Making It Up

as we go along

swimming

The word of the day is Trust.

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Regular readers will remember that before Christmas we were having some difficulties with Smallest and get swimming lesson. From being almost desperate to go, asking each morning if it was her turn yet, she’d had a complete reversal of attitude and completely lost her nerve. I put this down to a change of teacher and too many big capable children in the group.

Well, at the end of last week I got a call saying that her lesson slot had been cancelled, something to do with not having enough demand. I was offered a number of different times and chose the one that put her back with her original teacher, even though it meant scheduling something into my only completely free day.

Today was D day. Instead of telling her it was swimming, we told her she was going with Judy, and that if Judy wasn’t there we would come home. She kept repeating she was scared that they wouldn’t hold on tight, and I assured her Judy would.

It was Judy. She was pleased to see Smallest and I think rather shocked when she then burst into tears. I was almost crying myself as I explained the problem quickly. Judy took hold of her hand and said “I will hold onto you until you tell me I can let go.” She listened to my three year old, respected her feelings and dealt with the issue.

That was all it took. Within ten minutes Smallest was playing happily independently in the water again, trusting that she was being cared for. And I can feel confident that we are back to building skills and enjoyment instead of fear.

I’m really cross that we’ve been through this at all to be honest. But I’m so pleased that there is someone out there who thinks trust is important.

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Fashion through the ages from the 1550s to 1960s

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It’s been a weekend for contemplating clothing. I tried on the kirtle from Kentwell last night, and think either I’d have to lose a bit more weight, or give up breathing for a week 🙁 Tried it on Big today and it looks rather more manageable, so will have to discuss with Katy whether to adjust it for Big, or adjust it for me, or go back to the drawing board completely.

Lots of reading of costume notes today, and perusing of accessory and costume websites this evening. This I might buy a copy of The Tudor Tailor to assist, I can’t quite get my head around how to get started. Also been looking into fabric sources – we need unbleached linen (apparently Ikea is a good source, shame there isn’t one anywhere around here!) and then wools in muted colours. The local fabric shop might do some of what we need, difficult to tell given their utterly disastrous website. Will actually have to go down and talk to them I suspect.

Going to have to buy shoes I think, really don’t think that I can make them. So that will set us back over £100. This is turning into a fairly expensive history lesson! Still, talking about the expense is a lesson in itself, and discussing how the Tudors would really have managed. It occurred to me that many of the Kentwell costumes that I’ve seen so far are too pristine. They would have been let out, adjusted, handed down, patched – families would not have been able to outfit everyone in new clothes from scratch all the time.

As a break from Kentwell ponderings, Big and I went off to the local art gallery for a private viewing before their new exhibition opens on Tuesday. I’m not entirely sure how we’ve made it on to the invitation only list, but I’m not complaining. It’s rather nice to go along, and today we got to meet the artist/designer/illustrator Sonya Todd, who is the focus of the current exhibition. It was rather fascinating actually – she worked in fashion design in the 1960s, and the prints and illustrations as well as the clothes on show were utterly of that era. I particularly enjoyed the double spread of pics of fashions for Purdy. Think Tim missed out on that one 😉

Quiet afternoon as we’re all tired here. In fact I have no idea why I’m still up, other than that I’ve been pottering about on twitter and randomly commenting on other ppl’s Silent Sunday posts. And responding to comments on mine. All good though.

And the evening involved the obligatory trip to the leisure centre. Big wasn’t sure she could last the whole evening, so instead of dropping and running as I usually do on Sundays, I stopped with Smallest, having popped baked potatoes in the oven for tea, and got to have a lovely chat with another swim club mum. She’s from the North East too, just like Sonya Todd is, so I got my fix of proper accents twice in one day 😉

AFK

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Aargh, days are slipping by without blogging again!

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 🙁 :oops:)

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.