I didn’t know braces would do that to her. I’m so pleased that dp suggested we took before pictures as it will be a very long time before we see teeth without metal again. A very long time. These braces will be on between 18 months and 2 years, and then there will be a retainer full time and then part time until adulthood. I really hope it makes a fantastic difference to her, but on some levels the most important difference is the realisation she came to herself today.

And that’s that we do everything we can to make her life better than ours. She knows we make mistakes – oh, how I make mistakes – but we try so hard for them to not be the ones that were made in our lives.

I didn’t have dental work, and I wish so much that I had had. My bottom teeth overlap, I can’t keep them clean, my top teeth have little gaps between them and my teeth don’t line up at all. Though from what I’ve learnt in my crash course in orthodontics over the last few nights, that would barely rate on the scale. The real reason Big needs intervention is not about wonky teeth, it’s too do with the fact that one of her teeth has nowhere to go, there isn’t room for it to descend at all. So if they can’t jiggle it all around with braces, she’ll have to have surgery. And I’d really rather avoid that if we can.

So she has braces. Train tracks. With pink elastic bands, obviously. She was *so* brave during the fitting, but I also have to say that the orthodontist was absolutely fabulous with her. He explained everything ahead of time, and held every bit of equipment in her line of sight and showed her what it was and told her what would happen. It made all the difference – so if you have a child about to go through any of this, dig your heels in and make sure your orthodontist is at least as good.

Then we were prepared – I’d been told by Daddacool following some tweeting on the topic, to ask for orthodontic wax, and in fact we ended up with a starter pack that included that, a special toothbrush, a travel toothbrush, a very small bottle of mouthwash and some disclosing tablets. Oh, and a mirror. She’s very pleased with the mirror, and has used it extensively with the special toothbrush in taking her time over cleaning today.

We aren’t getting on too well with the wax though – it says in the instructions to get the braces dry, and she doesn’t seem to be able to achieve that. I daresay that will come.

But I have been so proud of her today, and proud of her staring down the smaller children staring at her (manners, what manners?) at the swimming pool, and even more proud of her going on and doing her Silver Challenge Award in swimming. Today of all days, she set out and did all sorts of skills – surface dives, 100m in 3 minutes, treading water and so on, finishing up with 800m in 30 minutes. And all this from a girl who couldn’t swim when we moved here less than two years ago.

Definitely a proud mummy moment. And I can be a tiny bit proud of myself, because I remembered to tell her that I was proud of her.

[If there was ever a post that was worthy of meming in the mummy blogger world, this must be it. Please feel free to share your proud mummy moments - no linky as I don't want ppl to think I'm doing it for the link backs or traffic, but if I can inspire you to think of a pmm and share it, I'll be very happy. If you want to drop it in comments, I'm happy to do a roundup post full of link love in a few days time ]

Tim was away for a couple of nights at the beginning of the week, which cut down drastically on my (evening) computing time. It also meant a convoluted set of logistics for the Monday evening activities – Big was picked up slightly late for her fun swim with friends, and dropped back to let herself into the house while I walked Small to Beavers, waited there and walked (briskly) back. Actually, on the way we were accosted by another parent who recognised the uniform and was insistent that the Beavers were having a walk in the woods – he drove us up there to discover that his wife had got it wrong, and the woods walk is next week, so then he drove us back again

Big had the phone and a fall back plan that she could go to D & S if she didn’t feel happy in the house alone – in the event she rang to find out how long we would be, and as we had already set off from Beavers, she decided she was happy to wait. Takes about 20 minutes and I do know why I’m managing to lose weight all of a sudden, as that meant I did 2 miles with a soa in wrap, and she’s getting quite heavy now!

Tuesday the children spent a fair bit of time on Mathletics – Big discovered the top 100 student list and managed first of all to get on to the top 100 UK Students, and then top 100 in the world. She was very pleased with herself and went on to complete all of the year 3 work, get her first silver certificate and asked me to move her up. Was slightly confused to discover it thought she had done some something harders as she insisted it hadn’t, but we’ll cope (not least as it means that she’s not completely fallen behind Small).

Tuesday afternoon is of course swimming. For some reason neither of her friends showed up this week, meaning that I didn’t have anyone to chat with while her lesson was on and after, so we got out of there promptly enough to make it home for me to actually cook rather than feeding them pasta or pizza and they got to start catching up on Doctor Who while I did that.

Wednesday we were out all day. It’s music group in the morning in the town down the road, so we were up and out and waiting for a bus disturbingly early (for us). The bus driver hadn’t heard of the type of ticket I was trying to buy, so he let us on for free, and even though we got off a stop too early, we made it to music just about on time. So it seems buses could be a way to keep up with at least some of our activities as Tim starts work if we don’t go for a second car.

From music we went back to WFHelen’s house (yes, on the bus) for the afternoon, and then back home via yet another bus and the coop. Only just enough time to turn around to take Big out to Brownies, and then Small, soa and I called on D & S for a while. Figured out later that I’d had soa in the wrap for an hour 45 minutes during the afternoon – not a bad exercise rate for me and she’s pretty happy with it

Brown Owl dropped Big off minutes after we’d got back, and Tim wasn’t far behind. Had a good catchup with family as well, and even remembered to ring my sister to wish her happy birthday. (Hadn’t managed to get cards in the post to her though )

So was barely online at all yesterday, and don’t seem to have managed much better today. Kids have mathleticed again, and both have spent some time doing digital art. Had tears from Small when he realised he’d overwritten a picture of soa with one of Big and also when he got back with a smart haircut that apparently he didn’t like. He enjoyed coming to Baby Yoga with us though.

soa has tried a few more foods but not really enjoyed very many of them yet. I’m assuming that continuing to offer when she seems interested (she stole some pasta off me at baby yoga, but just chomped on it without actually eating it) is the way to be going and that the advice given by another mother that she needs to be on 3 full meals by 7 months is a little excessive. (Just as well I’m reasonably sure of myself, all this contradictory advice could be very offputting. I did get WF and Em to reassure me on these grounds yesterday though!) She’s seemed a bit out of sorts today, although obviously has now spent the entire evening sleeping which means I’m in for another night of it. Wonder if it might be time to change her into a night nappy and try to get some sleep anyway.

Can’t remember when I last blogged properly about the older children (odd thing to say about Small!) so this is going to be a braindump of things I can remember that I may or may not have blogged before.

Small is continuing to enjoy Beavers, and now has three badges down his arm, and a Promise badge on his chest. They seem very organised at his pack – they’ve baked twice, he went to a swimming gala (Tim was very impressed, said Small did actually swim the whole way across with his float), they visited a church and wrote a prayer and last night he went to the district carol service. Even more impressive, I put soa in a wrap and took him there

He’s also still enjoying his swimming lessons, and seems to be making progress faster than I would have expected for just a half hour session once a week. Really wish I could be getting them swimming in between times as I think he’s very near to cracking it, but think by Centerparcs he’s going to be either actually swimming or will be by the end of the week.

