Lego Ban

This morning we had to get Remy to the vets to have her stitches taken out. Jenson wasn't at all keen, preferring instead to play with his Lego. He demonstrated this resistance by screaming and hitting me. I removed the piece of Lego that he was so engrossed with in the hope it might bring him out of his cellular mindset. It didn't quite work out like that. He continued to shout and slam doors. He sulked around for a while and eventually settled in front of another Lego tray while Wren helped me to tidy up some old cardboard boxes. He was being deliberately awkward by sitting right in Wren's way and basically acting like a spoilt brat. This prompted drastic action. I removed all Lego and put a ban on it for the whole day. The fact I've not needed to do this before is a good thing, but now I've done it once I seem to be using the threat more and more frequently! 

We did eventually make it to the vets and the fresh air did him good. We went to buy a pint of milk after and for once no sweets or treats. I was still very upset by his behaviour and told him so. We came home and pulled out the puzzle below from the games chest. I bought it years ago from a charity shop and have always toyed with taking it back to one on the grounds that it's never been played with and he has never shown any interest in it. However, without any Lego, he was forced to engage in other things and he became captivated by this all afternoon. It requires great dexterity, concentration and is actually pretty addictive! Brilliant fun.

We gave Forest School a miss this afternoon. Jenson was in no mood and neither was I. On top of that my brother came to do a few tip runs and the children were keen to see him. We pottered around all afternoon. I got them both cutting out their silhouettes that they had made a week or so ago. 

Once Howard had finished ferrying all our junk to the tip he took Wren to the park. Jenson wasn't interested in going so I stayed at home with him. We had a super time doing various different non-Lego activities. The games chest is a new area of storage I've created but the children seem to find the puzzles much more accessible. For instance, Jenson pulled out this skeleton stacking game which he was given as a Christmas present in 2015 but has never played with it. Today, instead of stacking, he made a bony man, car, dog and spider! 

Next he gave the rabbits a quick cuddle and designed his own dinosaur ticket for entry into a museum. 

The skeleton theme continued in his bedroom when I suggested we might want to stick the cut out figure of himself on his bedroom door. It's blackboard paint and it gave us the perfect excuse to do a bit of labelling of body parts. He really enjoyed himself and it was a great way for him to learn all about his own body.

All in all, a frustrating morning but a successful afternoon. I've not seen such aggression in Jenson since he was at school and it wasn't nice. He said some really mean things and although I know he didn't mean them, they still stick in your head for longer than you'd like. I'm hoping for a better weekend as we embark on our Big Garden Bird Watch!