No it's true I tell you, I really nearly did, honest!
But since I didn't, due to my and F's 'tummy troubles', let's get on with it, shall we?
HE: Some casual mathematical observations of the 'well there's two here and three there, so there's five' type variety. Also, she just started singing a made-up song yesterday that went: one and one is two, two and two is four, four and four is... at which point she stopped to ask us what four and four made, then continued. Some other maths that came up with dominoes. More study dog, including taking quite an interest in the ways that the letters are formed. She drew an 'S' sometime last week, and I think she could do more but I'm letting her take it as and when she likes. She got me to write a sign for two stones that she put on the windowsill. I wanted to write something HEish, i.e. an informative nature table kind of sign, saying something like 'these two stones are similar' but she dictated so our eventual sign read something more on the lines of 'don't touch these stones or take them away'. Poor thwarted educational mum.
Conversations have touched on: skeletons, humming-birds, lighthouses, superheroes, how sharks have sad mouths because they wish they were dolphins. Have also been watching Discovery Kids now and then and that has triggered a couple of good conversations about lungs and yawning.
Life:
Is good. Hayfever is on the way out and the bout of D&V is now over. It was a real shame that it stopped us joining the South Coast HE Joyce-fest, typical bad timing. But there we go. Nic, Davies and Scarlett visited today, and after they went I looked around at the house which I hadn't really done for a while, and rapidly spotted 50 different kinds of filth that surely must have made her think 'Phew, that was a lucky escape, I was nearly the person who introduced Joyce to Ali!'
HE moment of the day was awesomely Scarlett's. Nic and I were chatting away, and Scarlett said quite casually 'Freya and Davies and Ady all have the 'ay' sound in, don't they?' or words to that effect! Gobsmacked mums looked at the 2yr old blonde phonics genius in astonishment. Wow!
It was another good visit, there were phases when Nic and I could not get more than 5 words chatted in a row, but plenty of times when we really did get a chance to talk. So we covered: how we became really us, which was somewhat similar for both of us and also involved schooldays; home-ed; children; social skills; character types; life, the universe and sandwiches.
J had a whole week off around F's birthday and guess where we went?
Nowhere!
And it was brilliant! By the 4th day or so, family life was so harmonious and relaxed, I felt we could have lived like that forever... Bliss. Family of homebirds really. And at F's age, she gets so much just from having us both around, pootling and pottering in our home environment, chatting and accompanying and observing and asking. And she played 2 games of draughts with me, almost 'properly' before insisting her way was better (rolling the draughts on their edges across the board, but at least there was some idea of turntaking involved).
What else: more birthday prezzies, including a clockmaking kit, makes a simple transparent clock, so you can see the cogs. F and I put it together this morning, it's rather nice. But it did mean that when Nic arrived I hadn't even got as far as breakfast! She's very nice about my eternal disorganization though! Lots of lego, and we've just made lots of patterns of holes in a small cardboard box, to put her glow balls in, so that will be something pretty to look at as part of bedtime which should be starting about...Now!
Monday, July 25, 2005
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
All sorts and then some
HE:
She's back on Study Dog with renewed interest. She has completed the whole alphabet (first three sections), and the only problems she has are that repetition quite quickly makes her bored - she doesn't mind doing similar tasks repeatedly but there must be variety in context and consequences, or she just kind of switches off after a while.
We have been dancing to LeapGlobe music - tunes for different countries, very naff, but still some fun and a bit of educational value can be added in.
She made a digital clock display using dominoes, inspired by the similarity between the dots (between hours and minutes on clock) and double one domino.
Life:
Diarrhoea and vomiting.
Lots of work. A payment to Mr. I. Revenue, who I'm sure will be grateful.
Cutting this short now (see Life: Item 1 above) sorry...
She's back on Study Dog with renewed interest. She has completed the whole alphabet (first three sections), and the only problems she has are that repetition quite quickly makes her bored - she doesn't mind doing similar tasks repeatedly but there must be variety in context and consequences, or she just kind of switches off after a while.
We have been dancing to LeapGlobe music - tunes for different countries, very naff, but still some fun and a bit of educational value can be added in.
She made a digital clock display using dominoes, inspired by the similarity between the dots (between hours and minutes on clock) and double one domino.
Life:
Diarrhoea and vomiting.
