31st October - Bats and Pumpkins

Happy Halloween!

Our day started with Sylvie 'Reading', playing Reading Eggs again - I really will have to pay the subscription on that site, it's not just a passing fad. She is picking up quite a lot from it, so much so that she has seen it too, saying "My reading is really improving, isn't it?". I do think she is taking it a bit too fast to get the full benefits though - she is so keen to get the next 'Critter' she whizzes through the levels without giving herself time to reflect on what she has done, meaning some of it never makes it past her short-term memory, forgotten as soon as she thinks she doesn't need it any more.


The site is set up so that there is plenty of review though, so some is definitely sinking in - I asked her what a word was today, Zoo, a word she had as a sight word for a while. She wasn't able to tell me what it said today, but she did tell me it was "zed, oh, oh." Getting her to actually look at all the letters in the word is a big achievement (even though she still prefers to look at the beginning letter and take a wild guess!)

Late morning, we set out for the Early Years Centre where there was an event being run by the county museums - Batty about Bats. As we left I asked her a question about the TV programme she had been watching while waiting for me to get ready. The CBBC programme had recreated the evacuee experience for a group of children and I wondered if she understood what was going on since it was the last of a series and she hadn't to my knowledge seen any of the others. She said she knew they were being "Vacuated", so I gave her a brief history lesson as we walked, explaining why children were evacuated and telling her what my grandparents did during the war.


When we got there, we got some 'Biology' in the form of bat specimens from the Natural History collection (I pointed out how the bats wings are formed between their legs and arms and tails and how they look a bit like mice. We also looked at the differences between the species - tiny pipestrelle, big ears on the long eared bat, etc) followed by some 'Art' as we got stuck in to making a pompom bat.

Sylvie got fed up of winding wool around the cardboard rings so one of the organisers finished it off for her while I fed Davy and Sylvie did some of the activity sheets available (colouring sheet, ignored with a pout, maze, completed in about 10 secs and went back for more copies until she realised it was the same maze in all cases, word search, limited by her 'Reading' skills, she first ringed the all letters in the word 'BAT' she could find then set about making a pattern invovling ringing unconected letters.) She stuck the eyes and nose on the pompom bat, then drew a pattern on the wings before sticking them on.

She liked her bat and got upset when she was told there wasn't time for her to make another for her daddy. I told her she could share this one with him but she protested that daddy would want to give it a name and she wanted to give it a different one and it couldn't have two names (not a very convincing argument from a child who insists to strangers that her brother's name is David "but I call him Jake."). The organisers told her she could make another one at home, but she (rightly) pointed out we don't have any wool in the house. After being reassured that that could be easily solved, we headed home with Sylvie carrying her bat around her neck and indulging in some 'Free Play' I had trouble following that involved a TV character called Captain Mack - at one point she said she could see one of his sky rockets above us.

We passed through the park to the shops, taking our playground 'Project' pictures while we were there, but I found the local shop didn't carry the party poppers I wanted so, since I needed to pick up a parcel from the post office, I decided it would be worth the bus fare to head into town for them. We had lunch with Sylvie typing on the laptop. She said she wanted to keep her 'work' as a surprise for daddy, so I consolidated the 4 paragraphs of gobbledy-gook she had typed in 4 documents onto one and showed her where it was saved. Then we went off to the bus stop, where she showed typical 4 year old impatience with waiting ("Where is that bus?!") and had some more 'Free Play' that consisted of her charging round me in a circle claiming she was on a surfboard but when she stopped running round the surfboard would break and I would fall in the water. At one point, she looked up at the sky and said "Someone is watching me." Captain Mack again as far as I could tell. She had the bat with her around her neck again and all the running didn't agree with it - one of it's wings fell off, reminding me Sylvie needed some more glue so I added that to our shopping list.

In the shop, we met my mum's friend who had made my wedding dress and Davy was admired and Sylvie's growth commented on. I mentioned we were planning to get some more glue and she recommended fabric glue for the bat. I picked up the party poppers and some more rechargable batteries, but they were out of PVA glue so we went to a different shop for that. Sylvie wanted a plastic bat, but I told her she would have to wait until she got her pocket money tomorrow.

I also bought some display folders with clear plastic pockets inside them, one for Sylvie's growing collection of certificates and the others for the playground 'Project' when it is finished - I bought extra because I thought it might be nice to give a copy to the mayor when Sylvie meets him in November for the Play Ranger 5000th attendee award. In the other shop, we got tea lights (for our pumpkin), glue and some scissors - they were running a 3 for 2 offer so I got her an ordinary pair of scissors to replace her pair with the dodgy handles and a pair with a set of interchangable blades with different syles of cuts. On the way back to the bus, she asked me what "Muwubhah" is in Spanish. I told her I thought it was the same as in English!

At home, she wanted to see inside the parcels, but on being told it was all stuff for Davy she had a strop, announcing "You never get me anything!" which I thought was a bit rich coming from a child who had put on the skeleton costume I had bought her 4 days ago and holding the scissors I had bought her that day. I told her to go away, which was not exactly my proudest parenting moment, but I was thoroughly annoyed!

She sulked for a while, then came and asked if she could watch her Spanish DVD, so she sat with 'Modern Languages - Spanish' while listening out for knocks on the door. We had put the pumpkin in the window to show we were available for visitors, and spent all evening running to the door to hand out party poppers and chocolate. I like to keep the old tradition of making lots of noise to scare away evil spirits, hence the party poppers. I usually go through the house with Sylvie banging things and yelling, but today Davy was making more noise than we ever could so I left it at that and tried to soothe my poor screamy teething boy with milk and Calpol. Our party poppers attained notoriety - the last lot of (uncostumed!) trick/treaters came after the poppers had all gone (some people must have been taking more than the one each I specified!) and asked if we had any left saying other groups had told them we were giving them out.

Sylvie showed her daddy her typing with minimal help to find the document and asked if we could give away the cakes to the trick/treaters we made yesterday. I explained there weren't enough for that so she contented herself with holding the treat bucket for them. She put some cut up paper in the bucket and got upset when no one seemed to want to take it. I tried to put it into perspective for her by asking if it was her would she rather take the paper or the chocolate. She said "I would take some paper AND some chocolate AND a party popper." Hmmm.

She didn't eat her dinner, even with the prospect of chocolate cake for afters, though she did attempt to establish "Will I get the chocolate cake for lunch tomorrow instead?" before tasting it which led to a 'no cake except at dinner time' prohibition and so annoyed her daddy by claiming to be too tired to eat after this she nearly didn't get her 'Storytime' though in the end he relented and read her a Horrid Henry story.

30th October - A day full of 'Childcare'

Today was a big 'Childcare' day, starting with our usual visit to the Breastfeeding Cafe. For 'Fashion', Sylvie wore a summery outfit of thin skirt and long-sleeved T-shirt, topped off with the Davros mask that had come with her last Dr. Who magazine and was pleased every time someone told her she looked scary!


She has definitely become comfortable around the two younger boys who attend with their mums most weeks - she actually spoke to them and at the end she showed off her 'Social Skills' by having races with one of them while I discussed slings with his mum.


We took our 'Project' photos on the way home and after lunch Sylvie played on the 'reading eggs' site, indulged in some 'Free Play' and made a collage as a present for daddy while I dealt with Davy. We managed to get in some 'Home economics - Cooking' before dinner between Davy's screaming for food. Sylvie announced that "He is definitely having a growth spurt." (Considering he has been feeding almost constantly and has put on a pound this week, yes, I should say he is!) and later asked thoughtfully "Mummy, is it boring, feeding Davy?"


I explained that no, I didn't finds it boring because I generally enjoy it, but it can be frustrating sometimes when he won't stop feeding long enough for me to get my jobs done or play with her.


I got a call from the Play Rangers, checking that the Teepee was ok and giving me advance details of the awards evening with the mayor. It was suggested that Sylvie be given a cuddly toy rather than an award due to her age, but I quickly explained that she is very fond of large shiny awards and she would prefer one to a cuddly toy (of which she has a cupboard full, most of which she never plays with).


Daddy was late home having stopped off at the supermarket at my request for some bread and butter. Sylvie's attention was immediately grabbed by the large orange bucket with familiar purple labels and asked daddy what it was - he had bought a Cadbury's bucket of fun size chocolate bars for Halloween to give to anyone who comes calling tomorrow.


To our amazement, she ate some of her dinner (bolognese sauce with baked potato) with minimal fuss after announcing "I know vegetables are good for you, that's why I eat them." YOU DO?!!! She ate enough for a pudding, which probably played a role in her choosing to eat the suspicious food on her plate, and happily said yes to seconds, announcing that her first piece had been a bit small!


