Category Archives: Dance/drama

A day at peace

well, no, but certainly more peaceful than the last 2!

quick catchup for chris

MonSports group [SB considering trying the older group now], Nana and grandad dropped off SB’s present – a HUGE tub of k’nex [SB v happy!] ballet and swimming. SB has conquered her fear of the deep, so the inline skates are hers!

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Tuespiano practice, maths 2A [multiplying] library visit am [crafts and book reading], BB in playgroup pm [chris and SB tend to stay for first 30 mins and then she's happy] SB did a fairy craft kit whilst she was there. SB also did some education city – apparently it is now all to easy for her. i am humming about paying to upgrade as she hasn’t done it for ages, but she might do at the right level. guess a side order trial on the cards!

crafting

Today – well, part of the peace came from dividing and conquering! SB went with chris to a drama group – its a 4 session taster for the younger HE’ers in the area. [from the communication, I think the older group is at times 'a little uncontrolled' so not something that SB would enjoy!] The younger group is full of friends. She really enjoyed it.

BB’s morning was spent with me. we started making shapes with geomags, and the twizzlers – which she really liked. She then got out the pattern blocks and pages, so we spent a while there. She is really good at seeing which shapes will fit. painting next – lots of hand art too – as always! we then started to make olive and cheese scones for lunch, and SB and chris got back.

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both girls did some webland – SB is going through a making music phase. BB also did some poisson rouge, and was very excited that a new bit – an art gallery. We had scones and fruit for lunch – sb had 6!!!! [they were very yummy - and i use past tense advisedly!]. SB did a piano practice, and i haven’t done one with her for ages, but she has regularly played older pieces in the book. it seems to have done her confidence good, and now she is much more confident at reading the notes, and so moving the hads around on the keyboard. She then decided BB could have her skates. ‘if we wait until BB has been good, then she will have grown out of them’ fair enough! Though BB did say thankyou beautifully for us ‘boughting’ them. I do love language acquisition, and the variable past tense we get. SO a lot of wild skating ensued, no broken arms.

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SB did a violin practice – very good, and then BB did one too. SB went off to find a craft kit to do, and came back with the cambridge electronics kit. so we made circuits, played tunes and then did the flying disk – always a favourite. some more mad skating – getting wilder and wilder, and finally a calming down infront of pingu before tea and bed for bB, SB and i had a games session, including landlock, where she managed to put 4 gnomes together! i read her a chapter of ballet shoes – coming to the end – and she read me some of the fairy books.

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Chris went out to a meet and greet with LEA. said it was interesting, friendly and useful. doing those channels of communication thing, set up by 1 of our 2 not local groups!

mothering sunday

Actually I think my real mothers day present was just as we came away to Melrose, and SB bought me some flowers. i brought them to Melrose and popped them on the mantelpiece -they are prob still there as our leaving was a tad disorganised. But they were spontaeous because she thought I would like the wrapping. That really is a mothers day gift.

cards and flowers

i knew I would get a card, because on the way home I bought a card for my mum and little nanny, so SB came with me and chose one for me to buy [rofl!]. She chose a beautiful card that really suited her – a fairy one sprinkling glitter. i would have been just as happy with a home made one – in fact i suggested a thurs card craft to some dads at melrose, but they looked horrified/sheepish/you must be joking at me!!

Antway so i came downstairs and was told i was about to have breakfast in bed. oK, i hopped under the duvet on the sofa. what would i like? hmm, onions, sweetcorn and mushrooms on toast, no? err, scrambled eggs? no? oh, something SB can make – weetabix! So she balanced that, a cup of tea and a jamjar decorated with fimo and a dafodil in it. those that read twitter will know that she tipped it all off as she reached me. never mind i said, lets mop it up and try again, so she did!!

