24th - 30th November - A Week's Worth of post!

Thanks to a number of things conspiring against me, including an unhappy baby with a horrible cold, doing a lot of Christmas shopping on e-bay and just generally not getting much time in the evenings to use the computer, I have an entire week to catch up on! Here we go!

Monday/Tuesday - We relaxed after the very busy weekend and didn't do a huge amount, going to my parents where I created this 'nest' of cushions for Davy to sit in which was then commandeered by Sylvie as her spaceship (the baby laptop is the control panel). So, there was plenty of 'Free Play', some 'Art', 'Childcare', 'Media Studies', 'Decision-Making', 'Social Skills' (though not at the Play and Stay this week - she didn't want to go) 'Maths' (she measured herself using her measuring tape from her tool kit. Unfortunately, this led into 'Physics - Properties of Matter module' as in trying to contort herself into holding both the top and the bottom of the metal tape while measuring her height she managed to bend the tape to the extent that the metal cracked and permanently distorted - the tape measure is now headed for the bin.) 'Reading' and 'Information Technology' (She has found the CBeebies website has been updated with lots of new games and has been exploring them all week). We also fixed her Myths and Legends sticker book together - her cousin had played with it and a lot of stickers were in the wrong place (and one dwarf missing a leg!) so we did our best to correct it.

Sylvie was invited Geocaching, but refused on the perfectly reasonable grounds that it was freezing outside - no 'Outdoor Activities' Monday or Tuesday! We headed into town Tuesday afternoon as I wanted to do a little banking and buy some essentials we were running out of. I also wanted to check on some prices of toys. Sylvie was tired straight off the bus so we didn't stay long. When we returned, we found an envelope with a framed picture of Sylvie with the mayor had been put through our letterbox, at which point I remembered Tuesday was Play Ranger day this month! (It used to be wednesday and will return to wednesday again next month, so I have been a bit confused and missed a couple of the November sessions because of this)

'Storytime' was a factual sciency book called 'How do birds fly?' over these two days, half on Monday and half Tuesday. Nice to see her able to wait overnight for the second part of a book, even if it isn't a storybook!

Wednesday - Our 'Community Service' day, which also took in 'Nature studies', 'Gardening', 'Social Skills' and 'Outdoor Activities' rolled into one (and probably some other stuff too!) We took our cherry tree runners (the three small enough to bring home in the car from my parents) to the local park. I had rung on Tuesday to make sure they were still interested and so we bundled up against the cold and headed out (Davy in the pushchair for the very first time in his life, much to his disgust - I didn't think the sling would work too well for tree and bulb planting!).

Wednesday was the day the nearby school was getting involved, so we worked alongside a class of Year 1's initially (sensibly dressed in wellies and old clothes - they had brought spares for the very muddy work!)

There were no other members of the public around bar us, so when the schoolchildren were asked to split into groups of 3, Sylvie and I joined one group with me acting as the requisite 'adult' that each group needed (mainly to hold up the tree and stop them accidentally stabbing each other with the spade in their enthusiasm.) Each group of 3 planted a tree each then moved on to daffodil bulbs (holes pre-dug by a mechanical digger - wish I had one for my garden!). Sylvie and I did these as a pair - 10 bulbs per hole - until Davy signalled a need for a feed, when one of the council workers helped her. Sylvie asked more nature questions than I have ever heard her ask (Why are they called bulbs? Why do worms live in the ground? etc) - a couple of her questions I heard repeated by the school children who heard them - and when the group were asked what they thought the bulbs would grow into, she enthusiastically called out 'Onions!'

The school were on a tight time frame, so that class left before all the daffodils they were expected to plant were in. The next class (Year 3's) turned out to have even less time availible, and only managed the tree-planting, having to leave before planting any bulbs at all. This meant Sylvie got to do some nice peaceful bulb-planting with only the council workers who were very happy to give her all their attention and when the older class were tree-planting, she went off with a group of girls to do one tree while I acted as adult for a completely different group. She loved being part of the older group (8 year olds) far more than she got on with the younger class and asked me when she could go to school as she wanted to be with her new friends. I had to tell her she wouldn't be with the 8 year olds but the 4-5 year olds if I sent her to school, and she lost her sudden enthusiasm for the idea.

After the second class left, we planted our cherry trees. The man in charge chose a spot in the long grass so that the trees wouldn't be cut up by the mower when the grass was cut (the other trees planted were taller and had wooden posts around them to block the mower). We left before all the bulbs were in the ground - Sylvie's hands were getting very cold and we both wanted lunch. We said we might come by for the Saturday plant but weren't sure because of Sylvie's dancing, and waved goodbye to our new friends.

We headed out again after lunch to the library - I got a few books this time and actually managed to read one this week , thanks in part to Davy wanting to be cuddled all the time. Unlike Sylvie, who hated me reading and would close books on me as a baby and toddler (I think she saw them as rivals for my affection! She wasn't happy unless she thought I was looking at her and her alone) Davy actually focussed interestedly on my book and tried to hold it. He seems interested in text - we have noticed before that black on white images and vice versa hold his attention very strongly (I have a black and white dress he loves to stare at!) I just had to stop him trying to chew the book occasionally.

Thursday - No 'Childcare' at the breastfeeding cafe today as I didn't want to take Davy out in the cold weather thanks to him waking up with a streaming cold. Sylvie didn't mind and spent most of the day in 'Free Play', 'Media Studies', 'Art', 'Writing' and 'Information Technology'.

In the afternoon, I finally decided we were going to make the cake I had promised her we would bake despite Davy's reluctance to sleep or have me put him down, so we had a chorus of angry baby screams even though I had him in the kitchen where we could talk to him and I had put music on, which usually keeps him happy. It was a bit of a cooking experiment - Sylvie wanted to try and make "A swirly cake" so we split the cake batter in half, used food colouring to make one lot blue and the other red, then lightly mixed the two together again to try to get blue and red swirls. It wasn't too bad an effect, though the red colouring did make a spirited attempt to overwhelm the blue. Sylvie Decorated the finished cake with a person - it has eyes, nose and mouth in white chocolate buttons, arms legs and hair in little smartie-like sweets. (She stuck the 'hair' ones in on their edge to make it stick up!) She apparently didn't do this in a nurses outfit, by the way, the costume was standing in for something else (can't recall what she said it was now, but I'm fairly sure it had some Dr. Who theme!)

