Because she is a girl?

I was going to blog about how great a job I did of re-spraying my son's bike for my daughter. I did do a good job because she tells me that I am the greatest dad in the world.

Instead though after a short discussion I have changed my emphasis from the bike to the bike's colour.
As you can see it was blue.  That is the bike after I stripped it down, primed it and finished it.

 The bike is now Purple with half red forks and her name on the down tube.

Why not leave it blue, because she is a girl? No. Because she does not like blue.  She is hot on purple.
She used to like blue and had toys in blue and clothes in blue. Once upon a time at nursery my son liked pink, he even painted in pink a bird house they made.

We never forced any colours on them and they have come out loving blue for my son and pink, now purple/red for my daughter.  Colours they chose and are happy with.

Also proud of my nifty re-spraying work.

I'll give you "Ok"!

What does Ok mean?

"Please turn off the TV" > "Ok"
"Come for dinner" > "Ok"
"Stop doing that" > "Ok"

What do you mean Ok?!?

Currently in our house it means, I hear you but....
So actually hears me much like a wall hears me.

I'm sure the only reason my son has the monopoly on this, is that my daughter is not old enough for those "Ok" hormones to have kicked in.

I find that suitable response is to say "Ok" when he asks for something he wants :)

Frosty Glass

In our recent house changes, we moved the bathroom to the front of the house. The bathroom windows are the former stairs landing windows, as you can see.

I popped down to B&Q and picked up frosted sticky back film. I am very pleased with the result. Lots of light into the bathroom but no blinds required. A good solution to replacing windows.

Missing the Neighbours

Or neighbours moved 2 weeks ago. They were good neighbours and we got on well. My daughter though really misses them or more specifically their daughter.

These two girls were so alike, they could play with each other for a whole day and you would never know they were even in the house apart from food and drink needs.
Pretend play all day, with dressing up in various dresses for each other. The old phrase "they could have been sisters" was very apt for them.

If you have ever played shop, just to buy the same things over and over again, with minutes feeling like hours, then you like me will understand how much I also miss the neighbours and specifically my daughters friend.

8yr old teenager

I cannot tell you exactly when he turned into a pre-teen teenager but I think it was somewhere between the between "love you" and "It's my choice!!"

If I could just roll back to that previous I am sure all would be fine.

Now don't get me wrong he is a lovely kid, teachers tell us all the time how great he is. It is just that I feel, I am behind the curve in keeping my parenting skills moving as fast as he is growing. That and the fact that I am always wrong, apart from when I do what he wants me to do.

Was I really so surly? Nah, can't have been.  :-)

Maybe it is all just payback for what our parents went through. 

"But I was angelic!"