One word? When seven would do…

Well actually it was Good, well actually it was pretty bloody great but I do think we are just too into labelling things; kids, days, food etc. Let’s face it you give something a positive label and it might get too laid back about it all, might not strive any higher and who wants to be happy and content with just ‘good’. On the other hand you must be clear not to aim too low, give something a negative or less than chipper label and it might become a self fulfilling prophecy and who wants that sort of behaviour from a day. Have we learnt nothing, NOTHING people from Ruby Tuesday? 🙂

Anyhoo, today was one of the good ones 🙂

Pox count is well into the 30s and has reached down to ankles and wrists and up to inside ears 🙁 None as yet on his face but I guess it’s just a matter of time. No sign on Tarly which is probably to be expected. She will of course wait until full quarantine is over without the smallest pox and then two days later go down with it having caught it from a random child on the other side of the road, or from a library book or by stroking a dog who was previously stroked by the grandmother of a small child who sits next to someone at school who has the pox. Or something.

This morning after a nights sleep (hurrah, woo hoo, she did it, she did it, she did it, yeah etc!) I was on a bit of a housewifey trip and did a very good job of cleaning and decluttering the bathroom, dusted my desk, found the bottom of my in tray and got as far as carrying the duster and polish upstairs ready to do our bedroom tomorrow. Then Granny arrived.

Now you may recall my Granny from previous postings. Infact I am now certain that one of you has been talking to her. For not only was she actually quite a pleasure to have around; brought appropriate confectionary for the children packed in small bags with cuddly easter bunnies (pink for Tarly, blue for Davies) and managed to look after them for two five minute periods while I hung washing on the line; she also did not once mention my weight. Yes that’s right folks, there was no reference whatsover for nearly three whole hours to my figure. At all. Clearly you don’t get to nearly 80, go through 2 marriages, have two children, four grandchildren, two great grandchildren, go through your entire life totally devoid of tact and suddenly discover it down the side of the sofa. So someone must have been talking to her and mentioned that the fact she hassles me about how much I weigh is going to be her ultimate downfall and she should stop. Now. So come on, who was it?

I was so thrilled by this unexpected turn of events that I let her stay for lunch 🙂 And as I had planned to make butter with the kids to spread on the hot cross buns for lunch she got to witness Home Education In Action too 🙂 I had been meaning to do it for ages, I’ve had the screw top tupperware in the cupboard for weeks, one lot of cream has been eaten instead of shaken and one has actually been chucked as they neared and passed their BB dates but motivated by Alison’s HE group today I had boiled some marbles for agitation and was ready to shake! We did two lots, one for Tarly and one for Davies. Of course what happened was I did them both 🙂 So first we got whipped cream – opened the jar, all had a taste and a feel and talked about texture etc (also all had a shake and could not hear the marble or the liquid swishing any more), then it seperated into butter and milk (or curds and whey or whatever it seperates into!) so we all gathered round as I strained it through muslin into a jug, Tarly drank the strained milk (although everyone had a taste) and we all ate the (delicious) butter on our hot cross buns 🙂 See when I do do HE, I can do it properly 🙂 Much discussion about properties of the milk through the various stages, what we did, where we get milk from, what other products we make from it (would love to have a bash at making cheese, must look into how feasible that would be), taste, smell, look, texture etc of the milk / cream / butter etc as it went through it’s changes. And what a fab example of how we do HE for Granny to be a part of too 🙂

The kids spent the morning playing with the pretend food, which also impressed her as they know all the names of the exotic fruit and vegetables even though they don’t necessarily eat them. Scarlett identifying things like broccoli, asparagus, celery, avocado etc was quite impressive I guess 😀 They also had the till and money, cheque book, calculator and the number scales out and Davies was doing a very good job of knowing all his numbers, sort of grasping the idea of 2 + 8 being the same as 10 and so on. He also understood what the + sign meant – so small steps but steps just the same 🙂

After Granny left we whizzed over to Tescos. Having started with the whole winter clothes clear out thing I was keen to get Davies sorted with shorts and T shirts ready before shops sell out of everything (I know some of you were bemoaning swimsuits only being available from January to March and woolly jumpers only on sale in August recently. It is true and having worked in clothing retail I am also aware that if you don’t buy it out of season you have no hope of buying it when the season kicks in). Got him kitted out with shorts, T shirts, 3/4 length trousers etc at bargain prices 🙂

