Frednes on Wednes-day

F was delighted to wake up in the morning to her newly rearranged room being 'adorable', which we both agreed it was, ponies nicely organized, space for dancing, etc. I saw that she had written C above her C3PO drawing, R abover R2D2 and P above Princess Leia. She can write very neatly when she wants to.
The day proceeded with F playing with her LeapPad and then me showing her films on laptop of kittens chasing their tail (she spotted an animated avatar of a friend on message board) and us talking about why they do that and how young animals learn and what they learn and how quickly they grow up compared with young humans.
The rest of the morning then turned into a long hoo-ha saga in which landlord and electrician came round and did various things - checked towel rail for shockingness (no shockingness, must have been the wet floor conducting), rehung the bathroom door (hoorah!), and then found that someone at some point had removed a few switches and put tape over them (weird!). Anyway they went off to buy new blanking plates for those and my grocery shopping arrived immediately after they had left. Soon after I had put that away it was time to start making lunch as Anya, Louis and Ian were on their way from Brighton.
The risotto was halfway done by the time they arrived, so we ate pretty much straightaway. F and L largely ignored each other until the very end when in the park, playing with bark chips. Anya and I had very interrupted chat as one might expect with Ian being 15 months old and a real explorer. Her two are extremely different in character, with the little one more like I remember F being - not happy to just sit and wait, ever! Into everything, frustrated at what he can't get hold of, etc. I hadn't childproofed at all, so Anya had to do a lot of fielding. She's very much a 'prevent before it happens, rather than having to say no' mum. But Ian still managed to fall down the bottom 6 stairs at some point, poor baby.
F found Ian quite fascinating and he made her giggle quite a bit. All 3 of them enjoyed the dance mat together for a while.
Anya and I did manage a chat in the park about HE (at last!) - I know she thinks children shouldn't do anything formal till 7, as in her birth country. She definitely wants to know about HE but then always seems slightly alarmed by the whole idea. She did say that she had recently realized for the first time how it might work, as Louis had been asking her a lot of questions about natural history and she loves that subject so had very much enjoyed the conversation. He has only recently started to talk like this, to ask 'why' about things, so she hadn't really thought about how it could work before.
Anyway, further conversation will take place and I'm going to choose a variety of links to send her for her to look at. We're going to try and see each other fortnightly - we usually attempt this at this time of year only to be thwarted by colds and illness once October gets underway and lose momentum entirely! We'll see.
So these are our current regular things:
Every week:
- drama on Saturday morning
- MMs on Monday
- park at just after school time at least once a week, often twice, occasionally more
Every 2 weeks:
- yoga on Tuesday
- M (13) from next door on same Tuesday as yoga, straight after
- my mum on other Tuesday
Other:
- MonsterTeenies every 2 weeks or so, sometimes on Friday, depending on what we're both doing, and sometimes after MMs for a DVD
- Glo, Shula, J and J probably on Monday after MMs every few weeks
- Anya, L and I on Wednesday every 2 weeks, but realistically probably less.
- J's mum - as and when
- J's dad - as and when
- Katya, R and B - ??? (R started school and K started teaching so we will need to take time to work out what suits!)
And that leaves us with Thursdays always completely free plus some Wednesdays and some Fridays. Not bad I reckon. Also Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are always free.
This is making my brain ache.
F is coming down with a cold today after a long time of really good health. Autumn innit.