Dance show days

It's at times like this I give thanks to any higher power that may be listening that we made the decision to home educate (well, ok, I thank our foresight in deciding to go this route rather than any actual metaphysical being, but just in case...).



Things over the last few days have been thoroughly hectic, thanks mainly to the requirements of Sylvie's show but also in part to the unpleasant cold virus that has been hitting our family. Both Davy and I have been suffering with the bug, which leaves you with a horrible sore throat and a cotton wool head. This has meant that certain plans I had made to do with her show, like actually providing her with a named suit carrier for her outfits, taking up the legs of her trousers, doing something about her scratchy wig etc just haven't come to pass as I have felt too rotten to do much and Davy has been wanting mummy constantly.



After pushing through for a couple of days, I chucked in the towel, palmed the kids off on their daddy and spent Saturday morning in bed. He ferried them to Sylvie's dance lesson and gave them lunch. I got up at this point, feeling a little better but not totally well, and watched Davy while Sylvie was whipped off to her last rehearsal at the dance studio - this one, another squeezed-in rehearsal to make up for them having to cancel the one set for Mothering Sunday, was for the ballet in the first half of the show so she wasn't required to stay till the very end. It was still obvious she was tired out though and she asked to go to bed early. We were pleased about this as we knew Sunday's dress rehearsal at the theatre was going to be hard on her.



We had no idea!



Sunday was the most draining experience I have ever had. The show's programme is somewhat more ambitious than last years, with the studio attempting to put on an actual, proper ballet in the first half - Sleeping Beauty - with every child participating in it. This is technically difficult and needed a lot of stopping and starting to get everything right on the stage. The organisation of certain things was not as good as last year either, with things like the running order, which were stuck up on the wall last time, not being given to us chaperones until quite late so we had to guess when we needed to get the children ready. Consequently, we had a bunch of little girls dressed in their tutu's and head dresses a good hour before they were actually required - and

the majority complained, quite rightly, that the costumes were itchy and scratchy and wanted to take them off. Since we didn't know when they would be called and the things are incredibly fiddly to put on, we didn't feel able to comply.



Also, last year, Sylvie's group was the Mini-Tots, which are only ever in the first half of the programme and can leave at half-time, around lunch on dress rehearsal day. This year, being in the pre-primary ballet AND the tap and modern intro classes, Sylvie's group had dances in both halves and most are in the Finale too, so Sylvie, and I, had to stay all the way through.



Knowing it would take until at least 4pm and that all the chaperones for both nights would be present, I took Davy with me so he could nurse. He was a great help in one respect - a young baby is great entertainment for a room full of bored little girls - but was not exactly helpful in others. It's hard to feild an adventurous baby while also trying to put ballet outfits on three 5 year olds, make toilet trips, read stories, keep track of the girls etc etc.



It was hot, it was dull (the children had in the main been supplied with colouring books and equipment by parents and I had taken along some art stuff but it was nowhere near enough - I had lined up some other things to take on the show night but didn't want to take them to the rehearsal as I knew it would be chaotic, plus I was totally disorganised after my day in bed. In hindsight I wish I had taken them anyway.). One girl had been sent with no food or water and had to share other people's. They were stuck in a room when the sun was shining invitingly outside with no real opportunity to run around. By the end, the chaperones were all complaining of being wiped out, and the toll was showing on the children too - many looked over-tired and Sylvie burst into tears after her tap dance, claiming that "I am not having a good day!"



It was 6pm before we left the theatre, having arrived at 10am. I rang daddy as we were getting ready to go down for the Finale rehearsal - I didn't want Sylvie there any longer than necessary - and he took us for a meal at KFC. Once home, Sylvie went straight to bed, as did I once I persuaded Davy he needed to sleep too.



The next day, Monday, was where my thanks for home ed. came in.



Monday was the first of the two actual night-time performances of the show.



Sylvie slept from 7pm to 7am. She only really woke then because she needed the toilet and it was obvious from her demenior she was not really ready to wake - she woke sobbing and did everything with lethargy. About an hour after she woke, she was sick, a very common occurance when she has been woken before she is ready to wake up. She waited about half-an-hour, then asked for breakfast and showed no further signs of being unwell. She did, however, show further signs of tiredness.