She played with her Geomag for a bit, then went to bed choosing 'Puzzle Pirates' for her bedtime reading, not quite what I wanted as it is a long book to read when she does the puzzles on every page (and she always does) and I was really tired!

29th October - Trying out the Teepee.

Due to me needing transport for a couple of doctors appointments, we went to my parents today and foregoed our usual library visit. We took the big box with the teepee in and Sylvie's poster and certificate. Once again, Sylvie chose to wear her new favourite outfit, the skeleton costume! It was, literally, freezing, with frost covering everything and even some snow from yesterday still lingering.

My dad asked Sylvie if she wanted to go Geocaching with him later and she was very enthusiastic about the idea, so they decided to go after lunch, before my second appointment.

After we got back from the first one, grandad decided to open up the teepee box and have a look at it. He had seen them before, having visited the Eden Project in Cornwall where the Play Rangers had purchased this one and seen them in the shop.

Between us, grandad, grandma and myself, aided a little by Sylvie, constructed the teepee which, while not terribly complicated, was hard to put together as the cardboard was so new and stiff the flaps didn't want to go through the slots.

After the 'Modern Arcitecture' was complete and photos taken from all angles, Sylvie spent the rest of the morning in 'Free Play' inside it, filling it with toys and eating her lunch in there. It is quite a bit bigger than I was expecting - we will have to rearrange her bedroom furniture for her to be able to use it at home!

After lunch, Sylvie went on the proposed 'Outdoor Activities', geocaching with grandad and then over the field to help him cut some wood as thanks to the frost my parents had decided to have a real fire that evening rather than the central heating. She had lots of fun crunching the still-remaining frost and was fascinated by the idea of a real fire.

She wanted to see grandad make the fire, so he lit it early so she could see and help by rolling up the newspaper and passing him the sticks. She even instinctively went to open the living room door when it started to smoke rather than flame. Afterwards, she wanted to do some 'Writing', a letter to her daddy. She dictated what she wanted to say while I wrote it down, then she copied it underneath - a departure from her usual 'join the dots' writing she has always asked for before. She complained there wasn't space for her to write her words, so I drew lines on the page to show her where to write between my words.

She didn't do too bad a job considering this was the first time she had ever copied something with so many words. She did get a bit lost initially, only doing the 'f' in 'fire' before moving on to the next line, but she went back and finished the word when it was pointed out (in a different colour!). She was losing concentration though, and absent-mindedly coloured in the 'e' and also an 'a' she had done earlier. She stopped when I mentioned that daddy wouldn't be able to make out the message if she coloured all the letters in, and wanted to know how to erase the red from the 'a'. I said she could either leave it as it was still just about recognisable, or she could cross it out and write it again underneath. She chose the latter.

Once daddy had arrived and duly exclaimed over the letter, it was home for dinner and a bit of 'Reading Eggs' before bed.

28th October - A Wonderful Prize!

Wow, what a fantastic day we had today! Sylvie was an incredibly lucky girl!

The day started really well with Sylvie coming up to me with her daddy in the bedroom where I was feeding Davy to proudly announce that in a fit of 'Home economics - Tidying' she had tidied away everything left in the big bin bag bar a couple of broken pens that need to be thrown out. I was very pleased, and so was her daddy!

Having checked up on the dates and times I was able to tell her we would definitely see the Play Rangers at Riversley park today and Sylvie decided she wanted to wear her skeleton costume to the event. I wasn't sure, as the weather report was forecasting snow, but we decided the costume was baggy enough for her to be able to wear her thick trousers and jumper underneath it. Sylvie was excited by the prospect of snow and said she was hoping it would snow while we were at the park - I was somewhat less enthusiastic!

We caught the bus into town again, prudently taking umbrellas and the picnic mat (for me to sit on), detouring into our local park for our 'Project' pictures. Things are really starting to show progress there, with a lot of the support structures for the swings, zip wire, etc now up and a start being made on the climbing wall. Sylvie made a rather loud comment about a lady who had no umbrella who was also at the bus stop, deciding she must like getting wet! I live in the vain hope the lady didn't hear her. When we arrived in town, on our way to the park we passed the costume shop and a rather grown-up sounding little voice asked me "Do you want a costume to wear or not? Have you done everything you need to in town, or can we go straight to the park?" Having determined I didn't want a costume and I had no business in town, we continued on to 'Outdoor activites' with the Play Rangers, slightly later than I had intended, serendipitously so as it turned out.

We spotted their tent as soon as we got to the park, and Sylvie, spotting a familiar Ranger, took off running to practice her 'Social Skills'. Unfortunately, he didn't see her coming and walked off in another direction talking to someone, leaving Sylvie standing there looking confused. He spotted her not long after and came to talk to her but it took her a while to get her enthusiasm back, though his satifying reaction when she opened her coat to reveal the skeleton underneath helped a lot! He wrote down our names, then asked me if we were stopping for a while. I said we were planning to and he explained that Sylvie's name was their 5000th this year and so had won a prize!

She got a certificate with a 'Gold Award' Junior Play Ranger badge attached and a large box containing a 'Paperpod' Teepee from the Eden Project - a playhouse made of cardboard that slots together in sections. She also was given the pumpkin that was carved during the session because she was the 5000th attendee, and I was told she would get an invitation at a later date to a 'Gold Award' evening where she would have tea with the mayor. She also got her photo taken by both the Play Rangers and the photographer from the local paper. I can't believe how much she got just for turning up!

Because the teepee was in such a big box, the Play Rangers said they would drop it round to our house this evening, along with the pumpkin. I asked if they could drop off the certificate too as I didn't fancy it's chances if I carried it home and it snowed. I'm glad I did, because the weather became very interesting very quickly once the session finished!

While we were there, as well as the pumpkin Sylvie played with the hula hoops, made a halloween card and declined the opportunity to play appley games such as eating an apple suspended on a string with hands behind the back (had it been chocolate on a string, she would have been first in the queue!). I think she wanted to play with the huge blow-up cube from the way she kept looking at it, but it was a popular item and was commandeered by some bigger and faster-moving children all day. She missed out on decorating Halloween biscuits though - I took her into the town museum, which is also in the park, so I could feed and change Davy in comfort - I hadn't used the picnic rug as I was getting some sciatica twinges and didn't feel sitting on the cold ground would improve it so wanted a nice chair to sit on. Sylvie was also starting to feel the cold - I had not had the forethought to pick up her gloves when we left the house (though I did pack socks) and her hands were freezing.

Inside the museum, they had some half-term activities going on related to the recently erected Boer War soldier bronze statue, a replacement for an original commemorating the dead of that war that was stolen a few years ago so while I fed Davy she joined in the 'Art' activity and cut out, coloured in and attached ribbons to facimilies of Boer War medals. I also found out what they are doing for the first Saturday of November - Meet a Mediaeval Knight and his Wife.

At 2, the Play Rangers packed away, so we made delivery of prize arrangements and went for food - sausages, chocolate cake and fizzy orange - before popping into the hospital so I could get a blood test. Sylvie exercised her 'Social Skills' by leaping out roaring to try and scare total strangers who were unfortunate enough to need the bathroom at the same time as Davy needed changing. As we headed for the hospital, it became apparent that the snow was definitely on it's way, with large flakes falling quite quickly from a very dark sky. We went through a covered shopping arcade to stay warm where we bumped into a family we knew from the Play and Stay - they asked after us as they had missed seeing us there today so I told them about the Play Rangers and Sylvie's prize.

At the hospital, Sylvie occupied herself with a spot of 'Maths' - the phlebotomists run a ticket system, we had ticket number 58 and the counter was on 48 when we arrived, so Sylvie entertained herself asking how many more till our turn every time the number changed and pointing out the similarities between the number on the screen and the one on our ticket. She watched intently as usual as my blood was taken - I have no plans to ever let her get her hands on a real needle in case she tries out the technique on me!

By the time we reached home, the ground and stationary cars were starting to get a layer of white dispite the earlier rain having soaked everything which usually stops snow settling. Sylvie asked if she had "tided enough to get the laptop now?" I agreed she had so she played her Reader Rabbit games until daddy got home. Daddy was told about the prize, which one of the Play rangers delivered not long after, along with an extra surprise of a poster they had made up using one of the photos they had taken of Sylvie earlier. After getting some pictures of her posing with her new stuff, she decided to do some typing in a Word document which she asked to be printed off then to be 'hung' on her wardrobe.