Lots of work. A payment to Mr. I. Revenue, who I'm sure will be grateful.
Cutting this short now (see Life: Item 1 above) sorry...
Thursday, July 14, 2005
4 yesterday!
HE: Er, symmetry in Kids K'nex models. That's yer lot this week!
Life:
So my baby girl is 4! Amazing! And lovely she is.
The birthday was a bit non-eventlike in some ways, in that we had planned to all go into Brighton, buy a few treats and go to the cinema, taking her for the first time. However, she said 'no' very definitely. And I had thrown so much energy and funds into the picnic on Sunday that I felt a bit at a loss on the actual day. J has ordered some prezzies for her that haven't arrived yet, and some had already been opened at the picnic, so she only had a few to open on her birthday in the end. I had been planning to buy a few bits for her as part of our trip to Brighton, but it wasn't to be. J and I spent a large part of the afternoon putting together a small toddler trampoline, the instructions for which were unnervingly bad. Fortunately he had already set up the sandpit and put sand in it, so F was OK, entertaining herself, as we battled with canvas, aluminium tubing and bungee, building the thing and then finding a bit wrong and disassembling it, then starting it again, eventually achieving it by discarding the instructions in favour of our own intuition. Auntie Glo rang up to say 'Happy Birthday' and also to tell us their fantastic news. They have been accepted as adoptive parents for 2 siblings, a girl aged 5.5 and her brother aged 3.5, with the actual adoption process due to take place in September. Glo picked up on my 'at a loss' feelings about F's birthday and rang back shortly to suggest they come over. Auntie Shula is one of F's absolute favourite people, I'm not sure how she will handle her auntie becoming a mum. It was lovely of them to come over, and nice to be able to congratulate them both in person, really added something to the day, for me, probably as much as for F, who I don't really think was as disappointed about the day as me, to be honest. I'm a bit weird at the moment with hayfever and hayfever medication, so the non-event feeling was really mainly me. Anyway J did a great job of reminding me how I had prepared brilliantly for the picnic and that that had included presents to F too (spacehoppers, inflatable globe) and had been a lovely afternoon, so I think it was all OK.
F's button phobia emerged when it was ice-cream time, Glo had a shirt with buttons on, and F now has what I recognize to be a serious phobia about buttons. She can touch them and play with them and be fine with them if they're just threaded on a string or loose on a table. But seeing buttons on people's clothes make her really react badly, she seems to feel disgust or nausea. It's a documented phobia, found it on the internet, so at least she's not the only one, I guess. Not sure what to do about it though. Anyway she refused ice-cream, which is her absolute favourite, because of seeing Glo's buttons.
She has very much been enjoying the sandpit and the trampoline. Due to arrive at some point soon are a couple of DVDs (Maggie and the Ferocious Beast), an X-Box dance mat and a transparent clock construction kit. Also more Lego and more Lego train tracks.
Hayfever is making me withdrawn, irritable, a bit depressed/introverted. I feel like about 75% of my body's systems, resources and energy is going on fighting this non-existent threat, this perceived invasion of pollen. Should surely be over soon. I want to do summer things and to have a throat that isn't sore so that I can talk and read stories again more easily. I am fed up with it.
Life:
So my baby girl is 4! Amazing! And lovely she is.
The birthday was a bit non-eventlike in some ways, in that we had planned to all go into Brighton, buy a few treats and go to the cinema, taking her for the first time. However, she said 'no' very definitely. And I had thrown so much energy and funds into the picnic on Sunday that I felt a bit at a loss on the actual day. J has ordered some prezzies for her that haven't arrived yet, and some had already been opened at the picnic, so she only had a few to open on her birthday in the end. I had been planning to buy a few bits for her as part of our trip to Brighton, but it wasn't to be. J and I spent a large part of the afternoon putting together a small toddler trampoline, the instructions for which were unnervingly bad. Fortunately he had already set up the sandpit and put sand in it, so F was OK, entertaining herself, as we battled with canvas, aluminium tubing and bungee, building the thing and then finding a bit wrong and disassembling it, then starting it again, eventually achieving it by discarding the instructions in favour of our own intuition. Auntie Glo rang up to say 'Happy Birthday' and also to tell us their fantastic news. They have been accepted as adoptive parents for 2 siblings, a girl aged 5.5 and her brother aged 3.5, with the actual adoption process due to take place in September. Glo picked up on my 'at a loss' feelings about F's birthday and rang back shortly to suggest they come over. Auntie Shula is one of F's absolute favourite people, I'm not sure how she will handle her auntie becoming a mum. It was lovely of them to come over, and nice to be able to congratulate them both in person, really added something to the day, for me, probably as much as for F, who I don't really think was as disappointed about the day as me, to be honest. I'm a bit weird at the moment with hayfever and hayfever medication, so the non-event feeling was really mainly me. Anyway J did a great job of reminding me how I had prepared brilliantly for the picnic and that that had included presents to F too (spacehoppers, inflatable globe) and had been a lovely afternoon, so I think it was all OK.
