Home Educating the Puddle Girls…

Oh my girls are getting big. Another week or 2 and Ammi and Fran will be 3 and 7 - gulp. And i stand no chance of having anymore, Max has made that very clear. My head is saying next time to me, but there isn’t going to be a next time. I know that is the sensible option but… oh well. Peter Pan complex it is.

Maddy is a bit stressed so we ought to have had a queit day but its been busy. But she has coped much better than she might have so i’m proud of her. Josie fell asleep at 9pm last night, during her tea and slept through being moved to bed, till 8am this morning. She’s been doing regular 10-11 hour stints in her crib for a couple of weeks now. Ammi has moved fully into knickers, no longer likes milk and just seems to very big. In fact, i was struck by how alike she and SB are in character, delicious and high maintenance all at once. Spending time with SB, its easy for me to see how people adore Ammi. I know my relationship with Fran was similar, and its great now, so i’m just biding the time. And Fran, reading EVERYTHING. Lots of interesting questions on things like “by, buy, bye” and so on.

So today was basically a busy “doing things” one. Off to the Optician for me (no detached retina so good, just an effect of ‘aging’, not so good!!!!!) Lovely to see my Aunt and an added bonus was my mum was working in the same time, which we discovered by chance, so we met up for a lovely cafe lunch. Then pootled back for a party, where Fran was the oldest child (very weird) then back home to put up our tent.

This is it without the bedroom pods as (as i predicted) the garden isn’t big enough. Quite amusing to go camping in something bigger than my garden!!!!!

Got a customer issue now - sigh… difficult one, new customer, ordered a week ago and i despatched their parcel. Now saying it hasn’t arrived and demanding an immediate refund. Something in the tone of the email just doesn’t ring true either, i mean ANYONE could say a parcel hadn’t arrived… Site states plainly that items lost in post only refunded if recorded delivery is selected and paid for which they didn’t do. I don’t see why i should take their word for it and refund them after a week, without time for me to look into where its gone, but on the other hand, i’d be pissed off if it was my parcel that had done a bunk. What to do????

Floating Daleks.
Not allowed.

The Beans have been and gone… (Chris, i did chortle at your comment!) Was lovely to have them here; Ammi and SB got on like a house on fire (note to self not to actually SUGGEST “house on fire” as a concept to Ammi :/) and we very much enjoyed their long game of servinig up Geomag dinners…. (how much money have i therefore spent on magnetic playfood?????) Anyway, odds are on for MP camp in the grounds of Chateau Haricot next year.

Their stay was mildly unenhanced by our drains blocking up - ho hum. On the other hand, i’ve just met our landlady, who is really nice and says they definitely have no plans to sell the house at all. Cool.

Tootled off to our group; i was really worried there wouldn’t be enough to do, but thanks to some additions from Tammy, it was lovely. I really think its working very well. There was a bit of charging around at the end, but nothing that i couldn’t stand. is it only boys who do it, or can i actually not SEE the girls doing it as well??? Bizarre boy herd behaviour! Lots of hama, sticking, playdough, crafts, and other people related stuff too. Talked Maryam into having a Hama Party too - quite fancy doing Hama party plan.

Kate collected Fran and took her off for a skating lesson, i collected her and dashed home to feed a very hungry Josie and do another heap of parcels. Josie has been fussy for a day or two but as Ammi and i now have Maddy’s croaky voice and blisters all over our tongue, i’m wondering if Josie does too. And ouch its horrid - my tongue feels prickly all the way down to my lungs. Fran’s been to musical theatre too and is in her last couple of weeks as a Rainbow, Brownies after HESFES.

Educationally, LOTS of reading from Fran, all girls doing lots of computer, lots of drawing, much creativity.

Looking forward to a nice weekend.

and very yummy they are too!

ARGH!

Group tomorrow, had a rough plan of doing “People” as a theme, but have completely failed to get organised! Who is planning on coming and can anyone bring an activity? Pleeeeease……

Slow start, Kate came round, throat has kindly subsided, J appeared. Still v quiet, slightly baffling me. Big girls did some studydog, geomags, made necklaces, hama-ed, played ponies.

Had lunch, marshalled everyone out. Had a lovely time with Tammy and Sam - somehow where they live feels like a totally different town. Effected an interesting and mutually beneficial items swap with them.. lol. Drove home with Fran begging to be allowed to join the Kumon Maths class she saw advertised *rolls eyes*

Girls played Donkey Kong Bongos, i packed parcels. Really feeling quite low and rubbish so i’ll leave it there. Don’t have to hug me, i bore myself tbh. I’m in danger of spending the rest of my life as a kill joy misery guts. *sods off to pity self*

Bob’s big project

Well!!!!

Now WHERE to find the flaming brick to print off??? ARGH!

