First Day of Sunshine 2009!

A beautiful day of sunshine and temperatures of 12 degrees! We went out without coats and played in the park.
Went to McD’s for a treat and got some gardening gloves – don’t be silly – of course they had to be pink!

In a Big Girl Bed now…

The Tomy bed guard came off about a week before Christmas when Georgia decided that she was going to be a big girl now and sleep in a ‘Big Girl Bed’.

It has worked well so far with the duvet pinned in the sides of the bed to keep her from rolling off – it hasn’t happened yet…fingers crossed!

Conversations with Georgia: Something Interestable…

This weekend we tried making Char Siew Pau from scratch with dough mixed in the breadmaker. Georgia helped by rolling out the dough balls in to flat round shapes while i filled it with our home-cooked Char Siew.

After finishing our Pau making session, Georgie decides that there has to be more to do, so she asks…

“Mum, can I do something interestable next please?”

I think interestable is supposed to be interesting.

Conversations with Georgia: How to spell Smarties

Sunday 14 Dec 2008

G: Mum, how do you spell Smarties?
Me: Ok, you look for the letters and I will tell you the sounds…

We managed to spell Smarties together with Georgie finding all the letters in the word herself and arranging them in the right order too!

We’ve a Smartie here!

Conversations with Georgia: Who body else?

The conversation about who else goes to gymnastics. It goes along the lines of…

G: And Anwen will be there, and Shirley will be there.

G: Mummy, who body else will be there?

Interestingly – if you stop to think about it, ‘who body else’ does make sense if it follows on from the ‘Anybody else?’ question.

Conversations with Georgia: Quatre or Cut

Listening to our French CD – Salut Serge in the car, we have learnt to count along in French.

“Un, deux, trois… “and Georgia automatically says ‘Quatre’.

G: Mummy, what is Quatre?

Me: Quatre is four – one two three four

G: No, cut is blood!

The joys of being multi-lingual!

A little distraction…

It’s hard to find ‘the’ balance, and harder still when it’s emotionally relevant.

I try to find a little time in my day for my own ‘me’ time, usually when Georgia’s napping and I always aim to fill that time constructively. Now constructively does not mean for my sanity or peace of mind, constructively really means – a sense acheivement. These days it’s a case of finishing up my 2 000 or 3 000 word chapter to meet my mid-Dec deadline of the Principles textbook.

Typically though, procrastination rules and i often find that in that one hour of time that i have, it is swallowed completely by writing long chatty emails to my classmates the other side of the world (Marie in Aus, Jac in Penang, Mei in US); stopping a while to catch up on Facebook, reading reading and more reading – The Star, BBC News….and worse of all are the lovely often deliciously provocative blogs of other mummys. Why and how are they able to acheive so much in the same amounts of time that I have in a day?

The bigger questions arrives every Thursday, for this is when Georgia spends a full day at St Johns. I’m so glad that she is now a full time convert – it has no longer become a war to get her going to St Johns.

It is also when I arrive home from Tescos after our early morning grocery shop before ’school’ and I find the house unusually lonely and quiet. And as I try to focus my attention to the seemingly mountainous task of writing I am distracted by the quietness of the house.

Without Georgia here, there is a sense of stillness which so easily slips in to occasional awarenes of looming loneliness.

I do miss my girl when she’s at nursery.

Gymnastics at last

Ever since Georgia watched Hannah do cartwheels down the track off Caldicot Castle, she has been fascinated by gymnastics. After a good month of waiting, we finally had our first session at Kestrel Gymnastics. We went along today with Cary and Anwen and joined the Pee Wees the 2.5 – 3 year old classs – It was a Blast! As it was only Georgia and Anwen in the class they had most of Shirley’s full attention.

Particularly popular was the inflatable track which made walking running and hopping tremendously fun. What I had not counted on was that they would be allowed on the actual gymnastics equipment – but this they did. They were lifted up on the lower rung of the parallel bars and taught to do some basic movements.

Definitely good fun although the distance is rather a bummer — still we will be back again next week for sure.

Conversations with Georgia: A Cunning Plan

I guess Georgia has twigged that it’s more fun to share a bed.

G: Mummy, why does Jay still sleep in a cot?

Me: Oh yes..I think he is getting too big for his cot now. He will have to move to a bed soon.

G: Shall we sell him my flower bed?

Me: Oh and where will you sleep then?

G: In the big bed with Mummy and Daddy.

Ballet…

Georgia started Ballet at the Caldicot Leisure Centre with Angela Fryer (Angel School of Dance) in early October.