Summertime blues

We are at that point in the summer where I swear that next year I will be signing Monkey up for summer camp, come hell or high water.

Which I probably will, because he'll be well able for it at that point. And because if I have any sense at all I'll look back on this and remember that no, the fact that I have one at home anyway doesn't mean I may as well have both of them. It may be more fun for them, but it comes down to a lot more headaches for me, and who's in charge here anyway? (Don't answer that.)

Monkey has not got any better at entertaining himself. Levels of "What can I do now?" are reaching epic proportions, and B and I have been badgered to make every conceivable item out of cardboard, from a Monkey-and-Mabel-sized, fully functioning Batmobile (with added flying power) to a gas mask (currently under construction). He's also going through a very irritating attention-seeking phase where he bugs me every time I try to talk to another adult and jumps all over Mabel and me every time I sit down with her for some mumeet. (Hmm. That last isn't so much a phase.) The TV-time amnesty that began when we came back from our trip has been gradually winding back down to the limits that were in place before we left, but for the sake of my sanity we're not all the way there yet.

On the bright side, though: we had a babysitter last night! I went, in the company of my husband, of all people, to the cinema (the cinnamon-man, as Mabel calls it) and saw the last Harry Potter movie (great, but intensely grim with little opportunity for light relief). The babysitter arrived at 7.00 - she's only 13, but the kids like her exactly because she's not in that grown-up space in their given designations - and Monkey, by choice, was already in bed, stories read and on the way to sleep. Mabel stayed up till we came home, as there was no point trying to get her to sleep. She watched a DVD and demanded a waffle and presumably entertained the babysitter the entire time, and so long as there are no tears I don't care how long she stays awake.

So that's a long-overdue first. I think that was B's birthday treat (his birthday was in April March) so we still have mine to go. When's the next must-see blockbuster coming out?