Finished up the day with dancing, which both the girls seemed to enjoy. Fran is badgering me to be allowed to do the first exam, not sure why she thinks *i* won’t let her actually… its in the hands of her teacher, not me. No idea if she’ll do it, don’t really care that much

Had to have a minor strop at nursery today over what i consider to be a matter of fairly significant safety. Can’t really blog it though, but glad i made my point anyway. Also rang the police to complain that a set of roadworks at a crossroads where the oncoming traffic gets NO warning that they aren’t going to be able to turn left is QUITE stupid; i sat at that crossroads twice today and both times i saw a driver slew to a halt with nowhere to go, traffic having to swerve around them because they hadn’t gone left when people behind them expected them to and then the displaced driver do a U TURN in the middle of a crossroads. *SIGH*

I also rang my midwife to ask for a copy of my most recent delivery notes, disgraced myself by crying when she asked me if i was alright. *sigh again* I WILL be alright. And registered myself with a dentist. Tomorrow i have to order book bags, do a bead order (again) and make about 9 million other decisions. On yeah, back on painkillers and penecillin for my throat too *surprise*

Fran has made me laugh twice today - the first was while she was listening her cd of Greek Myths; its unbelievably blood thirsty, she was blythly listening to accounts of people being racked and tied between two bent, springy trees (!) and then said “Why does it say ‘the end of the world’? The world can’t end?” So i explained about suns dying in about 10 million years or whatever and she promptly started weeping on my lap. *confused*

The this evening she was reading my a Ladybird version of Snow White and it got to the “Mirror Mirror on the wall…” bit and she said “MUMMY!!!! They’ve stolen these lines from Shrek!!!!”
*PMSL*

Our very own Princess Darkheart….

to go with the much beloved Sleeping Beauty

I suppose you have to know Fran, herself and via me, to know how impressive this is. But it *is* impressive. She’s stuck at it for 2 solid days, printed the pictures herself, coloured them herself, cut them out herself, placed and glued them herself on to a background that she designed and coloured. Okay, her sisters helped a bit and J helped with some colouring of sky today, but mostly its hers. And now we are going to photograph it and send it to Cbeebies and send the real version, which is exactly the size of our table, by her bed so its “like a window”.

And she is SO proud of it. I’ve so enjoyed watchnig her skills develop as she’s gone along; colouring skills, cutting neatness, using the web, coming back to check on the details of different characters costumes… but mainly just the planning and executing of a project all of her very own.

You go, girl

The Shape of Things to Come maybe….

Maddy decided not to go to nursery today and Fran asked for the CBeebies website first thing. She found the printable colouring sheets (this girl has pretty much NEVER coloured!) and printed them ALL and then coloured them all, organising Maddy and Amelie into a production line.

And then they designed a CBeebies frieze that they plan to photograph and send in for Fran’s birthday. And that took all day.

Result… i think…

I’m thinking of getting the Inspiron 6000

Anyone got any thoughts? Are those extra offers “typical” of Dell or is it worth buying in the next couple of days to get them?

I thought i ought to just put a bit of “where she is at” for posterity, since i don’t get all that much time to talk about her.

So…

STILL hasn’t rolled over, although if you put her on her front she holds herself up well. She can get half over, she just hasn’t gone right over. Amazing really, all the others were crawling by this age. Mind you, the others adore carrying her about. She probably thinks, “why have a dog and bark yourself?”

Foodwise, still loves boob, perhaps not quite as much, she feeds more infrequently now and has solid tea in the evenings for the last 10 days or so. Since introducing solids, she doesn’t snap awake the minute i move her, so she goes down in her crib at 11pm ish and sleeps through. This morning she didn’t wake up till 10am! She has this fabulous Miss Piggy like “hie-yah!” noise she makes when i get my boob out for her and she lurches for it, really makes me laugh!

She loves her sisters, really missed them at the weekend, has a gorgeous smile, plays with toys now, says “mum.. mum” and “da..da…dada….da..”

Very pink cheeks but no teeth yet, still got her stork marks, plus the odd raised white patches on her tummy are raisng up a bit more too. Slightly eczema-y on her chest, hopefully its impending tooth related. Nothing like Ammi’s was.

Only other thing to say is that she is fast approaching the 9-12 month range of clothing, out of her last lot of baby gros now. Oh yeah, and i adore her.

Maddy (looking at Noddy picture): What’s his name?
Me: His name is Big Ears…
Maddy: Oh….(pause….) Why’s he called Big Ears?

Okaaaaaay…….

Stability results were low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

trait snapshot:paranoid tendencies, irritable, anxious, fidgety, dependent, worrying, emotionally sensitive, prone to regret, depressed, second guesses self, somewhat fragile, dislikes change, prefers organized to unpredictable, suspicious, phobic, craves attention, not a risk taker, low self control, very sensitive to criticism, unadventurous, does not make friends easily, defensive, obsessive, low self esteem

Part of my weekend went on this…. I’m very chuffed with it. I’ve retaken lots of photos for the site, still got lots to do, and finished a couple of other kits too. Now i just need to iron out a weird problem or two (or possibly hope Jax knows the answer!) I’ve done bead mixes, paperwork and all sorts and i’m up to date.

Plus Max and i have had a fab weekend and so, clearly, have the girls. I think Josie missed her sisters a bit. And i watched Gosford Park last night and really liked it. And i don’t feel at ALL shouty!

Ammi, complete star that she is, just did a poo on the toilet! Considering its less than a year since Maddy got the hang of that, i’m WELL impressed!

… to use upstairs for business, which only needed to be able to connect wirelessly to downstairs and run word, dreamweaver, internet, email, excel.. etc etc - and keep some files - and i didn’t want to spend much… what would i get?