Friday - Most of Friday was similar to the rest of our 'relaxing' days this week, but the evening we had something special planned. Last Saturday, I had picked up a leaflet announcing a Barn Dance organised by the local Brownies. My sister was planning to go too. So, we headed off for a night of 'Dance' and 'Social Skills'. Sylvie has never been Barn Dancing before, but she enthusiastically joined in with every dance despite not being entirely sure what to do and made a pretty good job of her first go! We had taken the pushchair again for Davy as I wanted to dance with my husband, but he spent almost all of his time out of it, being cuddled by various people.

Sylvie also practiced her 'Photography', taking head shots of everyone she knew. She has improved a lot since we started our playground 'Project' - she gets complete heads in the photos these days, and reasonably centred, too! (See below!)

We left at around 10pm - Sylvie was obviously shattered and her parents weren't much better! It was on until 11.30pm, but with Dancing in the morning and tiredness sapping enthusiasm we headed home rather than hang around til the end.

Saturday - We all slept in after the previous night's exertions, even Davy (though both he and Sylvie had woken me repeatedly in the night with restless sleeping noises!) We took Sylvie to 'Dance' - there was a bit of a surprise for her Tap and Modern group because they all joined the Primary Modern class instead -
I suspect they were short-handed and this was a reasonable way around the staffing problem, but the younger ones thought they had had a real treat!

At home, it was a 'do little' day for us parents - Daddy had a nap as he wasn't feeling well, then I had a nap as Davy was finally sleeping and I needed to recover from my disturbed night.

Sylvie got out her easel for the first time in ages and played with the magnetic letter set it had come with. After messing about with combinations and patterns, she actually asked me how to spell something that wasn't her name - she asked how to make 'Atishoo' so I called out the letters and she found them (a feat in itself as some were scattered over a wide area of floor!) then she asked for her name. She played 'I don't know the letter', grinning as she asked 'Is it this one?' holding up the wrong ones for every letter in her surname - I played along as it was clear she did know most of them but wanted reinforcement on others.

Afterwards, she drew the above sequence of people with mad hair. I love the bottom one - it's me carrying Davy in his sling! It really does look like this - blue, over one shoulder and across the body. I thought it was pretty good (though I seem to be the only bald person in the row!) She was going to fold them in half to make a book, but I suggested a scroll instead so the pictures could actually be seen properly instead of only half at a time, so she stuck them together in a row and I vandalised a couple of baby dress coat-hangers fo the spindles of the scroll.

Storytime was the bird book again.

Sunday - Today began with 'Gym'. Sylvie was pretty good to start with, having recovered fully from the not winning disappointment of the competition (the marks were posted on the door still - she had come 13th out of 13! No surprise to us but we definitely kept quiet about that to her.) She then had a crying strop when one of the other children took the big dominoes she was playing with (they put a few toys at the end of the mats to occupy the children while the others have their turns) and took some effort to get her back to happy girl despite the dominoes being returned with extras - she refused to do her vault until I took Davy to the other side saying he wanted to watch her jump which finally perked her up.

She also got frustrated with rocking back and forth again, but I don't blame her for this, she has been trying to get this skill for months and has been 'almost there' for so long it isn't surprising she got miffed, though she did get up and try again really hard at the end. Then two or three others got badges, and the competitive green eyes showed. She Neanderthaled over without waiting for a sticker, so I suggested asking the coach what she needed to do to get her next badge. The coach was very obliging as usual, and Sylvie came back smiling and peppered with little stickers. The coach commented as we left that Sylvie "is really sweet!" I said Yes, she is sweet...MOST of the time! The assistant, who had had the dubious pleasure of dealing with stroppy Sylvie, nodded emphatically!

Sylvie spent most of the rest of the day at Granny's while we went shopping. Daddy picked her up in the afternoon (he got a phonecall from Sylvie asking when he was coming to get her just as he was preparing to leave) dropping off some bits we had picked up for my parents while he was there.

Once home, after rolling up her scroll (it had needed a little extra glue this morning) Sylvie settled in for a Dr. Who evening - thanks to some rather eccentric programming by BBC3, we had managed to forget to set the tape for the second episode of a two-parter on friday, but daddy had found it on BBC iPlayer so Sylvie had watched it over breakfast. Before dinner, she wanted to watch both episodes and then embarked on a marathon Series 1 viewing.

After daddy left for role-playing, she did a spot of 'Art' - I think the drawing below is inspired by a scene she had just watched in Dr. Who where a Gelf (gaseous, ghost-like being) had just left the body of an old woman and swirled around the theatre where Charles Dickens was giving a reading. (I believe the person is Dickens and the dots etc. the audience, I know the scribbly thing with the face is the Gelf). I popped upstairs and when I returned, she had written letters on the back. No actual words (though upside down you can pretend she was trying to write Ho! Ho! ho!) but this is the first time I have seen her deliberately write letters without guide dots or copying something.

So, that was this week in brief! (Well, fairly brief, anyway!) Surprisingly productive considering I would say I have neglected Sylvie in favour of Davy a lot this week due to his cold making him crave mummy, and a lot of relaxing not doing much activity. Hope I can do more with Sylvie next week - she shows my neglect by getting seriously over-clingy with daddy - so with any luck, Davy will get better soon and I can play with her properly again.

23rd November - Gymnastics Competition

Today was just as busy as yesterday - It was the day of Sylvie's Gymnastics competition. It was between the three big clubs in the local area, and is apparently a regular event with everyone competing on the vault and floor (a long strip, not a square). Sylvie was in the 4yrs and under group - there was almost no chance of her winning anything without all the other competitors dropping out, but she was keen to do it and we were interested in how she would handle it.

She had her normal 'Gym' class before the competition, which was held after lunch. We were pleased to see a happier little girl than last week actually participating with enthusiasm despite yesterday's exertions - looks like the growth spurt may have ended!

While we were there, I enquired into Trampolining - Sylvie had expressed a desire to try this after watching her cousin at a class but the lower age limit is 5 so I haven't looked into it before, but knowing how long a waiting list these things can have sometimes, I decided to see about putting her name down. I was told there were 3 classes, Monday and Tuesday evening and Saturday afternoon, with places being available now in the Saturday class. Sylvie could start immediately in the Saturday class as the coach will take them from 4 and a half in that one, but I decided to get back to them on our preferred day - although Sylvie would love to start immediately, not only are we feeling a little low in funds at the moment I don't feel 2 'Dance' classes in the morning followed by Trampolining in the afternoon is a terribly good idea! In the end, we decided Monday would be best as that day my mum can drop us off at the Sports Centre and my husband collect us. Tuesday would be difficult transport-wise and is also the day the local Rainbow troop meets, something else she has her name down for when she turns 5.

