… and it cost me nothing, just stuff from the stash

There are a few minor adjustments I want to make for mark two (like padding the ties or making them wider & more wrap like) but I am so pleased with it. It is fully padded & contoured (2 layers of canvas, one of batting & two of pretty fabric which is a Liberty Tana Lawn I got from ebay years ago) and based on a pattern I found on thebabywearer.com.

My cold of last week turned into something full blown & nasty so I had a pretty grotty time but feeling better now.

Claudia has hit a developmental leap & things that have been tricky have finally clicked - she is so enjoying reading (magazines, signs, my shopping list, everything) it’s brilliant to see! I went with my gut instinct with the reading every day rule - she certainly did not like it for the first week - I’m so pleased that it hasn’t stifled her love of anything just helped her achieve something she was desperate to do. She’s spending a lot of time watching films, playing in the garden (building things with rope, bricks & wood), K’nex-ing & sewing I think (fingers crossed) that most of the post-Jasper-angst has been weathered now - we’re getting along really well & its lovely again. She loves gymnastics, even if the class is full of the worst trashy little cows imaginable (she is so wonderfully oblivious - long may it last!), & the new ballet class (lots of practising at home) - the kids are so much nicer there, its worth sitting in traffic then the car for a couple of hours.

Jasper has had a bit of a rough two weeks - he’s learnt to roll over which means the end of the swaddling blanket - giving it up has been very traumatic for him (& us) . He also laughed for the first time yesterday . He’s been ill for a couple of days & I’ve been quite worried about him, but seems to be more like himself again today. he has grown lots of hair.

Simon is crazy busy at work & has discovered the joys of ebay (selling ).

That’s it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6285109.stm

… was lovely, met some friends, introduced J to all, was rude about HFEA to a reporter

And rolled over for the first time this morning

I’ve got lots to blog but not today … I have a stinking cold which made me unproductive on my Claudia-at-MIL’s day. Jasper had a nice day though.

Its probably obvious why I love this poem, the imagery is amazing it never fails to make me cry. This one speaks to me also.

… we had a really good day (cancels out at least 20 bad days ) - feeling much better about everything HE related (how fickle I am).

C is desperate to finish her maths book & start the next one so she wanted to spend time on that - J got upset & I went to deal with him telling her to do as many as she could by herself. I came down 20 minutes later & she’d done 25 subtraction sums and only got 3 wrong! She also read 3 Bob Books (we’ve nearly finished level 1 (at last)) and did some writing & colouring in her China book. We looked a Brain Pop together (Pandas, Great Wall of China & Asteroids) & did the quizzes - C spent another hour on it by herself. She played with her farm for ages & watched Wild Weather. Read HP at bed time. I’m bloody knackered but managed to do some baking somehow.

J has his second set of vaccinations today (no blood tests this time) & then C has her trial with a new ballet school.

Thursday - I got bored with Daniel Craig on Wednesday night so went to bed & listened to TMS instead , I didn’t get to sleep for ages (caffeine) so was knackered again. Finally finished the booties I’ve been knitting since November (they are too small now though). C did some more in her lapbook - an EL book about Chinese new year (which involved colouring & a tiny amount of writing aka pulling teeth), & a page about the Chinese zodiac. She also did some more maths (again fairly independently) & a bit of Getty-Dubay, no reading. She played in the garden for ages & helped me re-pot some plants. We did some embroidery together &I read more Harry Potter after lunch. I ordered the MPH homework (!) books from Halfmoon books - she really needs reinforcement of some fairly basic ideas and she had a go on Mia’s Maths Adventure (she’s got a few maths PC games but nothing as good as Bear & Penguin, I wish they’d do a B&P for higher levels).

Friday - morning from hell which left us both in tears, all because I asked her to pick up some toys while I ran her a bath - resulting tantrum woke Jasper up etc etc. I continue to seriously contemplate school as am option & admit that I am generally really hacked off with HE in all its incarnations. We managed to make it over to A’s in the afternoon - balm for the weary soul - a couple more local HEers joined us & it was a pleasant afternoon. C went to the GB New Year party with Gwenny. I cried while watching Battlestar Galactica ??? Managed to fit more HP in.

Saturday - no ballet, hooray! It rained horribly so we pottered around in the house rather than finishing the deck before heading off to Nic’s after lunch (via Lidl - I got a great world wall map). Lovely time was had by all - Si got drunk, C played on the Xbox, J charmed all & I enjoyed the company. J sleeps through again!