F's button phobia emerged when it was ice-cream time, Glo had a shirt with buttons on, and F now has what I recognize to be a serious phobia about buttons. She can touch them and play with them and be fine with them if they're just threaded on a string or loose on a table. But seeing buttons on people's clothes make her really react badly, she seems to feel disgust or nausea. It's a documented phobia, found it on the internet, so at least she's not the only one, I guess. Not sure what to do about it though. Anyway she refused ice-cream, which is her absolute favourite, because of seeing Glo's buttons.
She has very much been enjoying the sandpit and the trampoline. Due to arrive at some point soon are a couple of DVDs (Maggie and the Ferocious Beast), an X-Box dance mat and a transparent clock construction kit. Also more Lego and more Lego train tracks.
Hayfever is making me withdrawn, irritable, a bit depressed/introverted. I feel like about 75% of my body's systems, resources and energy is going on fighting this non-existent threat, this perceived invasion of pollen. Should surely be over soon. I want to do summer things and to have a throat that isn't sore so that I can talk and read stories again more easily. I am fed up with it.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
4 tomorrow!
HE:
Comparing 2 globes, looking at where we live on one and then finding it on the other. Elephant Diaries on BBC1 last week. More clay, more pizza-making. Other stuff but can't think, because my head is in birthday and shopping mode. Oh I know, suddenly Study Dog again, at her request, out of nowhere, on my laptop, where it actually works better! That new laptop was such an investment. In fact using it now to play Thornberrys DVD for her too! Little bit of Headsprout too.
Life:
One pee landed mainly in the potty! Hoorah! We're going to go for it properly after this week (this week we have J home and F's 4th birthday, so lots of excitement, no routine and various out and abouts going on that would make it difficult). Basically the approach we're going for is to have vast quantities of pretty pants available and keep going, with carpet clean spray to hand. Have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, after the first 3 hours when she peed somewhere on the carpet every 40 mins. Oh she also peed in the conservatory, but told me that she had taken the trouble to do it exactly where we sometimes get rain coming in from a small hole in the roof, so that it would just look the same as that. How thoughtful, and only twice as far to go as the distance to the potty! Bless...
Jack came on Friday and I left F with him while I headed into town to buy things for Sunday's birthday picnic. Not very lucky with the shopping that time so had to go back in on Saturday. F seemed to have had fun with Jack, mainly in the garden, which I'm currently avoiding myself as my hayfever has been a pain. They did some clay too. Jack stayed overnight so the 3 of us had a nice evening. F stayed up late too, but eventually konked out on her dad's lap.
Saturday I shopped till I dropped, buying food, toys, etc. for the picnic: big bubble machine thing, 2 spacehoppers, inflatable globe beach ball, cheap white T-shirts and fabric pens, crisps, fruit, juice, pizza ingredients, etc.
Sunday I got up with F and she helped me with 1 of the 4 pizzas I made, which all came out pretty well (thanks to new vegan melting Mozzarella! - plug, plug). She decorated one with sweetcorn and yellow pepper.
Went over to the playground/park at about 2 and her aunties Glo and Shula were there already. My mum had also arrived at the house about an hour beforehand, and soon everyone else turned up and we all had a very relaxed and enjoyable afternoon. Most of the children made their marks on a T-shirt, and the bubble blower was a big hit, with the oldest boy running around with it while at least 3 little girls followed him everywhere he went. It was a low-key affair, with 7 children and 10 adults, all close friends and family. Glo and Shula have another panel session coming up as the next stage of their adoption process, this time relating to particular children that they may be able to adopt - 2 siblings, not going to say any more here. Good luck to them though, they will be wonderful mums, and are really ready for a family.
