Where the days have been going:

yesterday we went over to Brighton to the cinema to see 'Enchanted' - we both really enjoyed it, sat at the front and made ourselves very comfortable as only about 30 people in whole cinema. The film had some very funny bits and it was lovely just to sit and watch and relax and to spot the various fairytale references and laugh at how they turned them around. We noticed that the little girl was wearing a 'Little Ninjas uniform' but decided she probably didn't go to our local one.

The train journey over was lovely as it was still beautifully sunny at that point and we were both in good spirits (Liza - we left Dozy Mog at home!), but F fell over twice badly in the walking bits and grazed her knee. The second fall was a complete body smackdown from a step onto a pavement, sounded terrible. She recovered fairly quickly though, sitting on the step for a cuddle. Grazes and scrapes a plenty, poor girl. She is going through another adjustment to a growth spurt I reckon.
We had intended to go to the Lush shop in Brighton too, but when we came out of the cinema it poured and we decided to go straight home. And when we got home, there was a ticket through the door to say that a parcel had been left with a neighbour. Later the neighbour appeared bearing the parcel, which was... Lush stuff! From my Secret Santa on a message board, there had been some kind of delivery issue. Mmmm, very Christmassy smelling too, and a wonderful surprise.

On Tuesday my mum came over and we gave F a joint prezzy from both of us: a junior basketball hoop and ball. We all worked on putting it together - F started out helpfully anyway, passing jugs of water to fill the base. Eventually we got it constructed and she had a few goes. I think she will get quite a lot of use out of it.

Other than that I was working. I went to bed at half four in the morning, F woke me up at half five and then again at half six. I was so tired and confused I thought she was crying about something to do with her tooth (2 have come out in the last 2 days after long wobbly times) so the reassurances I was giving were a bit random and unreassuring.
In the morning it turned out to be all about her diary - she is using a diary to keep track of where we go when and stuff - getting me to write bits and adding pictures of her own. I had written 'daddy ill' on one page as J had been home from work that day with a bad cold/cough and I couldn't think what else we had done. In the night she had started worrying about it and felt terribly upset. She said 'sometimes when I think about sad things I sort of play sad music in my head too and then I get really sad like when you watch a sad film'. So we talked about imagination and what a wonderful thing it is but how you have to sometimes control it and not allow yourself to make yourself sad (e.g. in the middle of the night when people are trying to sleep!). She had tried to cross out the 'daddy ill' words and changed the picture to be a party scene. She also said she had been worried about looking back on the year when the diary is full and seeing that there because it was sad. Her emotions are absolutely huge at the moment - don't know how else to describe it!

Other things:
She has been laptopping and XBoxing, doing lots of drawing in diary, including a map of her scrapes and grazes! Last night she drew in red felt pen all over her face and I've still got to try and get that off before her swimming lesson! Books have been slightly back in favour after a while of not wanting to be read to.
She has decided that she does want to go to MMs 'sometimes', so we'll try that, starting next week and going every two or three weeks I should think. She is loving having more choice in what we do, and looking ahead, putting things in her diary and talking about them. Next Wednesday's out-and-about is to be Paradise Park.
She is also wanting to go back to drama, so will see if we can do that this term or may have to wait until next term.

She wanted to save up for a My Little Pony toy, so is doing some chores for money. We are thinking of adopting a system a bit like the Green Housers' one, whereby we all pay ourselves small sums for doing various chores, with a weekly payout.

Today I have finished some work and F is having her first swimming lesson and probably Little Ninjas starts again too, so we will be camped out at the Leisure Centre for hours! Wish they had a decent cafe instead of vending machines.