I was too tired and too busy with Davy to do the bolognese sauce I had planned for this evenings meal, so we had burgers with our baked potatoes instead. While I cooked, she did some 'Photography', taking a whole cardful of pictures of her brother, daddy and my bottom as I bent over the oven, before turning to self-portraiture, an example of which is above.

She played with her Geomag set for a while after she had finished eating, claiming to be making 'frogs' with it, but got upset when asked to move over a bit so there could be a clear walkway through the living room. daddy cuddled her and she asked him to take her to bed. we explained it was my turn, but she declared "I will just keep asking until you do!" so a compromise was reached - daddy would help her brush her teeth before I read her a story. When I came to read to her, I found she had fished out the two very short stories I had written for her ages ago. She enjoyed them, but claimed they were a bit short, so I let her find another (short) book before leaving her to sleep to her favourite Avril Lavigne CD.

27th October - Halloween Hijinks!

Halloween has hit Sylvie's consciousness with avengence today! It being half-term, there are a number of halloweeny things going on this week for the local children and today's event was a Halloween fancy dress party at the Early Years centre. We nearly missed it though, as I had mixed up my events dates.

I had accidentally written down the Play Rangers event in the big park in town for today and so assumed it clashed with the party. As getting to that park involves a bus ride and is scheduled to last for most of the day I thought she would get more out of it than the party so, after a spot of 'Home Economics - Tidying' which involved me telling Sylvie she couldn't get any more toys out to play with until I could see the floor and her responding that in that case she wasn't going to play with much today, we headed out to the bus stop, taking a quick detour through the local park to take some photos for our playground 'Project'. Sylvie was excited to see the equipment was starting to be put into place at last after weeks of preparing the ground.

Once we got to the park, there was a distinct lack of any Play Rangers. Luckily, I had the leaflet on me and on checking it I found I had the day wrong. Sylvie was disappointed, but perked up quickly when I said that in that case we had just enough time to get the bus back to the party.

I had dissuaded her from leaving the house in her fairy outfit as I felt it was a little too cold for a day in the park, especially as it is now far too short for her! I knew we wouldn't have time to go back to the house for it so we popped in the fancy dress shop to see if they had a nice, cheap costume she could wear. It was a bit full for such a small shop thanks to the time of year and so it took a bit longer to find the right rack than I liked. Sylvie said something that I initially interpreted as "I want to go as a fairy" but, on enquiry, turned out to be "I want something scary". After looking at one or two outfits, she spotted a Skeleton costume and decided that was perfect.


The Early Years centre was on the bus route and we luckily avoided a shower of rain while on the bus, getting off just as it stopped to walk up the road to the centre. Sylvie was complaining that she couldn't walk far - she had certainly been acting tired in town, tripping over her feet which for her is a sure sign and falling over at one point. She lost all signs of sleepiness once at the centre where she dragged me off to the toilets to change into her outfit, apparently certain she would scare everyone silly.

We had missed the beginning of the party but had arrived just as the food did so we had a nice lunch before Sylvie went to the craft table to have a go at making a spider. She didn't have time to explore the green jelly with plastic creepy crawlies in it or the blue dyed spaghetti, but I'm not entirely sure she wanted to anyway! It was incredibly busy, with a lot of families in attendance and we were both pleased to find we knew a lot of the people there from the Play and Stay and the Breastfeeding cafe. Sylvie seemed much more comfortable there than I would have guessed with so many people and so much noise, probably because of this.

She took part in a 'Treasure Hunt' where the children had to find three different halloween symbols to get a prize. She had done something similar at their summer event where the prize had been bubble mixture, but this time it was halloween sweets which was a disappointment to my chocolate-only child. She wouldn't take any and was nearly in tears, so I told her I would get her some more chocolate cake from the buffet instead and the mother next to us, who we knew from the breastfeeding cafe, offered her a chocolate eyeball (which she was quite wary of until informed it was chocolate!)

Sylvie kept her skeleton costume on, refusing to change to go home. Her intention was to scare daddy on his return, though she did remove the skull cap, referring to it as 'silly', until he got home. She put it on the radiator, saying it needed to be kept warm for scaring daddy!

She asked for her Dr. Who video, but I reminded her that she had been told nothing else out until some stuff went away and videos were included. She tried to 'Debate' that the video was already in the machine and therefore didn't count as getting something else out, but she doesn't know how to work the video buttons yet so lost the argument on a technicallity. To my surprise, she actually started 'Home Economics - Tidying' without further protest (I had thought I was due a screaming fit having pushed my luck with the video, though perhaps seeing me pick up some of my books to put away helped my cause.) though my floor isn't much tidier as she concentrated mainly on the bin bag of stuff her daddy had filled a few weeks ago with everything lying on the floor. I gave her a quick reminder that things need to go back into their proper places - opening the door to the conservatory and dropping a toy just inside does not count as tidy! - and she tried hard to comply though I've a feeling from the way she disappeared a few times I might find quite a few things stashed under her bed.

She indulged in some 'Free Play' with her toy Tardis and some imaginary ghosts and some 'Art' that involved making daddy a present out of the packaging from her costume - on the back of the cardboard she drew a recurring picture of daddy being chased by a ghost - 4 pairs of figures each pair a bit closer to the 'front' of the picture representing the chase. This is the most 'people' I have ever seen her draw - I could count the number she has ever done on my fingers up until this picture! I thought the concept was quite clever - reminded me of comic book art denoting movement. I wonder if this is an effect of living with parents who like graphic novels or just another one of her experimental art techniques she has developed independantly, like her paper models or printing.

Daddy, on getting home, had to pretend he hadn't seen her rushing past him to get her costume cap then rushing the other way to get me to tie it on, and acted suitably scared when she reappeared the 3rd time. She promptly locked him in the conservatory (which is freezing - we still haven't plumbed any the radiators) and wouldn't let him out. It was then her turn to be imprisoned - behind the door of the plate cupboard - and while calling for help, refused to be rescued until we found the right "hook" to release her. This, she eventually told us after rejecting a number of attempts, was her skipping rope. Duly rescued, we were able to have dinner and admire her 'Art'.

She went on to try on a different 'costume' after dinner, having taken off the skeleton outfit. She said she needed 'something long and white' to cover her so she could be a ghost, so I gave her a white towel. She did ask for eyeholes so she could see, but it was one of my good towels so she had to be a 'sight-impaired' ghost. This didn't stop her trying to reimprison daddy and me. She then insisted that Catty, who had participated in all of the day's events after being out of the picture for a few days (stuck on top of her cupboard "because he was naughty", poor thing), also had to have a turn at being a ghost so I chased her around the kitchen with a towelled-up Catty until she announced "Something is pushing me into the dungeon!" and pretended to be pushed onto the computer chair where she sat calling for rescue. (And as far as I could make out, apologising to Catty for getting him trapped with her. I think aliens were mentioned.)

She has made plans to scare granny at the Bonfire Night party my parents are having - granny responds nicely to such things! - by wearing her skeleton costume then. We said it might be too cold, but suggested since it is quite baggy she might be able to wear it over the top of her ordinary clothes, though she would need a coat too. Sylvie said that was ok - "I can open my coat and scare everyone with the costume underneath. It will be a surprise!" I think Sylvie likes Halloween!

23rd - 26th October - A Mixed Bag

I have got quite behind with the blog this last week, which I am laying firmly at the door of my son who, having started to sleep through the night, has suddenly reverted to waking every 3 hours from 9 pm until 6 in the morning and apparently thinks 3am is 'Chat and Play' time. I have found myself gently nodding off over the computer at night thanks to this. Mind you, his daddy colluded in this too by buying the Heroes DVD box set with his birthday money, leading to two nights of solid TV watching while the computer was left lonely.

The highlights of the last three days include plenty of 'Reading' with the Reading Eggs website, and a renewed interest in her Reader Rabbit games. These also sparked some 'Maths' as I showed her how to use her abacus to solve problems on the game that started with the answer and asked her to pick out the right numbers from a selection that added up to that number. She did know how to use it to find the answer when given a sum, but not the other way around.

There was also more 'Writing', as the photo shows. She asked me to write down the 3 names so she could copy them - she has always asked for dots in the past and I put the new willingness to 'copy' down to the magnadoodle book she played with at Nana's. I don't think she did too badly considering this was her first ever attempt at copying actual words rather than numbers or individual letters. The names she chose are interesting - Sylvie is self-explanatory, David is her baby brother, but Eno is a dinosaur from a programme called 'Dinotopia' she has seen about twice on CBBC. It obviously caught her attention!

