Poor F has a cold with a temperature, a bit poorly tonight. Luckily we have nothing planned for tomorrow at all - I don't even have any work even though it's a working day - so we can fix ourselves to the sofa for a day and hope it sorts it in time to have the WW that we have planned (our WWs aren't World Wars by the way, in case that is starting to look sinister). If not, then so be it...

Anyway, today was MMs. We are attempting a 1 in 3 week attendance rate so were due to go today and I had promised to do a drama session, so although F was tired and not entirely feeling right this morning, we went over. Took a taxi though, so that she wouldn't have to walk up the very steep hill to the bus stop. Mind you, taxi was stuffy and hot, might have been better doing train-bus-bus. Anyway, whatever (sorry non public-transport-geeks, stop me if I start linking to timetables!), off we went.

Arrived very early so it was nice and quiet. F perked up quite a bit and pootled around fairly happily, mainly doing her own thing outside, where she had apparently set up a 'hospital' and a pink area, with her coat and a spacehopper, and was generally hanging out. When a few more people had arrived, we had a short and very cheery meeting about MMs - how to approach having new members and how to coordinate various necessary duties.

I did a drama session on Superheroes which went really well. I'm starting to find the balance between the kids having a high level of autonomy and me leading the session, and between keeping it not-too-boring for older children and not-too-difficult for younger children. I don't think I could do that without a good number of adult assistants though, so thank you very much Sue Storm, The Incredible Hulk and Lara Croft! You were great!

F was starting to feel a bit rougher at that point, as the Calpol effect wore off, so she mainly just sat in, without being too obtrusive, but she did do a tiny little bit at the end. I was really pleased with how the kids worked generally, and how they were enthusiastic and engaged almost all the time.

We came back slightly early as F was fading. Got buses back (oh that reminds me, at the bus stop it says 'STAND BACK' and she was standing there, really feeling quite poorly, looked at the word 'BACK' and said, listlessly, almost as though she was annoyed at the unwanted intrusion of the text, ''back' - that says 'back' there') and bought her a cold Lucozade in the middle which seemed to really revive her, enough to get her home. She was very glad to flop on the sofa and had some Calpol, watched something and dozed for a bit. Didn't manage any dinner. I did a very long bedtime with her, watching some MLP stuff and reading the end of Lucy Willow.


Sunday

F played Zoo Tycoon on DS, really playing it with a bit more thought, gaining some awards for quality. Asked me various related maths questions such as 3x9 and 3x4 to work out how many squares of different terrains were required for certain animals.

There was a solid sheet of ice on the rainwater in the sandpit/paddling pool, with a few holes in the shapes of things that had been floating on it. J and F looked at it, but I missed it because F tried to pick it up to show me and it broke. (Fortunately it was the same again this morning - Monday - and as we all trooped through the kitchen to go out and look at it, the kettle obligingly decided not to switch off and created a little cloud of water vapour up near the ceiling, prompting J and I to make some obvious home-ed observations on different forms of water at different temperatures, etc.).
I did roast dinner and F ate all hers up - I can't believe how many different veggies she is now eating without moaning - what's going on? Yesterday she ate roast potatoes and roast carrots, a small bit of butternut squash roast with nuts in, and a mixture of broccoli, peas, courgettes, green beans and avocado dressed with pesto and lime!

F also played this seed game, did loads of bouncing on a mattress (we were clearing out the small front bedroom, which has had a spurious bed in ever since we moved in - J and I shifted loads of stuff out and then looked at the space we had created, 'Yay - new space' we observed gleefully, followed by 'for us to fill up with more of our shite!')
She Googled, watched me playing Populous, watched Dr Who and I read her back the story she wrote the day before, twice.