Living 2008

I caved in and let Ms R have a new activity book. It was only £1.50 and has a practice book inside it and a page full of gold stars which made Ms R feel like she got really good value for my money. It’s basic addition and subtraction and involves lots of counting dots on dinosaurs and adding them together or working out how many sweets you had left if you ate so many etc. What it does seem to be good at is working on the translation between numbers of objects and written figures. She loves it and took it to my grandparents to do, since then it’s stayed in the car and whenever we drive somewhere she reads out the letters at the top of each page so that I can tell her what she’s supposed to do. I’ve not really looked at what she’s done but on listening to her mutterings it sounds easy enough for her.

It was a surprisingly calm visit to my grandparents house. Ms R impressed them with her keeness to do ‘work’ (which earned us comments about homework when she’s older) and I did some Magic Painting with Master R. Afterwards we made an unplanned visit to the pick-your-own farm. The tractor ride prompted lots of questions about tractors, why they have big wheels, why they don’t go very fast and tractor machinary. The raspberries initially looked disappointing but then we seemed to get lucky and found loads. They both like raspberries although I’m not keen. I talked a bit about how people may once have had to forage for food and Ms R seemed to think I was talking about my grandparents. We pottered along and picked some peas, Master R was eating instead of saving but eventually we thought we had enough so went on to pick strawberries. We talked lots, the Rs waved and smiled at various babies and small children, they pretended a building on the hill was a darlek (now that I work Saturdays they watch Dr. Who) and the tractor-stop shed was a tardis and we spotted butterflies. With no clock to watch and the freedom of the fields time flew by and on returning to the car we realised we’d been there for three hours.

We cleaned Ms Rs fish out this morning and afterwards sat on her bed looking at The Usborne First Book of The Recorder. We got to playing a B and learning about crochets and minims which I found fascinating because I’d never understood music at school. We clapped some rhythms and then Ms R has been practicing playing them. She was really keen to move on to learning more notes but Master R was getting bored and had his fingers in the fishes mouths.

We cycled along the cycle lane to the swimming pool. I suggested taking the trailer but Ms R wanted to cycle and Master R really likes sitting on the back of my bike. It’s just under two miles but took us well over half an hour. We had to have a stop on the way when Ms R wobbled onto the stones and fell off but she made an excellent recovery and we were soon on our way again. We were told that the swimming pool was slightly colder than usual but that didn’t deter them. Ms R practiced her swimming, she seems to be able to doggy paddle for a little way but her legs sink and she holds her head so high she ends up as just a face peeping out of the water until eventually she disappears completely. Master R splashed around loads on his tummy with me holding him and did quite a lot of jumping in. It was drizzling when we came out and we were hungry so we got chips to eat and sat in one of the shelters looking out to sea. The ride home in the drizzle seemed to take forever. Ms Rs legs got tired so we walked the last little bit and Master R had nodded off on the back of my bike.

We visited Nana and the Rs played with an older girl.

We finished our Roald Dahl book so read picture books at bedtime. Ms R didn’t go straight to sleep, first she put loads of soft toys and books into a box because she doesn’t need them anymore and then I sat and talked to her about Master Rs eye appointment. She gets quite squeamish whenever it’s mentioned so I’ve explained everything as best I can and have asked her to be positive and supportive. He looks up to her and trusts her judgement, if she acts like hospital appointments, eye tests or wearing patches are bad things then he’ll think I’m trying to con him and will be scared an unco-operative.

Oh we did so much today.

We visited the little (soon to be not anymore) post office to post a letter and buy penny sweets. As I was queueing to post the letter Ms R helped Master R with sweet counting, not sure why but she told him before he paid that he might have change and he did. It was lucky really because she overspent by a penny and when the lady told her Ms R just froze on the spot looking mortified. Thankfully Master R raced over with one of his pennies.