After 'Gym', we headed out to my parents - they had told us they would be away on a walking holiday in the Cotswolds this weekend so wouldn't be there, but I wanted to sort through the cherry tree runners my dad had left for me to take to the Community tree-planting project in the local park which happens next week so we planned to make a quick stop then go home for lunch.

As we arrived, however, my parents car pulled in behind us! They had decided to cut their holiday short as the weather had turned and they didn't fancy the walk in sleet, so we stayed there for lunch before heading back to the Sports Centre for Sylvie's competition. Lunch marked a big first for Davy - he tried solid food for the first time (a chocolate bar, carrying on the fine tradition started by his sister whose first taste of solids was when she grabbed a chocolate I was eating out of my hand and stuffed it in her mouth at 4 months. By this count, Davy is starting late at 5 months)

He loved it, and only allowed his chocolate-covered hand to leave his mouth afterwards so we could clean him when he grabbed for yet more chocolate waved enticingly in front of him.

He was also given the opportunity to try out the baby carrier that was bought for taking his cousin
Geocaching. Grandad is keen that he shouldn't stop me and Sylvie going! He seemed to enjoy it, happily chewing away on a strap as he was settled in and swung up on his grandad's back! Looks like he will be coming too next time a caching trip is suggested.

Back at the Sports Centre, we were pleased to see Sylvie's new-found confidence around other people was evident, with her heading off to her correct group on her own and taking full part in the warm-up despite the large crowd of unknown children and adults around her. She even went over to get a drink all by herself, threading through the crowd of spectators in a way I would not have imagined her doing a couple of months ago.

She was eager to take her turn, and was obviously excited, but was also starting to show signs of tiredness - not surprising really, but it all affected her performance as
she was no where near as neat as she had been in practice. She did try very very hard to do her rocking back and forth on her own, a skill that she still can't manage without assistance (she can do it on a slope but not on the flat) and came very close to succeeding. Unfortunately, this was balanced out by her not standing on one leg anything like as well as she usually does.

She jumped off the vault on her own (I had thought that the environment might make her regress to demanding assistance, but she was fine with this) however, it was only a 3-tier vault not a 4-tier the younger groups were using, so rather than jump on, Sylvie happily stepped up onto it from the spring-board as if she was climbing the stairs!

She made it clear she really thought she was in the running for a medal after they finished and despite us pointing out that she hadn't done as well as she has done in practice so she shouldn't get her hopes up, she was obviously very disappointed when she wasn't in the top 3. All the competitors got a certificate of attendance to take home but this was not enough for Sylvie who has got used to getting medals lately! They had a big group photo with all the children and the mayor of North Warwickshire who was there to present the medals (which means Sylvie has met two mayor's in a week!) but Sylvie sat there with a huge pout on her face - until she saw me with the camera when she covered her face with the certificate! (I'm not posting these photos as I don't like posting other people's children without permission)

She was in full-on strop mode after the photo, which came as no surprise. I dressed her while her daddy took Davy out to the car, but then she took off at full speed before I had collected all my gear, something she is prone to do in a temper. I couldn't allow it today - too many people milling about meant that I didn't catch her until she reached the foyer, where she tried very hard to dash off into the car park. It was tipping it down with rain and there were more cars than usual entering and leaving thanks to the competition, plus her daddy had had to park across the road due to lack of spaces when we had arrived so there was no way I was letting her go out alone so she screamed and fought to get away from me and out into the rain while I was equally determined to hold on to her until I was ready to leave. I ended up locking us in the toilet together so I could put my coat on as I did not trust her in the mood she was in not to get squashed by a car if I let go of her hand.

Sylvie continued screaming and trying to get away from me as I took her over the road to the car and only stopped when she fell asleep. We debated whether to take her to town to get her magazine or not, but decided in the end to go straight there as we didn't want her to miss an issue but didn't want to get it for her then have her pay us back - we learned from experience that that leads back to the slippery slope of her expecting us to buy her everything she asks for. I had wanted to go into town to watch the Christmas Lights switched on, but we decided to play it by ear - the weather was extremely changable today and Sylvie might be too tired to want to anyway.

In the end, we decided to pop in and take a look at the carnival and stalls that were in town. We arrived just in time to hear the applause as a group of dancers from the Dance school Sylvie attends finished their last dance of the night - we had hoped to catch a bit of them but fate had other ideas!

We did a couple of tombolas and lucky dips on the Charity stalls, watched a puppet show and then headed back as it was freezing and starting to rain. We promised Sylvie a go in the Maze we had seen on the way down - it had clear plastic walls, so you only knew which was passageway and which wall by sense of touch. Although she was told repeatedly by me, daddy and the man running it to move slowly with her hands out in front, Sylvie refused to and walked solidly into more than one wall. The last one hurt and made her cry, so daddy, who had gone in with her, took over the lead and they happily completed it this way.

We stopped for a junk food dinner as the fast food restaurant had a special deal on and we all needed to warm up. While I got the food, Sylvie showed daddy some 'Maths' with the glow sticks we had been given at one stall. She then joined them all together and made a 'crown' that daddy had to wear during the meal! We were just finishing when we heard the count-down to the lights going on outside and we saw the tree and town light up through the restaurant window.

We headed home, where daddy tried out the dalek mouse mat that had come with Sylvie's magazine but found it had the wrong surface for an LED mouse, so we decided she could use it as a place mat for her food instead. Daddy headed out and I took Sylvie to bed where she had a very short story - she was shattered!

22nd November - Even More Ice Skating!

It was a really active morning for Sylvie today, as after 'Dance' we went back to the temporary ice rink in town where she had a go with her daddy (dressed once again in her Superman raincoat - the men running the rink recognised her easily!)

She was much, much better at 'Dance' than she had been last week, though she did complain that she was going to miss a particularly dreadful children's programme that I am sure she only likes because she knows I loathe it. She wanted it recorded, but didn't make a fuss when she was told in no uncertain terms that there was no way I was going to waste tape on it, especially since it was a repeat she had seen more than once. The latter part swayed her, and she calmly went upstairs to choose some suitable ice skating clothes to take with us without any prompting.

It was freezing today - there are rumours of snow tomorrow - and I am very glad I remembered to check I had her gloves with me. I wish I had also popped in a thick jumper. Her Superman coat is quite warm usually, but Sylvie really felt the cold due to a frosty wind that was blowing quite strongly.

She joined in properly at 'Dance', but came out to change out of her tap shoes with a pout on her face. When asked what was wrong, she explained that she was using up too much energy and would be too tired to ice skate if she kept dancing. I fished out her chocolate raisin pot, telling her the sweets would replace her energy, so she ran back in to Modern happily!