Work wise he’s spending most of his educational time wandering through the bbc bitesize site, particularly the KS3 area which has a subsite called Questionaut. This week he’s learnt to use a calculator, and I inflicted a KS1 Sats paper on them both – he scraped a level 2A (the top of the expected level for the end of the school year he’s in) with several careless mistakes mainly down to the fact that he doesn’t write any working out down. I’m not sure he understands what working out is supposed to be about tbh, on the one question that asked him to write down how he worked out the answer he put “I think of a question and then work it out” or something of the kind

Big’s big success of the last month has got to be her swimming. Not so very long ago she moved up from the yellow hats to the green hats – it was at the start of the current batch of ten lessons anyway. Then the week before last her green hat group was doing lengths rather than widths and it rapidly became painfully obvious that she is way more powerful than the rest of her group as she consistently caught up with the child ahead and had to manoeuvre round them. As a result she was sent over for a test with the next group up, and passed, and last week was her first session in with the blue hats.

The blue hats appear to be concentrating on the finer points of their strokes – turning the head to the side to snatch a breath rather than lifting it from the water in crawl for example. As Tim said, she’s already at least as proficient as either of us and there’s not a lot we can teach her although she does obviously need to develop her stamina, and continue with the fine tuning of her strokes. We are seriously considering the swimming club now as we think she would really enjoy it.

Work wise she has been exploring bitesize as well, though as she gets very stressed about things she doesn’t understand I am currently on strike where Questionaut is concerned with her This follows a major breakdown in communication where she just flat out wouldn’t believe me that a particular part of a question/ answer was irrelevant (it was a question about coordinates on a grid, if you are at (-2, 5) how many units are you from the y axis? She was determined that she had to know how big a unit was, and no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get across that that part really didn’t matter).

Positive news though is that she too achieved a 2A on her KS1 Sat , getting only one thing wrong. They will be attempting the level 3 paper next week.

Finally made it out to the library yesterday for the first time in a month I’d guess. Big bought herself a replacement library card as she has yet again lost hers, and then got out lots of books about Anne Frank including A Friend Called Anne and The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition itself. She also picked up Suffragette: The Diary of Dollie Baxter, London 1909-1913 (My Story) – she’s read a couple in this series and really enjoyed them. I’m just pleased that she’s reading again, as she went on strike when she ran out of Lady Grace Mysteries.

And now soa is no longer happy in her bouncy chair, so blogging more about my birthday present and adding piccies is going to have to wait til our next break.

Yesterday they did logic games instead with aunt S, and I was quite impressed with how they were both managing Guess Who. Logical processes definitely improved there. Snakes and ladders proved a game too far though, as Small had a complete meltdown when he was overruled as to whether he’d landed on a snake or not Apart from that, they’d had a lovely morning, including a nice long walk out, which meant that they needed a lie down before swimming (given that I’d woken them up before 8. I know that’s not early for anyone who works or has children in school, but as we do neither atm, it’s very early for my offspring).

Swimming was excellent. Small completely stunned me by doing half the small pool in a very creditable back stroke (no idea where that has come from, but he seems to have got it) and they both got badges and certificates, as well as Big having it confirmed that she’s passed her test and from next week she’s in green hat. There are several other children her age/ size in that group, and it’s taught in the proper pool, so she shouldn’t end up with quite so many bruises on her knees during lessons in future!

Small is taking the lead in deciding what he wants to study as part of his three work sessions in a morning, and as it’s really the doing of something that I want to encourage rather than a specific choice of subjects, I’m really quite happy with that. So this morning he did some sticker maths, read some Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Space and then asked if he could learn about France. So we explored wikipedia, found him a little map of central Europe, he drew and coloured in a flag, wrote some French phonetically and we looked up the name of the island nearby (Corsica). All good stuff, and completely self directed.

Big and I had a little fall out over the idea of a spelling log, mainly based around her concern as to what would happen when she’s filled the book. I can’t see that happening desperately soon – it’s a smallish exercise book, but it still has 50 pages (100 sides) so we did some extra arithmetic to work out how many sides she could have per letter, and settled on 4 for each apart from x and z which each got 2 Given that she can fit two columns of words per page, I think the book should last for a while!

Once that was sorted out, she went off and read some more myths and legends. She’s also doing a project with Tim on how this town looked a couple of hundred years ago, so while she’s doing that, I’ve planned to do some artwork/ drawing with Small and we went out this afternoon to pick up Giovanni Civardi’s Complete Guide to Drawing which I’d seen for £8 in the shop down the road. Got Big some terry fabric and some felt so that she can do the decorated baby blanket she’s planned as well, so I foresee arts and crafts in our immediate future.

Explored the charity shops on the way home looking for Hallowe’en costumes – found Big a wonderful slinky sparkly black dress and a broom, but not so successful for Small. However he already has a red cloak and red trousers, and will be happy if I whip him up some horns and a devil tail. So all I need to do now is work out what we’ll take as a food contribution. Think it’s likely to be bread cheese and fruit!

Tim’s away off up to old house tomorrow with a large van to try to empty the shed and garage (not *quite* sure where everything is going to go but cross that bridge when we come to it) and I’m going to be hoping that baby isn’t in too much of a hurry and can hang on til he’s done up there and safely back home.

Oh, and Small lost his second tooth yesterday. He doesn’t look like my baby boy any more – isn’t it odd how the changing teeth changes the face so completely?

I had a plan. Last time I was in the library, I’d noticed a book, Gifts for Baby, that looked like it might have some simple craft projects in it, suitable for Big to do. And our library is open on a Sunday.

So, before lunch, but after she’d exhausted the book she started last night, we were ready to go to the library. Slight hitch in that Big had lost her library card, so she decided she would take her purse and buy a new one, plus she had fines to pay off. We set off in the glorious autumn sunshine for a pleasant walk together.

Thankfully the book was still in the library, and even more thankfully, she liked the look of several projects in it. *And* it turned out her library card had been left in the library – as there are self service machines for checking your own books out, it’s quite easy to abandon your card. So she didn’t need to pay for a new one, though she did clear her fines off, with a comment from the librarian about it being good to clear off your debts, but better not to incur them in the first place

Joy of joys, the next Lady Grace Mystery, Keys, had arrived as well! So that meant she would have something to read when we got home too. Sadly, she has now caught up with the author, so we’re back to scrabbling around for books to catch her fancy after this one.

Then we headed for home, via a quick stop in the cheap shop for some black acrylic yarn for my current crochet project. Seems odd that with five crates of yarn and fabric that I have no black, but there you go.

We looked through the craft book together, and there are several projects she likes the look of, so looks like crafting is back on the agenda. Which is good, I do think part of the reason that she gets herself into a state from time to time is that she’s not being productive, and crafts are excellent for that.

First project chosen was making soft blocks – she still had some stash fabric from the remnant shop bargain basket, so I printed her a template and she cut out 12 12cm pieces, before learning about nets to make cubes and how to lay out the fabric so that the patterns wouldn’t run into each other. Then we had lunch

After lunch (which took a while, I don’t understand how Small can spin out a banana sandwich, a yoghurt, and a biscuit to last nearly an hour!) I set up the sewing machine and we sewed the first block together. Big did the straightforward flat bits and I took over once we were into 3D. Then we turned it the right way in, she stuffed it and finished the last side.