Plenty of 'Media Studies' with a lot less CBeebies than ever before. She has started to enjoy CBBC which has more things I find watchable - it is hard to endure CBeebies when she wants it on now I know what I am missing on the other side! We have had a few 'Home Economics - Cooking' sessions making cakes. Sylvie has really got the hang of cracking eggs now, and had done them while I was finding the cake tins the last time we baked. Her favourite part is decorating the cakes though - she loves making faces out of the smartie-like sweets I have for cake decorating, including the cheeks which make them look like they have 3 noses sometimes.

Loads of 'Free Play', much of which currently involves superheroes, and the odd bit of 'Art'. She has returned a bit to her 'paper and sellotape' model art she went through a spate of about a year ago.

Saturday was 'Dance' and I went in for the warm-up for the 'modern' session thanks to her getting a bit grumpy and then trying to save face by saying she would go in if someone went with her. I took Davy in to watch, which perked her up, and I was able to see how she did in the class. She looked so happy dancing away it was hard to believe she would have refused to go in if I hadn't agreed to go too - she really is one to cut off her nose to spite her face. I tried to see if she was any good at it but my limited knowledge of dance means I have no idea! She was certainly trying very hard to get the movements correct, showing the same tendancy I saw at her show to anticipate what comes next and do it before everyone else (in the show, she did this so well she was a move ahead of everyone else by the end. There is a photo of her group where she is sittting while the others are all still standing for this reason!)

Sunday was 'Gym'. She wanted to do the competition the local clubs have organised, so she was in the group learning the competition moves this week. Unfortunately, Davy had, with classic timing, done an enormous poo just as I was about to put him in his car seat that took forever to clean so daddy took Sylvie then came back for me. When I got there, my friend told me Sylvie had refused to do anything asked of her dispite her group being taken by her favourite coach this week. She also got sulky over the sticker choice (halloween theme - all the ghosts had been taken).

When we asked why she had been like that, expecting it to be because we weren't there, she said "I didn't get to scare them." This related to a Davros mask that came with this week's Dr. Who magazine (She got her pocket money on Saturday, and in 'Fiscal Management' daddy had given her a £5 note as he had no change expecting to get £1 back from her once she had bought the magazine but told her she could keep it when it turned out it cost more this week.) Sylvie had wanted to wear it into 'Gym' to scare the coach but the elastic had come untied. I had said I would fix it in the car but thanks to the change in plans she didn't get it until the end of the session. She put it on and ran over to the coach, but came back pouting because "They weren't scared!" My friend perked her up a little by acting scared and when daddy suggested she scare granny with it she bevame her lively self (got to love the way 'Social Skills' are going!).

'Fiscal Management' has reached a point where I have decreed if she doesn't have her money actually on her person she can't buy anything. We had lent her money before, but that started to lead back into her asking for everything and stropping if she didn't get it, something that being in control of her own money had stopped until the recent lending spree.

We missed out a few days of our playground 'Project' due to not going out, or at least not on foot. Things are actually starting to look like things are moving so this was annoying, but with the nights drawing in and the weather getting colder, it is harder to nip out to take the pictures at the end of the day.

Sylvie has done some 'Puzzles', and 'Mazes' having found the ones I printed off for her last year as well as her maze book. She got out her Mythological Creatures sticker book at granny's and filled some in, getting a quick lesson in the life-cycle of a phoenix thanks to granny asking what it was as Sylvie stuck it in and it being daddy's favourite such creature. She has also investigated 'Physics - Magnetism' with her Geomag set, seeing how many balls various numbers of sticks can pick up in one go.

At the breastfeeding cafe, she actually played with the two little boys who are there sometimes. It was nice to see her interact with them finally after treating them like lepers for weeks. They are obviously familiar enough to talk to now! She also played a game involving balancing on her stomach on the edge of a chair without holding on which attracted one of the boy's attention, his mother voicing my silent thought that he was picking up new ideas from her to try out at home!

Oh, and she still wants a cat. She talks about "when I get my cat" as if it were a given. Things like "When I get my cat, I will play with it all the time, unless it is raining. Cat's don't like the rain, do they?" And "What do cats like to play with? What will my cat do when it is inside, where will it play?" Hmm. I think she's got a new obssession.

There were probably other things, but I don't recall them!

21st and 22nd October - Addicted to Reading!

It's official - Sylvie is completely addicted to the Reading Eggs website.

Tuesday afternoon she came to me saying she wanted to play on the lap-top with 'That egg game'. I was certain our free 14-day trial was well and truly up, and on checking found I was correct. Since she had only played it twice before I didn't want to buy a subscription so I set up another 14-day trial in Davy's name using their daddy's e-mail and she started the games from scratch.

She played it until dinner, had to be persuaded off the lap top to come and eat, despite being well aware that there was chocolate cake for afters once she had finished one of the feqw meals we know she will eat without protest - the cake had been made earlier in a spot of 'Home Economics - Cooking' to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth! (Oh, and speaking of eggs, she cracked her first one all by herself today for the cake - usually she is too gentle tapping it and I have to take over, but with some encouragement to do it a bit harder she managed it.)

After dinner, she was back on again playing until about 9.30pm and she wanted to continue, stopping only because we insisted due to very telling 'I'm tired' behaviour starting to set in.

First thing in the morning, when she came into our room on Wednesday(and after taking daddy to see she had had a go at making her bed - another first!) she asked to play some more, and again played solidly until it was time to leave for the library.

These two days have been a little odd - daddy has been at home in bed nursing a cold while I have been suffering from the blurred senses that come with sleep depravation thanks to Davy making an early start on teething and reverting to the 'Feed me every two hours!' pattern he had as a newborn (apart from a long sleep in the afternoon when I can try to get things like te washing up done if Sylvie lets me.)

Consequently, there had been quite a bit of 'Media Studies' (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, selected episodes of) on Tuesday morning, along with plenty of 'Free Play', part of which involved completely covering her bed with toys.

In the afternoon after lunch we left Davy with daddy watching him while Sylvie and I went to the shop for some bread and butter, taking a detour to the park on the way for 'Project' photos which we haven't done for a while thanks to our Isle of Wight trip (there is now a yellow gate standing all by itself in the middle of the playground area. Not much else has changed as they seem to be taking the opportunity to redo all the paths in the park at te same time so that is what seems to have been mainly happening while we were away.) and to try out her new golf set.

Today we also went to the park after visiting the library, and oh, did she need the exercise after sitting at the laptop all morning! She was fairly lively at the library - there were enough people for a bounce and Rhyme session today, which there hasn't been for a few weeks - and she worked off some energy marching to the songs in 'Music', followed by running about fetching books for her and Davy afterwards. She got too many and had to pick 4 from the huge pile she had collected to bring her up to her 10 book limit. She tried to persuade me to take a joke book out on my ticket, but I said I would rather not! Sylvie also ran up against the lessons of 'Fiscal Management' when she realised that I meant it when I said I wasn't paying for her to hire a DVD because she had blown all her pocket money earlier in the week and could not afford to pay for it herself.

At the park, she was offered a choice of 'Outdoor Activities' - the Play Rangers had brought the pond-dipping equipment as she had asked for it last week, but she chose the rather more energetic Hula hoops and spent a fine time chasing them, trying to hula them and jumping in them before moving on to a long rope for Tug-o-War and 'Tying people to the football goal post'. She was very enthusiastic and didn't want to stop - when she came home she asked her daddy to get a rope so they could continue playing 'Tying people up' together, but daddy managed to persuade her he was still to unwell for that!

I took the opportunity of a sleeping baby and a fellow adult around to have an afternoon nap, from which I was woken by Sylvie with a box over her head telling me dinner was ready. It wasn't quite, so I spent a few minutes converting Sylvie's box 'Robot Helmet' into something she could actually see out of. At her request, it had nose, mouth and ear holes as well as eyes.

Once again, she stayed up past 9 playing her Reading Eggs game, but in all it was a very pleasant day, not least because she actually tried some of her food - beef (which she usually complains is too chewy) and vegetables (onions, peppers and mushrooms) of her own accord without any protest. Her verdict was "It's a bit nice but also a bit horrible too"!

20th October - A quiet day.

Not much happened today thanks to us wanting to recuperate from our busy long weekend on the Isle of Wight. I was tired thanks to Davy's nice new sleeping pattern - wake at nine, finally get to sleep again at midnight until 4 in the morning, then tske two hours to get back to sleep by which time Sylvie is ready to get up. He spent all morning feeding and then generously sharing his food by bringing most of it back up all over me, so Sylvie entertained herself mainly with 'Media Studies' until lunch.