Sunday - we left N&A’s very early in order to get back in time for C’s new gymnastics class. We both stayed to watch her, & I was struck by how good she is in those kids of situations - she joined in everything, chatted to the coach, chatted and joked with the other kids & was generally fantastic. After all the conflict we’ve had recently it is nice to feel proud of her again (yes I do know its all my fault which may be one of the reasons I wish I’d never heard of HE). We did some cleaning & reorganising in the afternoon & manage not to argue. C & I looked through her atlas and talked about the key & various land features, climates & habitats.

Today - a really horrible morning that brings up school once more - the current consensus is that it wouldn’t solve anything & just bring another set of problems. C reads to me beautifully after she decides that reading is okay as long as she doesn’t have to use 100EL (fine by me). She did some more maths & some writing (about new year), I found some worksheets about the solar system that I’d printed years ago - C liked the look of them. Read some more Harry Potter & listened to some story CDs. She went swimming with Simon when he got home and is now in bed.

I was going to write long exasperated post but it can wait. The HV has just been, my PND score was 2 which feels pretty acturate

And because its a nice round number - here we go AGAIN *huge sigh*

Proper post later.

Well I had loads planned for today but ended up being scuppered by waiting for the courier - who guess what didn’t turn up - all day.

Instead - C did some more clay models and made some Chinese new year craft stuff (I even got the glitter *shudder* out & J is now very sparkly again). We did some Singapore maths - haven’t done any since the beginning of October - I was so pleased there’s obviously been some brain development going on because she got it straight away & worked completely independently for 20 minutes. She also did a bit of Getty Dubay. I read some more HP - she’s decided to keep a reading journal with what she thinks of the books we read (loves HP - wants to read it again as soon as we finish it ).

In light of all the China stuff going on (her two favourite books at the moment are Ping & Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin) I suggested she write a book (lapbook) about it - she liked that idea & so far so good she found China on a map straight away & knew what continent it was in. I printed loads of Enchanted Learning bits - a couple of books etc - so she worked through some of that (got some sneaky reading in - word searches & fill in the missing letter).

Ended up going to Tesco at 6:30 (Si had to work late) which was just about the last thing I wanted to do - now nursing chocolate wine & plans for Daniel Craig. I’m really tired today.

C & J watched Return of the Jedi & I managed to get some knitting done. Made pizza & noodles (? - C’s idea) for dinner.

Claudia spilt a pack of 10,000 very small beads onto my laptop - they are now u nder the keys so alt, shift, caps lock & control don’t work.

Apart from that we’ve had a pretty mudane day - C played in the garden (making potions) for ages. I cleaned & cooked. My mum & Lily popped over. C Xboxed & I read her some Harry Potter, she made some nice models with some clay she got for Christmas. C & Si are working on the deck atm - J is asleep & I’m going to have a bath (& a V&T). Claudia has some electronic project on the go with Simon (I’m not getting involved with it) that she seems to be enjoying.

HV rang to come & see J next week - I’ll probably get a(nother) interrogation about why I don;t do the 6 week check thing.

Christmas was lovely - J & I were both ill & made it through on drugs - Claudia declared it ‘very good’ (high praise considering she’s still pissed off about ‘the worst birthday EVER’). J got a baby gym that he ADORES, highly entertaining watching him. C got loads of stuff - Lilydolls, geomags, playmobil, Bear Factory stuff, a beautiful mirror from my mum etc - but a ballet sticker book was the hit of the day. I got more lovely Bridgewater, knitting books , Ug slippers and a power washer!! Simon has also built me a new deck - the garden has been sadly neglected for the past two years so I’m planning on giving it lots of TLC now. Si got computer bits - a hard drive, card reader & dongle thingie (?). We ate far, far too much but I was v. restrained with the booze (was v. nice not to be hung over), saw loads of family & generally had fun.

Simon & Claudia went to see the ENO’s Alice In Wonderland with Alison et al yesterday - she is still buzzing from it (I remember the first ballets I saw as a kid & how thrilling it was). I took Jasper to see my mum (it washer birthday) & we all met up at A&C’s later for curry & Big Ben.

Today C & Si worked on the deck & I did about 200 loads of washing. Back to normal life tomorrow

(I must be feeling extra festive because we still have the deecorations up - I always take them down on NYE - maybe I’ll get round to it tomorrow)

Oh! I can’t believe I almost forgot - C has her first wobbly tooth