I've not been keeping up again, and it's too late to want to go into much detail. But the edited highlights follow!
This morning started with Geomags, and a jigsaw puzzle of the UK which I've just unearthed from a cupboard. We didn't go to church this morning as Shannon has had a rash for a couple of days and although she seems completely well we didn't want to risk spreading anything. But we did go out this afternoon to a Dogs Trust Open Day (thought there was little risk of spreading viruses or whatever in the open air) so we've had a lovely afternoon in the sun. We met my Dad and his wife Pat and various of her family there. Poppy took part in the doggy dash and didn't disgrace herself although she didn't win either! We looked round the kennels bit and looked at all the dogs needing re-homing - no, I didn't bring any home! We got home to find that Bill had put together Jade's new bed which I drove up near Chesterfield for a couple of months ago after winning it on Ebay. So there's been great excitement while the finishing touches have been put to that and although the rest of the room still needs sorting out, she is very happy in her big girl bed with the tower and slide!
In the last few days we've also had a sleepover of Tamsin's best friend, we've driven over and visited my Dad for a while and we've done various stuff round the house. The odd bit of education here and there but nothing focussed on. I was reading somewhere or other recently how Finland doesn't start formal schooling until the age of 7 and yet they have they highest pupil assessment scores at age 16 of the whole EU. No sweat for another couple of years, then.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Work day
Not much to report today - I was at work all day while DH was home with the girlies! and I would have got to work on time too (for a change) if Jade hadn't had a bout of severe separation anxiety when I was about to leave - she had to be peeled off me, poor girl :-( She seems fine now though!
However I have been spending a fair amount of time reading Montessori stuff. Is it just me, or does everyone else flit from one educational style to another like some kind of butterfly, trying to decide which one to settle on? Everytime I read another blog which says "we home-school in a combination of classical and Moore", or "we are Charlotte Mason style home educators,", I just think, 'what am I?'. I don't have enough time to read sufficient about any of these styles to decide which one to be! I'm just a messy lazy home-educator, that's all. I think I'll have to devise a new style, and call it "The slovenly procrastinator's guide to home-education". Perhaps I could write a book and make my fortune!
However I have been spending a fair amount of time reading Montessori stuff. Is it just me, or does everyone else flit from one educational style to another like some kind of butterfly, trying to decide which one to settle on? Everytime I read another blog which says "we home-school in a combination of classical and Moore", or "we are Charlotte Mason style home educators,", I just think, 'what am I?'. I don't have enough time to read sufficient about any of these styles to decide which one to be! I'm just a messy lazy home-educator, that's all. I think I'll have to devise a new style, and call it "The slovenly procrastinator's guide to home-education". Perhaps I could write a book and make my fortune!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
A game of two halves
We had an active morning, a moderately active late-afternoon, with a huge slump of nothingness in the middle, so it seemed an appropriate title.
First thing, Jade insisted on making the cakes with the Dora cake mix packet that she persuaded me to buy in the supermarket yesterday - I must have had a weak moment because I usually absolutely refuse to buy such overpriced crap, but now I have two Dora fans in the household (yes, Shannon does a lovely 'Dor-wa' now and a great dance to the 'We Did It' music!) I gave in. Still, it gave me the chance to do a bit of tuition on cooking temperatures, though not much else.
Mixing, baking, cooling and icing made us late for HE group, though. It started at 10.30 but we didn't manage to arrive till 11.30! So the huge castle made from cardboard boxes was already constructed and very impressive it was too - with towers and a drawbridge! So there was mostly just general playing, running around and chatting going on after that. I met another new attendee who has a 4.5 yr old son and an 18-month old daughter although she had left the little one with someone else to give her son a bit of sister-free time - apparently she drives him mad! Anyway they don't live too far away and are also going to be flexi-schooling mostly because they have only just moved to the area and want to find him some friends. But they might be up for reciprocal visits.
We drove home in the blissfully air-conditioned car, Shannon fell asleep and I parked Jade in front of Nick Jr with the intention of going for a nap myself when the phone rang and it was a long-lost friend. Fortunately Shannon's nap was very long so I still managed some rest after the chat. After getting up I still felt horribly lethargic and devoid of any energy or inclination to do anything. I did manage to sit with Jade and read a couple of her library books - Antarctica and Are you a snail? But mostly I just lolled and grumped.
I did manage to make myself an iced coffee, though, and that did the trick because later on I felt a little energy trickle back and managed to tidy up a little, vacuum the living room floor and set up a big Brio train track layout for Jade, which is a rare occurrence these days since Shannon became mobile. But having spent about 20 minutes building it, she then spent about 5 minutes playing with it so I was not too impressed.
Can't remember how things progressed from there - I know Shannon did a bit more shape-sorter and has noticeably progressed since yesterday's practice, Jade found some old stickers and stuck them on a big piece of paper and did some drawing round them and as usual she spent much of the time with a teddy stuffed up her top pretending to be pregnant. This is a regular occurrence these days as her best friend's mum is about to have a baby. Said best friend is actually coming to stay overnight on Thursday and Jade is in ecstasy about this - several times a day she works out how many days it is till Thursday and goes into hyperactive overdrive for a few minutes with excitement.
Jade read her own bedtime stories again - a very simple DK Touch & Feel book and a Miffy book and is currently not asleep in her room - but then again it is 28 degrees up there so that won't be helping.
ETA - how could I forget Shannon singing the Alphabet Song along with Jade? Well, OK, only a handful of letters are recognisably pronounced, but she's having a jolly good go! Very sweet! Counting 1-10 and the alphabet before the age of 2 - what an upstart she is!!
First thing, Jade insisted on making the cakes with the Dora cake mix packet that she persuaded me to buy in the supermarket yesterday - I must have had a weak moment because I usually absolutely refuse to buy such overpriced crap, but now I have two Dora fans in the household (yes, Shannon does a lovely 'Dor-wa' now and a great dance to the 'We Did It' music!) I gave in. Still, it gave me the chance to do a bit of tuition on cooking temperatures, though not much else.
Mixing, baking, cooling and icing made us late for HE group, though. It started at 10.30 but we didn't manage to arrive till 11.30! So the huge castle made from cardboard boxes was already constructed and very impressive it was too - with towers and a drawbridge! So there was mostly just general playing, running around and chatting going on after that. I met another new attendee who has a 4.5 yr old son and an 18-month old daughter although she had left the little one with someone else to give her son a bit of sister-free time - apparently she drives him mad! Anyway they don't live too far away and are also going to be flexi-schooling mostly because they have only just moved to the area and want to find him some friends. But they might be up for reciprocal visits.
We drove home in the blissfully air-conditioned car, Shannon fell asleep and I parked Jade in front of Nick Jr with the intention of going for a nap myself when the phone rang and it was a long-lost friend. Fortunately Shannon's nap was very long so I still managed some rest after the chat. After getting up I still felt horribly lethargic and devoid of any energy or inclination to do anything. I did manage to sit with Jade and read a couple of her library books - Antarctica and Are you a snail? But mostly I just lolled and grumped.