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What mothers day has mostly said to me though, is that I am not particularly shining example of motherhood. i used to be pretty good at the patience and joining in, but I had teeth in gritted mode so often today that i am suprised i can open my mouth. yes, BB is very challenging, but i think that a lot of it might be that i am just to crap to give her the attention she needs and sort out the right strategies. her and SB are screeching within 3 seconds of being left alone – and it isn’t all BB, but a majority. I can here my gritted teeth voice in SB too, which is awful. She just doesn’t care about anyones pov, whether she has hurt them, but wants what she wants when and how she wants it, instantly, always.

oops, this isn’t finished. i pressed wrong button, and will return!

SO, that has been quite stressful. for example, i bought a tiny mini violin magnet for SB to say i was proud of her for being part of the orchestra. bb whips it and says it is hers – actually before i have given it. sb looks dejected. so i do the oh no it isn’t routine. sb says its all right, bb cn have it if she wants. do you want it sb, shrug, sb do you want it. give it to who you want to mum. i gave it to you [counterpoint bb screaming its hers in background] i would like you to have it because i am proud of you giving the harder part a go and enjoying playing and getting your friends interested. well, i would like it. i take from bb – cue foaming at mouth screaming wailing and kicking. sb clenches it tightly, clear she wants it. i hug her and give her a kiss and repeat why its hers. bb in a total frenzy. oK, i should have had something for bb. but sb has a resigned and doleful air about surrendering everything to bb. should she be more encouraged to be assertive? surely if i was a good mum she would tell me what she wants? and does she side with bb to get her out of trouble because we overreact to bb??? aarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

hmm, ok, so what have we done today? well, bb and i did some of her before the code letter f stuff [at her request!] and she was adorable. SB was doing education city science at the time. BB did some starfall and SB did some playing with webkinz. SB did some singapore maths and we did a rather excellent violin practice together. we had a stressful time getting her dance mat that hooks to the tv to work again [well, it was last used 3 years ago, when deemed too difficult] but i managed it. and i managed to get the melrose game on 2 different computers so that both could play it – well bb couldn’t so i did that for her at her insistence whilst she frothed and foamed and jumped on me until i stalked off. and sb please to see ‘her’ level. at tea, sb said she was bored and today was boring. i guess it was. but we have loads of stuff she could have done. humm. glumness alround.

bouncing, grooving and swimming

chris knows the initial bit of the day, as i got home mid afternoon. it involved shopping, and it involved going to the halfterm trampolining sessions at the local sports centre. SB and Chris also looked at a country file magazine set about UK animals and birds, and she also read gregs microscope again. BB is rather upset that she no longer goes to gym, so we might try again the gymtots type session.

When I got home, SB and i did some violin practice [ she is finding playing while i count v difficult - not sure how succesful the melrose music will be, but as long as it is fun...] and then opened my amazon box for the movin and groovin dvd! this is part of my try and get fit regime. I realised that i would only actually do it, if i did it with kids, and that my fitness level is at 0, so Jax’s choice of dirty dancing grt fit was never going to be in my league! once i had sent chris out for sniggering, it was much better. honestly, you would think i would get a bit of support – i do know how silly i must look! ANyway, we did half an hour, and SB was then tired, so not bad, and we hope to do this 3 times a week.

BB had been asleep and woke up for a bit of painting of her airdried clay dinodor balls, whilst SB did some maths. i took SB swimming, as we are gradually acclimatising her to the idea of changing on her own in the ladies. i was in there, but not helpful! i loved watching her swim, she puts a lot of effort in, but even the instructor looked dumbfounded at her doggy paddle /crawl arms paired with half breast stroke half butterfly legs!! she did survive a width with this though! There were only 2 of them today so they worked well, and the crawl visibly improved. I am v pleased with this instructor. SB also appears not bothered by the deep end thing anymore.

