See me after class

Time for our annual meeting with teachers and staff alike to discuss how Joseph and Annabel have been getting on in their respective educational institutions.

Annabel’s key worker pointed out how “helpful” she was when getting the other children to behave.

“By helpful, do you mean, bossy?” I asked, reading between the lines.

“Erm, yes”, came the response. “But bossy in a nice way” she quickly added.

This report hasn’t actually changed from last years report so nothing was too out of the blue, other than she has lots of friends and is very clever – all things we already knew!

Then to Joseph’s school to discuss how he has settled in to reception class and although M and I think he is a nice, polite boy, you cannot beat being told it by an adult that isn’t related to you!!

“He’s very polite boy, very sociable. Everybody likes him” said his teacher in her lovely, slightly aging Scottish accent. “It’s obvious he loves reading and he is doing brilliantly with his writing.

This bit of news shouldn’t bring a lump to your throat should it? But it did – for both of us.

Way to go kids; keep it up!

All you need is love

It won’t surprise you to know that Monday mornings for us is a chaotic time, everyone running here and there, brushing hair and teeth and general pandemonium, in order to get both children to their respective nursery and school as well as get ourselves to work on time.

Not this Monday morning however.

As an anniversary treat, M had booked us in to a spa for the day with massage and flotation treatments, not to mention Jacuzzi, steam room and lunch.

I won’t bore you with the details of our day, apart from to say that you should take the time out to pamper yourself occasionally.

The point of this post is, as you would expect, with regards to our children.

When I am at work, I’m busy and I have my mind focussed on what I am doing. Of course I think about my family on and off but generally, it’s work.

When we give ourselves a special treat like a day at a spa, your mind relaxes and you find yourself talking about …… the children.

By the Jacuzzi, sat in fluffy white gowns sipping Chinese tea, over lunch in a lovely restaurant, you talk about nothing else other than your children.

You might be thinking, “so what, of course you’re going to discuss your kids”, and you might be right.

I just find it funny that when you spend your time, from one week to the next, running here and there, making sure they’re ok and have everything they need, the minute you get an hour to yourself to relax and your thoughts come back to the same thing.

Oh well, that’s love I s’pose.

Its good to talk

Apparently.

Not if you are a Talk Talk customer though, as our internet has been “down” for most of this week, hence my rather erratic posting’s here.

Onward and upward however and the news of the day is of course that it is the 12th of October.

“So what”, I hear you cry.

Well, 7 years ago today, M walked down the aisle looking even more beautiful than usual after agreeing to ditch her maiden name and adopt my surname as her own.

Happy anniversary M – love you muchos
xx

In other news, I got a bit of a shock yesterday when I went to collect Joseph from school. I waved to him as I saw him in the queue of children waiting to be collected and he saw my face drop when I saw the big scabs on his upper and lower lips.

“I fell over” he whispered, looking at my face to gauge my reaction, relieved (I think) that I wasn’t upset/mad/annoyed/all of the above.

A quick plan to go to the ‘rec’ on his scooter brought the smile back to his (sore) face.

And now, the weather. I appreciate that discussing the weather is not the most riveting subject but I must mention it.

Yesterday, leaving the house was like walking into the Stars In Their Eye’s smoking doors, so heavy was the fog. “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be …… Jack Frost”. Thick fog on the drive in to work, drizzling rain all the way, cracking sunshine all day and ends with a beautiful sunset, the sky a wonderful mix of fluffy clouds tinged with red.

Lovely.

Anniversario felice mi amore

I do not like green eggs and ham

You know, I couldn’t tell you when it was that I learned to read. I don’t know what age I was when I picked up a book and actually read the words as opposed to looking at the pictures and making up the story.

Regardless of what age I was then, I am amazed – as I often am – at Joseph’s reading. His school follows the “jolly-phonics” reading and writing formula and it is unbelievable to witness how quickly he has gone from recognising a handful of letters, to reading books back to me at bedtime.

Admittedly, the books he brings home each day have just a handful of repeated words in them, but even after a week, they are getting progressively more difficult.

The important thing is that Joseph is totally chuffed at how amazed and pleased I am with his newfound skills; he really does beam with pride, not to mention laughing out loud when my jaw drops at how he skips through a book.

Incredible!

Some of his new words are here

Oh Missy you’re so fine you blow my mind oh Missy

M has committed herself to working every Friday for the immediate future. This is a day she normally spends with Annabel and so Missy now finds herself at a different nursery at M’s workplace on Fridays.

And, as usual, we worried about how she would be, how could we juggle childcare so that she wouldn’t need to go to this nursery, would she be upset at the new surroundings, new faces, new children and so on.

It turns out we wasted our time worrying. Again.

She loved it and spent much of the weekend asking after her new associates and when she would see them again. M was so impressed with the place she was actually a bit depressed at the care and facilities at her regular nursery, not that we’re likely to move Annabel out of there after all this time.

It’s a good lesson though; there’s nothing I hate more than “settling” for something when there’s better out there. (Actually, I hate being spoken to rudely more than that but that’s a whole other story!)

One of Annabel’s favourite things at the moment is sitting down and reading to herself, but out loud – if you see what I mean?

Children’s minds are amazing; they’re able to memorise entire stories and can more or less repeat back the whole story, in order, for their own amusement.

This is very helpful, as I appear to be at the stage in life where I forget which day it is.

“Annabel? Joseph? What is it Daddy was supposed to do today?”

“Drop us off at school and then go to work Dad”.

“oh yeah, that’s right, thank you both very much”.