Ouch.

Gosh, the weather has been lovely in these parts the past few days.  Well, Monday began a bit iffy, but by the afternoon beautiful sunshine and so warm!  Thankfully the yuckiness of Sunday has passed and I'm feeling much chipper - I guess I just needed a down day. 

I've implemented our circle time again, which went down a treat with Rye and both minded children.  The little boy didn't join in as such, but he did stop playing every now and again to watch and grin at us all.  The little girl loved it, but then she's very into singing and dancing.  Rye was a bit silly, but he enjoyed it and it really set the tone for the day.  After circle time the kids wanted to sing more songs, so it was more traditional nursery type songs.  Ohhh speaking of circle time, I found a great little book in the library the other week.  It has loads of songs with movements and finger plays etc, based around the seasons and various holidays.  It is an american book, but there's many songs and finger plays that we can adapt or use.  Hopping squirrels and trees being blown by the wind and leaves twirling and whirling to the ground, is a bit hit with the kids :-)

Rye was a bit silly again during circle time again, and if I asked him to join in properly he did strop a bit and say he didn't want to play...and then two minutes later he'd be jumping around and being silly again.  So I'm thinking, rather than park after circle time, that it might be best to have it before so some of that energy is worked off first!  Despite the silliness though, he has clearly taken in some of the new songs because this evening in the car he sang the song about apples on a tree and reaching up to pull them off and "Yum, yum, it was good!"  Bless him.

This evening, once it was just the two of us, I suggested a bike ride down by the beach.  Rye wasn't keen but I thought if I got him down there he'd enjoy it.  Hmmm.  But first we had to go and feed the cats for my friend, so we did that; I am slightly worried, she has 5 cats but I've only seen 4 each time I've gone to feed them.  One of the cats has been really ill and I can't help worrying that perhaps it has died.   I've checked the house and it's not in there, so no idea where it is, I keep leaving food out; but I suspect the other cats are eating it.  There's nothing I can do, if it has died I suspect it's crawled off, as animals are wont to do; not nice for my friend to come back to though; especially as it's her favourite cat :-(

Anyway, after feeding the cats and the rabbit, we got back in the van and I drove us down to the beach.  Rye was still insistent he didn't want to go for a bike ride, but i just kept hoping he would come around once we got the bikes out and started riding.  And gosh it was so lovely down there; but5 his heart wasn't in it at all, for some reason.

 Mere moments after taking this photo we got on the bikes and started to ride to the beach path, when suddenly Rye braked in front of me, and so I braked suddenly too, propelling me forward as I tried to avoid hitting him, and then next thing I know I'm falling sideways and hitting my elbow on the gravel - ouch.  I wasn't best pleased and didn't react particularly graciously, which didn't help Rye's mood at all.

But I coaxed, or rather told him, to get back on the bike and start pedelling.  Oooh it was so lovely down there; but alas neither of us enjoyed the ride.  Rye cried and whinged that he didn't want to play, and I tried to swallow my irritation and jolly him along; in the end though I admitted defeat and we turned round and went back to the van.

I still can't ascertain why he's suddenly so anti riding.  Previously he would badger me and be so excited when i said we were going out on the bikes.  But the past few days each time I've suggested it he's said he didn't want to.  Tried talking to him, but not really making a lot of sense of what he's saying.  He just keeps saying he doesn't want to, and the most I could get from him as to why, was that his legs hurt.  I don't think this is the case, as he's happily run and jumped around all day.  It wasn't even the fall that put him off because he was resistant before that, and anyway, he didnt' seem to realise that him causing an accident did actually hurt me (not a lot, grazed my elbow and it bled a bit but he didnt' see that).  So bit of a loss.  I suggested tomorrow we go to the little park for a ride on the bikes and he seemed quite up for that.. 

I clearly need to honour his wishes more, and when he says he doesn't want to do something accept that as his right, rather than thinking I know best all the time.  Sometimes I do, but it was fairly obvious from getting the bikes out of the van that he wasn't going to cooperate, I should have just put them back in the van and gone for a short walk with him, maybe looked for hagstones on the pebbled beach instead.

Live and learn, eh.