I did manage to make myself an iced coffee, though, and that did the trick because later on I felt a little energy trickle back and managed to tidy up a little, vacuum the living room floor and set up a big Brio train track layout for Jade, which is a rare occurrence these days since Shannon became mobile. But having spent about 20 minutes building it, she then spent about 5 minutes playing with it so I was not too impressed.
Can't remember how things progressed from there - I know Shannon did a bit more shape-sorter and has noticeably progressed since yesterday's practice, Jade found some old stickers and stuck them on a big piece of paper and did some drawing round them and as usual she spent much of the time with a teddy stuffed up her top pretending to be pregnant. This is a regular occurrence these days as her best friend's mum is about to have a baby. Said best friend is actually coming to stay overnight on Thursday and Jade is in ecstasy about this - several times a day she works out how many days it is till Thursday and goes into hyperactive overdrive for a few minutes with excitement.
Jade read her own bedtime stories again - a very simple DK Touch & Feel book and a Miffy book and is currently not asleep in her room - but then again it is 28 degrees up there so that won't be helping.
ETA - how could I forget Shannon singing the Alphabet Song along with Jade? Well, OK, only a handful of letters are recognisably pronounced, but she's having a jolly good go! Very sweet! Counting 1-10 and the alphabet before the age of 2 - what an upstart she is!!
Monday, July 24, 2006
I heard that sickening crunch.....
.... of metal on metal, or whatever bumpers and car doors are made of these days. Yes, I pranged our lovely Prius. I can't imagine why on earth I did - I was just pulling out of a parking spot at the side of the road and scraped the whole left hand side on someone else's bumper - and I'm normally good at parking and driving and I just don't *do* that sort of thing! Bugger. We have comp. insurance but the excess is probably about £150 and we just don't need that on top of the cost of the other car this week, which BTW cost £530 the other day and still needs about £650 worth of work on it. Good job there isn't still a workhouse or we'd be headed there ....
Until then, I'd been having quite a good day! The first thing Jade chose after getting up was the Geomags, and I sat with her while she made 'pancakes' (!) - or rather various flat geometric shapes with panels in. We then moved on to building a castle with bricks and blocks, while Shannon practised with her shape sorter at which we applauded and said 'Hooray' every time she got one in so she joined in clapping and hooraying at herself! Then Jade moved on to a Learning Land CD-Rom while I tried to do a bit of summer planning - looking at events going on locally and making notes of which I'd quite like to go to, along with more general stuff like swimming and picnics. After that we decided to go for a walk, but why on earth does it have to take so long to get ready? It was about an hour before we were ready to go, what with getting them both dressed, nappy changing, finding shoes, persuading them not to play upstairs but get dressed instead, etc. Eventually we got out and went for a very hot walk out to the duck pond and back, and then a quick lunch was followed by getting Shannon to sleep while Jade watched a bit of TV. Then I sat with her to do a bit of reading, so we went through the 'Please and Thank You book' by Richard Scarry, a book I got from the charity shop called "One World" of which she read the first half, and then we were about to start 'King Arthur' when she got stroppy and hit me and threw the book on the floor so she had to go and sit on the stairs for 5 minutes. I was not in the mood for more after that, though, so had a bit of quiet computer time while she had a bit more TV till Shannon woke up. Then we all went out in the car to do some food shopping and then crunched the car. :-(
Around teatime Jade found a stray notelet card lying around on the table so decided to write to my Dad - "Grandpa, I love you" so that was a good bit of writing practise, although after all that effort she couldn't manage to write her own name so I did that!
Around bedtime she started to sort through her Letterland alphabet cards and to lay out all the capital letters. I was a bit surprised that she needed to keep asking me which ones were the capitals as opposed to lower case, as I thought she had that all very clear, but anyway she got fed up by about F or G and messed them all up.
Oh, and she mostly read her own bedtime stories, too, by choice!
Until then, I'd been having quite a good day! The first thing Jade chose after getting up was the Geomags, and I sat with her while she made 'pancakes' (!) - or rather various flat geometric shapes with panels in. We then moved on to building a castle with bricks and blocks, while Shannon practised with her shape sorter at which we applauded and said 'Hooray' every time she got one in so she joined in clapping and hooraying at herself! Then Jade moved on to a Learning Land CD-Rom while I tried to do a bit of summer planning - looking at events going on locally and making notes of which I'd quite like to go to, along with more general stuff like swimming and picnics. After that we decided to go for a walk, but why on earth does it have to take so long to get ready? It was about an hour before we were ready to go, what with getting them both dressed, nappy changing, finding shoes, persuading them not to play upstairs but get dressed instead, etc. Eventually we got out and went for a very hot walk out to the duck pond and back, and then a quick lunch was followed by getting Shannon to sleep while Jade watched a bit of TV. Then I sat with her to do a bit of reading, so we went through the 'Please and Thank You book' by Richard Scarry, a book I got from the charity shop called "One World" of which she read the first half, and then we were about to start 'King Arthur' when she got stroppy and hit me and threw the book on the floor so she had to go and sit on the stairs for 5 minutes. I was not in the mood for more after that, though, so had a bit of quiet computer time while she had a bit more TV till Shannon woke up. Then we all went out in the car to do some food shopping and then crunched the car. :-(
Around teatime Jade found a stray notelet card lying around on the table so decided to write to my Dad - "Grandpa, I love you" so that was a good bit of writing practise, although after all that effort she couldn't manage to write her own name so I did that!
Around bedtime she started to sort through her Letterland alphabet cards and to lay out all the capital letters. I was a bit surprised that she needed to keep asking me which ones were the capitals as opposed to lower case, as I thought she had that all very clear, but anyway she got fed up by about F or G and messed them all up.
Oh, and she mostly read her own bedtime stories, too, by choice!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Not so bad after all
We're all still here - no-one's killed anybody else off!
The electricity went off about 9.45am, but came on again just before 1pm, although they'd warned it would be off till 4pm. The worst news was about Bill's car which has cost over £500 to only partially fix .... yikes!
After breakfast, the morning started with some reading. Jade pulled out a Learning Land magazine and we went through that, although she did skip the page about numbers saying "I hate that bit!". We did some reading exercises, she did a tiny bit of lovely writing, and then did the 'healthy eating' exercise during which I talked about needing the right kind of fuel in a car otherwise it breaks down and the same is true in our bodies. She also did a drawing of a 'healthy lunchbox' and drew a sandwich, a banana, a drink and a chocolate bar which I thought was pretty OK!
We moved on to Spanish after that, when I got out our little collection of fun Spanish activities that I'd got from The Book People a while ago. There are three bilingual stories so she read the English and I read the Spanish - with guesses at much of the pronunciation! We practised some of the words together and discussed the Spanish -v- English words.