Once home we read some of our Life Story book and the page at the end talking about Eric Maddern’s other books got me on amazon buying up a further three of them (with a Dr Seuss to make up free delivery 🙂 ). There is one called Death in a nut which looks ideal for Davies in explaining death as a concept he will grasp. Not something we have dealt with IRL yet but I will try and get the book so we are ready when we come across it. Also bought tickets to go and see Michael Buble when he comes to Brighton later this year. I guess that officially makes me a housewife really. I have not seen him marketed as such but given his Parky heralding and radio 2 airplay I would guess he qualifies as a ‘housewives favourite’ 🙂 Don’t care, I like going to see stuff like this and it justifies getting Mum and Dad to babysit in a way that a meal at the local steakhouse for me and Ady never quite seems to 🙂

And then shock, surprise, can’t quite believe it myself after all the 7pm arrivals the last couple of weeks Ady arrived home at 4pm just as I was gearing up to start shouting at the kids. Spur of the moment we packed the kids into the car and drove down the road to the local park. It used to be a lovely place when I was a kid as it has a massive lake which used to have motor or pedal boats on it, donkey rides and fairground stuff in the summer and so on. Now it is a bit depleted (and the lake is full of toxic weeds so the boats are a thing of the past for fear of small children falling in and being stripped to the bone with acid burns) but it does have trampolines, rocks to clamber on, pitch and putt golf, go-karts, a mini train and sea views 🙂 One of those things you only realise how lucky you are to have on your doorstep (at grown up pace you could walk it in ten minutes) when you hear someone enthusing about how great it is. Kids were surprisingly shorts of ‘I want’ s so we walked around, did some clambering on rocks and some running (kids obviously, not grown ups!), some holding hands (quite cutely the kids did this with each other quite a bit and me and Ady did some too (although possibly not so cute to the independant observer!)). Davies got his much wanted / needed one to one with me and entirely at his instigation we ‘played’ Zoombinis on the rocks – they were the allergic cliffs and decided whether we could cross depending on what we were wearing – Davies got sneezed off for having chickenpox and I got sneezed off for my green top 🙂 Which meant I had to take the upper path – all irrelevant if you have not enjoyed Zoombinis yourself but amazing considering how much I had thought he had taken in from it compared to how much he actually demonstrated he had learnt from it today.

A short play in the playground – Scarlett as ever clambering up things only a seasoned mountaineer with a foil blanket, a rucksack and a good supply of kendal mintcake would attempt in the way of climbing frames, Davies watching in wonderment at his smaller, younger sister doing so, shaking his head like a grandad at her foolish youth 🙂 Davies did well with rope ladders – his new skill and spent ages on the swings telling me about how he might bump his head on the moon and that he was swinging so high he could see Africa with tigers and elephants and Australia with koalas and kangeroos 🙂 Gotta love that random conversation reinforcing that some educational content has gone in style ed eh?!

Despite Ady’s obvious horror I decided ice creams were acceptable as tea and that’s what they had (they had both eaten good breakfasts, homemade buttered hot x buns, apples and bananas). Whilst Scarlett was still demolishing hers Davies asked me to go with him on ‘An adventure’ so leaving Ady and Tarly there off we went. Not far, just round a corner walking alongside the end of the lake, round the corner and back again. It was where Ady and I once sat many years ago when we were a very new couple and talked about where we thought we’d end up. So very odd – to be walking there with the answer to that question about 13 years later! I told Davies this and instead of being in awe by this information he asked if we could pretend to be me and Daddy and be married and walk along together (much to the amusement of a couple who were sitting on the bench, probably having their own similar conversation!). Then we rejoined Ady and Scarlett and came home.

Kids were bathed, three Dr Seuss stories were read to Davies (2 by Ady, 1 by me, apparantly I do it better 😉 ) and lasagne and wine consumed 🙂 A very Good Friday indeed 🙂

But I do think they look very alike in this shot.

