Those Mondays can be quite

Magical.
F and I started the day with her not wanting to go to MMs, which did involve us debating why it is called Magical Mondays - she was keen to point out that she had never seen any actual magic taking place there. After some discussion and her posting a few smilies on a message board and doing a bit of incidental reading, she decided she definitely didn't want to go, at about 10:15. As predicted by her annoyingly smug mother, she changed her mind at about half ten and so we got ready as fast as we could (not very fast) and were on our way by 11ish I think. F was adamant that we should take a train instead of bus into Brighton and it was a beautiful day so I thought 'yeah, let's', even though it takes longer because we have to walk into town to station, etc. I love trains on sunny December days - the downs are so glorious and the light is beautiful.
We walked to the station with F in decidedly tricky mode - having agreed that we should go quickly because we were starting out quite late, she then absolutely had to investigate puddles, walk on walls slowly and walk backwards at some points. I was very very patient - our visits to MMs are as much about the journey as the arrival sometimes! At the station we bought the current issue of Radio Times and looked at the section about the Dr Who Christmas Special together, which involved discussion of the Titanic (she remembered it from a couple of previous chats) and CGI, briefly, before the train arrived and on we got. We shared a nice brunch of peanut butter sandwiches, bananas and chocolate and chatted very happily on the train.

At the other end, on the buses, F got tricky again, which involved, among other things, insisting we had got on the bus at a different stop to where we had, asking 'Are we there yet?' 10 times when we weren't and she knew it and taking her shoes off for no reason without me knowing and then having to make the bus wait while she put them on very slowly to get off at our stop.

At MMs she went off straightaway to find D, S, E and R playing a very organized and good-humoured game in the sports hall as if to prove wrong all of us who have recently expressed concerns about the group dynamic. It was a really happy session, which was lovely. F and I sat and did the craft activity for once! It was decorate-your-own background inserts for snowglobe kits. F did several, all with a theme of A, a boy who attends MMs - last year her main opinion of him was that he spent too much time on the car going down the slope that she wanted to go on and wouldn't let her have a turn. This year she seems to have an altogether different view of him! It's his birthday today and L had brought cake in and we all sang Happy Birthday.
F did get a bit tricky twice at the craft table: once when she took exception to a girl sitting next us with a decorative button on her jumper and had to change places with me and once when she really wanted to do a second snowglobe, but there weren't enough for everyone to do two, so she couldn't. Having recently confidently proclaimed her sense of fairness and unselfishness here, there and everywhere, it was great fun to be sitting next to her wailing "I want to do another one why can't I?" etc. It turned out that she wanted to do a second one just to give to A, so at least it wasn't pure greed!
N and L and I played being bickery and schoolgirlish, which was fun and also a terrible example to the kids so hoorah. Also N and I sang festively, which was nice for everyone whether they realize it or not.

Top deck on the way back into Brighton - beautiful views for miles around, downs and sea. Then we went to C&H Fabrics with a mission (making a Dozy Mog!) and bought various items, which was fun as F did some of the 'buying' i.e. went up to a sales assistant and explained what we were looking for and why and discussed options with the sales lady and me. One of those days when her behaviour has alternated between 4 yr old and 10 yr old. Bizarre to be with! Our mission was successful and I couldn't resist buying a couple of extras but not too non-frugally. Got the train after that, nice journey home. Back here we commenced our mission by dyeing white material 'Dozy Mog green' which involved weighing and measuring and hands-on following instructions - I've never done machine dying before so F and I discussed the instructions on equal terms as it were.
While the machine was running, F watched some Animalia and Secret Show and I tackled the Norty Kitchen (not quite as bad as Zappa's Dangerous Kitchen but some of the lyrics might apply), whilst keeping an eye on the washing machine since it was doing something it hadn't done before and might get fractious.

J made delicious pasta and we watched another Dr Who episode from the last season - we have got up to 'Blink' now so will soon run out again.
I did a relatively short bedtime with F, looking at her LeapPad with 'Bounce Tigger Bounce'. Then I worked and was up till 3ish, also playing scrabble - the novelty of Facebook long-haul scrabble has worn off somewhat and I am back to enjoying live games on proper Scrabulous again more. It just feels nicer to chat whilst playing in real-time - maybe I'm more social than I think LOL. Luckily I have a mate who is online in the small hours and that is great for winding down after (or while!) working.

This morning, I carried on working, talked with F about music, played her some things on YouTube, talked about our Dozy Mog project, watched her jumping off things onto other things as requested, and wiped her bum when she had really nasty diarrhoea just now (sorry TMI!) and commiserated with how she felt. She is OK, just a minor bug I think.
And now I have finished that work, so not going to do any this evening and feel relaxed.

Other things I think I might have forgotten to blog recently: conversations about monarchy, being subjects or citizens, power held by Queen and Prime Minister (very basic level chat), the idea of 'good cop bad cop', death and the idea of putting animals down when they are too sick to get better (courtesy of The Waltons and Viva Pinata combined - she made a connection between two events that was really perceptive).