Then I remembered reading something lately about how short breaks of physical exercise improve learning, and I was certainly beginning to feel a bit sluggish esp. with the heat, so I took them upstairs to bounce on the bed! They started having fun, but fairly soon Jade went into a very moody/grumpy state, and started shouting at me to go away and leave her alone and shouting that no, I didn't love her after I said I did. She curled up on my bed, and shortly after that started crying, but still didn't want me anywhere near. So I pottered around nearby, putting clean washing away, while wondering and praying about what was wrong and totally at a loss as to this sudden mood swing which is not completely unusual as she has been rather volatile lately. And suddenly it hit me - she'd had porridge with honey in it for breakfast and had then continued eating more honey - more than I'd realised before I'd stopped her. So she was having a complete sugar meltdown! And it might well be that the rest of her behaviour lately is perhaps partly due to sugar issues too. Time for some serious sweet-limiting action, I think. The sugar intake has very slowly crept up from just one piece of chocolate per day, to that plus lollies/ice-creams in the hot weather, and biscuits, and sometimes the next-door-neighbours give her something as well without checking first ... (Grrr). And it certainly won't do me any harm to completely cut down on sugar either. Anyway I brought them downstairs for a healthy and hearty lunch and playing out in the garden, so peace and harmony were resumed.
Straight after lunch I wanted some peace and quiet sitting at my computer, so Jade did a Learning Land CD-Rom and Shannon pottered around with bits and pieces. During the afternoon they've played on the swing, climbing frame and slide, although I limited Shannon's time on the swing as she threw up again on Tuesday after a long swing so I am fairly sure she's getting motion sickness from it, although she protests like mad at being taken off. Jade and I played Snakes & Ladders this afternoon, and as I made tea they've watched about 45 mins of CBeebies. Jade read a library book to Bill when he came in and only needed help with 1 word - disguise - so we've started to fill in her "Reading Mission" card from the library that we got last Thursday.
It's Jade's last day of playschool tomorrow. She seems fine about it, but she has loved it so much I wouldn't be surprised if we have a bit of an emotional rollercoaster tomorrow!
The electricity went off about 9.45am, but came on again just before 1pm, although they'd warned it would be off till 4pm. The worst news was about Bill's car which has cost over £500 to only partially fix .... yikes!
After breakfast, the morning started with some reading. Jade pulled out a Learning Land magazine and we went through that, although she did skip the page about numbers saying "I hate that bit!". We did some reading exercises, she did a tiny bit of lovely writing, and then did the 'healthy eating' exercise during which I talked about needing the right kind of fuel in a car otherwise it breaks down and the same is true in our bodies. She also did a drawing of a 'healthy lunchbox' and drew a sandwich, a banana, a drink and a chocolate bar which I thought was pretty OK!
We moved on to Spanish after that, when I got out our little collection of fun Spanish activities that I'd got from The Book People a while ago. There are three bilingual stories so she read the English and I read the Spanish - with guesses at much of the pronunciation! We practised some of the words together and discussed the Spanish -v- English words.
Then I remembered reading something lately about how short breaks of physical exercise improve learning, and I was certainly beginning to feel a bit sluggish esp. with the heat, so I took them upstairs to bounce on the bed! They started having fun, but fairly soon Jade went into a very moody/grumpy state, and started shouting at me to go away and leave her alone and shouting that no, I didn't love her after I said I did. She curled up on my bed, and shortly after that started crying, but still didn't want me anywhere near. So I pottered around nearby, putting clean washing away, while wondering and praying about what was wrong and totally at a loss as to this sudden mood swing which is not completely unusual as she has been rather volatile lately. And suddenly it hit me - she'd had porridge with honey in it for breakfast and had then continued eating more honey - more than I'd realised before I'd stopped her. So she was having a complete sugar meltdown! And it might well be that the rest of her behaviour lately is perhaps partly due to sugar issues too. Time for some serious sweet-limiting action, I think. The sugar intake has very slowly crept up from just one piece of chocolate per day, to that plus lollies/ice-creams in the hot weather, and biscuits, and sometimes the next-door-neighbours give her something as well without checking first ... (Grrr). And it certainly won't do me any harm to completely cut down on sugar either. Anyway I brought them downstairs for a healthy and hearty lunch and playing out in the garden, so peace and harmony were resumed.
Straight after lunch I wanted some peace and quiet sitting at my computer, so Jade did a Learning Land CD-Rom and Shannon pottered around with bits and pieces. During the afternoon they've played on the swing, climbing frame and slide, although I limited Shannon's time on the swing as she threw up again on Tuesday after a long swing so I am fairly sure she's getting motion sickness from it, although she protests like mad at being taken off. Jade and I played Snakes & Ladders this afternoon, and as I made tea they've watched about 45 mins of CBeebies. Jade read a library book to Bill when he came in and only needed help with 1 word - disguise - so we've started to fill in her "Reading Mission" card from the library that we got last Thursday.
It's Jade's last day of playschool tomorrow. She seems fine about it, but she has loved it so much I wouldn't be surprised if we have a bit of an emotional rollercoaster tomorrow!
It's going to be a tough one...
Today I will have no electricity, no car, no Grandpa visiting, and it's too hot to walk anywhere. Pray that we all survive!!!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Really must blog....
But somehow by this time of the evening all power of thought seems to have disappeared and I just can't think what to put.
Today was a playschool morning for Jade, and Shannon and I just pootled around not doing much - a bit of tidying up, a little book browsing, a bit of computering and finally, a long swing for Shannon while I chatted on the phone with a friend. She loves staying on the swing for ages these days - an hour if I can stand it. Usually I swing her high and then go off and do something, and then go back to her when she's slowed down, but combining it with a phone conversation seemed a better way to do it. She was enjoying it, as always, and towards the end (after about 45 minutes) seemed to be getting drowsy and it was approaching her normal nap time. She didn't want to get out, though, so I lay on the grass next to the swing and pushed her lazily with my foot ... and only just avoided it being thrown up on. I don't know if it was motion sickness or something else that disagreed with her. I'm very prone to motion sickness and actually felt slightly unwell just from pushing and watching her while she swung. She still didn't want to get out of the swing, amazingly, but I made her do so because it was time to go and get Jade.
Shannon fell asleep in the car on the way, so when we got home Jade and I got some food and I offered to read to her but she never did bring a book for me. We had a very lazy afternoon in the extreme heat, mostly staying indoors. I felt very lethargic and unmotivated to do anything but did manage to do a tiny bit of tidying. After school time the girl-next-door came round and fortunately she and Jade had a great time mopping my kitchen floor and vacuuming the living room floor!! Oh, this was after Jade had another spell of appalling behaviour after L appeared, stomping off into her bedroom, refusing to let L in, playing with toys but saying L couldn't play with them, and generally being exceedingly unpleasant. {Sigh} - wish I knew what it was all about. Later a bit of painting (on paper, and a mug-painting kit) got done and just miscellaneous playing.
So, that was such a boring day it probably wasn't even worth blogging, but maybe it's a start that'll get me going again.