She also wants to use these things towards a Brownie badge, Toymaker – I’m assuming that some assistance with complicated bits is acceptable? (Really wish that our Brownie leaders were just a tiny bit more forthcoming!)

And by the time we’d done all of that, complete with the usual rethreading of the sewing machine a couple of times and so on, I was nearly passed out on the kitchen chair. I didn’t sleep well last night, due to the hacking cough that developed as soon as I tried to lie down, and the acid indigestion that set in later on So I needed a nap.

Big wanted to know what she could do while I was resting. I suggested that she could look through her badge book and plan what badges she wanted to do, that she could take pictures of the block she’d made and write a little bit to explain how she’d made it to show to her Brownie leader (who I’m assuming will be tester), and that she could design another toy – she wants to make an activity book out of felt that will have dressing practise in it, such as a zip, buttons and so on.

I think she probably read some Lady Grace as well

I slept two hours. While I was sleeping, I think Tim may have explored some of a project he wants to do with the children too. And as soon as I got up, they started fighting again Although Tim tells me that it wasn’t for my benefit, they did fight while I was sleeping too.

Made tea, baked potatoes, broccoli, bacon (all things that Small eats) and we ate. The whole sitting down as a family thing is working pretty well now, although I could do with getting my timing a bit tighter so that the kids aren’t running late on shower night.

And then it was shower night and bedtime. And now it’s tomorrow, so I think it’s my bedtime too.

So I sorted through piles of clothes into different ages and he sorted through piles of stuff generally and then dismantled the bed and manhandled the mattress downstairs. Didn’t get as far as reassembling the bed downstairs as we had a date some distance away, so at 4 o’clock we loaded ourselves into the car and set out for a swimming birthday party. (Which reminds me of one of the things the children must have done – make birthday cards!)

Fantastic pool (very warm and comfortable) and once the children were separated a very pleasant swim. Even managed to chat with a few other parents in between wondering where Small had scampered off to now! He’s definitely lost all fear of the water which I suppose is a good thing on his way to swimming, but makes for some hair raising moments for me

Michelle had definitely not over (or under for that matter) catered, and there was a lovely birthday tea, and I managed to meet Grit Slightly odd to introduce myself to someone IRL using my blog address, but not completely unheard of. Long tradition of meeting ppl online first in this family anyway Nice to compare short notes on blogging, although it wasn’t really the environment to sit and chat, with a huge number of excited and still slightly damp children about. (Whoever says that home educated children don’t get to have friends should have been a fly on the wall there last night, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary for all to see )

And after the food, and the most excellent cake, back to the manor for cups of tea and chat. Small was over excited and needed to stay sitting next to me, but once he’d got over the immediate huff he was quite calm and played tangrams for a while. We didn’t stop desperately long, or at least, I didn’t think we did, but it was after 10 when we left, and that meant it was after midnight when we got in with very tired children. So it was a lie in for everyone this morning

Support group Weds afternoon, and they were the only big children there, so they absorbed the 4 year old into their game and had a lovely time. And we were on time It’s a very relaxing session for me, and apparently we are welcome to other sessions run in the same environment, some which are staffed, so it’s acceptable to go and sit in another room with a cup of tea and leave your children without you for an hour! Tempting There’s even a sensory room we found out as we were leaving this week, so Small’s been promised that will be turned on next time. I may find it difficult to drag him out again

Weds evening is Brownies. Almost a disaster in that Big’s brown trousers were on the line and resoaked following the downpour while we were out at group. But I remembered in time, so they were spun and then shoved into the emergency tumble dryer (I hate using it, but needs must ) Set off on time, then she had to run back for her cress seeds, which she’d forgotten to plant last week, so were only demonstrating two days growth. She took her badge book as required, and apparently they didn’t even open them. Sigh. Think we’ll look at moving to guides in January.

I don’t mind doing badges with her if that’s what we are supposed to do, but I do think a little communication would be in order, I don’t actually know where I’m supposed to start with it. She came back with an excellent little craft – bit of paper painted and cut in such a way that when you fold the flaps over you’ve got a union flag.

Another successful tea, Small very much likes lamb chops now (I think basically as long as they are cooked plain!) and he accidentally got a bit of kale in with his cabbage, and decided he liked that too. He’s really broadened his horizons food wise, the veg box has been a huge success in that direction. Just got to keep up the momentum now.

Hm, I was going to do the whole rest of week in one post, but I’m already up to 400 words, think I might keep going anyway.

Thursday was momentous in that I slept in and it threw off the whole morning. Which doesn’t bode well for when we’ve a baby and I’m getting irregular sleep We had another very serious chat with Big about her attitude – the arguments were sparked because Small didn’t want to play with her as he was too busy reading a french book. Tbh, if he’s doing something like that, I don’t really want her trying to drag him away – he doesn’t get enough space to be autonomous in the way that I know he can be. But all that put her in a bad mood, and there was flouncing and shouting, and like I say, serious conversations.

She pulled herself around, and even did some extra maths, although I was evil with her handwriting practise and printed out a sheet of “I must not hit people or call them stupid” which didn’t go down too well

For third subject we did music appreciation, which meant they each chose something to listen to off the media centre, and then I chucked in something classical. It went really well, they started listening hard enough to pick out instruments and rhythms and even enjoyed Brahms and Tchaikovsky

Afternoon we went to the library, and then called in on S on the way home to see how her extension is going. It’s now a proper room, with walls, roof and windows, and the electrician has just been in, so there’s lots of wires poking out of walls. Small wasn’t quite sure he saw the point in that!

Friday I woke up with a stinking head cold, but soldiered bravely on until the afternoon, when I collapsed back into bed. It did help It’s not actually all that bad a cold I don’t think, but when the space your lungs should be in is already occupied, it makes the whole coughing and sneezing so much worse.

Big had a much better attitude to her work, and did double maths, along with mental arithmetic which is the now standard response to her making any silly mistakes in arithmetic. She did some spelling incorporated with handwriting, and Small complained that number patterns aren’t maths and wanted to know what they were doing in his book

And that, pretty much was Friday, which wraps up the week more or less.

Small actually made some mistakes in his maths, but nothing to do with arithmetic. His difficulty was in deciphering the pictures in his book – he was doing a section on graphs which required him to count up different things and we had quite an argument as to whether one picture was a duck or a fish! He gets the principle behind it all, so I’m not worrying too much about it

For reading he excavated Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and did a chapter of that, and then I marshalled the two of them out of the house in search of shoes for Big.

To do this, I put on Tim’s docs, as mine don’t fit my slightly swollen feet. This was a mistake, as his appear to way a ton, and without a lift in the left one, I could feel it pulling at my back. Stopped off in Superdrug and bought a padded insole so it was better on the walk back, but not a long term solution. Am loath to buy a bigger pair of shoes just for the next 5-6 weeks though.

