A blog of two days.

two days of school!

Well, not really, actually. It’s half term, and there are very few children there, so it hasn’t been very school like at all.

We made it up there by 8.30 yesterday, giving me plenty of time to settle the children in before I had to go to work. I’d nerved myself up dealing with a distraught Small, and Big had been looking forward to it all so much, so obviously Small wandered off pretty much without a backward glance (he did yell “No” every time I said I was leaving) while Big melted to my side and refused to talk to anyone or even look up.

Hohum. Eventually managed to detach her from my arm and get her sat down with some breakfast, but she was definitely wobbly, so so was I when I finally gave up on getting Small to say bye and just walked out. Spent the morning attempting to work and sitting feeling sick at my desk, caved at lunchtime and had a bad moment when I tried to ring to check on them, got an unrecognised male voice answer the phone and then have it go dead. Rang again ten minutes later and got one of the staff members I’d met that morning, who slightly apologetically told me that they were both having a wonderful time, and neither of them had mentioned me at all. Wasn’t quite sure whether to laugh or cry at that, but settled for pleased that they were happy.

Got there to pick them up about 5.20, after a nightmarish trip through the centre of Brighouse, which was completely unintended. This should have served as a warning for the rest of the evening 🙁 Anyway, the children were mildly pleased to see me, although Small didn’t actually want to leave at all. Got them into the car and he was asleep before we’d made it onto the motorway.

Had plans to visit Skelthwaite ;), but due to my abject stupidity we ended up having a less than scenic tour of Saddleworth moor in the pouring rain and darkness, and driving for an hour and 20 minutes to get somewhere that should have taken 30 at the outside. We weren’t l lost precisely – it was just that I didn’t realise that you can’t get off the M62 at jn 23, so went past 24 and then had to go to 22…. and given the stress level of the day as a whole, I unsurprisingly drove the last 45 minutes in floods of tears, while swearing at myself and attempting to keep my glasses from getting steamed up.

It was not good.

Was very pleased to eventually arrive off the path, where the children finally woke up (was very pleased that they slept through my stupidity, not sure how I’d have held together while Big criticised my navigation skills as she is wont to do), just about in time to go to bed. Obviously then took rather a long time to get them to sleep, but they eventually settled down so that Jan and I could sit and chat, while she blogged and I crocheted. Not that I did much as I ran out of wool.

Journey this morning was much more pleasant. Small wandered off holding hands with a member of staff, and waved over his shoulder at me without looking back, and Big ran off to find her indoor shoes. I in turn had a much more productive day at work, assisted as well by the fact that I wasn’t in extreme pain today (I just love celebrating my womanhood, don’t you? 😉 ), and got to pick them up and have a good chat with A, the principal. After only two days with him, they’ve sussed that Small is quite bright really, and want to try him out in the children’s house, which is usually where the 3-6 year olds go. I think he’ll love it – this whole playing with physical stuff is right up his street. When I got there tonight they were both doing jigsaws aimed at age 5 (I know all this age related stuff is pretty off beam, just trying to put this in some kind of context for those of you that can’t see that this was a jigsaw with lots of very small pieces, and I was somewhat surprised to find him doing it as fast as Big was doing hers).

‘Bout the only doubt that I have about him going into the children’s house, is that that is where Big will be, and I don’t want them to wreck each others experience. But I get the impression that A will have her eye on that anyway.

So overall, the school gets a resounding thumbs up from all concerned, although it’s a very long day for the children, and they were incredibly tired by the time we eventually got home (mini rant, don’t you hate it when you’ve listened to the traffic report on the radio, they have done their round up, then tell you you’re up to date, and they haven’t mentioned the motorway where you are sitting with your handbrake on?).

No school tomorrow. Ballet though, and work for me and Tim.

Sure there were other things I wanted to cover, but I’ve been at this for over an hour now, and I’m beginning to weave, so I’ll call it a night.