After lunch, we took the bus into town as I had a parcel to pick up and I wanted to pick up some groceries, there not having been time at the weekend to get any in. After collecting the parcel, we made a short detour to the town museum to see if they are planning any more events in the near future, but I hadn't realised it was shut on Mondays so we went on to the supermarket without learning about any events.

At the supermarket, Sylvie carried the basket until it became too heavy for her. I got a bit more than I had intended to as I kept remembering other things we had run out of. As we got to the check out, Davy woke up for more milk, so after paying I sat on the bench by the entrance and fed him while Sylvie looked at the magazines and played 'peep boo' with me around the racks.

I had told her we could have a look for a present for her cousin's birthday, but the shopping was heavier than I had expected thanks to the extra items, it was starting to drizzle and Davy was having a bout of wind that involved crying and bringing up sick with his burps so I wanted to get home quickly. As we hurried to the bus station, Sylvie announced "Look, there's two of them!" I had no idea what she was talking about, but she was pointing in the direction of the bank. I asked if she meant the shields carved into the stone under the roof and she said yes, though whether she really meant them or if she didn't know what 'shield' meant and said yes because she didn't want to explain further, I'm not certain!

As we waited at the bus stop, Sylvie asked to be lifted onto the seat - one of those tilting things that fold up if there is no weight on them. She tried to get off herself when the bus came, but the tilting mechanism foxed her and she tipped off the seat and scraped her leg and hand. I had her put the hurt hand on the shopping bag against the spot where the milk was to cool it down which she said helped. We turned out to be sitting next to a lady who attends the Stay and Play with her son, and we had a chat.

At home, Sylvie indulged in an afternoon of 'Art', making a present for her cousin since we had missed out on looking for one in the shops, and asking for the old toilet rolls, out of which she made binoculars on her own and rockets once daddy got home to be co-opted into making the nose cones out of paper.

She then spoilt the nice evening she had been having with daddy by not only refusing to eat but also defying the rule of sitting at the table even if she doesn't plan on eating anything on her plate so she got taken to bed storyless. She was very, very tired and might have been more amenable if I had managed to persuade her to have a nap once we were home but she insisted she didn't want one.

19th October - Trip Home

Today we left the Isle of Wight, so I spent most of the morning tracking down Sylvie and Davy's clothes that had scattered themselves around granny and granddad's house. I couldn't find one of Sylvie's books and had even forgotten which one it was, I just knew I had packed 3 library books and only had found 2. Daddy couldn't remember either, but Sylvie knew what and where it was.

Sylvie was given some Junk mail that had stickers in it and she had a happy morning before breakfast playing with them and insisted they were packed to come home with us too. She happily informed everyone that she intended to "play until lunch, then we are going back to Our island."

We were sitting down to lunch (toast sandwiches with ham and cheese for Sylvie, bacon for the rest of us) when her cousins arrived, straight from orienteering. Sylvie asked if she could leave her lunch as she really wanted to play with them, so I suggested we wrap them up and take them with us. We took some photos of the four cousins together, and they had some 'Free Play', but not nearly enough for Sylvie, who stood sadly in the doorway refusing to put her shoes on because she didn't want to leave. Even the reminder that we are returning for Christmas didn't make her any happier, and she said goodbye very reluctantly.

We got to the ferry with 5 minutes to spare, so I nipped into the town to see if I could get the snow globe Sylvie had liked. Unfortunately, that shop shuts on Sunday, so I tried one a few doors down that looked like it might stock them. It didn't, but it had a nice line in glittery semi-precious stones and I spotted a geode that I knew she would like - the shop was selling them as two halves that fit together so the plain round rock is opened to reveal the crystals inside. It was more expensive than the snow globe, but I knew she would like it so I splashed out.

I got back to the car just as the ferry was docking, which was good timing! On board, we went up to the lounge where I gave Sylvie the geode. She was very pleased with it, as the photo shows! She had a quick 'Geology' lesson as we told her what it was called and what it was, but I think she was more interested in the 'Puzzle' aspect of putting the two halves together so they fitted exactly. She went out on deck with daddy and a nice lady took their picture, then she sat looking out the window eating her lunch. I realised we had left our new drinks bottles behind, sitting by granny's sink waiting to be filled, so daddy bought a bottle of fizzy orange for Sylvie while I rang granny to let her know the bottles were ours and we would get them on our next visit rather than have her post them to us.

We took it slowly travelling back on the mainland - daddy was tired and full of a cold so we took a few breaks. The first one, daddy had a nap in the car while I took Sylvie for a toilet break and a look round the shop at the service station. I spotted a skipping rope going very cheap, and picked it up to buy as I thought she could play with it outside, giving daddy a bit longer to sleep. Sylvie had spotted a toy golf set and wanted that instead, so on the basic principle of 'Hey, whatever gets her outside to play!' I decided to get it as well, but unfortunately woke daddy when we went back to the car to get my purse to pay for it.

While daddy looked for some cold remedy in the shop and I fed Davy, Sylvie had some 'Outdoor Activities', playing with her new skipping rope in the picnic area. She wanted the golf set, but it was very windy and not really a suitable spot for it so I said we would try out the set tomorrow if the weather was ok. Later, when we stopped again, daddy bought ice creams for everyone. Sylvie was very good in the car as usual, playing her Leapster and trying to cheer up Davy when he woke demanding attention.

It was later than we really wanted when we got home, and daddy didn't have time to stay for dinner as he was going 'troll killing' with his role playing friends so he said he would get take-out when he got there. Sylvie said she only wanted chips, which she ate before getting upset that there wasn't any pudding on offer - she thought we had brought back some of the cakes we took with us, but I had to tell her they had all been eaten.

I'm expecting a pretty slow day tomorrow - travelling has wiped us all out!

18th October - Round Robin Visiting.

It was a very busy day today, with lots of 'Social Skills' and 'Familial Relationship Studies' planned in a round of visiting. We set out after breakfast with an itinerary for our day as follows; 1. Visit Yarmouth for 'Fiscal Management', it being pocket money day
2. Visit friends we haven't seen for over a year in their new(ish) house
3. Visit Nana
4. Back to Granny and Granddad's for dinner.

Before we headed off, there was a quick lesson in 'Fashion' as I explained to Sylvie that the reason the jumper she had put on didn't seem to fit properly was because she had it on upside down, with the neck around her waist and her head poking out of the hem end. She decided she would rather wear a cardigan with her shorts and T-shirt after that.

Sylvie was looking forward to getting her Dr, Who magazine and also revisiting the shop with the snow globes. However, the newsagents didn't appear to have her magazine. Sylvie went and asked the shopkeeper, who said they usually have lots of copies but didn't seem to have had any in this week. No other shops carried magazines so we told her we would stop off at the supermarket on the way home to see if they had it. Then we moved onto the gift shop.

Once there, it became very apparent that spending her own money was quite different to spending other people's to Sylvie as, on being told how much money she would have left if she bought the one she wanted (none), she wandered around the shop looking for any that were cheaper. In the end, she gave up the lighthouse snow globe in favour of the 49p cheaper boat one. She paid for it while I and her daddy cleaned up baby sick, Davy's timing being impeccable as usual.

She happily showed off her snow globe to our friends, but went very quiet for a while as we caught up with them and their little not-quite-two-years-old girl tried to make friends with Sylvie by trying to hug her. She perked up a lot when offered 'something gooey' to eat and happily polished off 3 iced doughnuts, after which she joined our friends daughter in a drawing session. Sylvie drew an abstract design that she declared to be "a dragon's face." She pointed out it's tail, teeth and eye, before asking her daddy if he could draw a cube on the picture for her. She pointed out where she wanted it to go (by the 'eye') and he happily obliged. Sylvie then presented the drawing to her new friend as a present - her mummy promised to stick it on the wall with the other drawings after writing 'to...from...' on it.

We then moved on to Nana's, where Sylvie was at her most entertaining. She showed off her snow globe again, and played a game of jumping over it until asked to stop as the vibrations going through the floor when she jumped were shaking the ornaments in the display cabinet. She was told 'one more, then stop' and was taken to task for turning round and jumping over again in the opposite direction. She explained that the second jump was "the other part of the last jump" - obviously one jump meant one in each direction for completeness!