After dance, we left her bag in the car and walked into town with Sylvie bouncing along loudly telling daddy all about ice skating. Daddy was going on the ice with her today - it was going to be part of the regular 'daddy and daughter' time it has become apparent she needs if she isn't to overwhelm him in hyperactive affection whenever he is at home. She used to get him to herself for a bit each weekend, but a number of things, such as the arrival of Davy, had stopped that and the effects are showing.

We got there to find the rink being resurfaced - we were there half an hour before it opened - so, after a quick chat with the men running the rink, we bought some hot batches and went into the covered shopping arcade to eat them out of the wind. (For those reading this who are not natives of Warwickshire, a batch is a bread roll. I only found out how very localised this term is very recently!)

Sylvie looked a bit miserable - initially we thought it was having to wait to skate, though she had seemed fine with eating first when we had found we would have to wait, but we eventually realised she had wanted sausages on their own, not in a batch. Once told she didn't have to eat the bread she was happy!

On our way back to the rink, we saw the Mayor and Mayoress in their chains of office, doing a Christmas walkabout, talking to people and posing for pictures. They saw us and came over to chat, having recognised us from the tea on Wednesday. Davy was admired and Sylvie talked about ice skating. They said they thought the rink was a really successful venture, but they weren't planning to have a go themselves!

Sylvie and daddy weren't the first in the queue, but were in the first group of people on the ice. Sylvie did really well again, while daddy had a bit of trouble getting used to the skates - they seem to be a special kind for the artificial ice, not figure skates or ice hockey skates which are what he was used to (way in the past! It's been a long time since he was on the ice!).

We were heading back to the car when I suggested a detour into the Co-op to warm up. Sylvie was complaining of the cold and the rest of us were feeling the chill too. I had alterior motives - I wanted to check out potential Christmas presents with daddy in tow and I also wanted to see when their Santa's Grotto opened. It is the one I prefer to take Sylvie to as it is a proper experience - you walk through a passageway decorated with snowmen and animated toys to a waiting space with a TV playing Christmas kareoke and a train set for the children to play with. Father Christmas calls you through into his grotto one at a time, where he has a nice chat with the children before inviting them to pick any toy they like from a huge sleigh and pile of sacks piled high with goodies. I love this whole experience!

Last year, Sylvie picked a rubber snake. This year, she chose a big purple wand that lights up and makes a twinkling noise when it is waved about (no off-switch unfortunately!). She waved it about a lot! It started a session of 'Free Play' as all the way back to the car, she and daddy took it in turns to transform each other into frogs with the wand. It turned out to be quite hard to turn Sylvie back into a girl, she enjoyed bouncing about saying 'Rebbit!'

When we got home, she ran upstairs to sit on her bed giggling over the wand. I took the opportunity to point out that I had carried out her wishes and put a Dr. Who story I had written last night on the end of her bed. She wanted to know it there were pictures, but due to a lack of coloured ink in the printer and no apparent line drawings of the TARDIS on Google, it was text-only. Despite this, it was obvious what daddy would be reading at 'Storytime' tonight.

Sylvie wanted to do some 'Information Technology' using her 'Reader Rabbit' games, but got annoyed with the reading game - it seems to have lost her previously saved game and she was not happy with the idea of doing the beginning all over again - so I suggested we try a Scooby-Doo game I had bought ages ago but never had time to play. We set it to 'easy' and I played it with her. I thought she was getting a bit fed up with it after a while, but it wasn't too long before it finished and Sylvie found she could solve most of the puzzles herself once she knew what the 'rules' were. This led to her excitedly asking to play it again when I told her it was a different 'villian' each time you played and she did most of it on her own, only really needing help with the game that asked for ancient monuments to be lined up in decending order of height.

She did a spot of drawing while the food was cooking, but her energetic morning was catching up with her and it was apparent she was shattered by the time dinner was ready. She claimed to be too tired to eat, so I fed her. She still didn't eat all of it though she said she liked it, and asked to go to bed as soon as she had had enough.
As predicted, she chose her new Dr. Who story. Daddy came down saying it looked like we were going to have to reread it a lot in the next few days!

Just for fun, for any Davy-watchers out there, here is a new piccie of the cutest boy in the world! (In our house, anyway!) I took this today, and really like it. I might print off some copies and get Sylvie to help me make frames for them to send to people at Christmas (assuming we get a new colour cartridge soon!)

21st November - First time on Ice Skates!

Sylvie got to ice skate today!

I had read in the paper that in the run-up to the Christmas light switch on in town, there was going to be a temporary ice rink near the bus station. (artificial ice - a sort of wax laid down in tiles, but with a cooling system underneath) I really wanted to take her, however I wouldn't be able to go on the ice with her because of Davy but didn't want to wait for the weekend when her daddy would be around to help as I thought it would be too crowded for a first go. In the end, I decided to take her today and hope someone would help her if she needed it.

After a morning of 'Information Technology' (CBeebies and Reading Eggs) and some 'Maths' on the website that had been recommended to us (and daddy had enjoyed last night) we ate lunch, changed Davy (twice) and set off to the bus stop.

I had to pop over to the cash point before we could go to the ice rink - it was not expensive (£1 per child, £1.50 for adults) but I was out of cash after buying the bus ticket. This turned out to be a spot of serendipity, as the man taking the money was unable to make change for my twenty, so said not to worry about it and let Sylvie skate for free.

She was fantastic - I had thought she might freeze up and panic but she went all the way round completely alone, looking back occasionally to grin at me. Naturally she was clinging on to the side! Since it was a bit high for her and holding on to it was making her lean sideways, I held her hand over the side where I could after her first circuit and I was very impressed with her. She was more confident than I have ever seen her when trying something so new and unfamiliar and happily let go for very short stretches to skate into the corners on her own. The growth spurt she has hit has definitely given her something she has been lacking up to now.

She was on the rink far longer than I thought she would be, only getting off when she started to feel tired (long after my arm wanted to stop reaching over the barrier to hold her hand!) and immediately started making plans to come back another day. Knowing it was only there for two more days, I said she could probably come back with daddy tomorrow. She couldn't wait to get home to tell daddy!

While waiting for him to come home, Sylvie decided to measure herself. Unfortunately, she didn't ask for help, trying to hold both ends of the tape measure herself, which led to the metal strip bending and cracking making it a bit dangerous (sharp edges, not longer retracts properly). I helped her out (she is just over 3 foot, but not sure by how much due to the distortion in the tape) but said we would have to throw that tape out and get a new one for her.