Various parcels are amassing here for tomorrow - F's birthday. She received and opened some gifts on Sunday - Kids K'nex being one highlight. And some she knows about. My money came in too late to order things online so I think a shopping trip into Brighton might be in order later in the week where she can choose a book, a DVD, a jigsaw... I suspect her 2 big people will probably treat themselves a bit too. There goes the moolah!
Comparing 2 globes, looking at where we live on one and then finding it on the other. Elephant Diaries on BBC1 last week. More clay, more pizza-making. Other stuff but can't think, because my head is in birthday and shopping mode. Oh I know, suddenly Study Dog again, at her request, out of nowhere, on my laptop, where it actually works better! That new laptop was such an investment. In fact using it now to play Thornberrys DVD for her too! Little bit of Headsprout too.
Life:
One pee landed mainly in the potty! Hoorah! We're going to go for it properly after this week (this week we have J home and F's 4th birthday, so lots of excitement, no routine and various out and abouts going on that would make it difficult). Basically the approach we're going for is to have vast quantities of pretty pants available and keep going, with carpet clean spray to hand. Have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, after the first 3 hours when she peed somewhere on the carpet every 40 mins. Oh she also peed in the conservatory, but told me that she had taken the trouble to do it exactly where we sometimes get rain coming in from a small hole in the roof, so that it would just look the same as that. How thoughtful, and only twice as far to go as the distance to the potty! Bless...
Jack came on Friday and I left F with him while I headed into town to buy things for Sunday's birthday picnic. Not very lucky with the shopping that time so had to go back in on Saturday. F seemed to have had fun with Jack, mainly in the garden, which I'm currently avoiding myself as my hayfever has been a pain. They did some clay too. Jack stayed overnight so the 3 of us had a nice evening. F stayed up late too, but eventually konked out on her dad's lap.
Saturday I shopped till I dropped, buying food, toys, etc. for the picnic: big bubble machine thing, 2 spacehoppers, inflatable globe beach ball, cheap white T-shirts and fabric pens, crisps, fruit, juice, pizza ingredients, etc.
Sunday I got up with F and she helped me with 1 of the 4 pizzas I made, which all came out pretty well (thanks to new vegan melting Mozzarella! - plug, plug). She decorated one with sweetcorn and yellow pepper.
Went over to the playground/park at about 2 and her aunties Glo and Shula were there already. My mum had also arrived at the house about an hour beforehand, and soon everyone else turned up and we all had a very relaxed and enjoyable afternoon. Most of the children made their marks on a T-shirt, and the bubble blower was a big hit, with the oldest boy running around with it while at least 3 little girls followed him everywhere he went. It was a low-key affair, with 7 children and 10 adults, all close friends and family. Glo and Shula have another panel session coming up as the next stage of their adoption process, this time relating to particular children that they may be able to adopt - 2 siblings, not going to say any more here. Good luck to them though, they will be wonderful mums, and are really ready for a family.
Various parcels are amassing here for tomorrow - F's birthday. She received and opened some gifts on Sunday - Kids K'nex being one highlight. And some she knows about. My money came in too late to order things online so I think a shopping trip into Brighton might be in order later in the week where she can choose a book, a DVD, a jigsaw... I suspect her 2 big people will probably treat themselves a bit too. There goes the moolah!
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Pizza, Clay, Terrorism, Pee
HE:
Various references to letters and sounds, lego patterns, symmetry, discussion of sharks which led to fish/mammals/birds/insects, briefly (fortunately undertaken by J, since that kind of thing just makes me want to do the Monty Python sketch). Pizza-making and clay. I love clay. Pizza made with the new vegan mozzarella was just delicious, and she really did do a lot of the making this time, stirring the mix, kneading the dough, rolling and adding toppings. Last time we did this a few months ago, she didn't really do much of it, and we had almost constant arguments. This time she did most of it and we only had one row near the end. She generally was interested and involved, which was great.
