It’s always nice to think that all the hard work you put into something pays off, like eating and training for a six pack.

OR, like bringing up your kids to be strong-minded and confident.

To know what they want, be able to make a plan and then execute that plan with the efficiency, and ruthlessness, of a deadly assassin.

Meet Edward, my baby. My utterly delicious, cheeky and far too clever for his own good mini-teenager!

He turned four in July and has always been ahead of his years – I suppose it’s inevitable when you have a brother and sister 12 and 11 years older than you.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

When he was two one of his favourite words was ‘trebuchet’. He’d ask people, “Do you know what a trebuchet is?” At best a fair few people did know what a trebuchet was and, at the very least, the remainder thought it was just a font in Word (which it is).

Feel the pain of the poor ‘it’s a font isn’t it’ people when Edward sighed at them, with a tone that can only be described as saying ‘you really don’t know very much do you!’ and proceed to tell them that, “a trebuchet is a huge catapult thing that fires big rocks at castles to knock them down!”

Cue stunned look of disbelief from the person newly furnished with trebuchet knowledge.

He used to play a game on the computer with Jack called ‘Crash the Castle’ you see, and Jack taught him all about trebuchets.

From pretty much the same age, Edward was able to turn on the shared computer, log on to his user account (it was the one that had a picture of a little frog) and open up the Thomas the Tank Engine games website.

This really should have given us a clue for the events that were to unfold earlier today…

Edward started school a few weeks ago back at the beginning of September; he’s wanted to go to school ever since he was old enough to wonder where Jack and Ellie went every day.

When he saw them getting on the big shiny school bus it was even worse, we had tears for weeks because he wasn’t allowed to get on and go with them.

His school is in a little neighbouring village, there are five academic years and only 120 children make up the entire school register.

It’s a very close community and last Friday, Edward was given the ‘Star of the Week’ award for the Reception year.

They were studying healthy eating that week (something he knows ALL about!) and trying lots of fruits and vegetables in class. He was given the award because he was very enthusiastic, was able to name all the things they tried and used some big describing words (apparently it’s “disasterous and calamatous when the supermarket doesn’t have any kiwi fruit left!”).

So you’d think in a tiny close-knit villageschool, that’s like Fort Knox, it would be impossible for a small child to go missing; this was the situation Edward’s dad found himself faced with yesterday afternoon when he went to collect him.

Here’s how our conversation went when I asked how Bear’s day had been (we call Edward, Bear)…

“How was Bear today after school?”

“Oh, he was fine; tired and very grumpy!”

“Oh no!”

“When I got to school to collect him, though, he was nowhere to be found; neither him or Reece [his partner in crime] were anywhere to be seen. No one knew where they were!”

You can already imagine the panic beginning to rise in the stomachs of everyone who knew the boys were missing.

The calm and rational side of the brain would be saying ‘it’s ok, they can’t get out, they’re here somewhere and safe; the other side of the brain, however, would have already lost the plot and be imagining all sorts of horrors.

“Oh my goodness!  What happened?”

“We eventually found them on the BUS! They had told their classroom assisant they were getting the bus home! As they weren’t on the list the bus wouldn’t have left with them, but the teacher on the bus couldn’t get off, to bring them back in, until all the other kids had boarded!”

At this point I must confess to actually laughing out loud! I know my youngest son had been temporarily missing in action but this is just fabulously him – he knows what he wants, he makes a plan, then he puts it into ACTION!

“So Reece’s mum and I were NOT popular with the boys for making them get off the bus. The school were very sorry that it happened and assured us it wouldn’t happen again.

His classroom assitant, who originally let them go, was mortified! [poor woman, must have felt sick!] She said they had excitedly told her, “We’re getting the bus home today!” She said, “Why would they SAY that?!” I told her maybe it’s because they’re…FOUR and wanted to get the bus home..?

Bear’s angry face at being pulled off the bus in front of all his friends was a picture! I’m thinking that as he had the gumption to get on the bus, we might do a trial run after half term. There is a dedicated parent who goes on each trip to look after the kids, so we’ll see if he still wants to after half term – what do you think?”

“Ha ha haaa, I think that’s probably a VERY good idea! Shame, you must have been SO worried!”

“It was just AWFUL! Still…we’ve got to admire his ingenuity – remind me I said that after his next adventure!”

So that was the adventure of Bear and the Bus; a tale from his childhood that will go down in family legend, “…like the time you told your teachers you were getting the bus home!”

What does this have to do with six pack abs? EVERYTHING!

You can’t achieve a six pack if you’re fainthearted or wishy-washy.

You won’t have a six pack if you only ‘sort of want one’.

You have to KNOW you want a six pack, WHY you want a six pack and then you have to be prepared to go and GET that six pack by doing what it takes every. single. day whether you feel like it or not!

Edward has wanted to travel on the school bus for years. Yesterday he got just a few steps closer to achieving his goals *GRIN*

I must confess I wasn’t looking forward to cardio!

I felt a bit like I was squaring up to Goliath when I climbed aboard the exercise bike. 

But by the end of the warm up, and with a great ‘training song of the day’ playing LOUD, I was ready to NAIL 20 minutes of HIIT!

Yes, I fell climbed off the bike muttering things about the Coach, but that’s no different from normal

Legs tomorrow, bring on the DEADLIFTS!