More pics

Having downloaded the pics from my camera to get the one in the post below, I thought I'd throw in a few others too!

First..... THE FLOOD!



OK, so it's not all that clear, but you might be able to see that the trampoline is standing in a lake!


Next, another of Jade's pics which I thought was very expressive, when she was feeling sad:



Talking of Jade being expressive, I bet you've never seen her like this:



Yes, she is noisy, funny, animated and bossy when playing with L from next door! I do wish she could show her character to everybody else instead of feeling she wants to hide.

On the other hand, I don't suppose this little character will surprise anybody:

I hadn't realised it was so long since I blogged properly.

The slump has mostly gone - don't know why it came; don't know why it went away, LOL! Of course that doesn't stop me being overtired and grumpy rather too frequently, but at least it's not an overall malaise. In fact I treated myself to a very rare afternoon off yesterday on mental health grounds. I was feeling overwhelmed by the constant interruptions and demands of 2 (or 3 when L the neighbour is visiting, which is most of the time) small girls, and in particular, Jade's clinginess when we go out. We went to a local fete on Saturday afternoon, and to church on Sunday morning, and in public places like that where she feels shy and anxious she is all over me all the time. Her hands are up my top, pulling on my skirt, stretching my sleeves, hanging on to me, wanting to be picked up and carried, leaning on me, and it drives me bonkers!! And all that on top of a couple of really bad nights of sleep due to Shannon's shenanigans! I just had to get away where I could finish a thought that I began, and was not being touched and clung to all the time. So I left the girls at home with DH and went to Stratford. I spent a bit of time shopping, where I could browse uninterrupted (bliss) and a bit of time sitting on the grass by the river, where there were hordes of people so I enjoyed a bit of people-watching, a bit of peace and quiet and a bit of reading my book that I'd taken. Utter bliss! Treated myself to some jewellery from Monsoon at 70% off so that was an utter bargain, and a jewellery box which was supposed to be my Mum's birthday present to me a year ago but I never found one I liked till now! Found a couple of bargains in a charity shop too - a Per Una t-shirt, an animal board game and a new bag for carting all my stuff round.

We seem to have given up on overt education for the summer. Not by design, but by omission. A couple of times Jade has asked to do some 'learning' stuff, but time just slides away and it doesn't happen. She's having a fab time mostly playing outside with L the neighbour, spending loads of time on the trampoline and enjoying the good weather, at last, so that's no bad thing. She's done a lovely picture this morning - a labelled collage. She's stuck various things down and then labelled them without asking spellings and they're pretty good! There's "cotten wooll", "string", "paper", "flap", "cicele" (circle) and then "drew by Tamsin"!!! She asked me if I thought it was excellent, but before answering I asked her if she thought it was excellent, and she said yes, and I said that's what really matters. I did say I thought it was excellent as well, though.

(edited to add the pic)


I've been doing a fair bit of reading to her, mainly lightweight stories like Secret Unicorn, Magic Kitten, Magic Pony, Rainbow Fairies which she can of course read on her own but she likes me to read to her and I quite like it too so we're both relatively happy with that! After everybody else recommending the Magic Tree House books I have just won 14 off Ebay from the USA, costing $14 or about £7 which is fab, but apparently the cheapest postage now is $28!!! I suppose £21 for 14 books is still not too bad but I didn't want to pay that much so fortunately my brother who lives in Kansas is due to come over in September so I'm getting them delivered to him for $3 and he can bring them over!!

And now we're off swimming, so that's all for now.

At last!

I've completed that DfES consultation on Home Education. Been putting that off for ages - glad I've got it done! I was number 470.

Potty success!

Shannon actually did a proper wee on the potty!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!

Fatigue, floods and being fed-up

I am still in the slump that started last weekend. Maybe even a bit depressed, though I don't know why. Can't be bothered with anything, feel tired and unmotivated and generally blah. So I'm doing nothing constructive with the girls but just letting them free-range with toys and the trampoline and too much but not completely unrestricted TV. Whether it's a cause or an effect, I don't know, but there is a huge amount of sibling jealousy going on especially from Jade's end. They're squabbling and fighting more often than not, and Jade frequently says things like, "I wish I could cut Shannon in half". Charming. I am so sick of dealing with their arguments.