Clay: I love clay. I forget until I actually get the chance to use some, but it's one of the few arty things I really relax with and enjoy. She asked me to make some models of Dozy Mog and of a shark (J brought a shark toy home - promotional item from hardware company), so I did, but also showed her how to make a thumb pot, since she showed interest. So she made her first thumb pot, and I looked at it and thought I want to keep that forever, and it could go on her bookshelf in her room, maybe. Later that evening she trashed it for some reason that she hasn't yet communicated. I was quite sad. But anyway, we will do clay regularly I think - it is really good for working with her 'difficult' hand, and it's one of those activities that I enjoy too. In fact I think we could try a few more crafts, now that she is showing that she can listen a bit more and sometimes accept guidance, rather than throwing a wobbly about not doing it her own way every 5 minutes. A friend sent me a vast quantity of ideas which I will sift through when I get the time (Thanks HH! *wave*). It's difficult to get the balance of showing/guiding as opposed to her feeling too controlled. I always thought I was OK at letting her find her way around new materials, etc., but maybe I shouldn't even have shown her how to make a thumb pot, but then again she did seem interested. (*squirms around in self-tying would-be-autonomous knots like an over-self-analyzing idiot*)
She insisted I make the shark's mouth go the happy way up, not the sad way.
Life:
Some kind of major incident is unfolding in London today. Appears to be terrorist activity. Yesterday, London was euphoric with the news of the Olympics. Now this, as the G8 summit opens. Sad and frightening.
Think I'll take refuge in putting together F's 'baby book' - when I was pregnant we bought a nice green scrapbook thing and started collecting pictures and info from pregnancy to go into it, intending to keep it up after she was born, but then there was the discovery a few days after her birth that she had suffered a stroke, there was the uncertainty about the outcome, and then as it became apparent that it was all going to be pretty much OK, at least that we were going to survive, there was just the everyday busy time of having a baby, then toddler, physiotherapy and not getting enough sleep, and a bit of delayed shock to deal with. Well, those are all excuses I know, but today, for whatever reason, I want to sit down and put pictures and cuttings etc. in her book.
Lowlights: Terrorism, pee on the carpet, attempting to get a 4-yr old to start potty/toilet training.
Highlights: Pizza-making, Clay.
Various references to letters and sounds, lego patterns, symmetry, discussion of sharks which led to fish/mammals/birds/insects, briefly (fortunately undertaken by J, since that kind of thing just makes me want to do the Monty Python sketch). Pizza-making and clay. I love clay. Pizza made with the new vegan mozzarella was just delicious, and she really did do a lot of the making this time, stirring the mix, kneading the dough, rolling and adding toppings. Last time we did this a few months ago, she didn't really do much of it, and we had almost constant arguments. This time she did most of it and we only had one row near the end. She generally was interested and involved, which was great.
Clay: I love clay. I forget until I actually get the chance to use some, but it's one of the few arty things I really relax with and enjoy. She asked me to make some models of Dozy Mog and of a shark (J brought a shark toy home - promotional item from hardware company), so I did, but also showed her how to make a thumb pot, since she showed interest. So she made her first thumb pot, and I looked at it and thought I want to keep that forever, and it could go on her bookshelf in her room, maybe. Later that evening she trashed it for some reason that she hasn't yet communicated. I was quite sad. But anyway, we will do clay regularly I think - it is really good for working with her 'difficult' hand, and it's one of those activities that I enjoy too. In fact I think we could try a few more crafts, now that she is showing that she can listen a bit more and sometimes accept guidance, rather than throwing a wobbly about not doing it her own way every 5 minutes. A friend sent me a vast quantity of ideas which I will sift through when I get the time (Thanks HH! *wave*). It's difficult to get the balance of showing/guiding as opposed to her feeling too controlled. I always thought I was OK at letting her find her way around new materials, etc., but maybe I shouldn't even have shown her how to make a thumb pot, but then again she did seem interested. (*squirms around in self-tying would-be-autonomous knots like an over-self-analyzing idiot*)
She insisted I make the shark's mouth go the happy way up, not the sad way.
Life:
Some kind of major incident is unfolding in London today. Appears to be terrorist activity. Yesterday, London was euphoric with the news of the Olympics. Now this, as the G8 summit opens. Sad and frightening.
