursery for Oxpox running round with a banana going "pow pow". I was torn between upset at gun thing and pride for imaginative use of fruit. He was about 3 years.

I think guns are a phase. In our house / rules there are no pointing of anything at someone as a gun - totally not ok. No tolerance, if it's done, the item is immediately removed and (threat) thrown away. Boy knows guns kill and hurt and maim. Fact. Also in our house any item used as a weapon/ gun can only shoot love. I know, its a bit balmy and while he always goes "ooohhh mummmmmm" I have heard him tell his friends this in all seriousness when they come to play...

as to cowboys/ indians etc yes, lots of play but no clear allowance of who is "goody" and "baddy" since that turns on your interpretation of history etc .... poor child its a miracle he gets a play in at all!!

Yes to a barge! Although we might have to go close to shore quite often to let mistledog on and off. I'm sure when she's on she'll want to be off and when she's off she'll want to be on.

Guns. We don't have any 'toy guns' per se - although a stick appears to do quite happily. He doesn't often 'shoot' things in play - at school they're into superheros (he's normally a baddy as the person that's always a baddy apparently cries if he gets 'hurt' but a goodie so its good to be on his team ). He does, however, have a neuf gun (foam) because he got it for his birthday and lots of his friends (boys) have them. There are VERY strict rules about where he can use it, and shooting 'at' people is not tollerated. Other 'guns' given as birthday presents have magically disappeared before being opened. He's quite clued up about wars and that people get killed in them which isn't good - and he knows where there are wars going on at the moment and that people are still getting killed. He's 6.6 and in Yr2.

Its feeling quite autumnal here again - cold compared to last week certainly - but fresh too, and lots of trees are starting to turn.

Where can I put these? Aah! The sideboard with the breakfast dishes methinks...

One large GF carrot cake - with lovely juicy sultanas and the most delicious frosting.

One large GF fruit cake (thanks to my friend) made in the shape of a donkey. Scrummy.

That's better

The barge sound wonderful. Remember to take a bird book....

Bon Apetit!

Happy Birthday to yooouuuu, Happy Birthday to Youuu, happy birthday dear Donkiiiii, Happy Birthday to you

It is cold here. Dpony is wearing his rug, and I have had to find gloves/mittens.

Poor ds has had to have an emergancy dentist visit as he tripped over and hit his front teeth on a desk yesterday. He was v good bless him

Happy Birthday, Donki! I've added extra hay to the pile. Thank you very much for the birthday goodies!

Yeah, seriously, how hard is it to put ultrasound gel in a warm bath first thing in the morning. Or speculums (specula?) for that matter.

Happy birthday Donki!!!!

Happy Birthday, Donki!

That was one of the nice things about the maternity hospital in YOUT -- the tubes of gel were kept on those coffee mug warmer type things. LOVELY. I told Cardiology they should do the same thing but have they listened to me? No, of course not.

Who's doing our new home? I know nothing about barges, boats and France....

Any imagineers about. needs some visualisation.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/one_child_families/1316459-30-up-The-tea-room-afloat try that, link not work on first attempt, sorry. I'll blame the nmbs, they may have moved a [[

Happy Birthday Donki!

Hope that ds is ok now CMOT and it wasn't too serious.

Scout - please pm me and tell me what YOUT is - it puzzles me every time I see it!

bean -- YOUT is Ye Ol' University Town.

Thank you!

::very nosey emoticon::

No worries.

UniS hauls in a bunch of packing crates and proceeds to fill them with George cloney cut outs, aspidistra, the Indian screen thing for making corners , The priest hole, the book shelves and contents ( including lots of landrover magazines and yoga teaching handbooks) , lots of mugs... and other tea room essentials. The NMBs are making them selves at home in all teh nooks and crannys surrounding the above.

I have laid a trail of crumbs.
what else do I need to do to pack up in here.

I'll just do a bit of sweeping - there's a lot of hay in all sorts of strange places!

I think we're sorted Unis - shall I turn the lights out?