Is a far better Mummy than distracted on the computer will you just go and watch something on TV and stop bugging me Nic 🙂

Have enjoyed today spending all day in the lounge with the small people cuddling and watching films.

I have also achieved a fair bit of stuff too – dabbed calamine lotion, sorted out Davies’ clothes, put away three baskets of clean washing, done a bit of a brain dump on my Green eggs and ham ideas, started looking at George and the dragon stuff for that idea, done some real work for Miranda and sent all those emails I have been meaning to sit and do for ages.

An order arrrived from Red House today – the first time I’ve ordered from them and contained some Horrible Histories, some children’s Shakespeare versions, some Usborne Early readers phonics and the Orchard book of swords, sourcerers and superheros which I was delighted to see also contains the story of George and the dragon so that ties in nicely.

Tomorrow is another low key day – my Granny is coming round in the morning to enjoy an audience for her self pitying wallowing and to pass comment on my weight (that sounds really evil I know, but she is just not a nice person to be around so I struggle to feel anything more than duty to see her 🙁 ) and I have suggested some sort of Easter crafts to the small people. Think I will set something fairly structured up and direct them a bit in it though otherwise it degenerates fairly quickly into basic mess making!

And now, following a truly dreadful night with smallest Goddard (but it is getting better, it truly is!) I’m off for an early night….

Is a far better Mummy than distracted on the computer will you just go and watch something on TV and stop bugging me Nic 🙂

Have enjoyed today spending all day in the lounge with the small people cuddling and watching films.

I have also achieved a fair bit of stuff too – dabbed calamine lotion, sorted out Davies’ clothes, put away three baskets of clean washing, done a bit of a brain dump on my Green eggs and ham ideas, started looking at George and the dragon stuff for that idea, done some real work for Miranda and sent all those emails I have been meaning to sit and do for ages.

An order arrrived from Red House today – the first time I’ve ordered from them and contained some Horrible Histories, some children’s Shakespeare versions, some Usborne Early readers phonics and the Orchard book of swords, sourcerers and superheros which I was delighted to see also contains the story of George and the dragon so that ties in nicely.

Tomorrow is another low key day – my Granny is coming round in the morning to enjoy an audience for her self pitying wallowing and to pass comment on my weight (that sounds really evil I know, but she is just not a nice person to be around so I struggle to feel anything more than duty to see her 🙁 ) and I have suggested some sort of Easter crafts to the small people. Think I will set something fairly structured up and direct them a bit in it though otherwise it degenerates fairly quickly into basic mess making!

And now, following a truly dreadful night with smallest Goddard (but it is getting better, it truly is!) I’m off for an early night….

Good maths resource if nothing else 🙂

A very peaceful day here; I have sat in the lounge all day with my laptop doing various bits and pieces, the children have sat playing with brio, cuddling up to me and watching An Easter Tale, The Incredibles, Bugs Life, Mary Poppins, The Flumps and Toy Story on dvd -with popcorn 🙂

Davies did spend about 10 minutes working with Scarlett on her pronounciation of ‘that was totally wicked’ so that she now also sounds like the small boy at the end of The Incredibles. So that was educational 🙂

Behavious all round has been impecable and is probably the real answer to all the attention seeking but I am not able to do what I would feel was surrendering myself to the sofa every day spoonfeeding everything so it won’t be a regular thing 🙂

Finally – and completely OT I took delivery of a mooncup recently and just wanted to recommend it as very good. Blokes who know what one is I apologise, blokes who don’t – you probably don’t want to google this one 😉

Pox spots count stands at 17 and spreading. 🙁

Cancelled going to Julie’s as he was all floppy and whiney this morning and insisted he wanted to stay in pjs and play quietly at home all day. He is currently rolling around the floor pretending to be a turtle with the huge plastic tub we keep the brio in on his back 🙂 Might persuade him to get dressed and walk round the block with them later.

He got a Dora postcard from Nick jr in the post this morning thanking him for his great picture 🙂 Very pleased with that he was.

