The Things They Say; The Things They Do

The other day the boys and I sat down at the table and rooted through our autumn collection of leaves, conkers, seeds and what-have-you.

We did leaf crayon rubbings, painted leaf banners, made leaf table decorations and painting pictures of, you guessed it, leaves.

"Now", I enthused, pulling out the laminator, "we are going to make a leaf mobile!", to much smiling and oohing over the chance to use a dangerous-looking object.



I let the boys choose the prettiest leaves of different shapes and sizes, and we laminated them. Then they cut around the leaves, punched holes and tied two twigs together to form the frame for the mobile. As they ate lunch I tied every laminated leaf onto the sticks, and then hung the mobile in the sitting room for them to find after lunch.



One after the other they came into the sitting room. "Ooh!!" cooed the eldest, obediently.

"Well??" I asked the midget, "whadya think?? It looks good, doesn't it - and look - everytime the wind blows through the window it looks like the leaves are falling!"

Sulkily he announced he didn't like it, and showed his disappointment in it in no uncertain terms.

"But why don't you like it?" said I - perplexed at how such an inoffensive object could cause such sourness.

"Because, Mummy..." said he, as though he were patently talking to an imbecile, "... because it doesn't look anything LIKE a phone!!"







And I guess it doesn't.

It's a mobile, but not as we know it...