Family Update – July 2016

Where is the sun? If anyone finds it, please send it our way!
Wriggly (2 years 1 month)

· You discovered hot chocolate. Requests of “miuk” have at times been replaced by, “chocate miuk!” and more recently, a Franglais version, “miuk chocolat!”
· You love singing and you have been walking around with a toy microphone, humming your favourite nursery rhymes.
· You have had your first haircut. Bye, bye, mullet!
· You have become quite fond of an orange Halloween tutu. You keep putting it on over your pyjamas.
· Your language is getting more and more complex and you are now forming full sentences, like: “I want this!” “Mum, open it!” (Handing me a cereal bar) or “Mum is nice.” (Once I have opened the cereal bar).
· You are just starting to get the five most important words for me: “hi,” “bye,” “please,” “merci” (thanks in French) and “sorry.”
· The first two are not normally an issue as you quite like greeting people and waving, shouting, “bye” as we are leaving the shops or someone’s house.
· “Please” is starting to come a lot more naturally as you are now aware you will not get anything from me unless your request is followed by, “please.”
· We struggled a bit with “merci” but it is getting clearer and clearer to you that if you want to keep what you have just been given, may it be food or a toy, you have to thank me.
· We are still working on “sorry” but we will get there! You are starting to understand what it is like to be naughty and you are loving it! It can be extremely challenging to get you to apologise after being deliberately mischievous (slapping me, writing on walls…), but I am resilient, even if it takes 2 hours to get a reluctant, “sorry!” Being consistent and firm is tough. It would be so much easier to give up and let go, but I really believe consistency will save me time (and stress) in the long run.

Jumpy (3 years 8 months)

· Your space awareness is getting better and better and your new thing on our way to preschool is to tell me: “Mum, pretend you don’t know where my school is!” You then give me (accurate!) directions to preschool.
· You are getting more and more interested in mark making. You draw lots of circles and say, “I writ “mama” here!” or your own name. Since you were so keen, I started showing you how to write your name and you really enjoyed practising your letters.
· This week, your very best friend spent three nights at home. You played, you laughed, you argued, you sang. You were friends, then you were not, then you were best friends again. We went strawberry picking together and had a lovely picnic.
· We went to your school fair yesterday, and what fun it was!

Beanie (5 years 9 months)

· “I love lying!” Erm, that sounds promising…
· You decided to grow your hair. I did love your cropped bob, but it will be better for ballet to have longer hair. Your fringe is a bit of a pain, though. It never stays where it should with a hairclip and you end up with hair in your eyes every day. Ah the joy of growing a fringe!
· One Sunday afternoon, as we were walking to the library, we saw your teaching assistant in town. A few minutes later, you declared: “We could ask Mrs. E. for her phone number, then we could call her whenever we want!” Maybe not (borderline stalker…).
· Last Sunday, you stuck a post-it note on my bottom (as you do). It read “Mummy stinks!” You really know how to make me feel loved! I have to admit I was secretly proud of the fact you had spelt it all correctly. If you are being rude, always do it with accurate spellings!

Crevette (7 years 11 months)

· Before you ate your dessert last Sunday, you disappeared outside with my old camera and when I checked on you five minutes later, I found you perched on a chair, trying to get a decent shot of your ice cream in manual mode. When I asked what you wanted to do when you are older, you replied, “Blogger!” Awww, bless you!
· You ran your first ever errand yesterday. One of our friends, who also lives on the street directly parallel to ours, has not been really well, so we put together a small bag of treats. I asked you to take the small bag to her house and simply slot it through the letterbox without bothering her or her family. It took much longer than the short errand I had envisioned. First, you noticed there was no note with the treats. I wanted it to be anonymous, but you rightfully declared she would probably not want to eat chocolates or almonds a random stranger had put through her letterbox. Point made. I wrote it was from you and your sisters on the bag. I reminded you of the house number, and you replied, “Yes, the blue door.” You then left happily, but came back two minutes later, all flustered.
You: “What number does she live on again?”
Me: “10. The blue door.”
You: “Oh no, I posted the bag on number 20.”
Me: “Was the door blue?”
You: “No.”
OK. Your new instructions were to knock on number 20, explain it was a mistake, apologise and take the bag to the correct address. About three minutes later, you were back with the bag, telling me it would not fit through the letterbox. I allowed you to knock and hand it to our friend. End of the story. Did I mention you were in your pyjamas?

Us

photo credit: Crevette!

· We had a fun day at LEGOLAND.
· I felt inspired again with an enlightening photography workshop with William Reavell and Tara Sura.
· I bought a new camera, then realised it was not the one I wanted so Wriggly and I spent a day at Calumet Photographic negotiating and swapping cameras. After about two hours, you got fed up so Peppa Pig had to come in and save the day!
· I spent a day at Organix HQ, where I met a bunch of inspiring people.
· The kids had a great time at Brent Cross shopping centre picking presents for Father’s Day.
· The children and I went to Mead Farm when their teachers were on strike and we had a brilliant day. I had a great time bouncing on the huge inflatable pillows there!
· I had Christmas dinner (3 courses) with Waitrose on the last day of June!
· Despite the abysmal weather these past few weeks, we went to The Beach with the children last week.
· I am trying to walk more, rain or shine.