For some reason the conversation on the way to home ed group turned (once again) towards marriage and babies. Ms R really wants to marry one of her cousins because she doesn’t want to marry any of the boys that we know and she really really doesn’t want to marry a stranger. I explained that in mine and Daddys case we started out as friends and just got more and more friendly until we ended up married which seemed to reassure her. She then decided that there was a female friend she’d be happy to marry but wanted to know if she’d be able to have babies if she married a lady so I explained that she probably would be able to have babies but would require the help of a man. Master R then wanted to know if he married the said friends brother if he’d still be able to have babies. I explained to him (once again!) that he’d need a lady to grow his baby for him and he said that maybe Nanny would do it as she was good at growing things. I don’t know why or how we get into these conversations and I really try not to offer fuel for more questions when answering them. Whatever next?

The home ed group was good, we all played with playdoh for a bit and then went into the hall for a drama session. Both the Rs seemed quite into it but I needed the toilet and took the opportunity to make an important phonecall, Ms R couldn’t stay in without me. She wanted to do the drama but needed me to be in there with her. She knows the venue and the adults and the children yet still she couldn’t join in without me being there too. It’s perfectly inline with who she is and wasn’t unexpected although as she now appears so confident in so many areas I half thought she’d stay. Master R did stay for a while but when he noticed that we’d left he came to make sure he wasn’t missing out.

After the group we popped by to see my Dad, he was very welcoming and chatted to the children. Ms R found a scratch card and was looking at it with him and telling him how much he could have won if he’d got three of other things reading numbers like twenty pounds and seventy pounds and knowing that seventy was more than twenty which isn’t something we’ve done heaps of. She then settled down with a piece of paper and pen and wrote Mummy and her name underneath, then she told me how many letters her name had, how many mine had and how many they were different by. I’m guessing that seeing her do this sort of stuff is very reassuring for my Dad that she isn’t missing out educationally by not going to school and I just love that she does it in front of him. If there’s anyone in the world I want to impress then it’s my Dad.

We left Dad for the library to return most of many books. I try to set a one book rule but they always find another and another that they just have to have. We seem to be choosing quite well lately. Master R chose Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen which I absolutely fell in love with, it was so sweet that I was struggling to keep my voice steady as I read it and I’m not usually such a softy! Together we chose a childrens non-fiction book about foxes which we all enjoyed, it sort of backs up what we’re reading about in The Children of Cherry Tree Farm and will hopefully reassure Ms R that foxes don’t eat people. I picked a first experiences book about visiting the dentist in the hope that it will encourage Master R to open his mouth next time we go and he was very interested in that and there were a couple of other books which we haven’t read yet.

A morning at home to play. They switched the television off and played all over the house, they set up a ‘holiday’ in Ms Rs bedroom involving all their bedding, all of Master Rs clothes and plenty of toys. They did play-doh in the kitchen. They ate loads. Master R had cereal, two boiled eggs and a bowl of fruit for breakfast but then lunchtime came and went without mention of food.

Ms R gave me two notes, one said ’sit here’ and the other said ‘Playskool’ and then she asked me what they said.

In the afternoon we popped out for bread and milk. We tried to visit the library as we very often do on a Wednesday afternoon and as is always the case it was closed. We visited the penny sweet shop and I gave them twenty pence each, telling them if they only spent ten pence then they’d have ten pence for next week and they were both happy with that. We popped into my parents house to find everyone out but Master R tore up a sheet of paper for Lucky the kitten to play with and Ms R found some paper and drew a family picture with lots of presents. Once home they emptied out their piggy banks which are surprising full considering that we never give them any money, I spotted a few gold coins and descreetly rehomed them. We talked about how to recognise English coins and Ms R made piles of same coins.

Ms R told me that three fives are fifteen, she said she knew because she counted on her hands. It’s interesting that she thinks about these things and lovely that she tells me of her discoveries.

We had our usual visit to my grandparents to consume biscuits and coffee and exchange pleasantries.

On the way home we stopped at the penny sweet shop for our weekly lesson in money and shopping. Both the Rs had ten pence each and quickly spent it on sweets.

