Kessingland Muddle puddle Campsite nearly full!!

Apparently. My goodness. Next year it’ll be the size of HESFES!

All the last minute people had better book!!

SOOOOO 2

BB’s favourite thing is to shout NOOOO very loudly, or scream she wants something in a progressively louder voice – as if that is going to make it magically appear. being destructive or hurting SB also a good move.

hmmm

SB never really did this phase – perhaps because both of us were less tired and less stressed and she got far more individual attention?

Anyway, doing my best with quiet firmness [through gritted teeth at times, but trying hard for them not to be] and positive reinforcement of everything else. ALso sticking to the always say yes when given a book to read, in the hope that if she wants my attention, she will realise that a book will always getting, whereas biting/scratching or ruining whatever SB is doing wont.

Of course need to keep SB chipper through this too!!

have to say, that when she wishes to be, she is utterly adorable too.

This too will pass hey?

under the shade of a ‘cooliar’ tree

which is one of the many phrases from songs that BB likes to string together. At the moment she likes to tag different songs together. [in fact she is doing that at the mo - 22:43!]

Well, BB woke up v early, so we had a singing session whilst chris tried to stay asleep. eventually chris admitted to being awake, so BB made him get up, and I finished an Iain Banks book [inversions] until SB rousted me out.

Today was an outside day. Amazingly it didn’t rain. [how english of me!!] So we got out pool, our new camping table – obviously you can’t home-ed without a table! And our gazebo – perfect. SO we hama-ed. I’ve done another sort of dreamtime hama – when I put it on flickr, you can guess the story if you’re feeling bored. Also the girls splashed and raced about. SB also kept confetti-ing me with grass seeds, so I have itched all day.

SB did some maths – she insists on doing it all in her head rather than writing it out. fair enough. i just ask her to write it in columns if she gets it wrong – which she did once. though she did take 15 mins to do the first addition [looking at birds, BB, my hama design, discussing how biro's work - you get the picture!] She says she prefers subtraction. BB did some kids k’nex and fell asleep at lunchtime.

We did some SOTW – julius caesar attacking britain, falling for cleopatra and getting murdered. SB enjoyed this, and we looked at other books around things – celts, cleopatra etc. BB woke up, so more playing and then planted out the rest of our cucurbits – squash, pumpkins and courgettes. they are desperate and very late. the girls helped – bb putting the rooster in the hole, and SB the plant. i had to dig all the holes mind you! We picked a bowl of strawbs in the morning, and a huge bowl in the afternoon – far to many to eat raw! bit of garden maintenance whilst the girls did the picking.

Discussed all sorts of trivia – she has a good memory for things when she fancies it. Just a nice family day – and how i have needed it. SB is so loving and caring. even when she is being teethgrindingly flighty she is so precious to me. The girls had a wild bath and SB soaped BB’s hair – cue major wails. Much fussing to get BB to consent to me washing it out!

We made strawberry tart and strawberry milkshake for pud – yummy!! SB went to bed and read me stories – I have to say WOW for her reading now. she often forgets to read out loud, and the pages flip over quickly.

BB has now gone to bed – way later!! I have read her stories, she has watched baby einstein neptune – she likes the fish and she has bossed me around – a lot!! She is just so gorgeous, and such a strong will!!

the weather ahead

it crossed my mind i could have a look at kessie weather – looks like a wellie week!!

from Merry – my Daemon mark 2

What Animal Would Your Daemon Settle As?

Your EAGLE DAEMON represents an unlikely combination of fierce pride and remarkable wisdom. Though widely admired, you can be very distant at times, and like to stay out of people’s personal lives.
Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

well, initially i got a hare like merry. but so not me! so I became more calculated as i looked at the stars – daft question really! and this is more like it – rofl!!

today

we went to little nanny’s and gave aunty margaret her pressie. chris has to drive as i was too migrainous. took a long time getting out, and then nearly trapped by village carnival floats! SB and BB gorgeous as usual. aunty m delighted to see them. she used to see SB fortnightly when we lived in leeds, and has really missed it – as have i.

home – sill migrainous. saw surreal final apprentice -good for rory really, the boat would have sunk!

Natural history museum

we went yesterday and it was fab. a full 12 hours out so we were exhausted on return! It did make the journey in easier in that we could swap to tube before the main London station which then took us to south ken. We had brekkie of cheese scones on the train, and a runabout when we got there.

SB chose the young explorers monster pack – which is the dinosaur one. I didn’t think it would take that much time, but it really captured her imagination. I thought there could have been a bit more, but it was free! There was a bag in it with 3 clues in it to identify your specimen. SB was so methodical that she had carefully scoured so well on this that we knew which specimen it was from clue 1, so it was a bit disappointing for us that clues 2 and 3 were the same one. However, we did expand it a bit! i loved her spottisorus [her spelling].

Chris took BB for a run around the whole museum in the end. She did come back and invented her own spider dinosaur! We had our packed lunch and made our way back, looking at the marine fossils, primates and then Chris took BB for a run in the garden outside, and SB and I went to the main dinosaur bit – which she really loved, espec the T-rex. We all joined up in the human biology segment. BB loved listening to the toddler talk and randomly pushing buttons, where SB tried a bit more! I don’t think we quite did enough homework to keep BB interested though, so Chris ended up not seeing much of the museum, and me not much of BB. we can work on that for another time. Chris and I were worn out, so had restorative coffee. we left the museum at 4pm!!