She spent the day in 'Media Studies', mainly watching the DVD she had got from the library this week (Monsters Inc. again) and playing in her teepee while I sorted out bits for some activities I had planned for the kids backstage. After lunch went willingly to bed for a nap at my suggestion.



No way would she have been able to re-charge like that as a school child unless I took the decision to keep her home from school. I was dreading what the other little girls were going to be like at the show that night!

We arrived at the theatre at 6pm - the show began at 7pm but the performers (and chaperones!) were expected a good hour before that so they could get organised and into costume. Davy was left with daddy and Sylvie and I entered the mayhem that was backstage on first night. The first thing that happened was a new running order was handed to us - some of the dances had been moved around. Luckily it didn't affect us much, Sylvie's group needed to start getting into their outfits when the group of older girls next to us in the dressing room headed down to perform. Any earlier, and we risked make-up smudging and torn/dirty costumes, any later and they would never be ready.

It went much, much faster than it had during rehearsals, which meant we chaperones had to be very on the ball timing-wise. I only produced one of the activities I had prepared for the girls - threading bits of coloured drinking straws onto string to make necklaces and bracelets. It kept most of the girls occupied in the dull bit before they had to put on their first costume but once they returned from that dance, it was eat, get tap costume on, dance, a short lull then finale costumes on. Each chaperone was watching 3 girls, I had Sylvie who was fine for the most part but started showing signs of boredom towards the end, along with the most well-behaved and self-sufficient child in the class and the most difficult one to deal with. I spent a lot of time trying to either find her, coax her into her costumes or prevent her from doing things she shouldn't be doing.

The show ended at 10 mins to 10 and we had to get all the children out of the building (with all the correct costumes and toys and lunchboxes) by 10pm as that was when the performance licences ended. It was important that first night because there was an inspector from the council on-site. She asked about chaperone badges - a lot of us hadn't recieved ours in time for the performance (this happened last year too, the department that deals with the checks etc. are really inefficient)

Sylvie was shattered-hyper by the end. I was completely done in and was very glad I would be watching, not helping, on Tuesday!

Tuesday we had a lazy day again. Sylvie was tired, I was tired, we didn't want to do much. I persuaded Sylvie to have a nap and she woke just in time to get ready to leave. We dropped her off at the stage door, then went to buy some dinner, having had to leave the house as soon as daddy came home from work (he had had to leave half-an-hour early on both days in order to get us to the theatre for 6pm). We had hoped to leave Davy with his grandparents, but had got him a ticket just in case (as a baby, he was free admission, but needed to have an actual ticket). It turned out that he got to see his first stage show at 8.5 months as instead of seeing the show on the Monday as they had originally planned, circumstances meant they were visiting my sister in hospital that evening so watched it on Tuesday with us.

We met them at the front door and we went in together. Our seats were near to each other, a couple of rows apart, which meant that when Davy decided to announce to the world that he has started to talk a little by yelling "MAM-MAM-MAM-MAM-MAM-MAM BAB-BAB-BAB-BAB-BAB-BAB" at the top of his voice during the marriage dance of Sleeping beauty and the prince, it was the highlight of granny's evening. Daddy took him out to chew some fliers in the foyer as he was getting too loud but they only missed the finale of the ballet. The rest of the ballet, Davy had been very good, partly mesmerised by the swirlly lighting and the music, partly content to chew the arm of the seat. He ate a fromage frais we had brought for him and went to sleep in the second half.

The performance hung together much better than last years - the performance of 'Sleeping Beauty' in the first half where all the age groups performed together followed by a second half with each class showcasing their skills in the other areas (tap, modern, singing, etc.) improved the flow. Sylvie's ballet class were not on the stage for long in the ballet and the dance was led by the older girls. It was very similar to last years pre-primary dance, right down to the costumes being the same, only the music was different. The tap dance, however, was very different. I was impressed that the class performed alone with no one on stage with them (their teacher was in the wings ready to give hand signals if they needed them). I think they did it better on the Monday night as there was a blip where one child tried to move on to the next part of the dance too early, but on the whole they did a good job of keeping in time and getting their steps and positions right.

The finale proved to be too much for Sylvie's ears - we could see her covering them and after a while she was picked up by one of the older girls, which meant we got a good view of her anyway! To be fair to her, it was extremely loud rock music they were playing and she had made a good stab of doing the dance prior to 'Crazy Horses' blaring out. Her daddy and I were giggling together in the audience over how she always seems to manage to get someone to carry her around!

