Train!

For the first time in about 3 years, Adrian and I went to the cinema. We saw Thomas the Tank Engine - Hero of the Rails...

Our lovely friend Naomi got tickets for us and we took the kids for their first ever trip to the cinema. We waited until we were about to leave to tell them where we were going. Freyja was initially unimpressed (turns out she's never heard the word 'cinema' before and her response to anything she doesn't understand, is to say she doesn't like it) until I told her that we would be getting popcorn.

Well, Hero of the Rails, was actually really good - not that it takes much to impress me these days, with my indepth knowledge of Cbeebies and little else. The kids did well to last for the whole hour, with restlessness only creeping in for the last 15 minutes or so. We bought the promised tub of popcorn before it started - size small, which of course was gigantic and doused in lashings of salt. I let them tuck in until half way through the box I began to get concerned about how much they were consuming. So I hid the box under the seat and we tried to leave it behind when the film finished, but Freyja was onto us.

We then went for lunch and deposited the box of remaining popcorn under the table in the restaurant as we were leaving. But as we reached the carpark, Freyja was asking after it again. We feigned surprise that we longer had it and consoled her by saying we had some at home (which is actually true). She didn't forget. Upon arriving home, she asked me where the popcorn was.

So, our first family visit to the cinema. An all round success. Delightful film. Great popcorn...

Schools

Somehow, it is time for me to think about my choices of primary school for Freyja, who will be starting school in September 2010. Can't quite believe it, but here we are.

We have a number of good primary schools round here but it's coming down to a choice between 3 for me. Today I went to see my closest one - of the 3 it had been my least favourite which was a worry because it is also likely to be the only one she actually gets into, given how oversubscribed schools in Lewisham are.

Well, I am delighted to say that I came away very impressed. It had the feel of a school on the up - there has been a change in the head team over the last 2 years and the school has already started to make some significant changes and make use of funding to improve the school. I came away feeling that I would be happy for my daughter to go there - in the deputy head's words, their aim is to make it the 'school of choice' around this area, and it felt like they were moving in the right direction.

I'm still waiting until I've seen the one I'm visiting on Thursday, which I think will be a different type of school, much more established with a long standing good reputation and good facilities. But I feel happier knowing that there is a school that Freyja will get into that I am happy with.

I want these shades!

Unappreciated

This morning, while having breakfast, Theo threw his half finished bowl of cereal on the floor.

Me: Okay, if you do that you can't have the bowl. You can't throw food on the floor - who do you think it is who has to clean it all up?

Freyja: Daddy!

WHAT????!!!! I feel totally unappreciated...!

Me too!

I just re-read an old post of mine in which I described Theo as quiet, gentle and laid back - all the things that he was at 4 and half months old. In it I mentioned how a nurse had told me that second borns tend to start causing trouble at a year old. How right she was! I'd say it coincided more with him starting to walk (at 14 months) but I would no longer describe him as quiet or gentle. He's still pretty easy going, but he's also active, very sociable -the total opposite to Freyja who needs to observe new situations before she feels comfortable - he just dives right in there. He's certainly a more predictable and straight-forward character than Freyja has ever been, but he's into everything and full of energy which makes him exhausting in a totally different way.

He is also determined to be included in everything and to get his fair share of everything. He will not be overlooked - toys, cuddles, food - particulary food - if anyone else has it, he wants his share too. It's quite hilarious sometimes - you can't get away with anything.

Yesterday, Freyja and I were getting ready to bake a cake (banana cake - it's the only one we do that is edible). When we do this she brings a chair over to the worktop so she can reach. She pushed her chair over and next thing I knew Theo was there, heaving his own chair across the kitchen floor. So, despite his total inability to do anything without throwing it on the floor or stuffing it into his mouth (or both), he joined in too:

Friends

Freyja had her friend Ruby round to play the other day. Ruby's mum and I always chuckle to ourselves about how they are like two old women when they get together, nattering away, oblivious to everything else going on around (although we did have a rather alarming insight into the future at Sam's birthday party, during musical statues when our two hung around the edge of the circle, wriggling their little bottoms when the music came on, and looking way too cool for school...)

Anyway, as I said, Ruby came round and they took themselves off for the day - upstairs to Freyja's room to play. Normally Theo and Freyja hang around together when we are at home, but with Ruby on the scene, he wasn't welcome. He hung onto the stair gate crying, desperate to be with them, and if he ever managed to get near them I'd be called in to remove him because he was 'annoying them'. What this meant was that I found myself with an entire afternoon in which I had to entertain Theo myself - normally I leave that to Freyja.

So Theo and I pottered in the kitchen and I listened to the girls playing - I was particularly amused to hear how after they laughed they would each sigh and say 'oh dear'. During a quiet moment I ventured upstairs to find them both naked sitting on Freyja's bed, the entire contents of her chest of drawers strewn across the floor - a mega game of dress up about to begin. I retreated quickly to the safety of the the kitchen and playing stacking bricks with Theo.

I used to worry that Freyja hadn't had a chance to make her own friends - all her friends were the children of my friends. I still hope that at school she will get a chance to form relationships of her own, but I also hope that the friendships she has made through the friendships I have made since becoming a mother will be lasting ones.

Sparkly Things

Freyja and Theo were invited to their friend Sam's birthday party yesterday. I put Freyja in her little brown tutu and her green and gold T-shirt. This is because she looks pretty and partyish but I don't have a fit when she dribbles ketchup and ice-cream down them and rolls around on the floor, like I would in a couple of her other dresses (which of course just sit in her drawer never to be worn...)

Anyway, she loves her brown tutu so is always delighted to wear it. Unfortunately she has grown out of her party shoes and I still haven't got round to getting her some new ones. I really should have been prepared for the effect that this would have on a 3 and 3/4 year old girl about to go to a birthday party with all her friends. On telling her she could just wear her crocs, she burst into tears and through her sobs explained to me just why she couldn't wear her crocs - because they don't have sparkles on them. In an instant I was not only transported to my own childhood where I remember how it was of the utmost importance that I be allowed to wear the colours red and pink together, but also to any time in the last 15 years or so where I have been getting ready to go out and things are GOING WRONG! Hair isn't right, clothes look crap or - the big one for me - my shoes are SHIT and don't look nice and I can't wear a decent pair of high heels because I am TOO TALL!!!!

Anyway, suffice to say I did not tell her that of course her crocs were perfectly fine. I gave her a big cuddle, apologised for not having bought her a new pair of sparkly shoes in time for the party and promised I would make sure she had a new pair in time for the next one (must remember, must remember...)

Luckily, Adrian excelled himself and came up with the brilliant idea that we could decorate her crocs with stickers which would turn them into party shoes. So that's what we did. Thank goodness the only thing that Theo is worried about is whether he gets his fair share of jelly & ice cream.