We have survived another week of lockdown and January is finally over! We had a reasonably successful week of home learning – everyone is getting into the swing of it now and I think the boys have realised that no matter what they do the school work still has to be done eventually!

One thing we have been struggling with this lockdown is getting the boys to spend any time outside. Back in the spring last year they were happy on the trampoline, or riding their bikes or scooters up and down the street outside our house. But this time it’s cold and wet a lot of the time, and going outside just isn’t as appealing.

The last few weeks though Gabe, and occasionally Toby too, has been enjoying going out for a walk round the block with Barry after tea. I think he likes the novelty of going out in the dark, and they’ve been having some lovely chats too by all accounts.

Last night Toby wanted his dad to help him with something after tea, so I took Gabe about for a walk instead. It was actually really lovely to get out in the fresh air, and we had a good chat too, mostly about Covid and the vaccine and how things are going to get better eventually. My mum, and Barry’s parents all had their first doses of the vaccine last week so that is something positive for us to focus on now.

As much as the boys seem to be coping well with this lockdown it is definitely affecting them both. Toby is either running around the house bouncing off the walls, or wanting cuddles all the time, which he hasn’t really done for ages – Gabe has always been the cuddly one out of the two of them. They both like to start the day with cuddles in our bed now, and with no school run to rush off to I’m not really complaining!

Toby has been getting his cuddles in at bedtime too. Last week we started the third Kid Normal book – Toby really enjoys them but Gabe isn’t really interested so he has some different stories in the boys’ bedroom with Daddy, while Toby and I read in our bed. I don’t usually show my face in these Living Arrows posts but I didn’t have any pictures of Toby this week so I grabbed this quick snap of us after we’d finished our reading last night.

That’s all for this week I think. I hope you are all still coping – now we’ve made it through January I’m looking forward to a week off the home learning for half term in a couple of week’s time! And maybe just maybe we might dare to start thinking about them going back to school sometime…

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.