Looks like we will be home a fair bit over the next week or so (Ady has to work Friday and Monday grr, so no four day weekend for us anyway 🙁 ) so I must aim to achieve some of the many tasks piling up around me:

finish job list for nightnight.co.uk and send update report to Miranda by tomorrrow
(• Begin to create contact list for approved media list – this to include magazines, newspapers, internet parenting sites and forums, radio stations;
• Create list of national hotel chains and contact details to approach with pitch.
• Letter and ideas for above pitch
• Begin to contact local parenting mags and websites with competition idea.)

make a start on job list for next week so am ahead of self 😀

Get the FIAR stylee thing I have going round in my head for Green Eggs and Ham down in writing before it all escapes next time I leave the door to my mind open 😉

More online learning course including getting a basic home page at least up for my website

Do some Bob books with Davies

Arrange a bit more of a treasure hunt for Davies on Sunday morning with the eggs – usually they are drunkenly hidden by grown ups late on Saurday night, I know he won’t be able to read as such but I could do some one word instructions for him to sound out, some little pictures for Scarlett to follow and maybe some more cryptic clues for them both for us to read out to them. As Mum and Dad are away we have planned a really quiet day just us four on Sunday which I am looking forward to.

Tidy!! Sorted out all of Tarly’s drawers yesterday and now have a big pile of outgrown or out of season clothes to ebay / giveaway depending on whether I can be bothered to photo and list them all (feel I should as I have had a bit of a pang of something when Julie said she s about to NCT table top sale all the twins outgrown clothes to raise some cash and I know that a fair few of those clothes will include Davies’ old stuff Jack has been wearing. Not sure why). Need to do the same exercise in Davies’ room, sort out both bathrooms, clear the playroom surfaces and give our bedroom a real clean and dust, and swap the coats and shoes in the hall with Spring versions.

Check out the bookings for HESFes and Kessingland – I have sent deposits for both but not had any receipt.

Do some Easter stuff with kids tomorrow.

It would be, could be, be the pox.
It would be, could be with the spots
It would be, could be red and itchy
It makes him squirm, it makes him twitchy
those spots are mean those spots are horrid
tomorrow they could spread to his forehead
for now they are just on his back and tummy
those spots are not nice, the pox is not funny
I do not like the chickenpox
I do not like those itchy spots.

Yep, looks like we got ’em 🙁

Davies came to me yesterday afternoon with an ‘itchy bit on his tummy’ which he had been scratching so was surrounded by red marks. He had obviously knocked the head off it so it looked more like a small scratch. This morning he has four more on his back and another three on his front and one on his shoulder. Reckon we got them pox!

Cancelled going to WAG group but as Jenny was the only other potential attendee and her lot have all had it we ended up going round there for a couple of hours this afternoon – which was very nice as always 🙂 The kids are of ages where they largely ignore each other but do so in peace and harmony leaving Jenny and I to drink tea and chat 🙂

Davies’ behaviour has been better today actually – I have made a conscious effort to really praise him for everything he has done well or right and maybe been slightly tougher on Tarly too – whatever the balance seems to have sorted itself out a bit today anyway 🙂

We tried to do some Studydog this morning but he started well and got bored with letter spotting in the sentences by letter g (it was quite repetitive but I don’t see how else he is going to grasp letter recognition other than by repitition work 🙁 ) he did try another bit but he was not listening to what the instructions were telling him he had to do and then announced he was bored – I think we need to try that one again another time as I thought it was pretty good and he did like the animations and so on, so I think it still has potential. He does struggle generally with applying himself to a task if he deems it boring or too hard – tough to find the middle ground there really 🙁 Will continue pondering and trying different stuff until we hit the right approach I guess. I know he *is* learning and it does seem to be much more through general conversation and asking questions than anything I am consciously doing with him. He also seems to pick stuff up well from the TV – his basic spanish from Dora is great and he often asks me to give him instructions for up, open, stop etc in spanish but if I try to get out a spanish sticker book or activity he runs a mile. Must keep up with the Class TV – I think that is a good avenue for him.

Tarly made me laugh today – I had just changed her nappy (a pooh) and she looked at me with a cute grin and said ‘thank you for tidying up my bottom Mummy!’ She is so ready for losing the nappies but refuses point blank to sit on a potty – thinking about getting one of those kiddy loo seats for her to see if she’ll go straight to the toilet instead. I think part of her problem is she has no example to follow in using the potty but she clearly knows when she needs to go to the loo so perhaps I should focus on that a bit during our current quarantine period!