So 30 hours or so of torrential rain starting in the small hours of Friday did nothing to improve my mood. We were obviously stuck in the house all day, though did venture for a 10 minute walk to the post box and back. We ended up with a small lake in the back garden, though nothing in the house. DH got home late, soaked up to his hips, and it was only then I discovered that the main street in our little town was flooded in 4-5 feet of water, and he'd had to abandon his car on the other side of town and wade home. I went out with the dog at about 11.30 pm and viewed the scene - very strange to see streets turned into rivers. Call me hard-hearted if you like, but I really cannot feel that it's such a huge tragedy to have your house flooded several inches. Sure, it's a pain, a nuisance and hard horrible work to clear it all up, but no, it's not a tragedy. Having buried one of my children I really can't understand calling the physical loss of material possessions a tragedy. So there. Having said that, DH has just discovered that the flashing round our chimney has leaked and soaked loads of stuff (maps, slides, electronic bits and bobs) in the cupboard in our bedroom and he's spending ages sorting it all out so he may not agree with me!

Isabelle did her first ever few drops of wee in the potty on Friday, after I caught her starting to go on the floor. I persuaded her to sit on the potty for aaaaaages, and she managed a few drops. There were great celebrations and then I was just IMing with DH telling him all about it when she let loose torrents all over the sofa, cushions and floor!!! Jade was totally dry day and night just after she was 2, so I'm feeling a bit frustrated that it's taking so much longer for Shannon.

Anyway you probably wish you'd not bothered to come by my blog today, so I'll stop before I depress you all any more.

Ahem (embarrassed but pleased)

Thanks Jax for the link.

I saw a fairy in the woods yesterday

Am feeling grumpy and lethargic and have been for over 24 hours now, so this will not be a scintillating blog post but thought I'd better catch up anyway.

I cannot blog about what we did on Tuesday, for complicated reasons which I can't go into now, but it was a lovely day, and one which I wish we could have much more often. I will mention, though, that Jade threw a complete strop at the thought of going off with my Dad for an hour while I visited a friend and her new baby. Her separation anxiety is getting worse. I am very sympathetic and encouraging when she's anxious about going somewhere new, but when she's afraid to go with my Dad with whom she's spent far too many hours to calculate over the whole 6 years of her life, well I'm afraid I just got cross with her. It did the trick in the end, although not until it had cut my time down with my friend to about 45 minutes, which is just not enough when she is just getting used to having a new baby after a stillbirth last year.

On Wednesday I went to work, and Jade also moaned and complained that she wanted to come with me instead of staying at home with DH. Apparently she missed me quite a lot that day. Dunno what's going on. Hurry up, NHS, and get that referral going! While I was out, Dh started putting up the new trampoline that arrived on Tuesday, and when I got home we finished it together. Much joy and excitement all round! Oh yes, and we had to go and collect the old estate car from the garage which set us back £370+

I can't remember what we did on Thursday morning, except eventually get everything ready for Shannon to go to the childminder and Jade to come with me to work. I took various 'educational' stuff but she left all the 'serious' stuff in favour of doing a jigsaw puzzle and drawing pictures. That was OK. Worked till 3.15, collected Shannon, visited a friend for half-an-hour, gave a lift to someone to take her cat to the vet, got home, kids played on trampoline etc.

On Friday, Jade begged to go for a walk in the woods dressed as a fairy! Even though it was a bit rainy, I happily obliged and, though I wouldn't have chosen that activity that morning myself, we had a really lovely time and I took several pics of my fairy and my ladybird (Shannon in waterproof ladybird coat) in the woods! We hid in dens, ate a little snack perched on tree stumps, and pretended to be explorers. Pics later, if I can be bothered. Did a couple of errands on the way home, then settled the girls down with some food and a Tom and Jerry DVD while I went upstairs for a nap. That seems to have been a mistake. Ever since then I've felt completely tired and lethargic and very grumpy. I must've put all my biorhythms out of sync or something!

Today I've lolled around in bed all morning and then taken the girls plus L from next door out to the Wildlife Trust nature reserve to collect wildflower seeds - an organised event. I'd never been there before, though, and didn't realise that it would involve a 20 minute hike across muddy and cow-patty fields before we got to the wildflower meadow, by which time Shannon was tired, clingy and waily and it was almost impossible to actually do anything useful. We stayed about 20 minutes and then I left the rest of the group and made a slow trip back, carrying Shannon all the way. Not our most successful field trip! One useful thing was to see a badger sett which the warden says we're allowed to go and watch any time to see if we can spot them one evening. Would love to see wild badgers out playing.

