Thank goodness things improved. was still bluergh first thing, but some coffee and cakes from the bakery helped. I read inumerable books to SB whilst BB used me as a climbing frame and refused to feed properly. BB then played on the floor quite happily – she likes contingency toys, particularly if they are tuneful!
SB and i looked at the new webland [she had done some with Chris whilst I was still bleugh as well]. more singing of 12345, and dino tales. SB has quite got into the games extra sections. It certainly so far has been worth its subscription. We then played dr’s – SB takes it to new levels of realism by being on call and answering the phone from her bed, getting up and asking whether she needs to drive v quickly or not! I had floppy hand, closed eye and shut ear syndromes [seperately]. BB had scratchy nails!
To cut my blurginess short, I decamped to the garden and the MODHEU. I often find an abrupt change of venue, with limited resources suits me better, and gets me active.For SB I took out some jolly phonics workbooks that we haven’t done in ages, some singapore maths, usbourne story of hercules, DK why greeks built temples, a photo album of when she was BB’s age, her dough beads from friday’s puddlers group and some paints. BB had assorted toys and boardbooks – though mostly she wants to stand and bounce bottom!
had to come straight back in, as SB and I disagreed over the wind strength on the beaufort scale – she thought 6, me 4, and on reading the book = 5! Chris put up arbour seat that we had bought for old house to tempt buyers, but never actually put up. took him all day really. SB periodically helping did not really speed up the process.
We were having such a pleasant time that it was 3 o’clock before we remembered to have lunch. SB took a shine to the JP workbooks, and I was sent in to get the rest, and she drew round the letters very carefully – she is definitely getting interested in writing, so glad ordered getty and dubay. She also wrote my whole name out without letter guides [I did spell it letter by letter though] the H and N were the same and a mixture of capital and small, but i was really impressed, as 2 months ago this would have been unthinkable. Real step forward.
The maths wasn’t for her today, but we read the hercules, and the DK greek book. discussed Greek gods a bit – and the one we have in the garden [Bacchus = parties] and what other ones we should have statues of – demeter, hera as for crops and women and children and a dryad. This was not done in any religious way [to stop palpitations and fainting] as we also discussed the Greeks religion of the time, and that no-one practices any more, and that the gods/goddesses were used as a way of focusing the mind on what was important to a person at that time, and also as a way of trying to explain why things happen. Quite philosophical! We decided that although our house needed a clean, we perhaps wouldn’t divert a river through it, as SB was worried our carpets would be ruined. [she can be very practical when I have a flight of fancy]
Thinking of Demeter we went to the overgrown veg patch and harvested some potatoes and onions. in fact all the onions could do with harvesting and drying, and ditto potatoes [well not drying], or they will get slug damaged. When you next visit, Merry, ask and you shall receive! I dig, and SB rummages for them – a good team effort. lots of bugs spotted – favourite is always ladybird. our elderberries also nearly ready for harvesting and jelly making. [ edit 2 – Actually, while we were there, we could hear the hymns of a wedding – very nice, and then enjoyed the pealing bells afterwards.]
oh yes, we painted some of the dough beads [yes, chris did bake them yesterday] BB attempted to eat one, but foiled. [an aside – just loading photos from today and I took 123 – can’t imagine how – so pruning required before flikr!] In fact BB, although dreadful at milk today, has been one eating machine. Top 2 teeth are nearly through, and certainl noticeable to me after a feed – but not like Isabelle yet.
losing thread now, but we returned to each thing a few times – particularly the JP, and SB was sounding out the 3 letter words [whatever they are called] quite confidently. SHe also drew some lovely pictures in the workbooks, i think my favourite was the r for raspberry, which she painstakingly drew the seperate circles for. Her concentration and detail in art really is accelerating. She ‘read’ to BB, made up songs, princess story re-enactments, lots of climbing frame gymnastics [must sort gym out] and general malarkeying about. Unfortunately photo album a casualty, though photos not.
By teatime she was noticeably worn out, so bath first and then tea. While waiting for the quiche to cook we started cutting out for a mudpud recognisable fabric pennant to put on buggy – not sure what with at moment! SB confident at scissors, and cut oval of pond, and some of the spikes, as well as the easier bits of the duck, and the reeds [well, they were going to be beans, but not really identifiable as such, so reeds they are now!] She did nearly all of the butterfly, but was so big compared to duckling, we decided I should trim it down – a shame really. More sounding out and spelling at teatime, then Mog and shirley hughes stories at bed. She and BB flaked out rather quickly.
When i have reduced photos to a number that are not going to use up ther rest of our allowance, will be on flikr!
edit 1- looking at photos, i forgot to say that we ‘decorated’ BB
but they rubbed along happily enough, dresing in fairy outfits each, playing with the Brio train track, scampering around outside. SB showed off one of the Singapore maths books whilst I got the lunch ready.
Couldn’t be bothered to do it again.