Today was a playschool morning for Jade, and Shannon and I just pootled around not doing much - a bit of tidying up, a little book browsing, a bit of computering and finally, a long swing for Shannon while I chatted on the phone with a friend. She loves staying on the swing for ages these days - an hour if I can stand it. Usually I swing her high and then go off and do something, and then go back to her when she's slowed down, but combining it with a phone conversation seemed a better way to do it. She was enjoying it, as always, and towards the end (after about 45 minutes) seemed to be getting drowsy and it was approaching her normal nap time. She didn't want to get out, though, so I lay on the grass next to the swing and pushed her lazily with my foot ... and only just avoided it being thrown up on. I don't know if it was motion sickness or something else that disagreed with her. I'm very prone to motion sickness and actually felt slightly unwell just from pushing and watching her while she swung. She still didn't want to get out of the swing, amazingly, but I made her do so because it was time to go and get Jade.
Shannon fell asleep in the car on the way, so when we got home Jade and I got some food and I offered to read to her but she never did bring a book for me. We had a very lazy afternoon in the extreme heat, mostly staying indoors. I felt very lethargic and unmotivated to do anything but did manage to do a tiny bit of tidying. After school time the girl-next-door came round and fortunately she and Jade had a great time mopping my kitchen floor and vacuuming the living room floor!! Oh, this was after Jade had another spell of appalling behaviour after L appeared, stomping off into her bedroom, refusing to let L in, playing with toys but saying L couldn't play with them, and generally being exceedingly unpleasant. {Sigh} - wish I knew what it was all about. Later a bit of painting (on paper, and a mug-painting kit) got done and just miscellaneous playing.
So, that was such a boring day it probably wasn't even worth blogging, but maybe it's a start that'll get me going again.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
***What Your Soul Really Looks Like***
You are very passionate and quite temperamental. While you can be moody, you always crave comfort.
You are not a very grounded person. You prefer dreams to reality. For you, it's all about possibilities.
You believe that people see you as a bit small and insignificant. People pay more attention to you than you think.
Your near future is calm, relaxing, and pretty much what you want. And it's something you've been anticipating for a while now.
For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.
Inside the Room of Your Soul
http://www.blogthings.com/insidetheroomofyoursoulquiz/
You are very passionate and quite temperamental. While you can be moody, you always crave comfort.
You are not a very grounded person. You prefer dreams to reality. For you, it's all about possibilities.
You believe that people see you as a bit small and insignificant. People pay more attention to you than you think.
Your near future is calm, relaxing, and pretty much what you want. And it's something you've been anticipating for a while now.
For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.
Inside the Room of Your Soul
http://www.blogthings.com/insidetheroomofyoursoulquiz/
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Musical interlude
A musical education has been going on here today, for a change. After getting home from our church group, when Shannon was asleep in the car, Jade wanted some music to listen to so I dug out something we used to play when she was a baby, Medwyn Goodall. Although this is supposedly New Age music, it doesn't sound like it - it's just basically lovely Celtic stuff like Enya. And we danced together - lovely! And after that was finished, she wanted some more, so, being thoroughly sick of 'kids music' I put on Carnival of the Animals/Peter and The Wolf and we listened to it quite closely, discussing the instruments being used to denote each animal and incident and we both really enjoyed it! It's the first time she's listened properly to anything classical, so it was good it grabbed her attention. Not that it's vital - I think I was thirty-something before I wanted to go near classical music with a bargepole - but it's nice to be able to introduce her to a wide range of experiences and have her evaluate them for what they are in themselves and not what popular culture says a child ought to like.
We then did a little bit of reading "Why is the Sea Salty?" and other questions about the oceans, but didn't get very far with that before she got bored. In fact, at one point today she declared "I hate reading books", which I don't really believe at all but just put it down to her contrary mood lately, or maybe just heat and hunger. or something.
Her behaviour lately, though, has been particularly horrible. I have noticed that other bloggers discuss the 'phase' or age that their child is going through when difficult behaviour occurs whereas I immediately blame myself for being irritable, bad-tempered, a bad role-model and teaching her inappropriate ways of dealing with anger and frustration and conclude that I have already ruined her for life. Whichever is the reason, she's been behaving really horribly quite a bit, especially with Lauren, the girl-next-door who comes round almost every day after school. Jade is extremely bossy and rude some of the time, and can quite often go into major strops where she screams at Lauren to go home and never come here again. It's difficult to know what to make of it really. I know kids have to learn to get along with each other and sort out their differences, but I don't know if Jade is behaving worse than one would normally expect. I only really have Lauren to compare her with, and she seems pretty even-tempered and certainly doesn't go into the strops and tantrums and bossiness that Jade does. House of Tiny Tearaways, here we come ......
We then did a little bit of reading "Why is the Sea Salty?" and other questions about the oceans, but didn't get very far with that before she got bored. In fact, at one point today she declared "I hate reading books", which I don't really believe at all but just put it down to her contrary mood lately, or maybe just heat and hunger. or something.
Her behaviour lately, though, has been particularly horrible. I have noticed that other bloggers discuss the 'phase' or age that their child is going through when difficult behaviour occurs whereas I immediately blame myself for being irritable, bad-tempered, a bad role-model and teaching her inappropriate ways of dealing with anger and frustration and conclude that I have already ruined her for life. Whichever is the reason, she's been behaving really horribly quite a bit, especially with Lauren, the girl-next-door who comes round almost every day after school. Jade is extremely bossy and rude some of the time, and can quite often go into major strops where she screams at Lauren to go home and never come here again. It's difficult to know what to make of it really. I know kids have to learn to get along with each other and sort out their differences, but I don't know if Jade is behaving worse than one would normally expect. I only really have Lauren to compare her with, and she seems pretty even-tempered and certainly doesn't go into the strops and tantrums and bossiness that Jade does. House of Tiny Tearaways, here we come ......
Monday, July 10, 2006
Wiggle wiggle
Big excitement here today, as in a mad moment a few months back I had bought tickets for The Wiggles live concert in Oxford. So I picked Jade up early from playschool, dropped Shannon at the childminder's and off we went. We parked at the Park & Ride and caught the bus, which for Jade was probably as exciting as the concert itself! The bus was full of hordes of over-excited small children all heading the same way as us! The concert itself was pretty good if you like dancing dinosaurs and dippy kids' songs, but in the interests of scientific research I can confirm that Greg is the only Wiggle worth looking at although the others are good for amusement purposes. Jade's reaction was really funny because she was totally overwhelmed by being in the actual presence of the 'real' Wiggles. She said "I feel so funny I want to do something but I don't know what I want to do!" So she just stood and stared.
Gotta go - shannon is wailing!
Gotta go - shannon is wailing!
Monday, July 03, 2006
5 things
I've been tagged by Kath, and Katy (passworded blog!):
5 things in my fridge:
Red seedless grapes
Half an avocado
Organic butter
An opened bottle of dessert wine
A box of yummy chocolates from the Chocolate Tasting Club
5 things in my wardrobe:
Most of my clothes (apart from the ones on the floor in front)
The jewellery I'm hiding from DD1
A big wooden cross
My wedding shoes which I've never worn since (16 years ...)
Moths (judging by the holes in my jumpers)
5 things in my bag:
Purse
Travel sickness pills
Mobile phone and car charger
A Shewee
A book - "Cancer-causing chemicals in cosmetics and daily use products"
5 things in my car:
A buggy
Several stones and pebbles in the glove box
2 child car-seats
Sun blinds
Lots of crumbs
5 people I'm tagging:
Ali
Erm, can't find anyone else not already tagged!