After I took her to bed, I wrote the Dr. Who story she wanted and placed it on her bed for her to see in the morning, as requested. I hope she likes it!

19th November - Tea with the Mayor

Today was 'Tea With The Mayor' day, for which I fished out the dress I was going to give her for Christmas - it was the perfect occasion for it - and Sylvie wore it with her pink cat socks and her sparkly shoes. I actually managed to get a good photo of her in the outfit - not easy these days since she started using a 'camera grimace' whenever a photographic tool is pointed in her direction!

She was excited about the prospect of a new dress, ecstatic when the word 'pink' was mentioned, dispondent when told that it was also 'black', then very hard to persuade leave it until time to leave at 3.30pm to put it on once she actually saw it and decided it was the most beautiful dress ever. (She especially liked the layered skirt, and had fun playing peep-bo with Davy, covering his face with the voille layer then taking it away.)

She spent the morning in 'Media Studies' (Dr. Who), 'Free Play' (running away from 'the old lady with the straw' and planning a birthday party for the Juddoon - Dr Who fans can guess which episode she was watching in 'Media Studies'!) 'Art' - some mad concoction with her new paints, stickers and sellotape - and 'Information Technology'.

After lunch, we started to put our playground 'Project' together, with Sylvie picking out the photos to use and both of us deciding what to put in the text. The plan was to make 3 copies, one for us, one to give to the Play Rangers and one for the mayor at the tea. Unfortunately, the printer ran out of coloured ink before we were a third of the way through, so we were unable to complete it today. Sylvie was very disappointed, and I was stressed - I don't like my plans being thrown because we don't have a spare inkjet cartridge in the house!

We went to the library - no bounce and rhyme today, the librarian who runs it was off sick. There and back, we had to be very careful to avoid 'the old lady with the straw', with Sylvie running on ahead yelling "Quick, run, before she catches us!"

Sylvie picked out a large pile of books for her and Davy and I read them all to them before she checked them out. She has been going for short, 'baby' books lately. Sylvie had wanted to get another DVD out too, but since she had planned to save her money to pay for membership of the lifeboat club for children, we discussed it. I wasn't going to stop her getting a DVD, but did remind her of her plan and mentioned that, since we were recording the Dr. Who episodes she hadn't seen, she would have plenty of new viewing to watch during the week anyway. In the end she decided the DVD's would still be there next week and said no more about it.

Once home, we had just enough time to get everyone ready without me stressing over running late and got to the bus stop in good time. I had a slight tussle with Sylvie over her shoes - I wanted her to wear her outdoor shoes and change into the sparkly ones once we arrived, she just wanted to wear the sparkly ones. I persuaded her without too much trouble as she loves those shoes and didn't want them getting dirty.

As we walked into the entrance of the Town Hall, we saw all the other families who had come for their children to be presented with the Play Ranger gold awards. They were all there because they had attended the most Play Ranger sessions over the year. Sylvie was there for turning up late one day and therefore managing to be the 5000th attendee. The lady overseeing the arrival of the families recognised Sylvie as soon as she saw her from the picture in the paper.

While we waited for the last couple of families, Sylvie sat on the steps to change her shoes and a boy of the same age came and sat beside her. He chatted to her, in between running back and forth, and to my surprise, Sylvie not only accepted his presence but appeared to become firm friends with him immediately. It usually takes her time to warm up to children her age, especially lively ones who invade her personal space as this child did, but she was perfectly happy with him. They even shared a chair and Sylvie asked after him when he went out of the room after food. It seemed to be a mutual attraction - the little boy asked his mum if Sylvie could go home with them at the end!

Everyone got to shake the mayor and mayoress's hand as they entered the food room, and while Sylvie and I ate nice party food, Davy was cuddled to sleep by the mayoress. After eating, each child was presented with a medal, a laminated certificate and a badge in a gold box by the mayor, got a bag of goodies (T-shirt, balloon, hat) from the mayoress and had their photo taken individually with the mayor. We are supposed to be getting a copy of the photos when they are printed.

The children then all went into the Mayor's Parlour for a press photo - the tea was supposed to happen in there until they realised with all the extra siblings and parents there would be about 50 people present, too many for the Parlour!

Everyone was then invited to look round the council chamber which they opened specially for the children. I was feeding Davy, so Sylvie's new friend's mum offered to take Sylvie so I could stay on task. She kindly took some pictures of Sylvie sitting in the Mayor's seat and has promised to e-mail them.

I got a look round the Mayor's Parlour after Davy had finished, though te council chambers had been locked back up. I have never seen so much silverware! I pointed out his robes of office to Sylvie, and his Mace (unmissable - it's massive and takes up half his desk!) I asked about it - it was presented to the mayor in 1932 when the Town Hall was built. Sylvie explained to the mayor that we hadn't brought him a copy of our project because we ran out of ink, and he said we could bring it round when it was finished.

Our evening of 'Citizenship' and 'Politics' ended at 6pm, and we headed home, past the ice rink they have set up in the marketplace for the week (there until the Christmas lights go on on Sunday). I'd love to let Sylvie try, but not sure how to go about it with Davy in tow.

Daddy was already home when we got back, and Sylvie excitedly showed him her new dress and goodies before we all settled down for an evening of Dr Who before bed.

16th November - Gym antics.

Sylvie's behaviour over the last couple of days has been suggesting she is in the middle of a growth spurt - tiredness, moody behaviour, getting upset at the slightest thing. Her relationship with her cousins has changed too - she seems more willing to enter into physical play (of the pushing and shoving variety) and is no longer scared of the youngest one, actually seeking him out to play with instead of running away when he approaches her. Her behaviour at 'Gym' this morning practically proves the spurt theory.

She was initially unsure that she wanted to go until it was mentioned that she would be practicing her competition routine today - The competition is next week, so not much practice time left! She became enthusiastic then, but was showing signs of tiredness (like being completely incapable of finding her leotard in the place it is always kept). She ran through the routine verbally in the car and remembered it very well, only missing out one move, and ran happily to join the class. The routine was the first thing her group was practicing and again, she did well. Things went downhill from here as she took up 'Amateur Dramatics'...

She was at the back of the line heading over to the next piece of apparatus, the beam. This did not please her in the slightest and she sat with her head buried in her hands while waiting her turn. She did actually take her turn - she likes the beam, and appeared enthusiastic when they introduced a new skill the children have not tried before, a supported roll, but when it came down to it, she burst into tears and wouldn't try it without a lot of encouragement. (every other child was ecstatic at the idea and ran over to parents to tell them all about it as soon as they got off the beam. Ours just did her Neanderthal walk back to the mat and buried her head in her hands again.)

