Love letters, Languages and Squits!

Have just had a 24-hour bug of the you-might-as-well-just-leave-me-in-the-bathroom variety. Left me all achey and wobbly.

Wednesday:
Quiet day at home, a me-working, quick trip to local shop, rainish, XBoxy and drawing type of day. F has done some lovely drawing lately, I can see her drawings getting more detailed, changing in various ways.
There was a big envelope floating around and F decided to use it to put a letter in that she would write to her grandma. She asked me to write the words:

from
Freya
to
Grandma
Joy
I
love
you

Then she copied the words really beautifully next to mine, I cut them out and we stuck them on another piece of paper and gave them to her very loved grandma on Thursday.

Last weekend when J's dad came, I seem to have managed to reassure him about HE. He's never said anything negative but the last 2 times that he's visited, when the subject comes up, he has looked a little dubious and certainly not positive about it (my parents are both keen supporters really, both being retired teachers). This time, he asked something about it, so I gave him a very quick summary of how it's working, pointed at some writing and drawing of F's that is up on the wall, mentioned Kessingland in summer, online contacts and regular socializings and waved some books at him, including Free Range Education and How Children Learn. It only took a few minutes and he seemed hugely reassured, for now, so I'm glad it came up, as I suspect he might have stewed away over it. I think he thought this was more of a whim and not something we had thought through thoroughly.

Thursday:
Grandma Joy came and much fun was had, including a very imaginative game that seemed to involve aliens and a spaceship, some enemies, a monster that had to be killed and then a visit to the Gyptian King.
They also played with the LeapGlobe, in the language mode, so I could hear F trying out her 'yes', 'no' and 'hello' in German, French, Portuguese and Hindi. First time she has shown much interest in that aspect, she has often done the 'find an animal' mode. She has picked up quite a bit of basic geography from that, such as the names of some continents and countries and where they are in relation to each other.

F decided to draw and colour some roses and a vase to cheer the day up as it was grim and grey. She drew three roses very carefully, with furled petals, and cut them out. I can't believe how her drawing, colouring and scissor-use have developed over the last 2 months. Grandma did the sticking and a very cheery vase of roses now decorates the living-room window.

Friday:
I was up in the night with D and a bit of V, continuing and worsening in the morning. So we didn't go to MonsterTeeny as planned, but spent the day at home. Once I'd got past the worst of it in mid-afternoon, F and I watched The Polar Express on Sky twice. We really enjoyed it, and it was nice to snuggle with a duvet on the sofa. The rest of the time she had been playing The Sims 2 a bit and done some more drawing. I went to bed soon after J came home, about 7ish, and slept in this morning too.

Today:
Feeling better today but left with aches all over, so another quiet day would be nice.