5 things in my fridge:
Red seedless grapes
Half an avocado
Organic butter
An opened bottle of dessert wine
A box of yummy chocolates from the Chocolate Tasting Club
5 things in my wardrobe:
Most of my clothes (apart from the ones on the floor in front)
The jewellery I'm hiding from DD1
A big wooden cross
My wedding shoes which I've never worn since (16 years ...)
Moths (judging by the holes in my jumpers)
5 things in my bag:
Purse
Travel sickness pills
Mobile phone and car charger
A Shewee
A book - "Cancer-causing chemicals in cosmetics and daily use products"
5 things in my car:
A buggy
Several stones and pebbles in the glove box
2 child car-seats
Sun blinds
Lots of crumbs
5 people I'm tagging:
Ali
Erm, can't find anyone else not already tagged!
I'm lovin' it!
Tamsin is at playschool, and Isabelle has been asleep for 2 hours so far!
I adore my girls, but I just love time on my own at home too, and I get so exceedingly little of it that I'm just basking in the wonder of it!
I adore my girls, but I just love time on my own at home too, and I get so exceedingly little of it that I'm just basking in the wonder of it!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
I seem to do so little HE at the moment that there's not much to blog. We hardly seem to be at home. And when we are, the new girl-next-door comes round to play after school and just about all weekend (rolls eyes)! I don't feel as though I get much quality time with Jade at all.
Anyway, despite all that, a few things have happened today. She requested the Reader Rabbit CD-Rom this morning, which she is far beyond now in terms of phonics/reading but she thinks it's fun anyway. Then we went out to the women's group at church, and then came home and we did some reading - she read an early reader book we got from the Library and I read her something or other - can't remember now.
While I got lunch she played with Shannon, and then we all sat at the table. Memo: don't serve soup to a 19-month old - it gets messy! We then walked into town to post an important letter and to try and get Shannon to go to sleep in the buggy - no luck! Back home at about 4pm and girl-next-door immediately arrived. Much loud playing and throwing of water around in the back garden followed, clothes divested, and much mess made. After dinner, though, at which Shannon fell asleep at the table and was put swiftly to bed, Jade sat down with me and we read through April, May, June and July in the Year at Maple Hill Farm, and a section of the Berenstain Bears Book of Science and Nature dealing with matter and its 3 states - solid, liquid and gas. So that was timely, as DH had talked at dinner-time about her drink being liquid and she had denied it! Then, to wrap it all up, at bedtime I read her another of those Laurence Anholt books about famous artist - Camille and the Sunflowers
Anyway, despite all that, a few things have happened today. She requested the Reader Rabbit CD-Rom this morning, which she is far beyond now in terms of phonics/reading but she thinks it's fun anyway. Then we went out to the women's group at church, and then came home and we did some reading - she read an early reader book we got from the Library and I read her something or other - can't remember now.
While I got lunch she played with Shannon, and then we all sat at the table. Memo: don't serve soup to a 19-month old - it gets messy! We then walked into town to post an important letter and to try and get Shannon to go to sleep in the buggy - no luck! Back home at about 4pm and girl-next-door immediately arrived. Much loud playing and throwing of water around in the back garden followed, clothes divested, and much mess made. After dinner, though, at which Shannon fell asleep at the table and was put swiftly to bed, Jade sat down with me and we read through April, May, June and July in the Year at Maple Hill Farm, and a section of the Berenstain Bears Book of Science and Nature dealing with matter and its 3 states - solid, liquid and gas. So that was timely, as DH had talked at dinner-time about her drink being liquid and she had denied it! Then, to wrap it all up, at bedtime I read her another of those Laurence Anholt books about famous artist - Camille and the Sunflowers
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Somewhere down the road ...
We woke late this morning, so it was a mad rush to get everyone dressed and breakfasted ready to get Jade to playschool and me to work with Shannon (who is collected by my Dad after about an hour so I can work). So it was only when I was driving past the end of the tiny country lane leading to the church where Benjamin is buried that I remembered it's the 7th anniversary of his death today.
So what's it like, 7 years down the line after losing your first child? Well, for me at least, it's a mixture of maybe 15% missing him and 85% not missing him. I don't know if that's a surprise to you reading - I feel like maybe I 'go on' about it more on this blog than I do anywhere in real life, but then this is my thinking space and exploring my feelings space to some extent, so I guess it's bound to come out here. Actually, I started by writing that it's 10% missing him and 90% not, and then felt guilty and thought, no, surely it can't be that small a space that he has in my life now? When I think about him, my heart swells up with love so much that I feel surely he must still take up 90% of my life - he certainly deserves that - but in reality, no he does not.
I have no idea what it would be like to have a 7-year old boy, and to have 3 children instead of 2, and for Jade to be the middle one and not the oldest one. And would we even have had 3 children, or stuck at 2? Family dynamics would have been quite different, and I have no way of knowing how it would have been.
So here we are, with a family of 2 girls which seems quite normal and complete and OK. And there are 4 places round the dinner table and beds for each of us and most of the time it's not even thought about. But sometimes, and I find it hard to assess how often, I think of him and wonder what it would be like if he had lived, and what would he be like and what would he be doing? And every time (once or twice a month) I drive along the road on which we were driving, approaching Warwick on the way to Birmingham Children's Hospital to get him checked out because I was worried about him, and he collapsed and probably effectively died there in the car, and I remember every single detail and nuance of what happened, and go over it in my mind and wonder if it could have been any different. And every time I feel envious of people who have 3 or 4 children instead of 2, I remind myself that I have had 3, it's just that I have to wait a long time till I get to see one of them again. And when I chat with people about the challenges of having baby number 2, and then I feel a twinge of guilt that I am referring to Shannon as number 2 and not number 3 and am excluding Benjamin from our lives. And when I feel relief that I have girls and not boys, and then feel guilty because of course I did love my boy with all my heart. And when I hear the songs that have special significance in connection with him. And, of course, when I hear of other people losing babies or children and I remember exactly that black hole feeling of the worst thing possible in your entire life actually and really happening and how horrific it is and how the whole world stops and how you can literally think of nothing else for years.
And when I still wonder about exactly how God works in our lives, and why do some people get miraculous healings and others don't, and how exactly do I trust him about difficult and fearful things I have to face, and will He ever intervene, or do I just have to draw courage and strength from knowing He is there, and just keep on going, and then reassuring myself that of course He really was there, most definitely, in our time of need... So the title of this post is an Amy Grant song - "And you say, why why why does it go this way? And why why why, is all I can say. Somewhere down the road, there'll be answers to the questions; somewhere down the road, though you cannot see it now, somewhere down the road you will find mighty arms reaching for you, and they will hold the answers at the end of the road."