In Clarks it became apparent that Small’s struggles to put on his trainers were because one foot is now a half size bigger. Sigh. That means that that pair of trainers, barely worn, were a bit of a wasted investment. So he needed new shoes, and was quickly satisfied with an interesting looking pair of trainer shoes in black and red. Big was, as usual in a shoe shop, another story. She’s gone through size 3 without stopping, and from being 2 1/2 at the beginning of summer is now 3 1/2 width E. They had two pairs of shoes in that size, neither particularly practical for the winter (Mary Jane style, so with lots of exposed sock iyswim) and neither pair fitted her particularly well either. So we left without any, and she’s agreed to wear her wellies if we go anywhere in the rain until we can try to find something better.

Quick look in shoezone proved they have nothing much of interest to me, and then headed for home via the greengrocer’s for top up vegetables. We’re done with the veg box now, and we are regularly having sit down home cooked meals all together. So that turned out to be a pretty good way of doing it.

On the way home we were talking about what the third piece of work should be and I suggested that we could read the Bible story of creation to compare and contrast with our theory of evolution from the day before. We were discussing this as we crossed the road beside an elderly gentleman, and I’m not sure what we said that was terribly upsetting, but he stopped dead in the middle of the road to listen to what we were saying. Perhaps it was hearing Small’s opinion of creation stories…

Home, and I was shattered and in pain, plus I’ve got the edge of a cold, so I ended up retiring to bed to recharge for an hour before taking them swimming, and even then we went in the car I don’t like using the car for these little journeys, but I know I need to conserve energy now, and I couldn’t risk setting off my back again.

Another good lesson for each of them (you have no idea how much I relish being able to write that!), Small can now put his face in the water, and Big has been told if she can just get her breaststroke breathing sorted out, she can be tested for the next group up. Which would be excellent, even if she does end up leaving her friend C behind, as it shows she’s making real progress and being more able to keep up with CP at next year is a real possibility.

Home, and Tim did the honours with cooking, sausages of meat and vegetarian persuasion, beans, eggs and toast Good filling fair for two exercised out offspring And during the meal they explained what they’d been doing in work that morning, and we discussed language including the dreaded word nice, which both Tim and I were banned from using at junior school as it’s a non word. Always makes me think of the comedy sketch though.

Somehow the conversation morphed, as conversations do, and Tim introduced the idea of rhyming slang. He even went off after the main course and brought back a cheat sheet, but he hadn’t edited it quite as carefully as he thought he had, so I deemed it unsuitable for little eyes. (I have no intention of explaining the meaning of some of the words that they have rhymes for just yet, thank you very much!) Then they rattled around getting ready for bed, and Tim and I watched Electric Dreams, the 80s before I retired, to toss and turn (well, more sort of wriggle and occasionally roll over) for several hours for no apparent reason. So I’m tired this morning.

Big settled quickly to her work again this morning – it seems possible that I’ve now found the right level of things to be working with her on both spelling and handwriting so she enjoyed it today. We did some work on a_e and ay words – I gave her lists and she tried to memorize them and write them out herself, and then she thought of a couple more words of each type. I pointed out that she’d used a capital B in the middle of a word and she said that that was because she’s never sure which way round that one goes, so it’s easier to use the capital to get the right one. Hm, that must be indicative of something surely? And then I printed her more jardotted stuff to write over, this time just the alphabet and we agreed that any time that she’s going to do some writing she’ll go over the alphabet first to help her remember how it works. Apparently the little arrows to show which way to write the letters really helps, as she doesn’t remember anyone ever showing her that before.

Am wondering if because she could already read and write she just skipped lots of the montessori starter stuff, and therefore doesn’t have the sound foundations on this any more than she does on maths. Sigh. Hoping that we’ll whip through it now we know what’s wrong anyway.

She did some maths as well, and then got stuck into the Nature Detectives autumn/ winter mailing, complete with lots of top trumps on fungus. By this time Small had come to join us, and he started with another telling time sheet, then did two maths practices (each was only a page long mind ) although he did at one point complain that his writing was too big to fit the answers on the page. At this point I discussed handwriting with him and printed him a sheet out and he’s decided he would like to learn how to form letters. I know he hasn’t learnt before, it’s all just been acquired as he’s gone along, but I also know that there’s never any point in trying to introduce anything before he’s interested in it.

Not sure how much of the handwriting he did before he got distracted by the top trump mushrooms They then went on to play cards for another hour or so

Eventually got them organised and headed out to the park to meet up with local home educators. The car park was heaving – had to wait for a woman to leave before there was anywhere to park, but then again, it was yet another glorious day. There were lots of families in the play area, including a family with a 6 year old boy who would like friends of his own, which of course explains why he and Small headed for opposite ends of the play area and ignored each other for the hour they were both there. Sigh. Have had a bit of a chat with Small about that this evening, he was quite pleased with himself for making friends with a little girl there but she was just someone we bumped into and may never meet again, while A is someone that we are likely to meet on many occasions.

Lovely lovely afternoon in the sun and the children played in the water with only minor intervention needed, then we headed for home. I’ll gloss over the carpark which I’m going to blog separately, then when we got back home, the kids watched James and the Giant Peach from this collection while Tim pampered me with tea and toast.

Children are now in bed and I’m trying to work out if there’s anything I fancy to eat.

Took Big down to the library to pick up her next Lady Grace Mystery, Deception. She is absolutely adoring these, and getting lots out of them historically as well

Of course, a little later we had a row, when I told them that we were going out, and they didn’t want to, but Tim and I wanted to go to Orford Ness, this being the last week that it’s open during the week, and it was a glorious day for it as well. Departure was hindered by the fact I’d put the temporary membership sheet into a safe place, and couldn’t find it again but we got away eventually, to arrive after the last ferry crossing :’(

Making the most of the day out anyway, we retired to Orford Castle. Tim had taken the kids before, but I hadn’t been. He disappeared with Small to do a high speed tour, while Big and I took our time with the audio tour, which was excellent. I managed all the steps apart from the basement, but was aching somewhat by the end so we gave up on a plan to pop into the town for an explore and headed home via a moderately scenic route showing the kids where Tim grew up and his walk home from school.

It was a lovely afternoon out and although I was in some pain, it wore off a little on the ride home. Wimped out on tea though as didn’t want to risk really setting my hip off, although I still went out for a walk to pick up a baby bath from freegle, while Tim marshalled the kids into the shower.

Afterwards they wanted to sit in the living room with us, while really I just wanted some child free time. Big was quietly perusing catalogues, but Small isn’t very good at quiet, and tried to assist Tim with his scrabble (which was very funny ) before finding Space (DK Eye Wonder) and reading selected excerpts of it out loud. Eventually they did retire to their bedroom for a short time playing, allowing me to heave a sigh of relief and start hunting out the resources for my last TMA for MS221.

