What an excellent day

Employing the head in sand approach to the financial situation again here, but hey, it’s working for me 😉

Bad night with Small – he went down at about 7.45 last night, but was restless all evening, Tim settled him down then came down for a coffee and I was working on the computer. We were both a bit surprised when Tim opened the living room door and Small came in, headed for me like he was on rails and cried “mama” when he got there. I had to cuddle him for ages before he’d settle down, and he would only sleep pressed up against me, which doesn’t do much for my sleep.

Up early nevertheless for swimming this morning – Small was shaky and subdued, and appears to have a rather nasty cold, but no temperature or anything.

Big did incredibly well at swimming – to the extent that at one point the rest of the class (bar one girl) were instructed to get out and watch Big and the other girl swim across the pool, with their faces in the water. I’m not sure how I feel about this – Big was very pleased with herself, and I don’t want to detract from her achievement, but at the same time, if she’d been one of those shivering on the side while watching someone else swim…well I don’t think it would have gone down well. Tim and I have debated this extensively this evening, but still aren’t really getting anywhere.

Back to the actual swimming lesson though – we’re 8 lessons into a 12 lesson course, (and Big didn’t attend one lesson, and didn’t do anything in another one), and the teacher said today that when Big finished this course, she would be ready for a level 3/4 class. Given that I don’t think she was actually at level 1 when she started (the previous teacher stretched a point or two to give her that certificate) I can’t believe how much she’s come on.

Shopping after swimming, and both children were pretty well behaved, which makes an extremely pleasant change. Had a bizarre conversation with the woman in front of me at one checkout – “no pushchair?” she asked.

“Nope, I find that if he rests in the pushchair, it doesn’t work well, if he walks he gets tired out”

“Ooh, I saw a report about that on the telly, said that pushchairs aren’t good for children or adults, they aren’t learning to walk and the pushchairs are big and heavy, difficult to get in shops or on the bus – you’re much better off with him walking…”

I’d worked that out for myself, oddly enough, but it was only true because it had been “on the telly”??

Anyway, back for lunch, which Big made for herself, sandwich followed by her chosen treat of strawberries. Then we did some knitting. Only one row, but it took nearly half an hour – lots of nice mathematical conversation in there though 😉 The phone rang while we were doing this – Sarah wanted to know if we were up for getting together. We arranged for her to come over, so I grabbed a quick (but still relaxing) bath while waiting.

Sarah washed up for me (gotta love friends like that). She’d brought her toy scales over and Big spent ages exploring those while being horrid to Dino – who did seem to enjoy playing with Small though. Then they all did some decorating of little plaster shapes that Sarah had brought, so can tick off art as well 😉 I read to Small for a bit, and Sarah read to both smalls I think (I was setting up painting) and we even managed the occasional chat in and amongst.

She dashed off to pick up Roo at the shop and I made real food for tea. Incredibly impressed with myself about that as well. And now it’s bath time.