In the car on the way home Ms R told me the phonetic letter sounds for the word ‘bag’, I asked her if she could tell me the proper names of those letters and after a bit of thought she did. She still translates letters into sounds and lower case into upper case so she knows both but is only confident to use one. When I lived overseas often people would talk to each other but both in their own language, in fact often the grooms would speak to me in Zulu and I’d always answer them in English.

After lunch we visited my parents and while Ms R played with train track Master R and I sat and watched/stroked/played with the kitten. The Rs spent about half an hour playing and bouncing on the trampoline with my Mum.

We made birthday cards for Cousin C and Ms R wrote in hers, she’s able to write small enough that it fits but only if I mention it first. 

Ms R made things out of lolly sticks and sweet wrappers while I tidied the lounge and read through two Jolly Phonics board books (we only have two because she never showed much interest before) while I put clean washing away. Both the R’s played with playdoh while I cleaned the kitchen, spent ages playing in the bath together while I tidied their bedrooms, ran around like loonies while I hoovered, watched Tom & Jerry while I made dinner and played with cars and dolls while I hung more washing up.

Ms R can finally keep herself busy although it is always in the same room that I’m in. I think it is the most housework I have done in one go since she was born. Hurrah for a tidy home!

I’m sure there were other things we did as well but I can’t remember now, I remember sitting down to have lunch together and having to fight the urge to switch the computer on.

For some reason we were all exhausted by bedtime.

We saw Mum and Nana in the morning for about an hour and shopped in the afternoon.

Ms R did some jigsaw puzzles and then wanted help to do some of an activity book. It had a phonics and reading theme and seemed to be about three letter words which had the same middle letter. There was a wordsearch that she managed to do with me just pointing out the obvious like "You need to find the N first and then see if there’s an A next to it". There were also some anagrams with the words written properly at the top and she did those with similar help.

For some reason Ms R didn’t want to go to home ed group today, I’m not sure why because she’s usually really excited about it but I wasn’t too upset given that it is a long drive and takes up enough of the day that we don’t get to do anything else. So instead we attempted to make play-doh. We had to improvise on the oil and for a while it looked like it was a non-starter but after abandoning the original recipe and just adding various ingredients in varying quantities it eventually turned into the most wonderful play-doh ever. Warm, smooth and just the right consistency, and even the overpowering smell of the washing-up liquid subsided after a bit of playing with. They both played with it for quite a long time in their pyjamas, Master R lost interest first but Ms R carried on and made a story out of some animal and Christmas tree shapes.

We made a shopping list for the butcher which Ms R wrote out. She really enjoys writing lists and kept asking what else we could buy but we’d run out of ideas. Her letter ’s’ seem to have turned around so I showed her how I write 2, 5 and s.

Master R got really upset about throwing the dead flowers away and after lots of crying we retrieved them from the bin and put them down the end of the garden ‘to keep’.

Our next aim for the day was to buy some penny sweets with copper. I furnished them both with ten pence and we went along to the post-office. They bounded up to the shop assistant asking for a bowl to put their sweets and then began. Master R chose the biggest 2p sweets, filled his bowl and had paid before Ms R had barely started. She took her time in choosing ten penny sweets and then we were off on our way with Master R scoffing his quick and Ms R still talking about when, where and how she was going to eat them.

We popped in to see Mum who’d hadn’t had an easy morning. Master R wanted to stroke the kitten but it just wanted to play so kept grabbing his hand. He was a bit spooked by it and kept running away when it did its funny pouncy things. Ms R got the hang of kitten play though and spent ages dragging around a fluffy thing on a string for it to grab at. We saw my brother who told us Cousin F had got his place in school to start September coming and went on to ask if Ms R will be starting as well as we’d said we might start her in Year 1 (seemed like a good thing to say eighteen months ago). I told him not at this stage and she started bouncing around me saying she never wanted to go to school ever and he said that it was good to wait a bit as he’d been a child who had cried every day for months going in, then he got a phone call so no more was said. I always want to list my reasons and justify our reasons whenever family ask but it is probably far better to say less.