She also played 'doctor' with her daddy as her patient. As usual, her treatment involved big needles that "will hurt a lot!" and being strapped down and lifted up for "the scan." When she lost interest in this (daddy fell asleep having been told to shut his eyes!) She asked for something else to do. I found a leaflet in my bag that I gave her for a spot of 'Paper Engineering', telling her to get daddy to make a paper aeroplane for her. She played with this with Nana and daddy while I fed Davy, and then switched to 'Maths' coupled with 'Writing' as Nana brought out a toy she had available.

It was a counting book with a Magnadoodle in the back, the idea being that you count the items on each page and then try to write the answer on the magnadoodle. To my surprise, she actually decided to try this, and made a very good attempt. I was very impressed with how well she did it considering the only number she has ever attempted free-hand before is zero. ('Zero' seems to be her favourite number - she always asks if a counting sequence is going to start at "zero or one?", and did so with this book too) I helped with a couple by drawing them first so she could see how they are made (8 and 5) but the rest she did just by looking at the number on the page. She had the most trouble with '10' - she kept trying to write '01', probably because she is used to thinking of zero coming before 1.

We took a couple of photos of Nana and the children, and then at Sylvie's behest rang her aunty to see if it would be ok for us to pop round for Sylvie to play with her cousins before dinner. The plan was to meet them at dinner, but as we realised there would be very little time for the children to play together then, we cut our visit to Nana short to go to their house for an hour first. On the way, we stopped at the supermarket to get the Dr. Who magazine. Sylvie had fallen asleep in the car and although she woke when we stopped, agreed I should go in alone to pick it up as she was still too sleepy. They had the magazine and she spent the rest of the short trip exclaiming over the free gifts.

The cousins were ecstatic to see each other and after showing Sylvie their rooms all three of them raided the dressing up clothes and modelled for us while Davy was cuddled and admired by his relatives. Sylvie also showed off her magazine and had to be persuaded not to stick the stickers to everyone.

When it was time to leave for the big family dinner, Sylvie and her cousins negotiated riding together in the same car. As we were leaving, on being reminded not to forget her snow globe, Sylvie explained that she was leaving it there as a present for her cousins. We asked if she was sure and she was adamant she meant it. It was a very sweet gesture on her part and I have decided to get her the light house one if I get chance to revisit the shop.

Back at granny's, they played together some more, with her cousins introducing Sylvie to Granddad's unusual 'Russian doll'-type 'toy' - an African souvenir with each 'doll' a different hand-painted big cat, the outside one being a very cheerful looking lion. Sylvie enjoyed some imaginative play with them before they were put out of harms way as the games started to involve cars and trucks. Dinner itself was a success as Sylvie ate all of her (admittedly small, but full of veggies) portion. She declared she intended to do so "because I want cake."

She handed round the cakes we had decorated yesterday, which were well-received and then followed by a black forest gateau her aunty and uncle had brought. She asked for the cherries to be taken off the top (her cousin, who loves cherries, ate them) and then decided she didn't like the cream so I scraped it off for her, only to hear her say "Yes, I do!" when granny asked if anyone wanted single cream with the gateau!

As her cousins were leaving, Sylvie tried to lend them her Dr. Who free gift, and got very upset when we told her to keep it as her aunt wasn't sure they would be seeing us before we left for the ferry as they were going orienteering in the morning. She was getting somewhat hyper due to tiredness and over-excitement, so I got her to write out her numbers again to give to Granny and Granddad, copying under ones I had written, in the hope that a quiet activity would calm her down.

It worked - she did one set (in the photo) for them and then asked to do it again as a present for Davy. Her numbers weren't as well-formed as on the magnadoodle, possibly because she was tired, and her 8's got quite creative! (We had told her at Nana's that it didn't matter if they were a bit wobbly as long as you can see what they are supposed to be as a spot of perfectionism tried to rear it's head and she took it to heart.) The '6' in Davy's set she said she had drawn 'upside down' - yes, it was the same as the '9'! Then she did a little 'Typing' on the laptop, copying the names she asked me to write on some paper for her and asking about some of the functions of the keyboard.

She didn't want to go to bed, but was persuaded without too much fuss to go with granny. However, as granny returned we could hear her having a bit of a strop - granny explained Sylvie had wanted to use her Leapster after her story and granny had said no. She fell asleep very quickly though - no half hour strop today, she was totally worn out!

17th October - Walks and Photography

Sylvie was on a 'Photography' kick today, including this one. Granddad took her on a walk to Fort Victoria to see the carved dolphin, so I gave her our camera so she could take a photo of it, and this is what she came back with.

Sylvie had got up with her Granny and was enjoying 'Media Studies', sitting watching cartoons, when I got up. She had asked to take a picture of her brother and managed one reasonable effort followed by 3 photos with the sleeve of her dressing gown prominent in the picture.

Granddad took her out after breakfast. She chose her own outfit, though had to be persuaded to take her jacket with her. Her 'Fashion' studies led her to choose short leggings, a sparkly sleeveless top, a sunhat, pink cat socks and Doodles.

I recommended her pink boots over the canvas Doodles, but she insisted and needless to say came back with damp toes from the dew on the grass soaking through the shoes. We dried her socks onto the radiator and Sylvie and granddad told me about the walk. There had also been a carved owl on the walk, but no photo of that - Sylvie had been a bit scared by it as it is in the trees with it's wings outsretched and looked like it was going to pounce on her!

She asked granddad to get the toys down for her and she spent some time exploring the contents of the toybox. With Sylvie happily enjoying 'Free Play' under the eye of daddy and granddad and Davy asleep, I took the opportunity to snatch a nap. When I returned to the fray, it was obvious that Sylvie was getting hyper again and needed to work off some energy so since it was a beautiful day so far, I decided to take her out for another walk later. She had been playing with the dollys in the box and had commandeered Davy's bouncy chair for one of them. Grandddad told me she had been pretending the doll kept crying and waking her up!

Since granny had left out some stuff for decorating the cakes we had brought with us and Sylvie had been wanting to do that, we did that first before our walk. We made chocolate buttercream icing and while I put it on the cakes Sylvie had fun decorating them with the bits granny had left her - icing letters and shapes and chocolate chips. She decided to put the first letters of hers and each of her cousins names onto some of the cakes so everyone would know those cakes were for them. I 'improved' them slightly by completing each name, but the rest of the decoration was all her.

She went to the toilet before we left and we could hear her making bird noises - 'Cuckoo, Cuckoo!' and 'Caw, Caw!' - when I investigated as she didn't appear for a while, it turned out that this was her way of saying 'Can someone come and turn the tap on for me, please?' Her granny has had a new sink put in that is very large and Sylvie can no longer reach the tap. We had a quick lesson in 'Communication' as I explained that bird calls don't quite cut the mustard when it comes to asking for assistance!

After washing her hands she explained the flush on the new toilet - it has two buttons for short and long flushes and she told me "That one is for wee and that one is for poo."!!

She wasn't too keen on the walk idea until I said I might get her an ice cream when we reached Yarmouth town, at which point she became very enthusiastic! I debated whether to take Davy, but he had not long had a big feed and I didn't really want to take him outside as although warm there was a wind blowing, which he hates. In the end, I left him happily watching the snooker with his daddy and granddad while Sylvie got me all to herself for the first time in ages. We headed off with her in yet another original outfit - warm red dress with lilac summer shorts under it!

She took her sunhat again, but it was at the mercy of the wind and she eventually took it off. She told me her hat was "afraid of the wind, that's why it keeps trying to run off." She also claimed it was a magic talking hat and had told her it's name was 'Amelina'.

She revelled in the walk, admiring the boats in the harbour and claiming she wanted to "Remember this sight forever!" In a quick lesson in 'Architecture', I told her about the way the bridge moved to let the boats pass through and pointed out the gaps where the segments of the bridge met. Once we got to town, we went on a search for ice cream. The ice cream shop, Scoop, was shut, so we tried some other shops. The lifeboat shop didn't have ice cream, but we bought 3 drinks bottles. I have been thinking about getting some as the plastic bottles we usually use are getting a bit past it.

We chatted to the shopkeeper for a while, then moved on to the newsagents where, after a bit of a search, we found the ice cream. We went for a walk along the pier while Sylvie ate it, which was very pleasant until I happened to mention the water under the spot where we were standing was deeper than she was tall. She wanted to go back quickly after that ill-judged remark!