The vault, she sat with her back to the apparatus and ignored the coach when her turn was called. The trampette, she Neanderthalled up to the apparatus, jumped half-heartedly and then Neanderthalled back. We felt like pretending she wasn't ours! We let the coach handle her - past experience has shown that if we try to 'help' or even simply catch Sylvie's eye, she gets worse.

Her Neanderthal walk is a sight to behold - we call it that because she bends forwards with her arms hanging down in front of her, knuckles practically scraping the floor. She moves slowly with heavy steps while looking forwards with either a disgusted expression or a dramatic pout with a bottom lip that sticks out for miles. She belives in letting you know exactly how she feels! Acting classes have been suggested. Whether she needs them to improve her skill is up for debate.

She came over to us as soon as the session finished, not even waiting for a sticker. She claimed someone had trodden on her foot and she didn't like them, hence her behaviour, but knowing her it was more being at the back of the queue plus tiredness - she has been involved in accidental collisions etc at gym before and while she might cry, she doesn't sulk over physical injury. Her daddy was not happy with her, and hoped Granny would let her stay at her house while we went shopping - he didn't fancy taking her in the mood she was in and niether did I.

Luckily, Granny suggested she stay before we could ask, so we went shopping without her. She had not had her pocket money, so her daddy decided that we would get her Dr. Who magazine and she could buy it off us later rather than run the risk of her missing out on this weeks issue.

We managed to get her some Chocolate Wheats this shopping trip too - I had looked them up on the internet as they are the only cereal she will eat (all others we have tried, chocolate or not, just haven't measured up for her) and found that the Co-op is the only place that was still ordering them. I checked the one in town on the off-chance, was in luck, and came away with 4 boxes. (I got the information from a forum on snacks! Apparently there are quite a few adults out there who view the cereal the same way Sylvie does.)

Unfortunately, we didn't get any garlic chicken - it was Sylvie's meal choice. She very sweetly tries to pick things 'Everybody likes' for her meal days, and this week she had asked for "Chips, everybody likes those, and meat." When requested to give more specifics on the 'meat', she said "The meat we had last night." - garlic chicken. There is a bit of a theme showing up in her meal picks -chicken nuggets, chicken kievs, now garlic chicken....

We rang my parents to tell them we were ready to collect her, but granny told us to leave her a bit longer as she was busy playing. Daddy fetched her after 4 and Sylvie spent the remaining time with daddy before he headed out to his role-playing group investigating his 'funny dice'. She used his two round dice to 'invent' a game. Niether I nor her daddy had a clue what the rules or the object was, but she sat there, studiously rollong the dice, staring at the result, then marking crosses on a piece of paper, which she then joined together with lines. You can see it in the photo on this post. No idea if this counts as 'Maths' as I am not convinced she was paying any attention to the actual numbers!

15th November - a day in pictures

Sylvie decided to be a 'daddy's girl' today. Getting ready for 'Dance', she insisted she didn't want me to go with her and daddy. I went anyway, which triggered one of her stubborn moods - she was brought out of ballet halfway through by one of the assistants who told us she was refusing to do anything. She sat cuddled on daddy's lap, obviously still tired, refusing to leave him to go back into dancing.

She has been missing her daddy a lot recently - we used to have an arrangement where he and I would alternate having a lie-in on Saturday while the other spent the morning with her so she got daddy to herself regularly, but that has stopped since Davy joined the family and she has missed it. It is very apparent when she sees her daddy her level of energy and excitement doubles these days. I think we need to reinstate some daddy-daughter time for them without me and Davy around.

Because we knew she was missing one-on-one daddy time, daddy agreed to take her out by himself. She wanted to show him the new playground - he hadn't seen it since before they knocked the old one down - and I suggested daddy could take her to Dobbies, a massive garden centre complex nearby where they could look at the rabbits, birds and fish, check out the art and science shops, play hide-and-seek around the garden sheds and check out the children's climbing frame among other things. She was excited by this and decided she didn't want to go into Tap and Modern but start her time with daddy immediately. We tried to persuade her to dance first, but she wouldn't so we took her home, explaining to her that if she refused to dance again we would cancel her lessons as it was a waste of time and money to drive her there just to have her refuse to take part.

At home, daddy wanted a bit of a rest before heading off with Sylvie (it had been a late night, disturbed by Davy) so Sylvie did some 'Art' while she waited, trying out her new squeezy paints. She did these pictures -the first (on it's side I've just noticed!) is "Something that goes BANG!" (fireworks), the second an abstract image she described as a 'ladder' but which reminds me forcibly of a fish. I love these pictures of hers that look like something even when she doesn't really intend it. This one looks like it is covered in hieroglyphic scales! The last is her and Davy's car seats - an odd choice of subject, but actually surprisingly accurate if you know their car seats. The orange one is Davy's (side view as she sees it from her seat) and the blue one hers (face on as she sees it when climbing in)

I made them a packed lunch and after a quick look at the playground, they went off to Dobbies. I suggested they take the camera - I thought her daddy could take some pictures of Sylvie playing, but instead, Sylvie commandeered the camera and they came back with this visual record of their visit - I was given the explanation of each picture when they returned.

Sylvie at Dobbie's (with daddy)

1. The magazines. Sylvie had wanted to get the 'Tractor Tom' magazine, but daddy had reminded her she was saving her pocket money to join the Lifeboat club.

2. Slippers Sylvie had told daddy she needed new slippers because she couldn't find one of the pair she already owns. Daddy suggested it might be worth looking for it before splashing out on a new pair!

3. Sticker book heaven! Naturally this rack caught the eye of my sticker-crazy child!

4. Binoculars. Apparently she has decided she wants to ask for a pair of binoculars for Christmas in her letter to Santa!

5. Toy white tiger cubs. Not a big surprise from my little cat lover! She happily corrected my discription of them as 'cats' with a prompt "No, they are tigers! And they are endangered!" No idea if she knows what endangered means, but it's nice to know she thinks it is important.

6. Water play! Dobbie's has a hot tub section which is a magnet for all small humans, including mine. (Daddy took this picture)

It seems there would have been more pictures, but the camera's batteries chose to die first. Daddy complained that Sylvie had blamed him for this - he took two pictures of her by the hot tubs instead of just the one she had instructed, using up the power! He pointed out it wasn't really his fault so she then turned the blame on the camera.