Have had enough of this maths now. Am trying not to get stressed about the exam, but can’t help feeling it’s going to be a disaster as I really haven’t understood or acquired skills during this course. I have to score 40% to pass, and I need at least 40% on this TMA too, which should be feasible as it’s at least partially on imaginary numbers which I did at A level (surprised to find that they are now being introduced at level 2 of OU courses. But don’t worry, there hasn’t been any dumbing down of qualifications in the last 20 years since I did A levels….) but it’s so very difficult to focus on something I’m enjoying so little. Taking a year off OU next year, don’t think it would go too well with new baby anyway, and then will ponder after that.

And then we watched TV and I went to bed.

So I dragged children out of bed early (for them anyway) and chivvied them along so that we’d have time to pop into Tesco for suitable food for cooking on an open fire. Even though they very much enjoy Forest school, neither of them are into the idea of changing state, which makes leaving the house problematic. Achieved it and bought marshmallows, veg hot dogs and hot dog rolls, and headed down to the country park, arriving with time to spare for toilet trips

As usual, I was fire monitor, and this time the ranger had even brought me safety goggles to keep the smoke out of my eyes. A very thoughtful touch We baked charcoal made from willow sticks in a tin on the fire, and then Big made a pencil by hollowing out an elder twig and feeding the charcoal through.

Small made a variety of tree decorations out of clay and saw a newt, which tied in nicely as the previous day’s Great lesson had finished at amphibians. Fire cooked hot dogs were good (although I cremated the second batch, oops), even Small enjoyed one. I enjoyed two And the ranger had brought tea, which I’d forgotten yet again, so I got a cuppa too.

We didn’t hang around at the end of the session, except to recruit an apprentice fire marshal, who will work with me assuming I manage to struggle into the woods for the next session, and then take over after that. We had to get back as I had my final TMA for MST121 to finish off, and swimming after that.

So did maths, put it into an envelope and then went to queue in the PO on the way to swimming, to be told that there’s a postal strike and it wouldn’t get there in time. Sigh. Wish I’d known that *before* we waited over five minutes while the post office lady arranged her next hair appt with the customer before us. (On the one hand I love that there is that level of community in the town, on the other hand, I’m in a hurry here!)

Took the TMA with us and went to swimming. Small’s group has shrunk again – there are now 6 red hats rather than the threatened 11. That seems to work better for him, and he is definitely making progress, although apparently he uses breaststroke legs when he’s on his back instead of kicking them. Needs to work on that

Didn’t see any of Big’s lesson – by the time we got out to the viewing area it was packed and we couldn’t get near the edge, and then Small needed the toilet anyway. Apparently she is struggling with breaststroke and needs more practice. Fortunately we arranged a swimming session with Small’s friend P, who has now moved up into the yellow hats group that runs before his red hats, so we only see them on the changeover.

Came home with tired children and fed them pasta (but with broccoli) and then slotted them into bed. Rang my tutor to ask if it was OK to bring the TMA over later, and found out that she was away anyway, so first thing in the morning would be acceptable.

And that was Tuesday. Bit more hectic than I would have liked, but a good day overall.

I’ve run out of patience

Maybe I don’t respond in the right way or quickly enough to expressed interests? Perhaps my purposive conversation is either not present enough or too purposive? Perhaps eight months isn’t a long enough deschooling time frame for three years of flexi school at Montessori?

Or perhaps my children just need a bit of structure and to be stretched every now and then. I’m so sold on autonomy and the theories of John Holt that I’ve felt terribly guilty this week – but not guilty enough to not impose a work requirement on the offspring.

So now, each morning, we do a bit of maths, a bit of english and something else. The something else varies from day to day, and I’ve tried to follow up on their interests. The TV is banned between the hours of 9 and 3 (would be 9 and 5, but realistically, that would mean that 3 days a week one or the other of them would see no TV and I can’t be that hard hearted). They each still have their two half hour computer slots, and if they are doing something educational/ work related, computer time extends.

And how has it worked this week?

Well, the first day Small did his work quickly and cheerfully. By the third day, he was resistant, thinking of anywhere he’d rather be and anything he’d rather be doing. Which is irritating, because when he does come in and get set to, it takes him minutes to do the amount of maths I’m asking of him, another few minutes to read a chapter of the book I bought for him as he couldn’t think what he’d like to read (The Thing from Knucker Hole (Young Hippo Adventure)), and then he tends to enjoy whatever the third part is. So he loved science, liked looking at maps, and had no problems listening to and discussing The Story of the World: Ancient Times v. 1.

Big is another story. Her maths will improve with steady practise, but we’ve discovered that her English needs work in a number of areas. And I think that is what is holding her back doing some of the other things she wants to do. So instead of doing a unit a week from Focus on Literacy: Pupil Textbook Bk.5 we’re going to do a unit every other week and concentrate on basics in between times. Handwriting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, that sort of thing. Most of the time she reads of her own accord, although she had been on strike waiting for the next book in the series she’s reading, Conspiracy (Lady Grace Mysteries). That’s arrived now, so she’s reading again on an evening.

I’d kind of assumed that a child who reads as voraciously as she does would pick up the other stuff, but she isn’t doing, so I need to target it more directly. Still really wish I could find Small’s english book so that we could do bits out of that as well. But wherever he’s put it, it’s staying hidden

She loved the experiment she did this week, out of Outer Space (Funstations) I’d found. Lit candles under varying sizes of jars so that we could see what happened when the oxygen ran out. And we’d been having conversations about first ppl during the week anyway, so nomads in story of the world worked well for her.

In and amongst there was Brownies, Beavers, swimming, a not back to school picnic afternoon on the beach (fabulous weather, kids were in the sea on and off all afternoon), Tim popped to old hosue and brought back all the baby stuff so the children washed it all in the garden yesterday, oh and some blokes came round and cut down one of the hedges. Small cried. Turned out he’d really liked that hedge, even though Tim and I loathed it, and though we’d discussed removing it several times, Small hadn’t picked up on the discussions.

I’ve processed yet more bags of stuff from old house and now have large piles of clothing to process into storing. Oh, and Small had another visit to the doctors, who said that he has chronic otitis and prescribed a months worth of penicillin just in case it’s bacterial. Which apparently it probably isn’t. So am still umming and ahing over what to do about that.

This afternoon Tim and Small are at a Beavers mini Olympics – looks like Small at least is having fun.

So I pootled away the morning, completely forgetting that home ed music group was starting up again and rang again at 1pm. Which didn’t get me any further as the receptionist who answered the test results line didn’t know what any of the test results meant and suggested instead that she book me a telephone consultation with a doctor, first appt available at 2.45. Sigh. Or scream, depending on how energetic you are feeling.

In the meantime Big had helped Small to finish his Questseekers book, by reading the last bits to him I think So we all agreed that we would go to the library on the way down to swimming – we were due to pick up Big’s friend C to join us at 4.15. All just about doable.