Home and we watched some TV, BB and i did a jigsaw and then some paper shredding! some fun and games with me singing a hornpipe faster and faster, and the girls dancing more and more wildly! SB has gone to bed with a worst witch book and a magic school house chapter book, to see if she enjoys them. [she gets through a book a night - thank goodness for the library!]

busy busy

we had an out and about day today. HE sports session, which SB loves. we adults and bb chatted and socialised in the corridor. we then popped into the shopping centre to spend some xmas vouchers. we did well! SB and BB had fun in the ELC and Waterstones. SB and BB were impressed with buying a book in the bookstore rather than internet! We had lunch out at a place recommended by Bob before – good recommendation thanks! whilst at lunch bb refused to put on her shoes as they hurt. so we went to clarks and spent a huge amount reshodding the girls. ho humm.

so back, and SB ballet and swimming, and bB tiptapping on her hammer in pins toy. i am not totally convinced that giving bb a hammer and tacks is wise, but she has loved the toy. we also did some baking together. All watched the start of walking with beasts.

A day of 2 halves

We had one child each for most of the day. Not my ideal, but seemed a good idea at the time. Chris took SB off for a drama taster session. She really enjoyed it. they celebrated a friends birthday there too before coming back.

BB and i meanwhile, played with the k’nex building aeroplanes, did some painting – actually most impressed by her use of colour, read books and went outside to play in the sun for a bit. We got cold as scantily dressed, so leappadded indoors and had lunch as she was too hungry to wait for chris and SB.

when SB came home they had lunch. SB then did a fair amount of reading, BB and i played with a traintrack, then did SB’s violin practice. I took SB to rainbows and was helper for the session, whilst BB stayed with chris. i enjoyed the helpering actually. they did a great puppet colouring in craft, and i was rather bossy in enabling the girls to share the pens [oops] but 4 of them had piggies, and there were 2 pinks, and initially the all wanted all pink – so we thought of other ways to do things!! Chris and bB were out in the garden.
back home, and we had a watch of some magic school bus, but something went wrong with the server connection, so instead have had a walking with dinosaurs fest! [AKA a nice snuggle on the sofa!] i have started readign SB ballet shoes as a bedtime story
Sis has surgery tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

If i don’t blog immediately i forget everything!

I am having a problem with yesterday! SB did some violin practice and something else home-eddy [not sure what!] we read french books, looked at some barefoot stories together and we all did duplo. ermmmm….oh yes, BB and i had a go with some maize pictures. we are nearly out of happy maize and will have to look for something else. oh, some more leappadding and SB curled up with a book.
Mum and Dad arrived, as she went to # clinic for her plaster off today, so stopped overnight. cue much excitement from girls, running around having fun, being read too and lots of games! We also fed the fish, pottered outside, and did the RSPB birdwatch. Whiskey chasing a mouse around, SB crashing her binoculars against the window, and BB ‘popping out to scooter’ probably accounted for the poor show!

today i think chris has been quite busy! Sb practiced violin, did some handwriting, did the horrible science heart kit [which was fun although not a huge success! chris was impressed about how much SB remembered of the heart – 4 vessels, valves, lung thing etc. i have got a very accurate model heart that periodically she looks at, and she is always peering at one of the many body books we have. She also did some DK science cdrom [though a lot of cbeebies as well!] BB had obvously done a lot of duplo-ing! as well has watching nina and the neurons and magic school bus [obviously a science day].

when I got home, we read some lucy chat – actually SB had a stab at reading the french – impressed, moi?? SB went off to ballet whilst BB and I played bob the builder duplo, and a sort of snakes and ladders! [i mostly do what i am told] and we started decorating a wooden spoon.

i took SB to swimming. She seems to have great confindence in the water, but often near drowns herself by huge movements! her rbeast stroke legs are the funniest i have seen, as she gets tangled up, and when it goes ok, she lifts her whole bottom out of the water somehow. SHe has powerful legs though, and however amazing the stroke looks, races through the water. I think we need to go swimming as a family more oten, and have some stroke practice. I think this is why she is worried about the deepend ocasionally. The swimming instructor [steve] has managed this really well, and she gets to swim the width by the edge of the deepend, but i only saw her reach for it 2ce [though she crashed into it going backwards a number of times...]