After their trip, daddy had a nap, Sylvie engaged in some (very amusing to anyone listening in!) 'Free Play' with the toys in her bedroom (Superman was saving her teddy) and I tried to box up all the baby clothes Davy no longer/never fit properly in between feeding/entertaining said little boy.

Before dinner, daddy kept his promise to watch Dr. Who with Sylvie - she is overjoyed that BBC 3 are starting the re-runs again (though for some reason they have missed out season 2 completely, having shown the first series a few months ago and are now starting on the 3rd. Very weird!). Daddy is taping them for her, and they popped out to Sainsbury's last night before dinner to get more video tapes in after daddy happened to spot it was starting again Friday night. They watched the recording before daddy cleaned the kitchen and made dinner.

Sylvie ate all her dinner bar some potato (there was rather a lot of potato!), the knowledge that there was cake for afters encouraging her to eat her sweetcorn after initially taking her plate away. I fed her most of it, but left her to deal with the last few mouthfuls. She anounced she had finished, but I pointed out there was still about two spoonfuls tucked up the side. She promptly got very upset, saying "OOOhhh! But you shouldn't see that, I had hidden that under my fork!" and burst into tears because I had spotted it! I suspect the influence of Horrid Henry, who was the subject of the 'Storytime' at bedtime tonight after two night's of Superman Ladybird books.

12th - 14th November - Bits and Pieces

Well, I don't have any idea what Sylvie got up to on Wednesday - I wasn't there! She spent the day at my parents while I attended a medical appointment and tried!! to get some housework done. I managed to change her duvet for a warmer one (she has been complaining of being cold at night under her summer duvet) and make good in-roads into turning the 'explosion in a toy shop' we laughingly call her bedroom into something less lethal and more accessible.

When she got home, she was excited to see her carpet and actually made a fair attempt at finishing the 'Home Economics - Tidying' project I had started. She also found a letter waiting for her - her written invitation to tea with the mayor had arrived.

Thursday, there was 'Childcare' at the breastfeeding cafe, where, while putting various toy animals 'to bed' in cupboards she discovered a basket of stickle-bricks which she spent the rest of the time there totally engrossed in playing with.

The outfit she left the house wearing deserves special mention - she came downstairs wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. It's November!!! Rather than argue with her, I told her to open the front door and stand in the doorway for a minute before deciding if that was really what she wanted to wear. She rapidly decided she could do with being a little warmer, and her 'Fashion' sense kicked in again with her insisting on wearing a dress a had bought for future use (age 7, just a tad too big!) she had spotted - it has cats on it so naturally it drew her eye! She did not remove the shorts and t-shirt though - she just put the dress on over the top.

We met her friend's mum while we were out - she was practicing her roller-blading so had not got her little girl with her today to Sylvie's disappointment - and took a few more 'Project' pictures too - technically the playground is finished now, but the workmen were back on Thursday putting the finishing touches to the climbing wall (the hand and foot-holds) and re-doing the swings which had not been properly fixed into the ground.

Sylvie spent the rest of the day with 'Media Studies', 'Information Technology' and 'Art', an example of which is on the left. It is "A picture of Davy. And the one at the top is your bottom when you gave birth to Davy." !!! Davy was born at home, but Sylvie was fast asleep at the time - who knows what she would have drawn had she actually been present!

Friday was A big 'Information Technology' day, with Sylvie spending most of the day in her pajamas, using the 'Reading Eggs' website. She also asked for "the one with the astronaut" I thought she meant the Captain Mac CITV page, but I was firmly told "No, there isn't a rocket, the astronaut has a SAUCER!" from which I realised she wanted the 'Headsprout' reading site. She hadn't mentioned this since showing displeasure with it after trying it out a couple of months ago. Luckily for her the free trial I had signed her up for was not on a time limit - it is the first 3 games. She wizzed through them (Reading Eggs must be doing something for her, she refused to play the second episode, saying it was too hard and "the same as the first one" last time) and then begged for more. I told her it cost money to do the rest, we had already bought the Reading eggs subscription for her and niether I nor she had the spare money to buy another for Headsprout. Her response? - "What about daddy?"

We took a walk in the afternoon - we had things to post, her reply to her invitation, a copy of the paper with her picture in it to her Isle of Wight grandparents and a package for her Auntie from my husband. Sylvie stuck some typing she had done on the laptop in with the newspaper for Granny - she calls it her 'Homework'! She types randomly in word documents usually, but this time it was a little less random as before she typed she made 'lines' to type between using the = key held down repeatedly then got me to separate them so she could type letters between them. Her 'Fashion' sense suggested shorts, t-shirt, wooly jumper and rain coat would be the perfect outfit when she changed out of her jim-jams for our excursion.

After getting the packages sent off, we went into the park to look at the playground and walk round the pond, where we got talking to an old couple who had lived in the area for years and told us what it was like when they first moved in. The 'History' they gave us was very interesting to me, but Sylvie was getting chilly and was hoping to see her friend she sometimes bumps into in the park, so we parted company before they finished telling us about the 'Bevan's Boys' who had been housed in the area.

The photo above is the one promised of the pink and green cake we made on Tuesday - we polished it off on Wednesday and Thursday, it was actually tatier than the virulent colours might suggest! Sylvie really liked this type of cake and is already making plans for more. It looks like I need to get some blue food colouring in!

After she was in bed, her daddy revealed her passion for aquiring a pet cat hasn't abated - she had been telling him she wants one for Christmas, but he had told her Father Christmas wouldn't bring her a cat when we can't afford to keep it (we looked into if for her a while ago, costing it up - food, litter, vet's expenses etc turned out to be a fair bit more than we felt comfortable agreeing to as a long-term prospect at the moment)

11th November - New Playground is open!

Wow, we have had a busy day today! I knew yesterday it was going to be a little full-on, but we haven't stopped all day.

I had a poor night's sleep thanks to a number of things including restless children and a 'wired' brain that didn't seem to want to switch off, so I would have liked a bit of a lie-in, but with the Play-and-Stay starting at 9.30am, as I wanted to get us there on time and still manage to feed everyone and hang my washing out I didn't get much of one! We were ready to leave in time when Davy put a spanner in the works by attempting to share a generous amount of biological waste, necessitating a 'Childcare' half hour while I stripped, washed and redressed him and swilled out his clothing.

On the way to Stay-and-Play eventually, as we walked through the park we found the workmen packing up the metal barriers. I asked if they were done and was told that the playground was not only ready to use, but had been open since Friday, though they had a little more turf to lay, so we took a detour to have a look round and take some pictures. The workmen were enjoying the park before they left, playing on the seesaw and zipwire and considering the slide!