Have loads of ‘stuff’ I should be doing; work and home wise, might do a job list later actually. Tomorrow we are going over to Julie’s and I have planned to take some easter activities with us to engage the children in something creative and artistic. Rather do that sort of thing in someone else’s house 🙂

Right, have been chatting with Jenny and we reckon we should offer it as one of our WAG group days too so a Wednesday it is!

So for those who were interested does Wednesday 20th April sound OK?

Hmm… a good day today but am currently pondering a few things educationally and behaviour wise and wondering whether they are linked.

Went to Rachel’s this morning for tea and chats. We found our easy way of chatting and fell back into it again so that was a relief. The kids were pretty well behaved but I was conscious that they were playing with E’s toys while he was at school and I know Rachel was too.

We had some indepth chats about birth order, gender differences, how many children is a good number, what effects siblings have on each other and so on – all very interesting stuff. Arranged to meet up and do something next week while E is on Easter holidays – will be interesting to see what changes full time school has made as we have not seen him for ages and ages.

Popped into town and bought a few bits, Scarlett fell asleep (bad 🙁 but she went to sleep ok tonight so fingers crossed that last nights bad one was a one off blip!). Once home I gave Davies the option of what he wanted to do and he chose playdough so I got that out and they both sat at their tables and did very creative stuff with it all. I did stick Cbeebies on and as they have not seen it for a while they were both really pleased to watch stuff like Boo! – I read somewhere today someone talking about TV stunting children (that old debate) and once again I totally disagree – I think it is a very valuable resource as long as that is not all they have – both of my two have learnt huge amounts from TV, it has inspired them in their creative play and well made children’s TV has huge educational value – they were both joining in with the games on Boo – and watching it ‘together’ talking about it between the two of them and so on, so it was actually quite a sociable activity too!

I sat on my laptop in the lounge with them and knocked out a bit more work (and read some blogs!) which is exactly how I would love it all to happen – me working and them doing their thing, side by side, in the room together with frequent interaction, so that was nice 🙂

Been doing my regular pondering on Davies again today – as ever I have no real concerns about Tarly – she is doing just fine in every possible developmental area. She is also very good at orchestrating one to one time as and when she needs it. Davies seems somehow less able and we end up in the bad behaviour attention seeking getting negative attention type cycle. I so don’t want to fail Davies. His needs were the reason I started looking into HE in the first place – looking back at what I percieved his needs to be two years ago and reconciling them with the boy he is today is often difficult to do and I still have this nagging feeling that he *needs* something which I either can’t or don’t manage to supply. OTOH I feel he is ready for and would benefit from some more academic *work* – when I do manage to get time with him he responds well to stuff like reading and writing and numbers, but that sort of one to one time is hard to snatch 🙁 I know he is getting literacy and numeracy stimulation in our daily lives and if I am totally honest perhaps this is more to do with my own hothousing tendancies than anything he is demonstrating but I don’t ever want to feel I have done him a disservice by ‘sitting and waiting’ if he is secretly ready for more.

The other thing – and this is where I feel it may be linked – is that his behaviour has been quite challenging. Several times over the last few days when he has been told off for doing something over and over after having been told not to and I am then nice to Tarly for something unrelated he asks why I love her more than him. I would NEVER do that emotional blackmail thing with the kids by being nice to one to upset the other – my mum did it with us and I don’t think either child is getting anything positive from it, and I know he is just pushing my buttons but I so don’t want to be locked in combat with him 🙁 He is demonstrating what I believe to be ‘normal’ four year old boy behaviour – his pretend play games often contain quite violent happenings and I overhear him saying cruel things to Tarly – who he adores most of the time. I do give him as much one to one as is feasible – nothing exciting but he will often come to the supermarket with me if Ady is home to look after Tarly and we always really enjoy that time on our own, just don’t know how to get more of it in. I think I might plan in not a lot for the next couple of weeks and try some more structured days at home with perhaps a bit more focus on workbooky type activties and see how we get on…

my new contact lenses have arrived! My life has been lived through a blurry haze since the week after Melrose with only short lived temporary relief from my eye drop habit (seriously, I was on two bottles a week 🙂 )