However, although on days like today it looms larger than normal, I almost never cry about him these days. We are happy and life is busy with the girls and the shopping and work and trying to get organised and HE and friends and plans for the future and the niggles of everyday life. There's just a little space for Benjamin, that when looked at becomes as if through a magnifying glass and looks enormous and all-encompassing, but then I turn my gaze away again onto the rest of life and it shrinks back down to that little corner. And I guess that's as it should be.
So what's it like, 7 years down the line after losing your first child? Well, for me at least, it's a mixture of maybe 15% missing him and 85% not missing him. I don't know if that's a surprise to you reading - I feel like maybe I 'go on' about it more on this blog than I do anywhere in real life, but then this is my thinking space and exploring my feelings space to some extent, so I guess it's bound to come out here. Actually, I started by writing that it's 10% missing him and 90% not, and then felt guilty and thought, no, surely it can't be that small a space that he has in my life now? When I think about him, my heart swells up with love so much that I feel surely he must still take up 90% of my life - he certainly deserves that - but in reality, no he does not.
I have no idea what it would be like to have a 7-year old boy, and to have 3 children instead of 2, and for Jade to be the middle one and not the oldest one. And would we even have had 3 children, or stuck at 2? Family dynamics would have been quite different, and I have no way of knowing how it would have been.
So here we are, with a family of 2 girls which seems quite normal and complete and OK. And there are 4 places round the dinner table and beds for each of us and most of the time it's not even thought about. But sometimes, and I find it hard to assess how often, I think of him and wonder what it would be like if he had lived, and what would he be like and what would he be doing? And every time (once or twice a month) I drive along the road on which we were driving, approaching Warwick on the way to Birmingham Children's Hospital to get him checked out because I was worried about him, and he collapsed and probably effectively died there in the car, and I remember every single detail and nuance of what happened, and go over it in my mind and wonder if it could have been any different. And every time I feel envious of people who have 3 or 4 children instead of 2, I remind myself that I have had 3, it's just that I have to wait a long time till I get to see one of them again. And when I chat with people about the challenges of having baby number 2, and then I feel a twinge of guilt that I am referring to Shannon as number 2 and not number 3 and am excluding Benjamin from our lives. And when I feel relief that I have girls and not boys, and then feel guilty because of course I did love my boy with all my heart. And when I hear the songs that have special significance in connection with him. And, of course, when I hear of other people losing babies or children and I remember exactly that black hole feeling of the worst thing possible in your entire life actually and really happening and how horrific it is and how the whole world stops and how you can literally think of nothing else for years.
And when I still wonder about exactly how God works in our lives, and why do some people get miraculous healings and others don't, and how exactly do I trust him about difficult and fearful things I have to face, and will He ever intervene, or do I just have to draw courage and strength from knowing He is there, and just keep on going, and then reassuring myself that of course He really was there, most definitely, in our time of need... So the title of this post is an Amy Grant song - "And you say, why why why does it go this way? And why why why, is all I can say. Somewhere down the road, there'll be answers to the questions; somewhere down the road, though you cannot see it now, somewhere down the road you will find mighty arms reaching for you, and they will hold the answers at the end of the road."
However, although on days like today it looms larger than normal, I almost never cry about him these days. We are happy and life is busy with the girls and the shopping and work and trying to get organised and HE and friends and plans for the future and the niggles of everyday life. There's just a little space for Benjamin, that when looked at becomes as if through a magnifying glass and looks enormous and all-encompassing, but then I turn my gaze away again onto the rest of life and it shrinks back down to that little corner. And I guess that's as it should be.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Life since Kessingland
Feet haven't touched the ground really. I got home around 3.30pm on Saturday, and Bill got home around an hour later with the caravan. At 5.30pm I had to go out as it was our monthly film showing for the Rural Cinema - Kate and I run it in aid of the charity we work for. We showed Nanny McPhee, so an uplifting evening in the celluloid presence of a dishy Colin Firth was great, but the house and family were still in total disarray when I left. This wasn't remedied much the next day as I had to travel down to Farnham to collect our dog from my brother, so after getting home at 8pm and then getting kids to bed there wasn't time or energy for much clearing up. Bill had done a mammoth task sorting out and clearing up the caravan while I was out but the house was in much chaos.
I had planned a productive Monday morning sorting everything out while Tamsin was at Playschool, but an emergency phone call from the Playleader who was short of staff meant I had to go in and cover, so that was that morning gone. In the afternoon I went to Witney to visit a friend, which was most enjoyable. Exhaustion by the evening meant all I was fit for after the kids went to bed was sitting at my computer ;-)
This morning we went off to our women's group at church, where I benefitted from some support after receiving a letter in the post this morning of another friend's child's death in a horrible accident in the garden. And this in a family of 3 sons, one of whom has HLHS like Benjamin had, but it's the youngest healthy son who has died. How horrendous is that? I have so many feelings I just don't know what to do with them all.....
But still, this afternoon I have at last got some tidying done and am feeling just a little better as a result.
So when I tell you there are three draft blog posts about London, Kessingland and Tamsin's 5th birthday last week, I'm sure you will understand that I can't quite get them done just yet, let alone Flickr!
Back later, I hope.
I had planned a productive Monday morning sorting everything out while Tamsin was at Playschool, but an emergency phone call from the Playleader who was short of staff meant I had to go in and cover, so that was that morning gone. In the afternoon I went to Witney to visit a friend, which was most enjoyable. Exhaustion by the evening meant all I was fit for after the kids went to bed was sitting at my computer ;-)
This morning we went off to our women's group at church, where I benefitted from some support after receiving a letter in the post this morning of another friend's child's death in a horrible accident in the garden. And this in a family of 3 sons, one of whom has HLHS like Benjamin had, but it's the youngest healthy son who has died. How horrendous is that? I have so many feelings I just don't know what to do with them all.....
But still, this afternoon I have at last got some tidying done and am feeling just a little better as a result.
So when I tell you there are three draft blog posts about London, Kessingland and Tamsin's 5th birthday last week, I'm sure you will understand that I can't quite get them done just yet, let alone Flickr!
Back later, I hope.
London
I really must blog our recent trip to London, if only for our own records. Please don't feel obliged to read on!
Wednesday 7th June - spent the morning packing and got going at about lunchtime to drive to the Travelodge on the M4 near Heathrow. It was the only one near London offering the £10 per night price, so Heathrow it was! We found it OK and unpacked the car, and then drove into West London to get the tube at Barons Court. My Mum used to live there so we know the area well. Jade was tremendously excited about being on the Underground as she absolutely adores trains and had been disappointed that we weren't travelling down from home on the train, but the price made that impossible, especially compared to our frugal Toyota Prius! Anyway we were off to Horseguards Parade to watch the Beating the Retreat. There were major security checks and Bill had his pocket knife confiscated(!) but it was a gorgeously warm sunny evening and the waiting was pleasant. We all thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony, the horses, the marching soldiers and seeing a small royal-blue dot on the dais in the distance which was the Queen! Thankfully we had binoculars so got a closer look at her and Prince Philip. Afterwards we walked up through Green Park and The Mall to look at Buckingham Palace. I reminisced about sleeping on the streets on the night of 28th July 1981, the night before the wedding of Charles and Diana! We got close-up to the Palace and saw they were about to do the Changing of the Guard, so that was fun to watch too. Then we walked back to the nearest Tube station and back to the Travelodge for a late night finish.
