Far too much to catch up on.

“I can’t remember last week…. at least i know such things happened but i can’t see them anymore” Misquote- unmisquote….

lol… anyway…

Last Monday – drove down to the Portico – didn’t get lost, didn’t need directions. Not bad not bad…. Kids and adults all delighted to see each other and all appeared to get on very well together all week. Unless i missed something, which is possible of course. Alison, please let your mum know a thank you note is in the pipeline but i haven’t made it that far yet. Anyway, kids were all delighted to have the space of gamma and gaffers establishment to frequent and i began a 10 day internet cold turkey, mainly due to Elijahs technical expertise! I really like the fluidity of the Portico/Puddle dynamic – there doesn’t actually appear to be a significant pairing off – everyone seems to get on well at different times. Well except Ammi and Tallulah of course; since apparently Ammi looks at Tallulah and sees babydolly-stealing-devil-hell-child… strange really as she looks rather cute and adorable to me. Possibly Ammi feels she got the wrong mother and is jealous… i dunno! i was particularly intrigued later in the week to see Poppy and Moo get on really well.

Tuesday i drove back up to Oxon and visited my cousin and her boy – we miss them a lot and Fran cried when i was time to go. Only got lost once… and probably wouldn’t have had i looked at a map before leaving! Not quite sure why i thought winging it would work!

Wednesday i adored as i took Fran, Poppy and Matilda off to Windsor Castle. Aside from struggling to overcome my terrorist attack anxieties (checking for cupboards to dive into and making sure the planes overhead were pointing upwards) we had a lovely time. It was SO nice to be out with interested, intelligent BIG kids with no nappies to worry about, or i hate learning stuff strops etc. They were really wonderful to be out with and i felt incredibly proud of all of them. Its really nice when you can feel genuinely friends with a friend’s children too and i do feel that about Poppy and Matilda. They were all into the wall charts of different kings and queens, asked questions, remembered stuff when we saw other things later, asked to go on to see other things, looked at the activity trails we had and were keen to investigate.

Moments of great amusement were, i have to say, mainly produced by the AWESOME hostage style negotiation skills of Poppy who narrowly missed out on convincing me to lend her £20 for a set of ornamental teaspoons and also by her telling the castle supervisor that we had been given a rather good deal at the gate on the basis that Fran looks minute compared to Matilda, despite actually being older. I hasten to add i didn’t lie but had my absolute honesty completely ignored by a very nice gate lady :~) Fran also moved me enormously by being struck completely dumb at Henry VIII’s tomb and on seeing his actual armour and Katherine of Aragon’s prayer box. Queen Charlotte’s dolls house, the state rooms and the restored areas after the fire were amazing. All in all it was a great day and i really want to do the same again soon.

It was fascinating to be out with such different children – i expect mine to be different now cos i am used to them but P and M are so completely different too – its sort of mind boggling somehow…. It was also grerat to leave moo with someone i could trust and know she would be fine. And she was :~)

Thursday Fran and Matilda went off to a day out at Beale Park and learned to survive in the wild, although Fran did tell me quite seriously she wasn’t sure she actually COULD survive! rofl! After telling Alison that her parents had had a car accident, which given that it was the week of the anniversary of a friend dying in the same way was possibly my worst nightmare of a piece of information to impart, we were off – and took 90 minutes longer than normal to get home. ARGH!

Friday we started moving and its all pretty much a blur from there till Tuesday!!!!! My mum removed the children on Saturday till Monday, thank goodness and i hobbled about with a VERY sore leg and feeling a bit of a general woose! We are in, the cleaning at the old place was horrible and i own A LOT of CRUD!!!!! Still Max managed to take a small corner off our car with the hired lorry, so at least its not just me who has hurt the car now!

Tuesday we were all going to go to the scan having utterly failed to get a sitter and just as we were leaving Ammi threw up everywhere so i had to go on my own. Luckily there is only one in there! PHEW!!!!! It was all curled up in a ball so there was not much to see. maternity units seem to show the pathetic side of life somehow.. particularly rather dumb looking girls of about 12 who appear to have got pregnant…. hmmmmm….. babies SHOULD NOT be having babies. Its not fair on anyone. *She says completely judgementally*

Which, given that i have really unpacked solidly since, brings me up to date, except photos which i will do soon.