We caught a bus from Hyde Park to Trafalgar square and SB was desperate to climb a lion. We said she had to do it unaided, and she had a damn good try! We went to an Italian just of leicester square for a cheap dinner before heading off home. BB totally charmed the waiters there by scampering about, and giggling.
Such a great day. loads of conversations with Sb about allsorts [including congestion charges and car sharing which she was most taken by!] She def wants to go to the science museum and the earth bit if the natural history, an open top bus ride, the london eye [you get the drift] and would like to live in cenral london!! [no smallholding then!!]

great time out. we did take photos, but you may have noticed we are well behind on flickring again – oops.

the most unrelaxing time off work.

partly because there are a couple of issues that mean i can’t actually switch off and rest from. but they are also difficult to do anything about. I prefer omnipotence than this worrying and dithering!

And because there were a variety of tasks to tick!

Anyway, Mon and Tues were good. I think – in retrospect – that I will never book anything dentisty in!

Wed a bit of a stress, as we made an unplanned visit to chris’s parents on the wed, to see his uncle, aunt, cousin with husband and baby [the teeny tiny one born earlier in the year]. Unfortunately Chris’ uncle has bowel cancer, and not presently suitable for operation. He is having chemo, and had a dreadful reaction the firs time. Yesterday he was tired, and not his full fettle, but certainly better than we were anticipating. [lots of prepping SB]. Baby A is gorgeous and very smiley and laid back [aargh I feel broody!] SB and BB adored her and helped bring her things. BB was amazingly gentle and gorgeous. I say amazingly, as she stabbed SB purposefully with scissors before we had left home! [scissor privileges most def withdrawn] ANyway, a family day. But I had to do dentist dash in the middle – and obviously dentist not so close to Chris’s parents! My Daa had also arrived before we left – so seemed a bit odd to hello-goodbye. He was on his way to a golf match, which got cancelled whilst he was here, so he trimmed our topiary – good dad!

last night though I had loads of unsettled dreams and woke up with work palpitations and too little sleep. SB did lots of reading to Dad and some singapore maths. he was trying to teach her to catch a ball. like Monster, I think she has inherited a non-schools sports gene pool. i was v good at swimmer [hey, I was a lot thinner!]. She does seem to be good at gymn type stuff too. Must follow that one day, but she is keen on joining trampolining club, so think that should do!

Then in afternoon we went into town to have eyes checked. I went in with SB, who confidently said she was home-ed so no whiteboard [when asked] but that she was good at using the computer and could read! The optician was good too, but when SB talked about pupils and could say which bit they were and seemed interested, the optician explained what she was doing at every step, what they might find. Coolest is the new machine for taking pictures of the retina – no more ophthalmoscope! BB was in there with us in totally charming mode. Both girls stayed oK, whilst chris and I dithered over glasses. You know, I look no great shakes, and glasses don’t add much. I have no style talent, so actually in front of everyone having to try the things on and look like I care – which I do of course, but I don’t actually have any ability here!! Oh well, chose an unlikely pair anyway.

we also went to milletts and BB investigated everything whilst chris pondered. Eventually we left, and it was tipping it down. Got back in time for SB to go to ballet, and BB and i made choc cookies and cheese scones. Lots more reading and some DS-ing and both girls now tucked up.

We must have early night.

oh, and the other bit of crapness was we were supposed to go and visit little nanny this week and drop off aunty margaret’s birthday pressie for next week. except little nanny is with aunty margaret this week. her pressie not that transportable. We were doing other things this weekend, but chris has apologised for our absence [I believe, if not, I apologise for our absence] as I have to see little nanny whilst Aunty M drops her off. its been ages since we visited, we can’t go till after kessingland. my life and diary are a mess!!

cropping

I am now cropping 438 photos [see number approaching 400!] to 4 by 6. I know photobox will do it, but I will do it better manually. Boring as hell though!

Me and my smelly shoes

well, me and Sb got some not-quite-crocs from ebay. very cheap unfortunately the seller had a problem with knowing colours, as we were supposed to have lime green and pink respectively, but she just focused on the pink! I can live with pink feet I guess!

Anyway, an early start as SB reading at the library [see, public speaking at 6!] she read a Clifford book, a couple of dog poems and a kipper book. i liked her way of getting the children to take turns with the flaps, and BB her little helper. She then did a sticking material onto cut out dogs craft. The session is obviously for under 5′s!!

We did some singapore maths 2A – finally we get to do adding up and carrying in columns! i breath a sigh of relief at this. SB though good at doing it in her head with the tens and units, but columns help with the hundreds. The only real difficulty is with doing 5 and 2 variably back to front, it can be difficult seeing what her answer is!!

BB did lots of colouring in and cutting, and playing games with the pencils being people. She has also just got keen on ‘galloping’ either with the hobby horse or broom! She also helps SB’s maths by shouting out random numbers. [not welcomed!!]

We played outside, picked some broad beans and mangetout – the girls ate the mangetout directly, the broad beans for tea! Lots of fun with watershooters for the girls – chris got a bit carried away [surprise suprise] so I was drenched. Though was nice after boiling alove in the greenhouse.

SB had swimming, and I watched in the gallery. she is a bit of a flibberdygibbert! the coach kept an eye on her, as she was doing duck dives as often as anything else! WIll try and at least get front crawl pinned down on holiday. And mushroom floats, as SB thinks the idea is to curl up in a ball, and then fling out as wildly as poss!

When we came back she did some jump ahead 1 CD – which she finds nice and easy, so a fun thing . And we did some violin practice, with me playing it with her a bit – mostly to try and pin down the timing. She was a bit freaked by this, so haven’t tried a canon yet! I think she has done really well to get so far,but not sure it will be up for a canon with Joe, but she is keen to go ahead. Back to positives though, we only really started practicing the violin vaguely seriously when Sarah suggested a duet, so I think to be playing a recognisable tune with a reasonable bow hold, though varying violin hold and enjoying it is a real achievement.

erm, more reading to each other, playing games and tidying up. ’bout it.

oh, and its the new crocs-a-likes that have a weird smell!!