Of course the GP was late calling, but once she was on the phone she was excellent. Gave me the rest of my results with an MCV of 93 and an MCH (I think that’s the right whatchamacallit) of 31.9 she thought my results were absolutely fine and that she wouldn’t expect anyone to have higher than 11 HB at this stage of pregnancy (given that the midwife said she medicated everyone under 11, that means pretty much everyone is being prescribed iron supplements, and the majority of them will be unnecessary and possibly dangerous ). So I have now declined the pregaday, my homebirth is fine according to the GP, and all I have to work out what to do is how to put this across to my midwife.

Kids were thankfully bag packed and ready to go so we left immediately after the phone consult and were at the library trying to locate a Questseekers trained volunteer by 3.45. So Small was signed off as well, result!

Picked up Big’s friend as she arrived back from school, and spent over an hour in the pool with the three of them. It’s far more relaxing going with a swimming offspring quite enjoyed the sensation. Of course Big and C contrived to fall out 40 minutes or so into the session, and both resisted any attempts at reconciliation until I pointed out that we were getting out in 10 minutes and they were wasting valuable playing time. Small splashed around with his ring, and sometimes took it off and tried a frantic doggy paddle, which did move him a little way through the water. The lessons have built up his confidence, even if they haven’t imparted any technique yet

Dropped off C and ended up stopping while the kids gatecrashed her sister’s birthday party for food and games on Wii. Which was rather nice. Then got a lift back as M was on his way to drop off DVDs at blockbuster – over halfway home. Quite amused at the shock which is expressed at the fact we do walk to swimming – it is a mile, but the kids are used to doing it, we must do it twice a week prob, as we go to the beach most weeks as well, which is most of the way there, and we do lots of shorter walks just to shops and library too. Guess I probably have nice fit kids even if they don’t do much organised sport They don’t think anything of walking to the beach or swimming, which I think is excellent.

So late home, kids processed quickly into bed and asleep very quickly – I guess a mile walk *and* swimming for over an hour was quite tiring then!

Children played pretty much harmoniously all day, or at least, from when I made them turn the tv off. And our only shouting match was when Small said he hadn’t had enough time to play, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon when it was time to get ready for swimming.

Sigh. But he likes swimming, so he got over it quite quickly and they packed up their swimming stuff into their new time traveller bags (Big’s arrived yesterday morning, phew!) and we headed for the pool. As long as I leave plenty of time and have my hips strapped together I don’t seem to suffer too much from the walk, and while it’s like that, I think I need to keep up the exercise where I can. It’s not like there are any hills in the way around here

Small’s lesson first, his friend P has been moved up to a yellow hat group that runs at 4.30, so he now gets out as Small is getting in, so as anticipated, think that was a very short lived friendship However there are now a couple of other little boys in his class and I saw him playing around with one of them during the lesson. Hm. I know his goal is to make friends, so I can’t be too cross that he’s playing as well as swimming, but there will be a fine line to tread to make sure he doesn’t become disruptive in the class.

Got him out as Big got in, and then discovered that although he’d shown me the shampoo as one of the things he’d gathered together, he’d failed to actually put it in his bag. Sigh. So shower to rinse off the talc from the swim hat, but no actual washing. This did seem to speed things up though, so that I got to see some of Big’s lesson. She’s doing really well, as her teacher had mentioned they were concentrating on breaststroke this week, and she really seems to be getting to grips with it. Am still proud of her It is much more pleasant to write about swimming lessons this time around too!

Leisurely saunter home with them eating bananas, had called ahead for Tim to process a pizza for them which worked well. And they were quickly off into bed, and even quicker asleep – think that a mile there, a swim and a mile back is a pretty good way to tire them out for at least one night a week

Did some more OU while we watched CSI Miami. Horatio is ever so annoying, but it’s easy watching while I’m trying to work. Just got about 4 questions to do, then need to submit it online. Don’t particularly like this style of assignment though, there is no possibility of getting marks for working, you either get the right answers or you don’t. And there’s no indication of how many points there are for each question either. I’m going to be very happy when these courses are over. Think I might take a break next year and ponder what, if anything, I want to study next.

As is usual, had the argument with Small about leaving the house. It doesn’t seem to make any difference whether I tell him about the activity in advance or not, whether it’s something he’s familiar with or not, whether there are ppl he likes going or not. Hohum. In this case we were due to meet up with WFHelen, Em, Merry and Michelle, so we were definitely going whether he liked it or not!

Of course we didn’t have bread ready for a picnic, so I gathered up fruit and water bottles and we set off, with me having a rough plan that we’d go to one of the many little cafes and grab something for lunch. In the end Michelle had surplus sausage rolls which she was happy to share, and that took care of food needs for the day.

Big was very happy with the highwaymen activities that were going on, while Small just wanted to do the wall walk and the moat walk. He did sit through some of the first talk, and a bit later on WFHelen was taking her two up on the wall, so he went up with them.

While the girls partook of the race to York, I managed to stagger around the moat walk, which kept him happy, though it did mean I missed the mummy race. Not sure I’m in quite the right shape to take part atm

Once all the highwaymen activities were done (and the brief but heavy rain shower (rain? In Suffolk? Surely not!) had passed over) Michelle and C set off to do the audio tour and Big went with them. Small and I watched the virtual wall tour, which didn’t have sound, and then he said he wanted to do the audio tour, which I couldn’t help with. I really can’t get up the steps to the wall walk any more, it just can’t be done Fortuitously at almost exactly this point, Merry and her girls walked past all ready to set off for it, so I managed to tag him on the end, then bought myself a nasty cappucino from the machine in the shop and sat on a slightly damp bench to watch my children from a distance being educated with other families

Em and WFHelen had departed by this point I think, though it was lovely to see them. O is really growing so fast it’s slightly disconcerting!

Once audio-ed out, it became obvious that Small was very ready to leave. He’d done pretty well throughout the day though. It’s getting difficult to match his needs with Big’s needs – will be even more amusing next year when I’ve a small person to cater to as well

So we headed for home and arrived about a minute before Michelle, who was bringing her tent to our garden for the weekend. Tent pitching and tea (I cooked, though for the life of me I can’t remember what!) and a very late night for all the children, but very pleasant chatting for the adults. Lovely.

End of the month Thursday, so it was Forest School. I thought I’d got up in ample time to get us ready to go, but I had, as usual, underestimated the time required to talk Small into leaving the house. He is incredibly activity resistant atm, or at least, very resistant to leaving the house for an activity. Once we get there it’s usually OK.

As it was for Forest School. We were a couple of minutes late, and greeted with great relief as apparently the idea of the fire without me wasn’t good Off into the woods and a couple of hours of smoking myself later, it was declared to have been a good session. Big also did smelly potions and was v helpful with sharing things round – we did pancakes on the fire, and I learnt loads about using a large frying pan on open flames. Puts a fire out remarkably rapidly when you put a large pan across the top.

Small drew with charcoal on a tree, then chased bugs with a bug viewer (the child who professes to be scared of spiders desperately tried to catch one to put in his bug viewer so he could identify it with his Usborne Spotter Bugs and Insects). I think one or both of them also tried out the trail laid around the area though I don’t think they blindfolded up for it.

I was, as usual, slightly surprised by the lack of supervision some ppl give their children near fires, but that’s by the by. No one got hurt, although Big did end up with a face full of smoke which wasn’t very pleasant for her.