From there we went shopping. The shop was quiet so Ms R took Baby Annabell in the pushchair. Between the children they did the majority of the shopping, I tend to say lets have a look at veg and before I know it Master R has filled the trolley with his favourite vegetables and fruit and then we potter down the cold section and Ms R grabs milk and sandwich ham and other stuff. As we got to the checkouts Ms R said she might need the toilet and then before I knew it she ran off yelling over her shoulder that she needed a wee and she’d be back in a minute. It’s a bit scary when she goes out of sight but with the security guards, cctv, double set of slow to open double doors and her lightening fast, talk to no-one speed I am confident that she is neither going to get abducted or led astray.

The day ended with Noddy stories again.

Sundays have taken a little turn in direction since we’ve discovered that Daddy has more stamina in the parenting department if he has a lie-in. So I do the early morning shift which today sarted at ten past six. Both children had cuddles, porridge and various other requests met until I could stay awake no longer and went to bed passing the baton on.

While I slept they all went to an indoor play area with Cousins C and F. Apparently it was wonderful and they all had great fun. Master R fell asleep on the way home which somewhat disturbs the only evening I’m not either asleep or incoherent with tiredness. Ms R seemed a bit restless, a sort of ants-in-her-pants jiggleness which I attributed to a certain type of drink refreshment that my brother buys the children. I ranted a bit about that and said I’d rather they avoided them at all costs as certain ingredients in them have been linked to everything from childhood leukemia to behavioural problems. Am I wrong to feel exasperated that my brother is still regularly feeding them to his children despite one being up for diagnosis for behavioural issues?

When they came home Ms R woke me up to give me a Christmas card that she made for me complete with picture of decorated tree, us with presents and ‘Happy Christmas’ still talking about it and expressing gratitude. We chatted for a bit and she relayed the events of the outing in great detail.

Ms R was looking a tad spotty on the back of her neck and shoulders and apparently when she was hot from running around her tummy was very blotchy too so both children had an oily bath and Ms R was afterwards smothered in lashings of cream.

When in bed she told me that she still had a bit of water in her ear and when she laid on that side it made a clicking sound. In order not to be out done Master R told me that when he touched his tummy it felt like it was full of eggs, chickpeas and spiders. After a little more thought on this he asked what was really inside his tummy, as we were half way through a story he got a very brief answer.

Thursday morning we visited a friend and her two year old daughter. This made Master R feel important to be visiting a friend ‘for him’ rather than one who was as big as or bigger than Ms R. He said in a pleased voice "She’s a very little child like me, is she" and when I agreed he said in an indignant voice "But I’m not little, I’m a big boy am I".

Ms R regressed two years and did lots of crawling around the floor making lots of noise which encouraged Master R to do the same. I didn’t leave there with the feeling that my children had been a good advertisement for home educating but luckily I think their decision has already been made.

We raced into a shop to buy their requested fillings for lunch. Master R as usual took charge of the points card and Ms R took charge of paying and recieving the change. We stopped off at home just brief enough to make lunch which we then ate in the car on the way to visit another friend and her two year old son. Having had a lecture in the car our behaviour was more appropriate although there was an uncomfortable few minutes where we got to witness first hand the realities of naughty steps. Master R enjoyed playing with another two year old boy and our friend very kindly gave Ms R some activity books (the education, curriculumy sort) from America.

Then we raced off again to fetch my Mum from work. At her house Ms R started on one of the activity books, filling in the missing letters of the alphabet and the first letter of words matching the picture. She wanted me or Mum to help her but I refused for a number of reasons. Firstly because when I visit Mum I want to talk to her, not do lessons. If I’m going to do one-to-one then we may as well be at home. Also, if I do help Ms R with that sort of thing in front of my Mum I can’t help but turn it into some sort of showing off session and instead of just helping I start doing the whole "What do you think it is?" type of thing, trying to make her do it in the correct order and willing her to get answers right etc. When Ms R chooses to do activity books at home (she goes through phases) she either does what she can and then comes to me with any left over bits that she wants us to do together, or she sits next to me doing it and I just help when she indicates she wants me to. We both agreed that she was clever but while I was thinking that she was being a good example of autonomy Mum was thinking I should be cultivating her interest in writing/reading. I guess the lines between doing nothing, autonomy and child-led are very blurry and hard to define.