Think I'll take refuge in putting together F's 'baby book' - when I was pregnant we bought a nice green scrapbook thing and started collecting pictures and info from pregnancy to go into it, intending to keep it up after she was born, but then there was the discovery a few days after her birth that she had suffered a stroke, there was the uncertainty about the outcome, and then as it became apparent that it was all going to be pretty much OK, at least that we were going to survive, there was just the everyday busy time of having a baby, then toddler, physiotherapy and not getting enough sleep, and a bit of delayed shock to deal with. Well, those are all excuses I know, but today, for whatever reason, I want to sit down and put pictures and cuttings etc. in her book.
Lowlights: Terrorism, pee on the carpet, attempting to get a 4-yr old to start potty/toilet training.
Highlights: Pizza-making, Clay.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Back to work tomorrow (if the phone rings)
HE: F made some letters out of various things. She decided to make F, M, D, X, T, S. Thinking about it she has also recently made or recognized: H, A, C, N, L, E and O. Near enough half an alphabet covered in some fashion or other. Not bad. She did a bit of HeadSprout too. Not much else of the most obvious educational value, but the usual day-to-day conversations/explorations continue.
Life: On Friday, we all went into town (J has 4 days off too), bought a few very restrained treats, mainly vegan Mozzarella, vegan ice-cream and cornettos (Tofutti Rock'n'Roll Cones) and a book or two.
Saturday we went to a school fete thing, was OK but a bit lacklustre by the time we got there. Local school that is known for independence and small classes. Apparently they don't do flexi-schooling though they used to. Met someone we know through music and movement there - his older boy goes to the school. Had one of those funny parenting conversations where he was telling me how wonderful the school was and the philosophy that makes the children take responsibility for their actions instead of punishing them. All of which was sound and I agree with quite a lot, but as so often happens, as he was espousing this ed. phil. with great enthusiasm, articulate and convincing, his son was trying to run his little brother over with the buggy repeatedly. So in between saying things like 'and they really benefit, they become responsible' he had to intersperse it with 'remember what we said about running Jimmy over, darling' etc. My face started to ache from trying to keep my laugh locked up in the back of my head.
F enjoyed the fete and won a coconut (allowed to stand practically within coconut-tapping distance to throw her ball). She was not keen to do anything much else. When we came back home she helped her dad with burning garden waste, then accompanied me on the sofa for snuggling, we stayed up watching Live8. She konked out just before Pink Floyd, sadly.
Sunday, Grandpa Clive came over, but mainly for IT support reasons. F got into her lego and has been doing lego art.
And today, F and I went over to Nic's. Once again we took a phenomenal time to get there, last time it was due to getting lost (*embarrassed smiley here*) and having things we had to buy on the way, this time it was due entirely to F being in slow-explorey mode and Southern rail service being shite. Who knows, maybe next time we attempt it we will get there at a reasonable hour?
Had a lovely afternoon. F did her usual not really playing with Davies and Scarlett, until about 40 minutes before time to go. But that's OK, she will get used to them in her own time and I at least know she likes them as she has several times said positive things about both of them as well as reacting positively to me mentioning them. Nic and I had pretty good chatting time I thought, albeit with phases of frequent interruptions, as expected. Can't begin to think of everything we talked about... er, writing, cleavages, Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, carefree pre-parenting faces, parenting styles, all sorts of stuff. I feel I've very quickly got to quite a relaxed stage with Nic, we have a good few laughs and much enjoyable natter.
So that's my 4 days up, it's been lovely having no work in the evenings. I've recently been working 4 or 5 evenings a week, so to have 4 in a row where I could chill out, watch telly, surf, etc. has been lovely.
I hope some work comes in this week though, need to sustain this level of earning for a while if possible.
F's birthday is on the horizon, we are having a picnic on Sunday in the park round the corner, so will be needing to prepare a bit for that.
Lowlights: cancelled train, rain, child changing mind every 20 seconds.
Highlights: relaxation, family time, Pink Floyd.
Life: On Friday, we all went into town (J has 4 days off too), bought a few very restrained treats, mainly vegan Mozzarella, vegan ice-cream and cornettos (Tofutti Rock'n'Roll Cones) and a book or two.
