To Infinity and Beyond

This weekend we watched Toy Story 1, 2 and 3, several times. My boys enjoyed it so much I felt like a bad father for not having got the DVDs before. I enjoyed it too. In fact I loved it, every aspect of it from the amazing animation, believable characters and wonderful story to the clever humour, which seems to be written on several different levels. The real strength of the movies is not simply that they are good entertainment but they inspired my 3 and 4 YOs who now run around the house yelling "to infinity and beyond"!

Having spent all morning watching TV, we went out to play and get some fresh air. It was not that warm so I had the boys doing reps training: Twice around the climbing frame, up the ladder, down the big curly red slide, and back to me to do three push ups. They worked hard; I was quite impressed although I docked points for bent legs in the press-up position. A mom stood nearby looked on with interest although I could not tell if she was impressed that I had got my men well organised or horrified that I was beasting my children in such a way. My boys seemed to enjoy it, however, reminding me that they are still at an age where they prefer to be play led.

The same seems to apply to swimming and I have thus far failed to get them doing much more than a structured splashing of arms and legs together. Perhaps they are too young but there are other three year olds in the pool stoically paddling away from one side to the other. Perhaps they just need more practice. Before I had children I always imagined that I would be able teach them skills like swimming through inspired leadership but I now realise that a packet of Maltesers and promises of future delights works much better.

Perhaps reaching infinity will take a while.