Had a fab day today – Scarlett woke briefly at 3am but was asleep again within 15 minutes, so a good start there. Raced around the house to get out before 9,30 and failed! Sent Ros a text to say we were running late but had overestimated how long it would take and ended up on time anyway! Then could not reach Ros to tell her as no signal at Drusillas so hung around the entrance for a bit wondering whether they had already arrived and gone it or not. Eventually decided to go in and were there about half an hour before I reached her and she had just pulled up in the car park (both your texts to me arrived in the car on the way home – clearly a signal valley at Alfriston Ros 🙂 )

Kids were having a great time running around, looking at the animals and so on. Scarlett freaked me out at one point when I told her to get in the giant egg next to Davies so I could take their picture and she refused saying ‘no. egg banged my head last time’. That would be the last time we went back last year – a good five or six months ago which I would have put money on her not remembering. My first memory is when I was 2.5 at my brother’s christening – so how come an only just two year old can remember not only the place we are at (probably been there four times in the last year so not very frequently), a specific event there and articulate it? Memory and stuff like that in kids has long since been a fascination of mine, particularly since Davies has been able to astound me with his – must look into it and see what research and theories exist on it.

Shortly afterwards Ros, Pea, Boo and Buzz arrived and we whizzed through the next bit with Scarlett randomly running off and being returned to me by Pea and Boo, Davies and Buzz running off and me and Ros trying to chat 🙂 Eventually we sat down in the big play area and drank tea and let the kids play so we could chat. Either we have some very similar life philosophies and ideas or one of us was being polite in agreeing with the other but I really enjoyed our chats! 🙂

The kids got on really well again – Davies and Buzz seem to have really hit it off, Scarlett seems very taken with both the girls (they wear pretty clothes and are also quite girly 🙂 ) and it was a joy to let them all get on with it and not have to sort out any tussles. Davies did at one point end up in a corner while I thought he was on a wooden adventure thing – he was insistant he was lost (despite Pea and Boo being there) and two fairly burly keepers were trying to talk him out like some sort of hostage negotiation type scene. Clearly they have been instructed not to touch children but it was hilarious when I got there, they looked at me with blatant relief and said ‘we couldn’t move him!’. Not really sure what that was about really but Davies does struggle a bit with all the physical climbing and chucking yourself about that such places require, whereas Scarlett – and Buzz, both younger than him were happy on the highest slides and climbing the tallest ladders. He did warm up by the end though and is always really delighted with himself when he does push a bit harder and discovers he can do it.

Then we went into the smaller kids area where Scarlett was utterly charmed with the trampoline and bounced for about an hour 🙂 and then, ahem, we had lunch 🙂 Predictably the kids all ate very little before we had another play and then onto the train. While we were queuing for the train the smell of the nearby doughnut shop lured us in so we all indugled (except Ros) and I demonstrated a comedy moment worthy of you’ve been framed when I climbed over a fence (bruise on inner thigh currently purple and green, will not be blogging a photo 🙂 ) to get back to the train. We parted with promises to do it all again soon. A lovely day 🙂

On the way home we stopped at Matalan – I wanted some sunglasses for me and both kids, Tarly needs a sunsuit and Davies or I had managed to lose / leave behind his juice at Drusillas so I had promised him a new cup to make up for it. We walked round and both kids were so badly behaved that I put the basket down and walked out with them. Davies was really upset that having chosen a new cup I had not bought it for them but I had asked them both twice to stop whatever it was they were doing and on the third time, having just caught sight of the queue – a good 10 minute wait – I decided i could not face it and did not want to end what had been a lovely day on such a note anyway. So home we came.

Third night of baths in a row – shocking for my two who usually average two a week 🙂 and early nights all round.

Finally spoke to Mum and Dad on the phone – Dad had been ringing through the day and leaving hysterically funny but very un pc chinese accented messages for me. It was 3.30am there but they had been asleep since 9pm their time and had woken up for a cup of tea (so British!) and could not get back to sleep so rung us.

Tomorrow we are going to Rachel’s first thing for a cup of tea and chatting and then I have a few bits to do in town – also really want to do something of educational value with Davies so might try and squeeze that in tomorrow afternoon.