in Jojoland Melody sock yarn.

Unsolicited parenting advice - rarely a good idea.

Moral relativism - not only an affliction of the non believer.

Numb3rs - reminds me of Diagnosis Murder!

(thanks for the book advice everyone, I’ll be following it up next week)

I’ve lost my mojo.

OTN:
Cozy (groan still)
MS3 x2
Another Forest Canopy
Dishcloth for exchange
EZ February Sweater.

As a distraction from the dreaded Cozy I’ve knitted 4 hats, a scarf & 2 handbags. I really need to finish the bloody thing.

Simon has gone up to my brother’s & they are rebuilding the Smart, the rest of us are going up this afternoon. Sun is shining.

Jasper is into everything, he climbs, pulls, cruises, he’s tall & strong and bites when he’s cross. He can go up and down the little steps into the bathroom & kitchen & has almost mastered getting into the garden. He crawls at top speed to escape out of the front door & screeches at the cats. He cries if anybody leaves the room & when Simon goes to work. He likes pasta & cheesy broccoli sauce and apple juice. He sleeps on his tummy now with his bum in the air (he likes to feed that way too ). He has just started falling asleep lying next to me; he likes it when we’re squished up together with noses touching and he pats and strokes me. He loves Simon’s ears, just like Claudia did & when he gets home from work no one else will do. He splashes, squeals & shouts (very loudly) in the bath (which is most fun when Claudia is there too) and really likes the swimming pool. I was worried that he was looking thin so had him weighed & he now up to the 85% centile and is very long. He understands Jasper, Daddy, Claudie, up, down, boob & cuddles. He & Claudia play together beautifully & he’s still the happiest baby in town!

Any suggestions for books after the ORT-type but before ‘proper’ chapter books?

C is pretty fluent at level 7 now but gets tired reading a page with loads of words on (Animal Ark type stuff) - I need something with more words & paragraphs but instant gratification She’s read the Leapfrog ones already.

We’re doing the same old things - nearly finished SM1B, I’m very pleased with her progress & she’s really enjoying it - I’ve been making a real effort to read more & J’s daytime sleeping has settled down again which is helping (this was one of yesterday’s, C & I took it in turns to read, it’s a lovely book). We’re ploughing through HP again. She’s doing an awful lot of writing, she wrote in her diary yesterday:

“23 July
Todai I was going to go swiming But Dady woke up Jasper and so He hAD to go late into Work”

;)

Trying to decide what activities to do next year - she wants to do everything (few time/money issues there), she loves everything she does, she likes being in a group, adores her teachers, likes doing her own things. I like her having relationships with adults beyond & independent of me & Simon. Still we can’t manage ballet, tap, swimming, diving, gymnastics, trampolining, ice skating, art club & the usual HE activities. Hmmmm.

She’s looking very tall & grown up atm.

Very cross about two things (i) religious nutter has infiltrated my knitting group (it isn’t the religious bit or the nutter really that annoys me, it’s that they are fucking stupid - Dante’s Inferno is not a manual of satanic rituals fuckwit) (ii) BUCKLE CRUNCH arrrggghhhh. The car has very long seat belt anchor strap thingies and there is only one stage 1 car seat on the market that fits safely in it - and none that can be used rear facing. I am mightily pissed off - he can’t stay in the 0+ one because his head is over the shell & he can pull the straps off. The curse of big babies he would be so much safer rear facing

We’re busy & I’m not sure I like it Haven’t got any free weekends again.

Got a plasterer coming around on Thursday though

don’t think any of us have recovered yet

I had much of a lurverly bottle of champagne, C & S queued.

J cut the top of his finger with S’s razor this evening - it bled & bled & bled.

children in our house today, it was wonderful

Feels like a return to civilisation after years spent in the house wreck wilderness

Claudia’s looooong awaited & much anticipated Tea Party went very well - she’s buzzing with happiness.

She’s done loads of phonics this week & finished the final workbook~ no more JP! I realised that she was having trouble reading British-style cursive (we do italic) so we went back & had a look the JP handwriting exercises & now she can do it.

Planning a Hermione costume for HP tomorrow.

Very tired.

Out longer than in. He’s usually amused by her antics

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6901971.stm

Only 20% of people feel safe in their homes at night? Why?

It’s dreadful, I don’t think I’ve ever felt unsafe even when living in some very ‘bad’ areas. Why are people so scared?

We had a HP fest yesterday. That was fun.

I spent the evening drinking, knitting & musing on whether the internet has reduced people’s capacity for IRL interactions - does a mutual vomiting of angst, swapping of birth stories & navel gazing constitute a friendship?

Or am I just cynical? (bit obvious that one

Simon watched Hot Fuzz.

Saturday - Claudia’s last lesson before the exam, I pinned out my shawl to block, Jasper helped. Claudia wore her new shoes in, we picked up our new sofa (getting like a real house now). Attempted to tidy. I had a massive allergic reaction to my knitting (alpaca, damn them) - corneal epithelial bullae or in my case a large (obscuring the iris) and rapidly increasing bullus, thankfully it didn’t rupture. I have no luck with my eyes, I still have problems after the last accident . Wasn’t at all pleasant - I have to finish knitting the bloody thing but only with the aid of drugs. Simon bought donuts & took children to the library. We organised C’s ballet stuff.

Sunday - very early morning, C had to be at ballet at 8:50. We were one of the first there - she went to the loo & submitted (without complaint) to having her hair done. We left her there & went in search of coffee, managed to get back in time to see her before she went in (she was absolutely fine, a trooper ). Most of the parents there are actually okay, but there’s one woman in particular I can’t stand - Simon has noticed her as well. She is extremely loud about how it doesn’t matter & its just for fun but her dd is the one in tears worried that she won’t get High Distinction FFS it’s primary ballet - C has no idea there are even grades (she didn’t know it was a pass/fail thing until one of the other girls told her).

I hid out on the grass with J while she was in the exam, trying to ignore the music (it is exactly the same as when I did it). I snuck back just in time to watch her coming out - big grin on her face & declaration that it was ‘fun’. She liked dancing accompanied by a proper piano

In the afternoon when had an appointment. We actually won it in a prize draw (most useful thing I’ve ever won - as a child I remember winning an almost life sized plastic doll which I despised) from Urchin. It wasn’t too awful - we had a few taken with us all, but I really only wanted the children done - kids were great, C ebullient & J charming. They did the standard Venture set ups, but some (hopefully) nice portraits & some taken outside. We’re going back next Saturday for a viewing.