In brief...

Today we have:
* Done cuneiform writing on clay (well, I did cuneiform, Jade did normal writing and decorations, and Shannon just mashed it up!) Pics are available but, erm, prob. not till Weds or Thurs as I don't think I'll have time before then!
* Revised chapter 3 of Story of the World about the earliest writing, covering the relative merits of stone, clay and papyrus.
* Made paper, or to put it more accurately, recycled paper using a paper-making kit. 2 sheets came out very nicely.
* Jade has coloured in Egypt and Sumer on a photocopied map.
* Been out for a walk with the dog.
* Got the living room tidier by the end of the day than it was at the beginning.
* Put Milton-y water through the caravan water system.
* Got one load of washing done.
* The girls have played 'schools' with their dolls and soft toys.

That'll do.

Do ya think I'm sexy?

No, please don't answer that!!! But just a reference to Rod Stewart whom I saw in concert last night!! Great fun. A friend had a spare ticket due to her DH having had emergency knee surgery, so I went along to the Cardiff Millennium Stadium and we had a blast! Wouldn't have particularly called myself a fan, but it was a really good evening and it's got to be impressive when someone can sing 31 songs, nearly all of which were Top 10 or Top 20 hits!!

Tons else been going on here - some nice Story of the World reading and we're going to do some paper making and cuneiform writing on real clay in the next day or two when we get the chance. Also some nice number work (I borrowed tons of lovely resources last week from the Learning Resources section at Oxford Brookes Uni Library (teacher training section) thanks to Bill's staff ticket! And reading books about poo with Isabelle in a so far vain attempt to persuade her to use the potty (several wees on the floor, none in the potty) ....... but no time to blog. 10pm and girls are still up due to an afternoon nap - must put them to bed, and probably myself too!

Out of the swamp!

We wore our wellies ALL week! Yes, Muddle Puddle summer camp was extremely wet. Our awning was flooded for the first half of the week until we moved to a drier spot, therefore the four of us were extremely cramped in our little caravan much of the time. But it says a great deal for the quality of the company that we still had a lovely time, and are glad we didn't miss it.

22nd June

In one way it's a day just like any other. But even after 8 years I can't help giving it a significance - the anniversary of Benjamin's death. I haven't really paid much attention to it today - I didn't even light a candle as I have done in the past. Partly because Jade is always terrified that we're going to have a fire. But as the evening wears on, the memories always grow stronger of that day and night. Rather than dwell, though, on those memories, I just want to set out what he gave me, and what I learned through him being here:

1. He taught me that I am strong. I always had an image of myself as being emotionally weak and unstable, because of the phobia and associated depression I'd had since childhood. But living through the news of his heart defect while I was pregnant, the poor odds in his favour, his short life and his death, taught me that I am indeed a lot stronger than I ever thought I was. I did it - I lived through something I never thought I could cope with - and came out stronger the other side. Nothing else is quite as fearful to me now. I know if I could survive that, I can survive anything.

2. He taught me that children are very, very, very precious. To be honest, I was very ambivalent about motherhood. After I conceived, I was terrified. Wasn't sure I really wanted to do this. The utter, utter joy of having him with us just blew all that away. I am sure I am a better mother because of him.

3. I learned that God really is with me. Isaiah 61 says “He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted ..... to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” We experienced this, for real. Of course, we grieved for Benjamin. But our overwhelming feeling in the months that followed was just pure joy that he had come to be ours, even for a short time. We felt we had been given a precious gift, far more wonderful than we deserved, and we were full of joy, as well as times of pain.

4. I learned to look more to heaven, and less to earth. I seem to have forgotten this lesson as time has gone on, but every now and then I become aware again just how much more important eternity is than this temporary home. I didn't write the poem below, and I don't know who did, but it speaks so strongly to me:

The day will come when I will stand
At the entrance to that perfect land
And there to greet me will be my son
Who will gently show me the wonders to come
In that place where sunshine never ends,
Where the shining waters flow
Through hills and valleys green
Bathed in a golden glow,
And in those heavenly hills I’ll find
The love and beauty which will always be mine,
And once again a mother I’ll be
To that son I loved so tenderly.