Wednesday we house/child sat for friends. This involves us getting up, fed, dressed and out of the house by eight thirty and every single time I marvel at how the majority of families manage this on a day to day basis, they deserve a medal or gold star or something. We had time for everything except teeth brushing which we did once there.

Ms R did lots of writing peoples names on pieces of paper and hiding them for said people to find, her and her accomplice showed each other how they write their names and names of their family members.

Master R and I cuddled and chatted lots.

In the afternoon we saw my Dad. Master R wanted a second packet of crisps without finishing his first packet (having not realised there were those ones in the cupboard). He puts on the cutest, politest little voice full of pleases and negotiations when he wants something, then begs pitifully while declaring love and stroking me before resorting to authoritive shouty "Well I am going to anyway!" behaviour. He stomped off and got the said crisps which he cluctched protectively while I put his boots on him and then when I asked them both to put them back in the cupboard (my Dad had given Ms R a second packet thinking that I’d lost that battle) my Dad offered to hide them in a safe place for next time and Master R willingly gave them up. I’m really trying to solve disagreements without shouting and was very proud of myself. It seems that calmly repeating myself over and over works although I’m aware that there is a fine line between that and nagging, really don’t want to be remembered as a nagger.

We shopped and found some moist wipe things in the bathroomy aisle that I suggested to Ms R might help her be a little more independant in a certain area, and much to her delight they have although her pretty detailed narrative of it all makes me feel like I haven’t moved very far from the situation. I’m not sure if that mirror in the bathroom is a good thing or not.

I read stories downstairs again but Ms R is finding it too tempting to wander off and do something else instead. I accepted this for a bit after a discussion on a certain list about some children needing to move around while listening to stories. When her lips started to move I stopped reading and listened. She was saying ‘hand’ over and over again, fast and then slowly and then she was dissecting it so it went a bit like this; "Hand, h-and, haannd, h-a-nd, hand, h-an-d, h-a-n-d, hand" and then she realised I’d stopped reading and asked me to start again. I’m not sure if she was just separating out loud the sounds in the word or if in her mind she could see the letters that made the word. It’s irrevelant I guess but interesting and very reassuring from my stance.

The rain and winds continued.

We left late for my grandparents as both children decided to share Colins bath but that was probably a good thing. I think that when the weather is bad and the children are excitable then an hour is possibly too long for my grandparents. We’ve been going weekly for over a year now and I’m really pleased at how comfortable my children are there, happy to kiss greetings and farewell and able to chatter to them about what they’ve been doing. Occasionally age shows in my grandad, I’m not sure how long people live for after they start being old. He’s in his eighties.

We popped by to find Mum home so stayed there for most of the afternoon. Master R ate fruit (apricots, apples and oranges) and they both had a flat egg for lunch. Ms R wrote us all a To our names From her with lots of kisses, she doesn’t need help with any of our names anymore but still asks for help writing From. She also played with Baby Annabell. Master R did some general running and jumping around and a bit of scribbling. We played ball together for quite a while, his ball skills are amazing. He can catch the ball when I throw it to him and when he bounces it on the ground, he also seems to have a good aim when kicking it and just gets so much pleasure and laughter to see where it will go next. They both watched a bit of tv and Ms R played on the computer a bit with me dictating what letters she needed to type into google to find relevant sites.