Thursday 8th June was Jade's 5th b'day. We had a slow start due to the previous late night and the mountains of prezzies to unwrap! She was thrilled with her pink Maglite torch, her binoculars, telescope, Fun Blox, and the promise of more to buy later with money she'd been sent. There was a slightly tense moment when she asked, "When are my friends coming?" and I realised I hadn't done a great job of explaining that this London trip was instead of a party .... Anyway she took it in her stride and soon perked up again at the thought of visiting the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. I think we eventually got to the first one around about lunchtime so it really was a slow morning, but we all enjoyed seeing the dinosaurs. Jade was absolutely awe-struck by the size of the big one in the lobby and was rather frightened of the large animatronic one! We also took a quick dash round the mammals section and gasped at the size of the blue whale and cooed over the panda. Must spend more time there when she is a bit older. We then went downstairs to eat, and discovered the 'Investigate' section in the Basement where there were all sorts of hands-on and educational activities to explore. We had a fascinating time there feeling all sorts of specimens like crocodile skin, crystals, lions' teeth and so on. When we'd all had enough of that, we moved on to the Science Museum, and at the birthday girl's request went down to The Garden in the basement, where she had a lovely time splashing and playing and generally spending ages doing her thing. Meanwhile Bill and a sleeping Shannon had a bit of a browse of the space rockets. They chucked us out at 6pm and we went back to where we'd left the car and then drove up and down Chiswick High Street looking for a particular restaurant that we had Tesco vouchers for, but didn't find it, so to avoid imminent starvation we just went back to the Travelodge and ate at the Little Chef. Another very late night!
Friday 9th June was Bill's birthday, so again it was prezzies in the morning after a relatively late start. Eventually we set off for the Tower of London. A few people on the journey commented on the cuteness of Shannon, which always warms a mummy's heart! We paid for the Tower with Tesco vouchers! You probably can't 'do' London cheaper than we did it! Of course there was much explaining to Jade about castles, portcullises, moats, slit windows, wars, attacking, William the Conqueror, Henry the 8th and much other stuff. She was fascinated that people used to travel by river and the Traitor's Gate into the castle. We looked at the scaffold site where several people had their heads chopped off, which she took quite calmly! After a bit more of a wander round, but not much due to Jade's nagging to get on, we went to see the Crown Jewels. That was brilliant. I have the vaguest of memories of going to see them when I was a child, but it was fantastic to see them again and the wonderful short movies they have running while you wait to go in showing the Queen's coronation - again very educational for Jade. We came out and had a wander round the Crown Jewels shop and although I would have absolutely loved to buy Jade the £150 set of miniature Crown Jewels, we settled for just one so she has the cutest little miniature Crown which was far too expensive really but I couldn't resist! It was already getting late on in the day by this time so we went off down the road to see the Monument near Pudding Lane. Jade has been fascinated by the Great Fire of London ever since she heard about it - I think it's something of a fearful fascination as she is quite scared of fire/candles/the gas cooker. But she was keen to visit the monument although I had not bargained for her wanting to go up it! But she did, so she and I went all the way up the 311 steps, waved at Daddy and Shannon from the top and then came back down again. It took a couple of hours before my legs stopped shaking! We then took a gentle stroll back up to Tower Hill and got on a boat for a short river cruise down to the Westminster Embankment. We had a quick ogle at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (yes, I know....) and then back to our car. This time round we found the restaurant, so had a fab meal out at the Cafe Rouge courtesy of Tesco vouchers but with two very tired girls by this time we had to cut it a bit short and skip dessert.
Saturday 10th June when the rest of you were setting off for Kessingland was the hottest day of an extremely hot week. After packing away all the stuff we thought it would be great to go to Kew Gardens before going off to the Polka Children's Theatre for which we had tickets. So we drove to Kew, parked down a side street and walked way back up the road in the searing heat, only to find out they charged an absolute fortune for entry, and we only had about 1.5 hours to fill! For some reason, I'd thought it was like the Royal Parks and would be free! Anyway, we walked further up the road and came to an open village-green type space where we settled down under a large maple tree and relaxed. The girls were quite happy tootling about there and playing all sorts of made-up games while Bill and I laid down and relaxed as much as possible. We eventually set off for the Polka Theatre, and got there in the nick of time to see a strange performance called "That's Mine" but Jade had so enjoyed the theatre when we went to see the Gruffalo a few months ago that I had wanted to foster her enjoyment by taking her as often as possible. Well, I have to really seeing as one of my brothers is a professional voice coach who works in acting and the theatre. The other one is an astronomer, hence the telescope we got Jade for her birthday!!
And there endeth the trip to London. We dashed home, unpacked the car and got up the following morning to do it all again for Kessingland. But that's another story.
Wednesday 7th June - spent the morning packing and got going at about lunchtime to drive to the Travelodge on the M4 near Heathrow. It was the only one near London offering the £10 per night price, so Heathrow it was! We found it OK and unpacked the car, and then drove into West London to get the tube at Barons Court. My Mum used to live there so we know the area well. Jade was tremendously excited about being on the Underground as she absolutely adores trains and had been disappointed that we weren't travelling down from home on the train, but the price made that impossible, especially compared to our frugal Toyota Prius! Anyway we were off to Horseguards Parade to watch the Beating the Retreat. There were major security checks and Bill had his pocket knife confiscated(!) but it was a gorgeously warm sunny evening and the waiting was pleasant. We all thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony, the horses, the marching soldiers and seeing a small royal-blue dot on the dais in the distance which was the Queen! Thankfully we had binoculars so got a closer look at her and Prince Philip. Afterwards we walked up through Green Park and The Mall to look at Buckingham Palace. I reminisced about sleeping on the streets on the night of 28th July 1981, the night before the wedding of Charles and Diana! We got close-up to the Palace and saw they were about to do the Changing of the Guard, so that was fun to watch too. Then we walked back to the nearest Tube station and back to the Travelodge for a late night finish.
Thursday 8th June was Jade's 5th b'day. We had a slow start due to the previous late night and the mountains of prezzies to unwrap! She was thrilled with her pink Maglite torch, her binoculars, telescope, Fun Blox, and the promise of more to buy later with money she'd been sent. There was a slightly tense moment when she asked, "When are my friends coming?" and I realised I hadn't done a great job of explaining that this London trip was instead of a party .... Anyway she took it in her stride and soon perked up again at the thought of visiting the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. I think we eventually got to the first one around about lunchtime so it really was a slow morning, but we all enjoyed seeing the dinosaurs. Jade was absolutely awe-struck by the size of the big one in the lobby and was rather frightened of the large animatronic one! We also took a quick dash round the mammals section and gasped at the size of the blue whale and cooed over the panda. Must spend more time there when she is a bit older. We then went downstairs to eat, and discovered the 'Investigate' section in the Basement where there were all sorts of hands-on and educational activities to explore. We had a fascinating time there feeling all sorts of specimens like crocodile skin, crystals, lions' teeth and so on. When we'd all had enough of that, we moved on to the Science Museum, and at the birthday girl's request went down to The Garden in the basement, where she had a lovely time splashing and playing and generally spending ages doing her thing. Meanwhile Bill and a sleeping Shannon had a bit of a browse of the space rockets. They chucked us out at 6pm and we went back to where we'd left the car and then drove up and down Chiswick High Street looking for a particular restaurant that we had Tesco vouchers for, but didn't find it, so to avoid imminent starvation we just went back to the Travelodge and ate at the Little Chef. Another very late night!