We wandered into a couple of other shops before heading back, one of which was selling small snow globes that Sylvie was very taken with. She asked for one, but was told she would have to wait until she gets her pocket money tommorrow. On the way home, she had us jumping over the gaps on the bridge and counting them. Unfortunately, she fell over on the last jump and scraped her leg quite badly,drawing blood. I carried her for a bit, but had to put her down eventually. I disracted her by showing her how to crunch the fallen leaves, which were dry enough to make a satisfying sound, and she decided to collect one leaf for each of us (including a little one for Davy).

Back at granny and granddad's, we were just in time for Davy who, after a good hour or two of energetically screaming at the TV every time a person had the temerity to get in the way of the pretty green space with the coloured blobs that move on it, was starting to get hungry. While I fed him, Sylvie did some crude investigation into 'Engineering - hoists and winches' involving her finger and an action man figure tied to a small plastic Thunderbird 2 with a long piece of string. She also got granddad to fill one of the new drinks bottles for her and used it all evening.

When granny came home from work, Sylvie had more 'Photography', posing granny, granddad and Davy on the sofa so she could take their picture. I also took a few with Sylvie in the photo too, but she was still the one giving the directiopns to the models!

Unfortunately, she took against dinner - I thought she might object as it was tuna which she genuinely doesn't like, but she didn't get close enough to see the fish, she spotted vegetables from a distance and refused to even sit at the table. I told her she needed to sit down or be taken to bed, so she took matters into her own hands and flew off to her bedroom - Sylvie likes to take control, even of her own punishments. She hates to 'lose', so prefers to make it seem like it was her preference to go to bed early, miss out on pudding, etc. rather than something she is being made to do.

She was asleep by 6.30pm. All that walking must have tired her out!

16th October - Off to the Isle of Wight!

This photo is of the harbour at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. It didn’t look like this when we arrived today as it was half past 9 at night and quite a bit darker!

I forgot to add onto yesterdays post the conversation I had with Sylvie during ‘Personal Care’ last night. She was talking about how her daddy brushed his teeth with her when it is his turn to take her to bed and asking why I don’t. I explained that I preferred to brush my teeth first thing in the morning while daddy likes to do his at night and that we used to do hers in the morning until we realised she was missing out most days because she had stopped needing the bathroom as soon as she woke up so we were forgetting to take her in for her teeth. I happened to mention I had forgotten to do my own teeth a quite few times in the morning due to having to deal with Davy and Sylvie declared that I should switch to brushing them at bedtime too then. She is probably right!

Today was a busy day thanks to the need to get everything ready for leaving for the Isle of Wight as soon as daddy came home. I was trying to get as much washing done as I could so Davy will actually have something to wear while we are away, get the washing up done, wait for the boiler man (again) and, at Sylvie’s request, make some cakes to take to the Island with us. Sylvie was busy with ‘Media Studies’ (Sky High again) and ‘Free Play’ that led to the floor being covered in puzzle and game pieces followed by the sounds of toys needing to be rescued by Superheroes.

The boiler man came and confirmed we need a replacement part as we have a small leak. After he left we took the opportunity to pop out to the shops to get some margarine, cream and chocolate chips for the cakes. While I was discovering a distinct lack of chocolate chips on the shelves, Sylvie discovered the pink and glittery toy section and started asking to ‘buy something’. I refused to lend her the money as I knew she was down to loose change in her purse and wouldn’t be in funds until the weekend. She was quite persistent, but changed her focus when she realised I wasn’t being swayed by pink and sparkly when she spotted the pet section – “Oh, please, I need a toy for my cat.” I pointed out we didn’t have a cat yet. She came back with “Well, it will need a toy when we get it.” I told her she would have to get a cat before she got a toy for it. She is still very determined about this cat idea!

We walked back through the park to get our ‘Project’ photos. Sylvie suddenly developed a concern about taking pictures with the workmen in them, probably because they were working outside the fence today. Davy was bothered by the wind again so we didn’t spend very long outside.

I told her we would make cakes after lunch, but she must have forgotten as she disappeared upstairs to play for a while so I did some washing up. When she came down to make them, she wanted to eat some of the chocolate buttons we had bought as chocolate chip substitutes. I said no as there wasn’t as many as I would like for the cakes anyway. She said “Well, I won’t make cakes then.”

Spotting a ploy to get all the chocolate buttons to herself when I saw one, I explained that in that case the buttons would be saved for next time. She changed her mind and we made two trays of cakes, using up the last of the cake cases. Sylvie recycled the bottom of the cake case pot but kept the lid. The bottom apparently is “not any use.”
While the cakes cooked, I finished Davy’s packing and Sylvie got together some toys to take with her. The big bag of stuff collected at the weekend is still waiting for her to go through it and tidy the things away, and when she thought her Leapster might be in there she decided she didn’t want to take it after all rather than search through it. She continued her ‘Decision-Making’ by collecting four cuddly toys and claiming that was all she wanted to take. I reminded her that her grandparents don’t have very many toys for her to play with and a lot are a bit young for her, but she said she didn’t mind playing with baby toys, which is quite true.

Daddy came home at 5.30 and packed the car while I fed Davy, starting with Sylvie, who insisted on getting in first. She had been raring to go all afternoon, wanting to leave without “stupid old daddy”, a comment which got her a reminder of what happened last time she said something like that.

After a quick interlude to change the Leapster’s batteries – she had decided she would take it in the end when I pointed out that far from being in the bin bag it was actually in it’s proper home – we left at 6pm which didn’t leave us much time to spare for catching the ferry but we made it with 10 minutes to spare. Sylvie was very good on the journey – we ate on the move as there wasn’t time for a picnic stop and she ate all her sandwiches and crisps before falling asleep for most of the trip.

On the ferry, Sylvie went out on deck with daddy, first on the stern seeing the mainland disappearing, then, after daddy showed her how to cup her hands round her face to see out of the window in the dark and watching the water like this for a bit, they went out onto the prow to see the Island approaching.

At granny and granddad’s, she was very hyper, obviously tired and over-excited, running and bouncing about and talking constantly. At one point, she was discussing something with her granny and told her it was different “on OUR island” – her knowledge of ‘Geography’ is better than mine at her age. I think I was 9 before I knew Britain was a collection of small islands. She showed off her brother, her toys, her books (one of which granddad read to her) and showed off her knowledge of ‘Fashion’ by going through her case and modelling all the clothes I had packed for her (enough for a fortnight as the weather is so at present). As she was refusing to head to bed or even take a breather by sitting for a story I took advantage of the Fashion Show and sneakily moved her night things to the top of the pile of clothes yet to be modelled. She wasn’t fooled, but did agree to keep them on and was eventually persuaded to go to bed with granny doing ‘Storytime’. It was about 11pm by the time she was asleep.

15th October - Cakes and a strop.

This morning, a parcel arrived in the post containing some Numdrums I had ordered. Sylvie had liked them so much when we saw them at the weekend, I got one for her and one each for her 2 older cousins too. After a quick play, though, Sylvie was desperate to start decorating the cakes we had made yesterday. Before making her wishes known, however, she appologised nicely for her behaviour last night.

She climbed up onto her stool to reach them and promptly exclaimed "Daddy has eaten three and you had two!" I took the 'Maths'a little further by explaining a little guiltily that, in fact, daddy had had only one, I was the one who had had three, and the other empty space was for the one she had had after dinner. Davy was having a very sicky morning, so the 'Home Economics - Cooking' had to wait a little longer than either of us wanted until he finished generously sharing his breakfast and fell asleep.

In the meantime, I set Sylvie up with the Reading Eggs website - she was very enthusiastic and got through a lot of the 'Reading' lessons, despite having to get me to close and reload the site a couple of times as there was a recurring glitch on one of the games that kept telling her she was both right and wrong as she played.

I noticed as she played that she was very, very visual and not terribly auditory in her approach. Any game requiring visual ID of letters she whizzed through and was very precise over, to the extent that she had to ask me if an 'M' was actually an 'M' as "the point doesn't go all the way down to the bottom on that one". On the other hand, the games that require listening to the sounds and picking out the letters/words with those sounds she was not very good at at all. I tried to help her by getting her to say the sound and then the words to feel the difference in mouth and tongue shape, but she refused to speak.

She surprised me with a couple of words though - a match the word to the picture game usually says the word when the cursor touches it, but for some reason it didn't work on one occasion yet she immediately and successfully placed a couple of the words in the right place after telling me where they should go. I wonder if she 'reads' like she used to 'count' - acts like she doesn't have a clue when asked to count, but does so quickly and easily in a situation that demands it such as the 'missing cake' count she did this morning. A few times I have thought she had read a word only to find her unsure and claiming she can't when asked directly to tell me what it says.