******************************

Some people come into our lives
And go very quickly,
Some people come into our lives
And move our souls to dance.
They awaken us to understand
With their passing whisper of their wisdom.
And make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon,
They stay in our lives for a time,
Leaving footprints in our hearts,
And we are never, ever the same

I didn't write that one either, but Benjamin taught my soul to dance, taught me to love, and taught me about joy. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

I love Freecycle!

Two nights ago, our tumble dryer (received from Freecycle about 2 years ago) went BANG. Yesterday, I saw a tumble dryer offered on Freecycle, was the first to respond, and Bill picked it up on his way home from work this evening! Amazing! Especially since our monthly budget, previously a pretty tight squeeze anyway, has just become impossibly so since I think the Child Tax Credits have just reduced by £100 per month, due to reclaiming an overpayment last year. So we would have had to do without buying a new tumble dryer if it had come to that. Great stuff! Last weekend I also picked up a child's trailer bike, so that as and when my bike becomes roadworthy again, I can tow Jade along behind me and know that she is (relatively) safe.

Anyway, this morning began in the usual relaxed fashion, or in fact even more so as a miracle occurred last night! I decided on the spur of the moment to put Shannon to sleep in her own bed, instead of ours, having left her to Bill's tender ministrations during the night for the past 3 weeks or so to stop her feeding at night. She fell asleep at about 8.30pm, woke once at about 4am and came to find me, so I returned her straight to her own bed and got in with her. She thought she could have 'hungry', but I said it wasn't morning yet, and she wailed in protest. I braced myself for it to go on for quite a while, but in fact it was just one quick grumble, grumpily took herself off to lie on my feet, and fell straight back to sleep. Then we didn't hear her again till 7am. I THINK WE MAY HAVE DONE IT!!!!!!!!! The girl who has woken 4-6+ times per night for the last 2.5 years only woke up once!!!!!! I'll probably bring champagne to camp to celebrate!!!!

'Scuse me, getting carried away there, but the prospect of regular full nights sleep after 6 years without (Jade was just the same till she was about 3) is getting me a little giddy!

So, this morning began happily, and after a little tidying and vacuuming, I started Jade on "Beyond the Code", which I got a couple of months ago but hadn't used yet. She did about 8 pages quite happily. I did seize the opportunity to try and clarify the use of capital letters and lower case letters, as she tends to mix them up rather. I wrote out the whole alphabet each way and she copied underneath. I don't know if that will be the final look we need to have at that, but at least it moved her a bit further on. Then we did some more "Dr Dooriddles Associative Reasoning Activities" which I linked to a couple of months back and can't be bothered to go looking for the link right now, so sorry! While we were doing both these things, Shannon was playing with the Cuisenaire rods.

After those, we sat down on the floor to look through our pile of library books. Shannon had a lovely time looking through the ones I'd got out for her, and Jade chose to look through the Rainforest book she'd brought home. However she was hungry, and had earlier requested to make milkshakes (seen on CBeebies, I think), and fortunately we had some strawberries so at this point we stopped and went and made a fresh strawberry milkshake for her and a strawberry and banana smoothie for me. Gorgeous! Then we went back to the Rainforest book for a time.

A bit later we had lunch outside in the garden, which was lovely, and then, despite my good night's sleep, I set the girls up with a Tom & Jerry DVD while I went for a nap. My excuse is that I'd stayed up late doing the ironing! A very rare event indeed.

Got up, took them swimming, went to visit my Usborne recruit to lend some bookracks and receive some leaflets. We saw their sheep being sheared on their farm. Ended up staying there for the girls' tea (with her 2 boys) and meanwhile Jade in particular was thrilled to spend some time playing with their Hornby railway set in the loft!

Shannon fell asleep on the way home (at 6.20pm) so was transported straight to bed. Jade stayed up with me while I had my own dinner and then watched Trinny & Susannah and then went to bed. Had to have words with her about her attitude - when she gets angry about something she tries to hurt whoever she is angry with, and then will not accept any reprimand or comeback for it - she puts her fingers in her ears, or blows raspberries, or shouts. In the middle of that little talk, Shannon woke up but was fairly easily settled back to sleep, and then I spoke quietly and calmly to Jade about treating other people with respect and how her behaviour is not acceptable. Let's hope some of that sinks in!

