whatever that is 😉
Another crap night with smallest child – that whole caravan malarkey and being ill has really put her back in terms of sleeping well – Sarah, I wish I’d had your disciplines from day one!
Ali was due to arrive sometime between 11 and midday today so ever conscious of her being the first ever MPer to visit our humble abode I did a bit of superficial tidying, a lot of blogring surfing and even learnt how to use the vax machine after Tarly had a decorating incident with some nappy cream and the carpet! Did some more work on beating the washing mountain and continued mulling over some very half formed thoughts on my own personal aspirations and dreams on a couple of things…
Ali rang twice to say she was running late so we nipped round the local shop to buy more bread as the kids had been eating peanut butter on toast all morning. Scarlett is having issues with her shoes at the moment (need to get her feet measured again although I do know that the shoes she has are not crippling her by any means but just her current ‘thing’) and wanted to be carried. I bought one of these ages ago as something I simply must have and had never used so I dug it out, strapped her onto me after a fashion (need to dig out the instructions on how to actually use the thing properly!) and off we set for more nappy cream and bread.
We have quite a lot of toys (you’re not surprised at that are you 😉 ) so often before new friends come over I get Davies to get a small selection of things out to suggest as things to play with otherwise it can be a bit overwhelming and *everything* end up coming out of the toy room in a browsing manner as opposed to anything actually getting played with, which always stresses me out a bit. The kids chose to get out the play kitchen and pretend food and a lego -style Thomas the tank engine set which when strewn across the lounge floor pretty much hid the carpet so I deemed as sufficient.
Ali and Freya arrived and Davies as usual kept coming up with suggestions for games – some of which Freya was up for participating in – the most favoured one seemed to be running up and down the hall with a variety of pull along toys – seemed a bit of an odd choice but kept them all entertained.
Davies totally unprompted decided to write everyone’s names in his little ELC chequebook that came with the toy till and did an excellent job of ‘Scarlett’, ‘Ali’, ‘Freya’ and ‘Nicola’. His letters are really coming on and I think the only letter I actually wrote for him to copy was ‘r’ – the best moment was when I talked about how he needed a ‘big F’ for Freya cos it’s at the beginning of her name and he asked if that was like the E for elephant with a straight line at the top, middle and bottom – bless 🙂
All the kids largely ignored their lunch, Tarly was very tired (surprising that!) but Ali and I enjoyed a good old chat inbetween adminstering cuddles and encouragement when needed – a very nice day 🙂
After they left to get a train home – so makes me appreciate driving and having a car at my disposal – I decided to continue the good work Ady had done on the playroom by clearing out all the cupboards. A bit more work to do tomorrow on the craft drawers and colouring bits and pieces but it is looking good. Also Ady bought a bookcase in Ikea today for Tarly’s room – which will ease the already groaning book case in our hall, and will give her access to all her favourite books without me having to clear them out of her room each day. We have some plans for redecorating most of the rooms in the house at the moment and she is desperate for a wardrobe too but at least the bookcase is a start. I will make it up tomorrow and tackle all the bookcases in the house. It has also occured to me with her desperation to learn to read that she might just be pleased with some of the workbooks that I discarded for Davies at her age – they say they are for 3-5 year olds and as Ali commented today she has a very good pen grip and accurate pen stroke so some of the early writing practises should be within her ability. Other than dropping keys off to Jenny for WAG group we don’t have anything planned for tomorrow so further tidying looks in order.
Now, Nic, if you are doing bookcases, you WILL remember to do the spines alphabetically, by author, with sub categories of colour of spine, running in the order of the rainbow, and arranged within that by height. I do hate to think of an untidy bookcase….
Comment by Joyce — 23 May 2005 @ 10:28 pm
expect photos of my tidily ordered bookcases by this time tomorrow 😉
Comment by Nic — 23 May 2005 @ 10:32 pm
What is one of these?
Comment by jax — 23 May 2005 @ 10:44 pm
?
Comment by Nic — 23 May 2005 @ 10:49 pm
The thing you carried Tarly in. Looks as if it should be a link.
Comment by Joyce — 23 May 2005 @ 11:49 pm
And for god’s sake attach the bookcase firmly to all *four* walls to avoid any crush accidents.
Comment by Chris — 24 May 2005 @ 5:06 pm