Erin's fascination for the swirly chairs

In between Christmas and New Year, my friend Kathy and her two kids came for a "sleepover".  They had intended to visit before Christmas so that we could swap prezzies but the snow totally scuppered our plans. The roads were impassable and the trains had stopped running.  It was the first time in the 20 odd years that we have known each other that we weren't able to either see each other or post the gifts in time for Christmas.

It shouldn't have been a big deal, but it was!  The kids weren't bothered so much about getting their presents cos lets face it, getting them later gave them something else to look forward to but for Kathy and I, it was horrible, made worse by the fact that Jack had just come out of hospital and I think she wanted to reassure herself that we were all right and I without realising it, was needing one of her hugs.

As the roads were still bad, they took the train so there was no stress.  The snow wasn't too bad in Elgin itself but the road to and from Aberdeen, especially through the Glens were pretty hairy.

It was the first time they'd been to my house since I'd got the new suite with the swirly chairs.  After hugs all round, opening presents and a couple of cups of tea, we became aware that Erin had fallen, literally, in love with the swirly chairs and believe me that is no exaggeration! She was most impressed that she could do a 360 degree turn over and over and that she didn't have to turn her head to speak to any of us instead she could just swivel the chair round.

Erin who is 10, likes to make herself at home when she is visiting.  She usually finds the best seat in the house and once I place the hallowed  TV remote in her hand, she is in heaven and we have to endure wall to wall Disney which is ok if it's Hannah Montana cos she makes me laugh as her one liners are spot on or Sonny with a Chance but no, it's a lot more cheesy than that.

Unfortunately, Erin had the remote but not the best seat in the house so she hovered, lurking and waiting to leap into a vacant swirly chair.  The first couple of times it happened, no one really clocked it but eventually it was becoming so obvious that everyone was reluctant to move out of their seat for fear of "ninja Erin" leaping across the room and super gluing her butt to the space you'd seconds before vacated. This caused great amusement to us all, especially to her brother James who being 12, needed very little excuse to wind her up.

One of the "swirly" chairs that caused Erin to be so fascinated.

The next morning, as soon as Erin was up she leapt into the a swirly seat and was unmovable! We were keen for her to show off her new skills in making cups of tea but she wasn't happy as someone would take her seat don't you know!  After much persuasion she did eventually get up but believe me when I tell you, it took a LOT of persuasion much to everyone's amusement.

We were given strict instructions not to sit in her seat but hey rules were meant to be broken so she was only seconds out the door when one of us leapt into her seat.  She was not impressed when she came back and was about to "down tools" and refuse to make the tea but again we persuaded her to carry on making the tea.

As you can imagine, this was causing great hilarity as she was feeling most hard done by.  The tea was worth all the effort but before I'd taken the first sip "ninja Erin" had leapt into the seat her brother stupidly vacated.

After lunch we opted to discard the Disney Channel and watch Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.  Mmmmmmmm, Kevin Mckidd, some eye candy for us mums.  Straight away Erin was demanding a promise from me that she could sit in the swirly chair next to the TV and being the soft touch that I am, said yes.  I don't think she believed me cos while I was feeding Jack, she was hovering and lurking again and she was like a streak of lightning when her mum got up to help me with something and was once again sitting in the swirly chair with the biggest self satisfied grin on her face, thinking she'd gotten one over on us.  It was so so funny.

This is Erin a few years ago at Jack's birthday party and Leah in the background.

So once everyone had finished their lunch, Erin had to go to the toilet but she didn't got without laying claim to the seat.  She wasn't seconds out the door when Holly leapt into her seat which set us into fits of giggles.  When she came back from the toilet, she stood at the door, hands on hips, spitting the dummy out at this injustice to which we all fell about laughing.  That's when we discovered that she hadn't actually been to the toilet yet as she came running back when she heard us laughing,

We then sent her to get something from Jack's room and without any discussion Holly, James, Kathy and I began a game of musical chairs. When she came back she couldn't find what we had sent her for so we sent her off once more, leaping out and into chairs seconds after she left.  We did this about 3 times more and we were in hysterics when she came back as she was so not amused!


Who knew you could have this much fun with a 3 piece suite!  We were still laughing later on when we were out for our tea and poor Erin was getting a hard time from us but she took it really well.

Later when they were sitting on the train waiting for it to leave the platform, Holly and I were doing Ninja impressions at them through the window and attracting a lot of attention.  Once again we fell about laughing especially when Kathy joined in but it was funnier still when James and Erin were looking at her as if she had gone mad as they had missed our antics and were wondering what the hell was going on!

I was sad to see them go as it had been such a bloody laugh, mostly at Erin's expense but hey you can't pass up an opportunity like that.

P.S.  After reading this post, Holly commented that Erin eyes that day were googlie like a tree frog or one of those squeezy toys that you squeeze and it's eyes pop out of its head, so mesmerized was she by the swirly chairs!  A proper glaiket expression as we Scots would say!