Sunday, December 07, 2008

Advent calendar risks

Marcus has been getting up terribly early since the Advent Calendar went up on the wall. This version has pockets instead of little windows, so the children get more of a surprise than "ooh - a picure of shepherds!". Elf has cunningly alternated nativity figures with Jaffas© (rock hard orange-coated chocolate balls - I'm not sure if you have them in the Ukraine and Peru). Today she made a beautiful cardboard stable to house the cow and one wise man who have emerged so far.

The other morning Marcus was bustling around at about 5.30, then came and woke us up with a garbled message. We said something like "Yeah, yeah, go back to bed". He had no prior experience of Jaffas and did not realise they were food - he was trying to ask us what they were all about. Later there was commotion, and Michael appeared with some wet and sticky Jaffas in his hand, asking "What are these? I was eating them and Marcus told me not to".

Marcus had seen Michael put these dangerous small balls INTO HIS MOUTH and had leapt into action, extracted them and given him a stern warning. Dear boy - we were very touched that he had sensed danger and saved Michael from possible choking. I like to think he fell into an alert crouch at some point.

2 comments:

Wendy said...

This is really nice! Usually I come in to find someone putting a pillow over someone else's face or, like this morning, the older one locking baby brother out on the porch in 30 degree weather with nothing but his diaper on. It's like Lord of the Flies at our place.

Chris Rees said...

Well, Michael DID heave a very large fat cushion at Marcus later in the day as Marcus was walking down stairs - that could have been nasty. But it was a cushion, not a typewriter or the fish tank. Could be worse.

Geez, I HATED that book when we did it at school. Why can't everyone just get along? Those kids needed counselling.