It's getting harder and harder to persuade Jade to go to school in an afternoon. After last week's anxiety about the swimming, we've pretty much accepted that she won't go on Wednesdays any more, but she was really not too happy about going today either. I'm not entirely sure how to handle it. We counted up today how many more times she is due to go, and what with being on holiday next week, she only has to go 8 more times in total. It seems so little and it feels as though it would be nice to get her to the end of term, have a 'proper' end to it instead of suddenly abandoning ship, and just trying to teach her a littlesomething about following through on commitments, even when it's hard. But it's difficult to know exactly what level her unhappiness at being there is - we've had many many times where she's been reluctant to do something, managed to do it, and had a great time! Anyway, we shall continue to play that one each day as it comes, I guess. We have told the headteacher that she won't be going back in September, and they accept that. The whole thing hasn't really worked out in quite the way we hoped it would, which is a shame, but we wouldn't have known if we hadn't tried it.

Anyway, much 'stuff' has been going on at home. This morning, for instance, I asked Jade what she wanted to learn about, and she shouted "trains"! Long time readers and MuddlePuddlers may recall that when we attended our very first HE camp in June 2004, when she was just 3, all we heard all week was her distress at being parted from 'track', the wooden Brio stuff we'd left at home. After that she played with it daily for a year and a half. Lately, though, the Thomas interested has waned noticeably, so I was quite surprised that she still regards that as the number one thing she wanted to learn about today! I asked her what exactly did she want to learn about trains that she didn't know already, and she wasn't sure (we have read endless train books together LOL!) so I decided to make it an art project instead. She chose to do it on card, so she cut a huge piece of cardboard and chose a picture from a book to copy. She went on to do a pretty good attempt at a pencil drawing. She'd almost finished when I got out the Geomags to distract Shannon away from ruining the picture, and of course Jade then just wanted to play with those too! Still, fiddling with Geomags is always educational, isn't it? Even when the game consists of dropping the metal balls down the front of your fleecy all-in-one pyjamas (Shannon) and then rattling your foot to hear them clattering about! I did find a couple in her nappy later, yeuch!

In the middle of this, someone came to the door to collect the cinema equipment, and conversationally asked the children (!) why they were still in their pyjamas!! I firmly told him that we were doing some learning, and it was just as possible to learn in your pyjamas as anything else!

Then I got Jade set up on a 'Nutrition Mission' CD game which was free from the British Heart Foundation. It was a bit difficult for her, being aimed at the 7-11 age group, but I think something went in about the importance of a balanced diet! We'll have another go sometime, I'm sure.

Then it was time to get her ready for school. After dropping her off, Shannon and I did various shopping things and were out all the time till it was time to pick Jade up from school. Now they're chilling in front of the TV while I catch up on the computer.

I know there's been tons of other stuff going on that I've meant to blog, but it escapes me at the moment. More later (maybe!).

HOW MANY .....???!!!

I got home from work today, and in the course of catching up with each other's days, Jade told me she had read not one, not two, not three but FOUR Rainbow Magic fairy books today, all on her own!!! And she is currently reading the fifth, up in bed!

Astonishing!

This is partly as a result being at home all day. She got so upset at the thought of going to school this afternoon for a swimming lesson (she hates them making her put her head underwater - not that they do 'make' her but they do suggest it and she feels the pressure to do so) that in the end, Bill phoned the school and she didn't go.

Now she is 6!

The party is over, the stressful bit is done, and now all I have to do is reflect on a lovely weekend when my eldest daughter turned 6! She had been beside herself with excitement for ages, counting down the days and just longing for the big day to come. So we anticipated an early start on Friday morning! It wasn't too bad, though - she woke at 6.30am and her first words to me were "I'm six now!!" in a sort of wondering tone. I asked her if she felt different being 6, and she said yes .

Anyway, to cut a long story short (I'm not Nic, after all ) she had a lovely time opening prezzies on our bed. She had from us a pair of rollerblades plus protective gear, and a double dance-mat (to save arguments with her little sister) and a 'Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus' DVD (which I had found for £2.50 at the charity shop!) and a set of Pet-Keeper Fairies books, the latter of which was her favourite present, I think, as she yelled with excitement, pulled out the first book, lay down, and was quiet for the next half-an-hour reading! The funny thing was, I had wrapped a couple of presents for Shannon because she's very much in 'imitating' mode at the moment and wants to do whatever she sees anybody else doing. However she was still asleep and slept through the whole thing!!