We stopped off at the library to return old books and find new ones. I couldn’t find anything that really took my fancy. Ms R chose a book about a rescue centre and puppies which seems to be part of a series but on reading the first chapter reveals that the main (human) character is twelve so might be a bit old for us. She also chose a big book that seems to be a compilations of chapters from various fairy tales which meant we read one chapter of ‘The Snow Queen’ and one chapter of ‘Peter Pan’ none of which really made sense. Master R chose a storybook which we may have had before about a witch. The problem I’m finding with the toddler/young childrens story books is that alot of them seem to be about or aimed at other cultures and while I think it is great that our local library can offer a diverse range of books to suit every religion or culture we actually live in a predominantly British town. I know we do, most of the kids I went to school with still live here and are now grandparents. I don’t have an issue with books about or aimed at other cultures except that I don’t find them very easy to read and often don’t understand the story. As horrifying and possibly rascist it might seem to some I’d rather read a story about a fairy who is worried about her first day at school than a man who creeps through villages talking to worms. Master R also chose an older childrens book which I read the first couple of chapters of and might finish on my own before bed, it didn’t engage either of them so that one too was probably too old but I can’t wait to find out what happens next. It’s called The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo.

Mum gave us a cauliflower that she was otherwise going to throw out and on the way home we stopped off to buy chips so we had cauliflower cheese and chips for dinner (Colin was working late hence the cheap, cheesy and meatless meal).

I read stories downstairs tonight knowing that I wouldn’t fall asleep reading on the sofa. Master R curled up and closed his eyes after his story so I carried him up and put him to bed. Ms R was a bit more resistant but eventually managed to fall asleep in her own bed with the help of Baby Annabell and with me popping up to her for a cuddle every couple of minutes. I’ve heard footsteps since though so suspect she is already in my bed.

The Rs slept mostly in their own beds last nights. Both appeared sleepily at some point before midnight needing to be directed back and snuggled up and Ms R joined us in our bed at some point so I carried her back. She’s asked for a Baby Annabell canopy which is currently residing unbeknown to her in the boot of the car, I don’t like using bribery as such but I have discussed with her the possibility of having nice things for her bedroom (such as a Baby Annabell canopy) once she starts actually sleeping in there. This morning when she woke up she woke Master R up and they both came to tell me in very proud (and loud) voices how they slept in their own beds before going downstairs for breakfast and Cbeebies. Ms R told me she’d dreamt that we were out shopping with the whole family for Christmas when we saw red daleks, we weren’t scared because they looked like they were inflatable or something but they were moving around and were friendly. Master R got the wooden puzzles out and Ms R made me a card with ‘zero, one, two, three, four’ written on the inside copied from the puzzle board that just happened to be next to her at the time. It’s the first time she’s been interested in copying things, usually she likes me to call out the letters. Her letters are starting to be similar sized and are quite box like.

We had high winds and heavy rains but that didn’t deter us from heading East to home ed group. We’d barely left when Master R listed the friends he knows who are in possesion of a Dr Who sonic screwdriver. That in itself was fine (bearing in mind we’ve never actually seen Dr Who) but then he went on to say that Ms R doesn’t have one because (drum roll please) "…she’s a girl" . Erm no, she doesn’t have one because she doesn’t want one,

"But she plays with girls toys because she’s a girl and I don’t because I’m a boy"

What? Where’s he getting this stuff from? I asked him what things are ‘girls toys’ and he said

"Babies and stuff like that" but didn’t know who said they were for girls or why they were girls toys, he just knew they were . So we talked to them about that for a bit but I’m sure they were just thinking that I didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, I told them my brother used to play with dolls with me which had them asking why in surprised and disbelieving tones. A little later he asked me if he’d be a lady after he’s been a man, he’s asked me a few times when he’ll be a lady. I’m surprised the whole boy/girl, man/lady stuff is coming up at this age but it seems important to him at the moment.

We all did some lego and then they did some drawing. Master R did a quick scribble on the corner of a large piece of paper, asked me to fold it in half for him and then gave it to me as a card. While Master R and I started on lunch Ms R spent ages doing a chalk picture, folding it in half to make a card and writing ‘To Mummy’ on it. She declined several invitations to make pasta necklaces and one to make scones and then wished all the way home that she’d made a necklace, I wished she’d made scones. She was a bit lost without her usual friends although spent some time pushing a little boy on the ride-on, lounging on the chairs in the sports hall watching with interest the behaviour of the older boys and playing ball with another boy. Master R spent our time eating and chatting. By the time we came out the rains had gone and the sky was blue.