Saturday we went to a school fete thing, was OK but a bit lacklustre by the time we got there. Local school that is known for independence and small classes. Apparently they don't do flexi-schooling though they used to. Met someone we know through music and movement there - his older boy goes to the school. Had one of those funny parenting conversations where he was telling me how wonderful the school was and the philosophy that makes the children take responsibility for their actions instead of punishing them. All of which was sound and I agree with quite a lot, but as so often happens, as he was espousing this ed. phil. with great enthusiasm, articulate and convincing, his son was trying to run his little brother over with the buggy repeatedly. So in between saying things like 'and they really benefit, they become responsible' he had to intersperse it with 'remember what we said about running Jimmy over, darling' etc. My face started to ache from trying to keep my laugh locked up in the back of my head.
F enjoyed the fete and won a coconut (allowed to stand practically within coconut-tapping distance to throw her ball). She was not keen to do anything much else. When we came back home she helped her dad with burning garden waste, then accompanied me on the sofa for snuggling, we stayed up watching Live8. She konked out just before Pink Floyd, sadly.
Sunday, Grandpa Clive came over, but mainly for IT support reasons. F got into her lego and has been doing lego art.
And today, F and I went over to Nic's. Once again we took a phenomenal time to get there, last time it was due to getting lost (*embarrassed smiley here*) and having things we had to buy on the way, this time it was due entirely to F being in slow-explorey mode and Southern rail service being shite. Who knows, maybe next time we attempt it we will get there at a reasonable hour?
Had a lovely afternoon. F did her usual not really playing with Davies and Scarlett, until about 40 minutes before time to go. But that's OK, she will get used to them in her own time and I at least know she likes them as she has several times said positive things about both of them as well as reacting positively to me mentioning them. Nic and I had pretty good chatting time I thought, albeit with phases of frequent interruptions, as expected. Can't begin to think of everything we talked about... er, writing, cleavages, Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, carefree pre-parenting faces, parenting styles, all sorts of stuff. I feel I've very quickly got to quite a relaxed stage with Nic, we have a good few laughs and much enjoyable natter.
So that's my 4 days up, it's been lovely having no work in the evenings. I've recently been working 4 or 5 evenings a week, so to have 4 in a row where I could chill out, watch telly, surf, etc. has been lovely.
I hope some work comes in this week though, need to sustain this level of earning for a while if possible.
F's birthday is on the horizon, we are having a picnic on Sunday in the park round the corner, so will be needing to prepare a bit for that.
Lowlights: cancelled train, rain, child changing mind every 20 seconds.
Highlights: relaxation, family time, Pink Floyd.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Quick one
HE:
F has done typing on my laptop, me helping her to find the letters in her name, 'mummy', 'daddy' and other words in big purple bold letters. She seemed quite keen on this so I'll try and do some most days.
Life: No work for 4 days. Bliss.
Katya, Ria and Belle came over yesterday and that was nice, though the kids were all a bit needy at various times for various reasons. Still we had a laugh and some, interrupted, chat. F constructed a monster-scarer, a kind of Heath Robinson construction of unlikely items centred on her hobby horse that makes a hell of a racket when you press its ear (used to be a recognizable tune, but is now cacophonous din since the batteries are on their way out). So K and I each took a turn pretending to be the monster, complete with minimal improvised costumes, creeping in the back door and towards the monster-scarer, growling and roaring, then running away squealing when she turned on the monster-scarer. We were both feeling a bit too lazy and lethargic to do it more than once though.
Lowlights: Hayfever, coughing, sniffing, feeling rough
Highlights: Nooooooooo woooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk, Relaxing evenings
F has done typing on my laptop, me helping her to find the letters in her name, 'mummy', 'daddy' and other words in big purple bold letters. She seemed quite keen on this so I'll try and do some most days.
Life: No work for 4 days. Bliss.
Katya, Ria and Belle came over yesterday and that was nice, though the kids were all a bit needy at various times for various reasons. Still we had a laugh and some, interrupted, chat. F constructed a monster-scarer, a kind of Heath Robinson construction of unlikely items centred on her hobby horse that makes a hell of a racket when you press its ear (used to be a recognizable tune, but is now cacophonous din since the batteries are on their way out). So K and I each took a turn pretending to be the monster, complete with minimal improvised costumes, creeping in the back door and towards the monster-scarer, growling and roaring, then running away squealing when she turned on the monster-scarer. We were both feeling a bit too lazy and lethargic to do it more than once though.
Lowlights: Hayfever, coughing, sniffing, feeling rough
Highlights: Nooooooooo woooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk, Relaxing evenings
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)