BB fell asleep nearly the instant we got back, so SB and i played games, including a lot of rounds of uno. BB has her first session at playgroup tomorrow afternoon. SHe waned me to go with her, but I will be at work. This working mum thing really does feel crap a lot of the time. I am with Joanna on the best for family vs me thing.

Miserable monday

was somewhat hit by emotional and crap viral unwellness, feeling v sick and dizzy, stuffed up, and bleurgy. SO I didn’t go into work, and for once didn’t feel guilty [i am good at guilt] because i feel i have nothing left to give in botheredness, its already attributed. I read another lucie chat book to both girls, SB read to me about dinosaurs. they all then cycled off on a playdate and i collapsed in heap on sofa with duvet and tablets.

Much playing went on, and when they returned we had a violin practice. BB played katanimo and then then the ikea building things with screwdrivers etc- think it was bjgga or somesuch nonsense. SB made some shapes with polyhedrons – she was seeing how many she could do and we talked about their names. She found the theory made easy book one very easy, and enjoyed racing through until I said enough!
SB then has her ballet and swimming run. Very proud of her for doing all the swimming today, as she has been very worried. BB and i watched bob the builder, did bob the builder jigsaws and played mother and baby games. on SB’s return we read radius and the king of angleland all together, with BB doing actions with papo people- cute! SB then had a thought about angles.

lots of bedtime stories, but she is still frightened of aliens.

quick catch up blog

well, this weekend I have mostly been eating potatoes. no, this isn’t some new years faddy diet [though heaven knows that I need to shift a fair bit of weight and get fitter this year – I may have said something similar last year. in fact, o the subject of new years resolutions, I made 3 last year, and I’ll try with them again this year], instead this is the try to chase migraine away diet. my job goes through cycles of stressful and majorly and exorbitantly stressful. We are in the latter phase… This tends to increase frequency of migraines, and also seems to reduce the success of any medication. Everything taken thus far has been totally pointless. A bullet in the left temporal region would be far more effective. Anyway, I am blogging, thus the potatoes would seem to have finally won [and plenty of fluids]

However, it being typical that my migraine occurs when off work, I have tried to great levels to still have some interaction with my lovely offspring. ooh, btw, there seems to have been a great reduction in baggy poo poos since normal service has resumed. A low level of them is tolerable!

Yesterday we all went to the panto [may I state for the record that pantos are not ideal with a migraine, but the one hour journey each way was the major stupidity!] I actually enjoyed the panto [yep, even with a migraine, s must have been good]. The cast were enthusiastic, the audience keen and participatory, the story near negligible, just enough to run the gags and music. SB and BB loved it. Their faces shone with excitement, SB in particular loved all the shouting and clapping, BB also got into it. It was so worth it. Arranged by the rainbows – thankyou! I have to say that the look on SB’s face of sheer thrills and enjoyment was worth the hideous journey for me each way. She really loved it.
on return home, to be honest, I just died and went to bed. No idea what chris and the girls did , he thinks they played a game. I got up just before they were going to bed, and delayed things a it. but it felt better to play a game with them and read a story before chris took them up.

Today, still feeling in need of trepaning, i thought I would do better, so got up, read some history to SB, and we did french and latin conversation, times tables and read some barefoot stories all snuggled on the sofa. She then did some violin practice – now we have lost the other blasted book! Anyway, it was lovely to have such a snuggly time with SB. I get to have less snuggles with her now as she gets older they are only on her terms! She is such a lovely girl to snuggle and cuddle.
ermm, oh yes, SB did some webland. BB and I did jigsaws, read books, snuggled and did counting practice. BB amazed me by spelling today. she was spelling zoo lane and said zz oh is zoo!!! She also did some plasticining.

