Griffin the runner? Quinn a soccer player, but not a bowler...

Ok, if you haven't been bored into a coma from reading about my exciting running life... here's my other riveting topic, my kids! Ta da.

Hey, if you want sex, drugs and rock and roll, come back in December Or invite me out! :P

The rest of our week-end was as follows. I tried Tai Chi at the Gardens gym on Friday after vowing not to sit in that traffic jam again. The Tai Chi was certainly relaxing and better than sitting in a traffic jam. The class didn't seem that organised and was a bit discombobulated (I love that word), but still I feel like I learned something and the bits the instructor told us made sense. I can see how you can get into it and get very strong and controlled from it. The Gardens gym is pretty smart and stylish. I still like Constantia for its family-friendliness though.

Quinn slept over at his friend Thulani's house on Friday night. His adoptive mom told Quinn that all 3 of the children are adopted. Thulani was abandoned by his mother at a bus stop (how awful!) and the younger 2 Suzie and Masie's mom died, and they were adpoted as siblings (now 3 and 1). Their mom is an awesome lady, I have a lot of admiration for her. It is heartwarming to see how Thulani is flourishing at school. He is good at everything. Sports, schoolwork, socialising etc etc. He is a lovely boy who is very popular and Quinn really likes him. It is sad to think that this precious little boy was abandoned by his biological mother.

Quinn was invited to go along to a little party on Saturday to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the younger 2 children arriving. So with one child away I volunteered to have Griffin's friend Maxine come to stay over. They go to the same school and are 'best friends'.

< -Griffin and Maxine

We agreed to take her along to their school's 'Big Walk' on Saturday. On Saturday I was up in time to get Max and Griff ready, and get a bag packed and Richard coffee'd etc. Since the big walk was being held about 2km from our house I decided to go for a quick run and meet them there.

We all met up, and the school was pretty organised and had tables with all sorts of eats and drinks available. The big walk started with the younger classes first and we had to wait for Griffin's class to start. Maxine's mom arrived just before they started, and off we went. We started walking slowly and chatting and next thing I saw Griffin and Maxine rounding the corner and heading over a bridge. I thought they were confused and was trying to catch-up to the wrong class so I set off after them. It took a while for me to catch up to him, and when I finally did, it transpired that he had decided it was a run, and just kept going! He ran and ran, and even passed the check-points and had to come back to get his hand stamped and get a fizzer sweet etc. He passed all the people who had started ahead of him and finished first with Maxine hot on his heals.

For someone who used to moan about walking to the car this is a major attitude change. Is he a budding runner?

On Saturday afternoon we walked down to our local park to play with our soccer ball. Quinn is surprising adept and agile with the ball, and has the dramatic fall down and pretend your leg is falling off soccer-acting down pat. He had a lot of fun, and even reacted well when I kicked the ball right at his head (by mistake - really!) and it hit him square on the forehead leaving a red mark! I got such a fright, but he thought it was funny. *shrug* Griffin is a grumpy and reluctant player, so moaned and whined a lot at first but finally got into it.

After my epic run yesterday I had to take Quinn to a party at our local Ten Pin Bowling alley. He was not very impressed by the bowling, even though he isn't too bad at it. After 2 or 3 frames he was bored and wanted to do something else. He would bowl his ball and then turn away and not even see that he had knocked 7 or 8 pins over...But he stuck it out and came 3rd in the group I was supervising. First and second being boys who play regularly.

The bowling alley was very loud though, and between that and the race I got a killer headache. So when I got home, I decided to veg on the couch and watch TV and enjoy some well earned snacks.

We watched the documentary on Carte Blanche about the Military ER Unit in Baghdad. Yes, I let the boys watch it too - but spoke to them both throughout, and gave it a lot of thought before hand. It was very gruesome and horrific but is a good lesson about the attrocity of war, and how badly people get hurt by guns and bombs. So they are not 'cool' in any way.

Also Griffin was fascinated with the medical aspect of it. He is really not squeamish at all, and is interested to see what happens to people, and how they can get fixed again. Note, that I do not think I would have let any other kids see it, but mine handle that kind of thing well, and do not have night terrors or other fears. They enjoy watching Grey's Anaotomy and CSI etc, where they know the wounds are fake. I told them that this time is was real - no make-up or acting involved... I can only hope that as I said to them that their generation will work on finding alternative ways of handling conflict which do not involve senseless maiming and murder.