Thanks to our couple of sidetracks we were an hour late for the Stay and Play, but Sylvie managed a bigger play than last week at least! After toast and juice, she made a beeline for the art table where the drawing materials were out. A couple of stray buttons from the art stuff were knocking about too, and they gave her an idea for a picture - a person with sunglasses. She drew the body in ordinary pencil, added green hands, feet and belly button, a couple of wavy lines at the waist whose purpose I didn't quite get out of her but seemed to be something to hold the person up, and blue eyes. She then sellotaped the buttons over the eyes and asked me to cut her a bit of wool which she used as the spectacle frames. She put the nose kink in of her own accord but I suggested the ears for them to attach to. Finally, she cut a strip of pink paper as a mouth - it is bigger than the width of the head, but never mind! (There is a photo of it further down the post)

Sylvie was very good about tidying up after the Stay-and-Play - I have started to see something of a perfectionist streak in this. She likes things to have specific places to 'live' and puts a lot of effort into getting it right, to the point that it is easier to leave the mess than tidy up. She was telling off the other children when they put things in the 'wrong' place and, on being asked to put away the musical instruments, spent a few minutes tossing the non-musical items out out the relevant basket. She found one instrument in the 'wooden items' box and, realising it should have another part to hit it with, went through the rest of the items trying to find it by the sound made when the instrument was tapped with them. She got a surprisingly large range of sounds but the right part wasn't there.

Once the Stay and play was over, we caught the bus into town - I have a hospital appointment tomorrow and needed to get a blood test done for it. Both Sylvie and Davy excelled at 'Social Skills', charming a host of old ladies and gentlemen on the bus and in the hospital. The queue for the phlebotomists was huge - they run a ticket system and when we arrived they had just called number 34. We had number 74, so we popped along to the league of friends tea shop for some lunch. After some dispute over Sylvie's sandwich - I had foolishly told her it was 'corned beef' instead of 'sandwich meat' so she immediately said she didn't like it despite eating it regularly at home, and then she found fault with the pickle that was on it so I split the sandwich and folded the non-pickled side into a smaller one - she was just about to start on her Jaffa cakes when a lady passing by told us the phlebotomists were now on number 65,

We hurried off, only to find that it was now on number 77, so we had just missed our slot. I took another number and Sylvie took it upon herslef to try out some 'Maths', calculating how many people were ahead of us in the queue and counting down from 9 to 0. After the blood test, I fed and changed Davy and we headed out to the bus shelter where we had more 'Maths', counting the seats. Sylvie found that one end had 7 seats and the other ten with there being 17 altogether. She counted to 17 without getting muddled for the first time ever and I finally had to let on to her that 'eleventeen' is not a real number, only a cute invention of her own from when she was first starting to count past 10. She was a bit surprised to hear this!

Once home, we had an hour before going out to the see the Play Rangers in the park. I dealt with Davy and got my washing in - nearly dry but unfortunately directly in the line of the smoke from a bonfire one of the nearby houses had in their back garden so all my husband's trousers now smell of smoke.

Sylvie took her dalek to the 'Outdoor Activities' in the park but refused her jumper (a mistake as the wind had got up, but her perogative under 'Decision-Making') and asked about her hat. Closer enquiry determined that she had probably left it on the bus earlier, so I said we would ask about lost property next time we are in town.

We met the Play Rangers in the new playground, which was giving a lot of pleasure to a lot of children already, though the council officer who was there was less impressed - the swings are wobbly and the speaking tube waterlogged while the climbing wall is missing it's hand and foot holds. From the tough workout the local kids were giving it, the equipment can't afford not to be up to scratch! Sylvie greeted the Play Rangers with enthusiam and presented her favourite with a picture she had drawn of him (showing his belly button as per Sylvie - people!) but was less sure about trying out the playground, as is normal for her in an unfamiliar playground she chose to watch the other children instead.

She did go to try the slide, but backed out at the last minute (though she was not adverse to pushing her imaginary friend down it!) and chose to give her dalek a go on the swing instead. The wind got up and she got cold so we headed home early after I had had a chat about Sylvie's invite to tea with the mayor next week - we haven't recieved the letter I was told we would get, much to the Play Rangers surprise as it was apparently posted a while ago. They gave me the details and said they would mark us down as attending - Sylvie was told there would be surprises for her. she wanted to know what surprises, which brouht her the old 'If you knew what it was it wouldn't be a surprise' line.

At home, I gave Sylvie a shower - the ground in the park had been thoroughly waterlogged and very boggy with lots of mud from the heavy machinery used on building the playground so she had mud all the way up her legs as well as being frozen to the marrow. I showered too and didn't want to get out, it was lovely and warm and relaxing!

Sylvie practised her 'Childcare' by reading to Davy while I got clean. She also started a conversation about "What will happen if you die?" with me. I told her if I died there were loads of people willing and eager to look after her, including daddy. She probed deeper - "What if daddy dies too?" "Who will look after me?" I asked her which of the many family members she would chose to live with and she picked 'Isle of Wight Granny asnd Grandad' which led into further questions - "How would I get to the Island? I can't drive." "Where would I go before they came to get me?" "How would they know you were dead and had to come?" It was quite a barrage of questions for her, but by the end she was satisfied that if anything happened to mummy and daddy, there would be someone to take care of her and there were measures in place to ensure the relevant people knew she needed them.

We added the final touches to Davy's shiny's then made some cakes (Home Economics - Baking). When we made the cake for the Bonfire party, Sylvie had talked about the possibility of pink and blue cakes so I had said we could play with food colouring next time we made some. I didn't have any blue, so we used green instead. We made a tray of 6 pink and 6 green fairy cakes and used my round tins to make a sandwich cake with a pink layer on top and a green one underneath. They were a bit short on flour, so sank in the middle, but taste very very nice! The photo at the top of the post is of the cakes ready to go into the oven (they were brown on the outside once cooked, but the insides were these colours.)

While I cooked dinner, Sylvie drew "a lot of faces for the mayor". She later hacked the edges off with her scissors "so he won't see the bare bits" feeling that this hadn't improved the picture, I explained to her how framing a picture with a plain surround can enhance it, using our framed wedding picture as an example. She also used her glitter glues to make a picture of a snowman ("like the one on the video at granny's") Both of these 'Art' projects are pictured above.

She ate all her dinner, the prospect of pink and green cakes getting her to even eat the potato, which she claimed she was only eating to get pudding. (The cakes are very pink and green inside! I will try to get a photo of the inside of the sandwich sponge when it is cut tomorrow) and after polishing off one of each asked to go to bed. No wonder, she should be shattered after today!