The final decs came down today, and the girls had a joint final present of a jousting papo set to go with the castle stuff. they were ecstatic and had great fun playing. we decided that we all loved christmas, but that the house needs lots of people in it to actually be christmas [BB's wisdom!] . Actually, BB has gone round being ‘wise’ on all sorts of topics recently. She is mostly seriously adorable.

we watched various natury things on tv, SB practiced various dance steps, we all played a few games all together, and generally had an enjoyable day.

my migraine has decreased somewhat this eve, but I have the usual worky nerves. Bah. i hope this is just a phase! Will look forward instead to centreparcs hols – not far away now!

Open Ballet lesson

just got back from work in time to take S to her open ballet lesson. I really enjoyed watching it. SB puts her heart and soul into it and really loves it.  A bit of left and right awareness would prob be helpful!Their teacher appears to really enjoy teaching too.

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Daddy and BB made some yummy scones whilst we were there, and when we got back we all ate one before SB rushed off to swimming.

potentially of interest to all those following the timetable saga, today Sb chose to do ‘happy street’ as SB’s choice – rofl!! She also finished her singapore maths 2A book – woohoo, and did some handwriting practice and piano practice. Since daddy’s doing bedtime, that means no MTH or mummy’s book, so I guess that is 6 boxes today. [ i will get bored of this too!! ]
BB and I got to have a lovely cuddle and snuggle and I put her to bed today. she is currently going through a bit of a winnie the witch phase.

first timetabled day. A maths day

After having a discussion on the starting day of the week, and how it is sunday, though tbh monday seems a more likely point, Sb decided to start her ‘timetable’ today rather than Monday – i think she was desperate to start! However, we actually – I think – didn’t consider ‘the timetable’ as such when choosing what to do.

The girls got up before me and watched nemo. When I got up we did some violin practice – SB getting more and more confident and is holding and playing nicely. practicing jingle bells for Xmas! SB then wanted to do something at her desk, so looked at a roman activity pack, which she probably could have done at a push, but we both agreed might be better left for later, so intead drew me and BB mazes to play with.

new desk

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An interesting discussion over brunch leapt out from how to make yoghurt to measuring temperature, absolute zero and why it was absolute, what it meant on the particle front which meant you couldn’t get colder. how our standard celsius temp is all tied in to water melting and boiling at a standard pressure. etc etc. we weren’t too sure if we had a box for thinking…

BB has done a fair bit of stickering and colouring this morning but mostly played with her lacing game and the bob duplo – which we knew would be a massive hit! S joined her for a bit, and they collected wood to roast chestnuts for all the trucks – rofl!

Sb bought me a ‘box book’ which are interesting books that we choose for the week to go with MTH, my story, SOTW or what she fancies. this one was sir cumference and the round table[ as initially recommended by kirsty]. I read it – SB guessed early on that round was going to be best, and we considered the various maths elements within the story. This led naturally on to drawing lots of circles and marking out diameter, radius and circumference and measuring them. we had a brief chat about pi, but might leave that for a different book! she decided that ‘sircles‘ didn’t fit anywhere in the timetable, so that got added to a blank box.

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SB then took ages getting dressed, and the girls played upstairs for a bit whilst i did a bit more work admin – must never get behind again [who am i kidding!] SB then did some singapore maths [which counts as maths!] and daddy gave her a bit of help, and BB and I played… Bob the builder! SB moved onto zoombinis [computer box] whilst BB and I read lots of books and played lots of games. BB also did some plasticine at one point. Chris found a best of slade cd!! so SB enjoyed dancing around to that.

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getting late and tired, so both up to bath, down to watch numberjacks and mama mirabelle before tea. BB fell asleep pretty much by end of tea, and was whisked upstairs. SB and I have done some felting, and I read to her the first chapter of the new SOTW book while she did this, and then whilst she coloured in a princess. We read the next chapter magic tree house, and 21 balloons at bedtime.

SO we counted that as 9 things! [yesterday without the timetable was 7]