Very little - the children are continuing to consume vast quantities of chocolate (you would not believe the amount they’ve been given) and watch too much TV. I’m really pleased about that.

I’ve been thinking, which pisses me off no end. It has got to the point where I’m pretty uncomfortable about writing anything of significance & I’m bored of sentences starting ‘I am’ ‘I think’ ‘I have’ etc so a blogging break is called for.

Chocolate bunnies all round

Ducks & cuisenaire rods.

I’ve been feeling a bit … uncomfortable? … about blogging HE stuff recently. I’m not sure why but I think it comes back to P1’s disclaimer. I have neither the time nor inclination (or indeed memory) to blog even a fraction of the conversations, activities, learning moments & games that make up the majority of Claudia’s day. It is far easier to blog (list ) the ‘work’ type things we do, but (i) that’s boring & (ii) it may give the impression that I value that learning above self directed play or mooching around reading. If I try to ‘Blog The Day’ I end up with long rambling posts that I can’t summon the energy to finish, which may imply that we don’t value the more formal/directed/challenging learning which certainly isn’t the case either; I don’t do it to placate the LEA or to cover bases so we can do ‘fun stuff’.

So with that in mind, these things are very much enjoyed at the moment - Latin (Minimus), Zoo Tycoon, First Language Lessons (she loves the poetry memorizations & grammar rules), Miquon, art (egg tempera painting) & craft (dolls clothes), her biography book (just added Pasteur & Einstein), ballet (she’s a dragonfly in the Winnie the Pooh show & very excited about it), piano, Scooby Doo magazines, book club book (Six Storey House), she was enjoying Heidi but we’ve got to an emotionally charged bit which upsets her so are giving it a rest, science experiments, riding.

What we’d like to change - more trips (this is really hard with Jasper and the moment), more practical science (ditto, Jasper), reducing the number of activities (before I lose my mind - we’ve stopped Jelly Legs for the time being & aren’t doing ERAPA every week), more riding ( finances preclude this).

When you get to sleep at night you don’t feel like shit.

Jasper’s old ‘routine’ (hahahaha) - bed at 6:30ish, wake for feed at 8pm, 11:30pm, 1am, 3am, 5am, feed constantly between 6am and 7am.

Day 1 - feeding constantly from 11:30pm until 2pm - I decide I’ve had enough- Jasper screams & shouts from 2am until 5:30am.

Day 2 - bed at 6:30pm, feed at 11:30pm, cries from 3-4:30am (mostly shouting with periods of dozing), sleeps until 5:30am.

Day 3 - bed late (8:30pm), feed at 11:30pm, moans for 30 minutes at 3am, cries at 5:30ish for a while & has a feed at 6:15am.

Day 4 - bed at 6:30, feed at 11:30pm, 1:30am (I woke him up going to bed so a little feed), at 6:30am I wake him to feed. I don’t mind the 11:30pm feed at all & if I hadn’t have woken him I’m sure he would have gone though to the morning.

It is amazing how much better I feel already.

Oh & he’s got a new word - goat! He says more at 16 months than Claudia did at 22 - Dada, Mama, dog, cat, duck & now goat. He also has signs for no! and hot!

… my double cream diet

Jasper’s back up on the 91st centile - 27 pounds 12 in old money - he’s gained exactly 3 pounds in 2 months I’m now attempting to night-wean as I’m sure he isn’t wasting away. So far it has been noisy & exhausting.

We’ve had a really nice week & I’ll try and blog properly tomorrow