Quick picnic lunch afterwards, Roz the stand in ranger came and ate with us which was pleasant. Then she dashed off to Clacton air show and we came home so that I could have a cup of tea before we headed out for afternoon swimming with Small’s friend P.

Pleasant session in the pool – I’m amazed and very proud of the progress Big has made. She has a creditable crawl, especially when she remembers to lift her left arm out of the water, breaststroke is nearly there, she’s just struggling slightly with breathing out while under water (if she hasn’t breathed out, then she doesn’t have time to breath in as well as she lifts her head, and her timing goes to pot). I can easily see her being moved up a group in a week or two though, which is just going to be the crowning glory for her friend C, who still hasn’t achieved a front stroke to get across the pool so hasn’t been moved out of beginners

Small has absolutely no fear of the water any more, I’m pondering a crash course of lessons for him as I don’t think he’s going to learn too well from the weekly half hour session beyond the lack of fear thing. Although the lack of fear has been a very useful achievement

Wish I couldn’t remember Thursday evening, but I can all too well Was leaning over the table and reached one way and something went crunch in the middle of my back. Ow. Had to call Tim to help me out of the kitchen as I couldn’t walk unaided, and he got me to the reclining chair where I spent the rest of the evening feeling sorry for myself. Not a good end to what otherwise was a very pleasant day.

(Yes, I know that doesn’t sound very feminist, but Tim knows way more about looking after houses than I do, if I needed to know it like when I lived alone, I would deal, but I don’t need to right now, so I concentrate on the things I do need to do. )

Tim was up before we needed to leave while we were still doing the finding last little bits for day bags, and told me there had been a leak under the kitchen floor so he’d turned the water off before going to bed. That would explain it then. Left him to deal with that and went off to swimming.

There in good time, especially as Small had his trunks on under his trousers today. And we’d remembered to put pants in his bag for after His teacher finally back today, without so much as a word of explanation, though she did have one armed strapped up, so perhaps the brief rumour of a broken arm was the nearest to the truth. I do not have a problem with ppl being off, things happen, but I do have a problem with poor communication. What would it have hurt to have told us what was going on?

Anyway, she seemed to be putting them through their paces today, in preparation for moving some up as I think this lesson was actually the first of the new set of 10. Think there were nearly 10 children in Small’s group today, and know from seeing the list that there are actually 11 booked in, which is one more than the max, so she needs to move a couple out. Looks like it’s going to be Small’s friend P, which will no doubt upset Big’s friend C, but at least I overheard Denise saying that they need to be able to swim across on front and back, and C does keep stopping to put her feet down to breath when she’s swimming on her front. They are spending next week at a waterpark Eurocamp in Holland though, so she might get enough practise to sort it out then

Not sure it’s going to do her much good in catching Big up though, her teacher was giving her last minute instructions as she came out of the pool and the impression he gave was that she’s very near to moving up again herself. Apparently she needs to lift her left arm out of the water in crawl as she isn’t doing, and her breaststroke still needs some work, but they are looking at that next week. And she only started breaststroke during this course of 10 lessons, so I’m not too surprised. He says her crawl is quite powerful though, which I’d thought, seeing it during her lessons. Very proud of her, she’s really making fast progress now, and that’s without me taking them swimming much in between lessons.

And on to our beach playdate. J had taken Small out with her two while I waited for Big – she was only 10 minutes ahead of me and I figured by the time she’d gone to her car to pick up their beach stuff there wouldn’t be that long for him to get stressed. Sure enough when I got out there they were very happily building a sandosaurus, one of Small’s favourite things to do. She did tell me later that it had been his idea, and that he’d been quite happy to adapt it and name it after all three boys together.

Once I was there he was allowed to go paddling, and did, up to his waist. This lack of fear of water is definitely a two edged sword! Big was in and out as well, trying to swim in it, and nearly managing J said she thought I was very brave, letting Small in the water without floats or me. Tbh, I think putting floats on him would be a mistake if I wasn’t in there with him, as he’d be far more likely to be washed out to sea, as it is, if he gets too deep he gets water in his face and comes hurtling out again. This has only been a problem in the last week or so though, up until then he would never have gone in over his knees.

J got togged up to swim and her younger boy decided he wouldn’t go in so she leant Small his armbands. Didn’t seem to make him float much better and fairly soon he came out anyway, shivering. Was desperately trying to get him dry and warm as Big did similarly, tried to get her to take her suntop off and actually use her towel to get dry but she insisted on sitting on it, shivering, and was very soon into a full screamy waily meltdown fit, I think mainly because I was helping Small and not her. I thought she was capable of getting dried and dressed by herself, and he needs more help as he’s quite likely to decide he’s dry when he isn’t and then soak his clothes.

J removed herself to build a sandcastle with the boys while I tried to retrieve Big, but it was a full on 10 minute absolute loss of control. Very embarassing, and in the end I just had to get hands on and drag clothes off her and insist she do as she was told. Not helped by a seagull doing something unmentionable down my back and on her towel, which really overloaded her sensory wise.

Hohum. Once she was dressed and warmed up a bit she recovered herself and started apologising, but was quite surprised that J was still happy to arrange another meetup after all that! We’re going swimming together Thurs afternoon – will be interesting to see how Small manages now in a pool. And might be able to get Big’s left arm sorted for her crawl

Home and a quiet afternoon with yet again far too much screen time. I did require them to do some reading as well, and eventually sent them to bed with books. Small has finally finished You’re a Bad Man, Mr. Gum! and Big finished two library books yesterday. So I think a library trip is in order today, we’re getting closer to the end of the Questseekers challenge, and I would like them to finish it as this library actually does a presentation ceremony

Adults pottered through the morning – I got the beach stuff through the wash so that UV suits and so on could be reused in the afternoon. Then we rounded up offspring and went down to Landguard Fort for an explore. We are really getting our moneys worth out of our EH membership this summer This time we got all the kids in free (well, they are all family group, what with being cousins ) and only had to pay for Bil. Tim splurged on the guide, which I started to glance through, then gave up as there was no way we were keeping up with the kids while I was reading!

Raced round the fort, which is very interesting, and I think we’ll do another visit sometime with fewer ppl. Don’t know whether the kids got much out of it, but I hope that something goes in at some point.

There was also an art exhibition underway which I rather enjoyed. Well, the bit I saw anyway!

Paid a very brief visit to the neighbouring nature reserve but various children decided they needed the toilet, so we went back into the fort to use the facilities and then headed off to the beach.

The blokes dropped me and the kids off and then took the cars back home. Tim went off to do shopping and Bil walked down to join us, sensibly stopping off to buy sausage rolls (and thoughtfully cheese and onion rolls ) and drinks. I’d already got apples, so when the children had swum for a while, dug holes, run around like loonies and so on, we fed them as well. It was a very pleasant afternoon – good to spend some time with Bil chatting. I did try to read some of the fort guide, before he joined me, but decided that I probably needed to pay some attention to the children – visions of Bil arriving and me saying, well, they were there a minute ago!