After breakfast and sessions of playing with roller blades and dance mat, we eventually all got ready and went to Stratford-on-Avon, which has a lovely park with a huge sandpit to play in. It was a really lovely couple of hours, during which DH and I were mostly able to sit and just watch the two of them running around having a great time. I commented to Bill how I had been waiting for so long to get to that stage of motherhood - when I could take a book to the park and just let them get on with it - and I think we're just about there!!






Then we came home late afternoon, Bill set up the projector and screen, and we had a big-screen viewing of the Barbie DVD, which had her transfixed. Meanwhile I cooked the dinner that the birthday girl had requested - roast chicken, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, sweetcorn and gravy, followed by a custard slice!!!

Saturday was stressful! The party was to be a 'Nina & the Neurons' theme - loosely translated as 'science'. I'd done less planning than I'd intended, due to busy-ness and tiredness, but DH had put several things together too, so I think it all came right in the end! So we had rockets taking off (and ending up in the neighbours' garden!), food colouring in milk being swirled around when a drop of washing-up liquid is added, identifying smells, trying to get an egg into a narrow-necked bottle (that one failed!), and other stuff, but finally and most spectacularly, the wonderful much-renowned 'Mentos and Diet Coke' eruptions!

The party guests gather at a safe distance:




Finally, after much playing, experimenting and having fun, they descended on the food:



and at the very end, she blew the six candles out on her Unicorn cake!



The party guests sang Happy Birthday once for Jade and then for Bill, whose birthday it really was that day! He generously postponed his presents and pampering for today, Sunday, instead!

Somebody SHOOT me if I ever talk about organising a children's birthday party at home again ......!!!! (1 hour till they arrive - 3 or 4 till they leave ........)

We have decided!

Remember all my angst about whether Jade should "work towards" going into school full-time (as requested by the school she attends 3 afternoons per week) or finish going altogether?

We have finally decided that she will not go back next September . She is happy!

I still don't know what I'm going to do with her on Thursdays when I go to work, but we'll just have to figure something out!

Busy

Preparations are underway for weekend birthday festivities - on Friday Jade will be 6 and on Saturday DH will be, um, rather older! Jade wants a 'Nina and the Neurons' party, a Unicorn cake, and Numberjacks decorations!!! What DH wants is not publishable on a public blog!

Apart from that, I have my new colleague starting at work this week so much talking and teaching has been going on. She seems great, though, so it will all settle down quite quickly.

The Wychwood Festival was good last weekend - enjoyed it though less people passing by to chat to than we'd hoped.

As for education, well, once again I just have to trust in that autonomous process because not much formal has been going on at all!

Busy weekend

We're at the Wychwood Festival this weekend. I am partly working - we have a Time Banks stand (free - in return for distributing loads of publicity about the Festival: Time Banking in action!) so I was there yesterday (with the girls), helping to set up our stand. Today we're going as a family mostly for a fun day out, while some other folks staff the stand. Tomorrow I'm on duty all day!

It's going to be tiring, especially on top of being got up at 5-6am each morning by Shannon who no longer breastfeeds in bed! So I have to get up and go downstairs on the sofa with her in the early morning. However, that doesn't mean she's sleeping through until that time, oh no! DH is doing sterling, wonderful, patient work with her during the night while I'm in the other room (don't trust myself to be able to stick it out and say no to her yet). She's not wailing (much), just awake and restless. And yes, it still wakes me up even when I'm not in the same room. And it's been at this stage in the past that we've given up and regressed. WHEN will she just learn to stay asleep at night???!!!

Have just been falling off my chair laughing.....

at this thread on the Mumsnet forums:

So - what's your favourite and least favourite children's TV programme?

I LOVE Higgledy House, and Justin in anything because he's just so cheerful and smiley, but I don't fancy him tho'....! Sportacus, however -


Numberjacks and Nina and the Neurons I approve of because they are nicely educational! Not mad about the voices/actors on Numberjacks, though - think they could have got that better. And Charlie and Lola are just adorable!

Can't stand The Shiny Show, Tweenies, In the Night Garden, Smarteenies, Me Too, ................