Once home they settled into some train track playing with Colin and then I helped them both make birthday cards for my Mum. Together Ms R and I made a 3d butterfly card with some of the printed card she got for Christmas. I told her she’d have to write smaller to fit all the words on and she did, her writing looked less all over the place smaller and it meant that the second half of words didn’t have to go underneath the first half. Every so often I feel like I should be ‘doing’ something with regards to her writing, a little bit of that ‘catch it [interest in writing] quick before it passes’ attitude but then I remember that I’ve decided not to think about formal education until she’s seven so shove that worrying thought and all it’s implications (what sort of ‘doing’ would I/should I do?) out again. Master R stuck Ms Rs left over bits of card haphazardly onto a bit of paper.

Colin again cooked us a nice dinner. Beef which turned out to be lamb. Master R didn’t think he could wait any longer for dinner (it had been at least half an hour since he’d finished that carrot) and had an angry moment where he stomped around hitting things (like the wall and the sofa) and grabbing at things with the intention of throwing them. He managed not to throw anything and quickly picked up the one item that he had dropped when I intervened with a loud ‘Oi!’ It slightly concerns me that his anger gets so big that it displays itself violently and aggressively but I’m reassured that he knows he shouldn’t be behaving like that and modifies it so that it’s not as bad as it could be, ie he’s not completely out of control, just very physically expressing himself. I like to think that if I can help him to deal with his feelings at this age as opposed to passing them off as ‘being two’ or ‘being a boy’ then it’ll help when he’s a teenager and he’ll manage not to do those daft teenager boy things like breaking windows, punching walls and graffitiing that they all do around here.

We finished ‘The Faraway Tree’ by Enid Blyton the other day so had short stories again. Ms R chose a Noddy book which was mine and has an inscription on the inside cover ‘To Sylvia from Grandma 1955′. By the way, I’m not Sylvia and it wasn’t given to me in 1955! I wonder who she was and if she realises that something that was new and treasured by her is still bringing joy to young children today. It’s not bringing a lot of joy to me though, much as I like Noddy I’m not great at reading a longer book more than once so with the incentive of not having to finish it we’ll be at the library tomorrow.

I waited up for the Rs this morning and both woke early. Master R before six for cuddles and looking at flickr pictures and Ms R before seven for breakfast and Cbeebies. They got the puzzles out again which are proving popular but will probably make a fairly rapid return to the kitchen cupboard as the games have progressed from doing the puzzles and then putting them away to emptying them out and kicking the pieces around the floor. They played together taking it in turns to be a baby needing rescueing and they ate plenty (cereal, bananas, apples and hot cross buns). Ms R spent a bit of time sitting with me while I was on the computer. She’s started recognising and pointing out odd words and asking why it says that word there which has led to us talking about search boxes and blogs.

Colin got up at about ten and I went to bed.

Apparently they went to the dog races where they cheered the dogs and ate chips and then onto shopping where they chose strawberries and grapes (instead of sweets) and remembered to buy all the things I forgot the other day. Apparently Ms R took command of the shopping trip darting back and forth fetching everything we needed while Colin and Master R dashed around trying to keep up with her. She likes being in charge sometimes.

They came home, I got up and Colin cooked us all a lovely dinner (ham and leeks in cheese sauce). Ms R did some colouring in of stickers and then sticking them to a folded piece of paper to make a card and writing ‘To Mummy’ in it with loads of kisses. Master R did lots of snuggling in my lap stroking my face and saying "My Mummy. I love you, my Mummy" and hugging me tightly.

By bedtime tiredness had caught them up, Master R played in the shower and then we had three quick stories before they both fell asleep in my arms.