Small is getting very brave in the water now – he came back to me eventually with wet hair! He made me nervous a couple of times, but he isn’t actually going in very deep, only really to waist height, then he’s wave jumping. Good to see his confidence rising though.

Big spent some time digging with the boys, think she’s found it slightly difficult being between ages this weekend. Overall she’s managed fairly well though.

Brought them home eventually and there was more putering and game playing (Cranium Cadoo, which always goes down well). Tim went out and fetched fish and chips for tea, yum, then we did actually put children to bed, as they were more than a little tired.

Small wobbled as he thought (correctly) that the older boys were staying up a little more drawing. At which point Scott made an excellent attempt at heading off further tantrums by appearing in the bedroom door and saying “we’re stopping drawing and going to bed now, goodnight”. Shame that that just moved the anguish on to wondering what they had drawn. Oh well.

Took Bil a while to get Princess settled down, but we did manage to have some time chatting as well. A good day all round.

Dragged them off down to the library and did the whole Questseekers thing – two lovely ladies who are volunteers staffing the desk rather than the harassed librarian from last time. Who apparently did it all wrong For example, they shouldn’t have put stickers on their clouds, you only put stickers on when you’ve read books and then they can tell where to put the cloud stickers on the wall – they move along as you’ve read books. So Big’s cloud that already had three stickers on was all wrong, and they were quite stressed, until we managed to scrabble around and talk about three books and then all was happy again

We came away with a postcard, a bookmark, two more lots of stickers and happy children. They do enjoy this sort of thing. I’ve also discovered that they seem to hold baby clinic in the library – complete with changing mat, weigh scales and so on. Big was quite aggrieved as she couldn’t get to several of the children’s bookshelves because of the set up. I didn’t think it was terribly appropriate – I think that there far too often ppl treat babies and children with very little respect and stripping them off in a public room like that definitely qualifies for lack of respect in my book.

Guess we’re unlikely to attend baby clinic then

Home via the post office to send off various bits that I’d got parcelled up, and then the coop to take pictures of Sylvanian Family toys. Small found this very stressful – he was in a toy dept and I wasn’t buying things for him. And there were lots of things he liked. He did very well – got somewhat tearful and told me about the stress but didn’t get loud, stroppy or obnoxious.

Headed back expecting to have time for a quick lunch and a tidy up before guests arrived, but my phone rang and it was them, a couple of streets away, but here. Walked round the corner and flagged them down and then just enjoyed seeing cousins together again.

Small and Princess get on ludicrously well. In fact, I think she’s the only age peer friend he has in that way. Bil is very easy to have around – he even makes cups of tea for other ppl Older boys were mainly happy to entertain each other and Big vacillated between them and the younger children, not quite sure where to put herself.

Took them all down to the beach, despite the threatening showers, and let them get wet in the sea instead. Small somehow managed to set out without his paddling stuff, despite us getting them out of the cupboard together, so he ended up paddling in his pants and a very thick layer of factor 50 suncream. Really felt for him when he sat himself down on the ground and said “I’m so silly”. Aw.

Bigger boys got very wet, Big going out nearly as far and the smaller children bobbing about on the edge, and then getting stuck in with buckets and spades. Then we treated them to icecream and dragged them home again.

Tea for the children achieved fairly easily and then after some negotiation, they settled down with a film (Ice Age 2 : The Meltdown
I think) and Tim and Bil cleared off for a drink, with the promise of a takeout on the way home. Kids ended up watching a second film (Spider-Man
) and having a ridiculously late night, as well as eating supper (fruit) and second supper (chicken balls). Dunno where they put it all given they are a pretty scrawny lot!

Oh, and I think I missed out the drawing and the moshi monsters At one point, while watching the film, they were all drawing as well, it was very quiet and industrious. And while I was making tea, they distributed themselves around the various computers and all signed up for moshi monsters and chatted with each other online. Despite being feet away from each other

Not a lot of parental chatting time due to the late bedtime for children, but still nice to have garden guests. And yes, there is loads of room for weekender tents in the garden

He didn’t want to. We were heading for Framlingham, in search of our final Time Traveller Go stickers (It’s not the final event, and we are hoping to make it to the one next week as well, but our passports are now fully stickered up.) For some reason Small decided he didn’t want to go out, and it ended up with him being brought out by Tim. I hate having to get to that stage, but as I anticipated, once we were there, he had a great time. Apart from the part when I didn’t move fast enough and he screamed at me, right in the middle of the Victorian Policeman’s spiel

Big thoroughly enjoyed the Victorian bit – it is her favourite era. Small was kept occupied with the Framlingham murder trail – a set of clues dotted around with a map/ plan showing how to go from one to the next. Was surprised at how difficult he found it to follow the map, given that he draws them for himself from time to time. Then again, I suppose his follow a slightly different schema. Must ponder that one further.

Once he’d done that, Big moved on to the agility tests which involved running around in odd ways, then throwing and catching and that sort of thing. So I played big dominoes with Small. He got the hang of it fairly quickly and was very happy to win the game against me, and then the game he had with Big when she’d finished. We ate our fruit and then he was desperate to go around the wall walk, so I dragged myself up there. Think it’ll be the last time that I make it before the baby!

And by the time we’d done that, it was time to be heading off to the hospital for our planned growth scan. Tim met us there having taken the bus, which worked pretty well. We had the first appt of the afternoon, so naturally we were the fifth seen. Sigh. But we were seen within 10 minutes of appt time, which is pretty good going really.

Scan was very quick, and then we were passed through to see the registrar. He was ludicrously young and slightly nervous – happy with my scan results although when I mentioned homebirth he decided I’d need a presentation scan at 36 weeks as well. Doesn’t sound like a bad plan – I well remember the panicked weekend after a midwife decided Small was breech about two weeks before he was due. He wasn’t breech, and we had our homebirth Was quite surprised to have the scan booked in, but not displeased.

Babe it appears it slightly above average size – hopefully slightly above average is where it will stay Small was just under the boundary for me to have glucose tolerance tests, no idea what that’s about or what the symptoms might be. Did get the impression it would have been more needles though. And I’ve got a lovely bruise from the one on Tues already.

Think when we got home I went for a lie down, and the kids caught up on their screen time. Small signed himself up for a moshi monster – for some reason his arithmetic goes to pot under pressure. Daresay it will improve though.

Cauliflower cheese, new potatoes and carrots for tea, out of veg box three. Big helped prepare the veg – washed and peeled carrots, helped with potatoes. Am finding it slightly traumatic as Small is hugely resistant to new foods, but he does like both cauliflower cheese and raw carrot, so that wasn’t too bad. No idea why he’s gone off potato in all forms though.

Tim read to them, and that was their night almost over – Small got up very confused around 11 and didn’t quite make it to the bathroom, mainly as he didn’t seem to know where it was any more. Given that he never woke up properly it didn’t upset him though – Tim and I had to fight back laughter when we gave him clean PJ trousers and he tried to put them on his head. Bless.