Happy New Year
And what a nice end to the last one it was :~) Max has been off work since the day before Xmas Eve so its been a really nice family break. We’ve spent a lot of time all together and just “being” and seem to have been able to relax and enjoy it. If it wasn’t for Moo, who has been a complete stress monster, it would have been idyllic but even with her throwing a wobbly, its been okay. In many ways it made us just chill out and not do much cos she really couldn’t handle it and that has maybe worked well all round.
Deeply into her Kids K’nex
I don’t quite know what the problem has been, except that she isn’t over keen on routine changes, but something went very wrong up at my mum and dads when the water in the toilet was blue not clear. This reduced her to being incapable of using ANY toilet and she is wetting or using a potty or screaming hysterically at the sight or sound of a toilet. Its all a bit wearing. She won’t eat either and even the slightest touch from anyone is setting off complete panic attacks. Eventually the other day she actually took herself off to bed in the middle of the day and just lay there sobbing – i really felt for her but there was no comforting her :~( Its really been back to a year ago and thats NOT a good feeling.
Knex Butterflies
On the upside we had a nice couple of afternoons at a drop in session at her nursery – i took Fran too and we had a nice time – Fran enjoyed being in that environment again and i liked seeing how Moo spends her time there too. It was very pleasant and very cheap and certainly helped the cabin fever – we were going to go back for the third day but Moo got upset about the fact the other children she knows weren’t there and that i had taken her not her lift, so we gave up *sighs deeply* Originally we were going to all spend new Year with my parents but there were going to be lots of people there and we decided it would be too much for her. Poor old girl :~( She even put a bead up her nose *shrieks and wonders what is wrong with my children!* It was a Hama one and looked like it was going a long way up but she managed to anti-sniff it out again!
A Moo’s Glooze Blue’s Clues pawprint
We’ve a had nice trip out to the park and realized that in the couple of months since we last took their bikes out they have REALLY grown – saddles need to go up in a big way! lol!
The reason Frans hat looks so silly is she had a packet of crsips under it… just called her Paddington… (or mad!)
I’ve spent a bit of time playing number games with Moo and Fran to a certain extent too – the first was with maths rods – i got them to make number stairs with me – and each time they made a queue of white blocks long enough, they swapped it with the right coloured longer block. I found it really interesting to watch, especially as i had been reading John Holt who talks about the understanding (or lack of it) of how numbers work and relate to each other. Fran, perfectly capably but nonetheless slowly counted each set of blocks and swapped them, returned her blocks to the pile and recounted the next lot. Moo, with no prompting, nothing from me and actually not even sitting nearest me, just added one block to the end of the row each time for the new rod – she just “saw” what she needed and did it. I found the difference in them amazing to watch. Yesterday while Fran was out with Max, Moo and i used the DK Number Puzzle game – i sorted out the addition ones, told her that + meant “and” and then showed her once how to put a number of blocks next to a number, then add the two groups and find the card with the right answer. She did it faultlessly at least 30 times and only got thrown by “0” – and even then i called it “nothing” and she said “Mummy, its zero” – but she didn’t seem to really know what that was. Anyway, i am starting to feel like i can find things to interest her now.
Scruff has been singing “Sing HO! for the life of a bear!” (constantly!) and has learnt Maddy, Frances, more, and several other words too. She is gorgeous right now – so gorgeous in fact that daddy now wants another one too! lol! (ARGH! I must be mad!)
Fran wants to get back to “learning” and so today we prepared a load of info books from School Express on fish, sharks, frozen water and so on to start using next week. She really impressed me the other day when i was reading them Jack and the Beanstalk – as they “climbed out on to the fluffy clouds” she said “But clouds are just lots of water drops, they would fall right through!” – ah ha! She does listen! She has been very interested in fog, clouds, breath you can see and so on – but i was well impressed even so – that had me confused till i was way older than 5 – mainly BECAUSE of the fairytale aspect i think.
Today the have all played imaginatively together all day – its been so nice. The longest game was an acting out of the nativity, with Scruff being a very patient Jesus, Fran being Mary and Moo playing an angel in full fairy outfit stood on the arm of the chair and instructing Fran on how to play the story right! Now they are watching Ice Age and making thank you cards with sticky back geometric shapes and little shaped cards i got from the scrap store.
And here are the cards. They started doing this at the same time and finished at the same time as well – its an amazing illustration of their differences. Fran goes for quantity and produced loads, some with pictures and many of them random
while Moo did 5 incredibly careful ones,
each of which was a very particular thing (incidentally Fran copied the sun from Moo rather than vice versa). The bits of card were single bits, not folded and at some point Moo must have got the sellotape because each one had been very carefully taped to another piece, lined up perfectly and with beautifully flat tape, to make proper cards. Then she came in to me and asked me to write names of her friends and relations into each one.
