No dead dog jokes!

Ahhhh... it's the holidays again, no alarm clocks for a week and kids lying about in bed all day! Bliss, as long as I can go out a do my own thing for a bit - which, I have to say, they don't seem to mind.

So today was the holiday trip to Cheltenham to see Mum. She likes us to see us all together at least once in the holiday. And it was important to go this weekend as, very sadly, she had to make the decision to put her lovely Golden Retrieved down a few days ago. The poor thing was very old and had started to become quite ill. Mum is devastated, we can never prepare it seems, even though we know that the inevitable is near.

So, before getting in the car today I had a quick word with Small Sprog: he's quite often in his own little world and I was worried that, although I'd told him the dog was dead, that he would just breeze in through the door and ask where she was, without thinking. "Small Sprog" I said "Don't forget the dog is dead"
"I remember" he replies with a wry smile.

With Mum today we listen a lot. She has sorted through photos of the dog and wants to get a nice one framed. I help her take some digital ones off the computer so they can take them somewhere to be printed. She mentions the dog in most conversations, she is grieving. And Small Sprog manages admirably to say nothing dodgy at all.

By 8pm we are all back in the car and as I pull out of the cul-de-sac that they live in Small Sprog chirps up from the back seat "Mum, how did we do on the dead dog jokes?"! I exploded into laughter! Timing is everything and that boy certainly has it all...

Meanwhile on the motorway Tall Girl says "Oh! I thought I saw a deer but it was just a horse with a tree behind it" - Now she definitely is on a different planet- its just the way we roll...