Needles are smaller than they used to be.

Seriously, they must be. I went for a tetanus booster today (a garden related accident prompted me to check and sure enough, I was due...) and I barely felt a thing. I'm sure jabs used to really hurt when I was little ... but maybe I just fussed a lot. As mentioned previously, Joshua didn't moan one bit about his, so I was glad that I didn't break into sobs, or collapse, or anything like that. Just took it like a man.
Having said that, playing the piano tonight (in a somewhat vicious fashion) did suddenly cause my arm to go very achy. I was practising for church on Sunday (my piano debut in this 'new' (been here two years) church, which is scary) just before Joshua's bedtime. I finished and asked if there were any songs I could play for him. "Baa baa black sheep, and Wheels on the Bus, but baa baa first." So I played through them both (he wandered off during Wheels, but did come back before the end, which was jolly decent of him). Then we had a crack at Twinkle Twinkle little star. I asked if there were any others. He sort of mumbled something, and I asked what he said. "Can you play ... uh ... moto the goat?"
Me: "I don't think I know that one sweetheart, where do you sing it?" (I figured it must be from nursery or something)
J: "Nowhere - just practise it and then you'll know it"
Me: "Uh ... so in order to know the song, I just have to practise it?" (Can you see the flaw in his plan?)
J: "Yeah."
So we had a go. This is as far as we got:
Moto the goat had a very shiny coat, (that was my line)
He lived far away down the lane (Joshua's)
Then I played those lines a couple of times (he was right - it did need practice) I then asked what came next.
"The goat fell into the lock" (Joshua's line, but perhaps you'd guessed)
I needed clarification on what sort of lock we were talking about - a canal lock might have made some sense, but I couldn't see how a goat could fit in the door type lock.
Me: "What type of lock was it sweetie?"
J: "It was the locky thing with a key - the goat fell in, and that's the end of the song"

So there you go, now you know the song too. Except the tune, that is, which is pretty much made up as you go along. Hope everyone's summer is going well (unless you're on the bottom half of the planet, in which case I hope winter's going well).

Father's Day and needles.

Well, once again, Fathers Day coincided with having a whole cohort of new pupils descending on our house for tea :) But there we go!
Joshua and I headed off to church in the morning, where I played guitar for the first time (first time there, that is, not first time ever...) - whoop whoop. Sadly, having tonsillitis did prevent any vocal leading, so we'll save that for another time. It was great to be able to do some music and it may be something that's growing soon.
On our return home, there was much to do in preparation for the arrival of multiple guests, not least the mowing of the lawns. Thankfully, we have a drive-on mower at our disposal, and Joshua and I even did some of the orchard together, which was quality father-son time :) I think I enjoyed the mower more than he did - he's strangely nervous about mowers. About two hours of mowing later (drive-on mowers are not good at tight corners) I was done. Sadly, I had to 'modify' the garden gate slightly, as the ride-on wouldn't fit into our garden (it's not normally used in our bit - the regular push-along petrol mowers are).

Joshua's classic comment from the day was 'daddy, can I have some of the chocolates from your present'. To which I had to respond, 'Sweetheart, you haven't given me my present yet!'

And today, we went for his latest round of injections. I felt really bad. He had no recollection of injections, so I told him that we were going to the doctors for injections, which were to make him healthy and strong. He believed me. On the way there, I told him that they'd pop something into his arm and that it might hurt a bit. When we got there, we took rabbit and monkey in with us and the lady was very nice and explained what was going to happen. I sat him on my knee and held firmly onto his arms, as instructed. The first one was in the left arm, and the nurse told him to look at something in the other direction. He dutifully turned his head away, I felt really bad, she put the needle in, injected him, took the needle out again and he didn't even flinch. Not so much as a whimper. The second one was slightly trickier - he happened to turn around just as the needle was approaching his arm, so tried to move away (can't blame him really) with the result that some of the juice didn't make it in, but he didn't make a noise then either. I think he was just a bit confused by someone wanting to poke something into him.
I swear needles must be thinner these days - when I was a little boy, I'm sure it really hurt... Or maybe I just made a fuss anyway.
Anyways, even the nurse was impressed. He got his sticker and we headed straight for the sweet shop around the corner. What a brave boy!
On the way home, he piped up from the back of the car, "Man doctors are better than lady doctors."
"Why?", I asked.
"Because lady doctors give me things I don't like. When we went to the man doctor, he made me better."
I had to reassure him that lady doctors were, in fact, just as good as man doctors (I didn't bother pointing out that it was a nurse that injected him!)