Friday 9th June was Bill's birthday, so again it was prezzies in the morning after a relatively late start. Eventually we set off for the Tower of London. A few people on the journey commented on the cuteness of Shannon, which always warms a mummy's heart! We paid for the Tower with Tesco vouchers! You probably can't 'do' London cheaper than we did it! Of course there was much explaining to Jade about castles, portcullises, moats, slit windows, wars, attacking, William the Conqueror, Henry the 8th and much other stuff. She was fascinated that people used to travel by river and the Traitor's Gate into the castle. We looked at the scaffold site where several people had their heads chopped off, which she took quite calmly! After a bit more of a wander round, but not much due to Jade's nagging to get on, we went to see the Crown Jewels. That was brilliant. I have the vaguest of memories of going to see them when I was a child, but it was fantastic to see them again and the wonderful short movies they have running while you wait to go in showing the Queen's coronation - again very educational for Jade. We came out and had a wander round the Crown Jewels shop and although I would have absolutely loved to buy Jade the £150 set of miniature Crown Jewels, we settled for just one so she has the cutest little miniature Crown which was far too expensive really but I couldn't resist! It was already getting late on in the day by this time so we went off down the road to see the Monument near Pudding Lane. Jade has been fascinated by the Great Fire of London ever since she heard about it - I think it's something of a fearful fascination as she is quite scared of fire/candles/the gas cooker. But she was keen to visit the monument although I had not bargained for her wanting to go up it! But she did, so she and I went all the way up the 311 steps, waved at Daddy and Shannon from the top and then came back down again. It took a couple of hours before my legs stopped shaking! We then took a gentle stroll back up to Tower Hill and got on a boat for a short river cruise down to the Westminster Embankment. We had a quick ogle at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (yes, I know....) and then back to our car. This time round we found the restaurant, so had a fab meal out at the Cafe Rouge courtesy of Tesco vouchers but with two very tired girls by this time we had to cut it a bit short and skip dessert.
Saturday 10th June when the rest of you were setting off for Kessingland was the hottest day of an extremely hot week. After packing away all the stuff we thought it would be great to go to Kew Gardens before going off to the Polka Children's Theatre for which we had tickets. So we drove to Kew, parked down a side street and walked way back up the road in the searing heat, only to find out they charged an absolute fortune for entry, and we only had about 1.5 hours to fill! For some reason, I'd thought it was like the Royal Parks and would be free! Anyway, we walked further up the road and came to an open village-green type space where we settled down under a large maple tree and relaxed. The girls were quite happy tootling about there and playing all sorts of made-up games while Bill and I laid down and relaxed as much as possible. We eventually set off for the Polka Theatre, and got there in the nick of time to see a strange performance called "That's Mine" but Jade had so enjoyed the theatre when we went to see the Gruffalo a few months ago that I had wanted to foster her enjoyment by taking her as often as possible. Well, I have to really seeing as one of my brothers is a professional voice coach who works in acting and the theatre. The other one is an astronomer, hence the telescope we got Jade for her birthday!!
And there endeth the trip to London. We dashed home, unpacked the car and got up the following morning to do it all again for Kessingland. But that's another story.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
They're even more disorganised than I am!
Just got a letter from Park Resorts:
"Dear Mrs G,
We hope you had a safe journey home and are feeling relaxed and refreshed after your touring holiday with us at Kessingland Beach Holiday Park."
!!!!!
Still, it prompted me to phone them and arrange to get an £8 refund seeing as they overcharged me for my hook-up pitch!
We're off to London in the morning. Will catch up with many of you at Kessingland when we get there on Sunday (late, probably)!
"Dear Mrs G,
We hope you had a safe journey home and are feeling relaxed and refreshed after your touring holiday with us at Kessingland Beach Holiday Park."
!!!!!
Still, it prompted me to phone them and arrange to get an £8 refund seeing as they overcharged me for my hook-up pitch!
We're off to London in the morning. Will catch up with many of you at Kessingland when we get there on Sunday (late, probably)!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Another baby in heaven
What can we say about another baby, heartbeat not found in utero at 24 weeks. More grieving parents, my good friends Kate and Mark, who may even now be going through labour to deliver their dead daughter. I've barely been able to stop crying for 24 hours since I heard. And they are one of three couples going in this weekend for the same thing. FUCK, I hate life sometimes.
So I escaped the house this afternoon and drove 2 hours to just north of Mansfield to collect Jade's new bed. After a mega-blowout with Jade this morning, I knew it would just be best if I went out and left Bill with the girls - we had originally arranged it to be the other way round. So, bed is duly collected, and on the way back I stopped off at a large cemetery and found the dead babies section (there always is one :-( ) and sat and contemplated the meaning of everything for half-an-hour.
Got home around 5.30pm to find the next-door neighbour's daughter here - erm, but she was here when I left at 12.00 .... well, she hadn't quite been here all day but almost! And yesterday too..... I guess I feel safer and better able to keep an eye on things if the neighbouring kids come here instead of Jade disappearing round there, but it takes a little getting used to! She's a nice enough girl, though, polite and friendly. It's good to see them playing together very imaginatively and nicely.
And I was just reading in the EO newsletter about how we should just be encouraging playing, playing and more playing ..... so that's a day-full of education really!
And now I must pull together a very specific packing list for both London and Kessingland to make the next few days as straightforward as it possibly can be while packing for 2 holidays simultaneously!
So I escaped the house this afternoon and drove 2 hours to just north of Mansfield to collect Jade's new bed. After a mega-blowout with Jade this morning, I knew it would just be best if I went out and left Bill with the girls - we had originally arranged it to be the other way round. So, bed is duly collected, and on the way back I stopped off at a large cemetery and found the dead babies section (there always is one :-( ) and sat and contemplated the meaning of everything for half-an-hour.
Got home around 5.30pm to find the next-door neighbour's daughter here - erm, but she was here when I left at 12.00 .... well, she hadn't quite been here all day but almost! And yesterday too..... I guess I feel safer and better able to keep an eye on things if the neighbouring kids come here instead of Jade disappearing round there, but it takes a little getting used to! She's a nice enough girl, though, polite and friendly. It's good to see them playing together very imaginatively and nicely.
And I was just reading in the EO newsletter about how we should just be encouraging playing, playing and more playing ..... so that's a day-full of education really!
And now I must pull together a very specific packing list for both London and Kessingland to make the next few days as straightforward as it possibly can be while packing for 2 holidays simultaneously!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
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