When we finally did get to decorate the cakes, Sylvie fetched most of the things we needed to make the icing (she couldn't reach the icing sugar) and started to put the margarine in the bowl herself. She found it a bit too hard to scoop it out the tub so I helped her with the rest. I put the icing on the cakes while she dealt with the eyes and noses of the 'cat faces'. I was short of anything for whiskers, so improvised with Hundreds and Thousands (which turned out to be 2 years out of date when I checked after using them!) Sylvie helped with this bit too. It was more effective than I had feared, but not quite as Whiskery as I liked. We had two each for lunch since, as Sylvie said, "one really isn't enough."

We had a lesson in 'Personal Care' when Sylvie asked me to act as body servant after using the toilet. She is capable of this herself but likes assistance. I was busy getting a load ready to put in the washing machine, so told her to do it herself. When she protested, I told her something I had only just realised myself - If we had followed the traditional route and sent her to school, she would be there now and in no position to request help with the toilet. She must have got the point because she did it herself with no further protest.

She had a lot of 'Free Play' time after this as I was again waiting for the boiler man.
Unfortunately, we just missed him as he rang to say he would be arriving at around 4.20pm, so I took Sylvie to the park for some of the Play Ranger session (they had hula hoops and Sylvie was trying very hard to learn to spin it round her waist properly!) and a photo for our 'Project'. We got back to the house at 5 past 4 to find the boiler man had just left a 'Sorry we missed you' card for 4.05pm - we must have passed him leaving as we walked up to the house.

Sylvie was less than angelic after Play Rangers, demanding to go to the library over and over dispite having known perfectly well when we left the house that that wasn't possible. she then started to insist we head off to the Isle of Wight today instead of tomorrow and refused to listen to any explanation as to why this was not possible. She topped it off with refusing to put her boots away in the shoe tidy - one of the few things we routinely expect of her - and hid under the covers in her bed. I brought her downstairs and told her she could go back to her room once her boots were in their proper place. She responded with a screaming fit worthy of her little brother that lasted about half an hour until she fell asleep on the sofa. It woke up Davy so for a while they were screeching in chorus until Davy got his second lunch.

Sylvie didn't wake until after her daddy was home, when she woke crying because she was stiff from the way she had been lying. I rubbed her neck, then reminded her about putting her boots away. She was obstinate for a long time, even when daddy tried to use 'fun' tactics to get her to do it. Eventually she put them away as I had said no telly until it was done and she wanted to watch Sky High again.

She refused to eat her dinner - chicken and bacon pasta - but was at least pleasant in her decision today without whining, demanding something else or shouting etc, simply saying "I am not going to eat my diner today." and leaving it at that. I took her to bed and read her two books, one of which was a board book that she pointed out all the letter 'S's' in, seemingly as an off-shoot from Reading Eggs.

14th October - Photograhy and shopping

Sylvie seems to be getting more aware and sensitive to other people's views and prejudices and where she stands in relation to them. There have been a few comments over the last few days that almost make me want to cut her off from the outside world and it's influences! The 'ladies versus men's books' comment for example - in a household where science fiction reading matter is the order of the day for both parents, she can only have got her belief that romance novels (pink with people kissing on the front) are girl books and everything else men only from the culture around her. Her immediate response to being the only girl in the Pirate Fun group of some discomfort also shows an awareness of gender role separation, despite her willingness to play with boys normally (especially if they are older and have a football!).

Today she said she didn't want to go to the Play and Stay because the other children "Are too young." This is quite true, she is the oldest there, but that was the first indication I had that she realised that. (Later, she changed her mind and begged to go, but it was too late by then). The comment that really got to me though was yesterday during her Pirate pretend play. She had wanted me to join in, and I had for a bit but dinner was requiring attention so I had to stop. Daddy couldn't play either as he was tackling the mountain of washing up so we could actually eat our food off plates. Sylvie flopped down and said that she wasn't going to be a pirate any more, that she was a silly pirate and silly for playing pirate games, and real pirates don't play games anyway. It felt so much like a regurgitation of someone else's words I wondered who had been telling her her imaginary games were silly.

I might be wrong and she was just using her command of language to express how I was making her feel for not playing, especially as she perked up and wanted to play again once I was available once more, but the structure and context sounded like that all-too familiar 'child repeating another person's view of them' for me to accept that. I don't want her to restrict her life by not doing things she enjoys and is good at because other people think they are odd or not 'girly' enough! On the other hand, she needs to know some people think like that so she can deal with them when she meets them in life. I thought I would have a bit longer before having to deal with this stuff! I am glad that she has not watched CBeebies for a while now because of this - I found it has rather more stereotyping of the 'pink for girls, blue for boys' sort than I would expect for something aimed at impressionable young children. I hope no one ever criticises her love of Dr. Who on the grounds that she is a girl - that might just break her heart!

Since we didn't go to the Play and Stay, Sylvie spent this morning engaged in 'Architecture' and 'Maths', having brought out her building blocks and abacus. I wanted to head into town today as I hadn't managed to get there yesterday so I got my washing done early and took a chance on the weather. While I was hanging it out, Sylvie said she wanted to take a photo of Davy, so I lent her my camera for 'Photography' and she happily took his picture and a series of 'Arty' photos of mundane items like her wellingtons and the garden fence. A few select examples of her work are at the top of this post.

We headed to the bus stop via the park for more 'Photography' for our park 'Project'. They have started digging on the other side now so our usual positions were no good for capturing the progress and we found new ones for today's pictures. When we reached the bus stop, Sylvie took out an egg timer I had picked up as a Freebie at the weekend's event. She was fascinated by it and yanked the top off while I yelled "No!" when she first saw it - it turned out to be inside a plastic sheath that allowed it to stand up and could be removed, another instance of Sylvie 'getting' something I missed (I thought I was about to get sand all over the floor!) She had brought it with her for 'Time' purposes - she wanted to see how many times she had to turn it over before the bus came. Later, she did the same to time the bus journey home.

I did some banking - no matter how often I ring up to find out about the mysterious money, I still haven't been told where it came from so I have now stuck it in my ISA - I might as well make a chunk of interest off it while I am not touching it in case someone wants it back! I also picked up a Child Trust Fund form from Sylvie and Davy's bank (they didn't post me one as they said they would) and while I was there gave Sylvie a quick run down of 'Fiscal Management', explaining her savings account to her a bit so at least she knows she has one now! We left with a leaflet on bank accounts - Sylvie showed me 3, a mortgage leaflet, one relating to a specific account and one that mentioned most accounts including under-18's. After I told her what each was for, she put the first two back!

In response to demands for food from both my children, I took them in to the restaurant next to the bank for lunch. I have never been in before as it is slightly more expensive than I usually go for on a shopping trip (waitress service, leather covered chairs, etc) but it was close so we went in. Sylvie happily ordered sausage, chips and beans while declaring she had never eaten in a 'posh' cafe before. She was very well-behaved while waiting for her food, and continued her current 'Superhero' play by occupying herself with squinting a things as she tried to "move them with my eyes."

She ate most of her food (I helped out with some of the chips!) Then we looked through the charity shops for some stuff for Davy but they seemed very short on children's clothes today. I ended up on ebay later, looking for dungarees - he is growing so fast he is already nicely filling 3-6 month clothing to the extent he will need to move to 6-9 month soon and Sylvie's old dresses don't really suit him. Sylvie managed to lose her usual trip to the toy shop by trying to yank me out of the first shop we went in and the bank so she could go and look at the toys.

I did however lend her 50p to buy a book about looking after cats. She insisted she wanted it even after I made her look through it to make sure it was what she thought (dense text, only a few line drawings). She carried it under her arm and showed it to every shopkeeper we saw and the bus driver. I don't think her desire for her own cat has diminished!

We got home and had some more 'Media Studies' with repeat viewings of 'Sky High' and a spot of 'Outdoor Activities' when I spotted Sylvie using her frisbee indoors and told her to take it into the garden, which she did.

We then engaged in some 'Home Economics - Cooking', making some chocolate fairy cakes for tea. Sylvie wanted to decorate them with 'cat faces' but there wasn't really time for that - dinner went in the oven as the cakes came out so they were still warm when the main course was over - so I promised we would do that tommorow.

Sylvie then spoiled a very nice evening by saying she didn't want "Stupid mummy" to take her to bed during 'Personal Care'. She lost her story for this remark and daddy spent some time trying to get her to appologise. She wouldn't and I said I didn't want an appology that was coerced, not genuine, so she went to bed without 'Storytime'.