She was exhausted, but very pleased with herself, after it all. We were going to get her a programme to keep as the names of all the performers were inside, but when we went looking at the interval we couldn't find the man who was selling them. We are planning to get her the video of the show though - last year she was mesmerised by the second half when we took her in to watch and it didn't seem fair she should miss out on seeing any of it this year just because she was in both halves.

The next couple of days were rest and relaxation - her daddy didn't see her for over 24 hours from the time he took her to bed on the Tuesday night until he came home from work on Thursday. She slept in Wednesday morning, then put herself to bed at 5pm that evening and didn't wake until he had left for work on Thursday, not even for her dinner.

I think I said before that I'm very, very glad we didn't have school to deal with as well this week!

18th March - A surprise from the library!

Davy introduced Sylvie to a new aspect of 'Childcare' over breakfast - that of food covering every surface. After stealing and eating one of her chocolate wheats, he later managed to get hold of her fromage frais. He painted himself and the table with it in the few seconds Sylvie wasn't looking. I got a photo before cleaning him up - he was very pleased with himself!



Sylvie spent the morning in 'Free Play' in her bedroom and watching 'Annie' again on video. After lunch (for which Davy was safely stuck in his high chair beforehand!) it was time to go to the library. Sylvie's attention was drawn to her roller-skates for the first time in ages, possibly because we had had to stop Davy chewing them earlier this morning, and decided she wanted to wear them to the library. She did very well considering she hasn't used them for a very long time but it took us quite a while to reach the library!



Sylvie practiced her 'Social Skills' on the receptionist, showing off her skates, when we got there. Davy practiced grinning at her too, then in the library itself we met a little boy who used to come to the Bounce and Rhyme when it took place and his little brother. Last week I had asked for 'The Cat in The Hat' to be reserved for Sylvie as she has been watching the film so often over the last few weeks and it was ready to be picked up. Sylvie was delighted and asked me to read it there and then. The little boy divided his time between listening to the story too and playing with Davy.



Sylvie could only take out 3 books today as that was all she had left on her card - she had to use Davy's card last week for a couple of books - and as she was checking them out the librarian told her they had a special gift for "a girl who uses the library extensively". She was given a door hanger in the shape of a monkey with a dial that allowed it to be set to 'Keep out!', 'Come in' or 'Party time!' After a quick lesson in 'Manners' (needing to be prompted to say thank you!) I read a couple of other books to her and Davy then we went out to use the baby changing facilities.



We left my sling and Sylvie's jacket and shoes in the children's section while we were in the toilet, and my bossy little girl instructed the librarian to "Watch our stuff while we are away" as she walked past, leading to another lesson in 'Manners' as I pointed out her "please" must have been spoken very quietly as no one had heard it! Davy politely wee'd everywhere the second his nappy was off so it took twice as long as it should have done. When we came out, we spent some time chatting to the lady in the wheelchair who is usually outside the library when we leave and we have struck up an aquaintance with. While the chat turned to Davy, Sylvie went back into the libray and returned with all our stuff in her arms. She was impatient to be off!



Back outside, we went to the park for 'Outdoor Activities', Sylvie on her roller-skates again. As she skated along, she held a conversation with her shadow, asking it where it was heading. As we walked along we talked about her birthday. I had been looking into prices etc. and decided I really needed to know what she was expecting from a party before I went off and booked something. Her response to the question 'What sort of party would you like?' was "I want a party like S's, except it won't be the same as S's, it will be mine."



That was clear as mud, so I asked what it was about S's party she liked the best and wanted for hers, bringing on a 'Party Planning' session. "Well, I liked the food" So plenty of chocolate - check (Sylvie ate almost nothing but kitkats and chocolate fingers at the party, eating a sandwich under protest only because I told her I'd eat her cake if she didn't) "And I liked her Snail cake, I want one of those." It was actually a caterpillar, but Snail cake - check "The castle" The soft play area at the party had been called a 'castle'. I asked if it had to be a castle exactly like that or if, say, a bouncy castle would do. She said it would, so bouncy castle - check. "The ball pool. I really want a ball pool like that one." I had some suspicions about this, and asked if it was the ball pool or the ball machine that fired balls the children fed it back into the pool that was the real attraction, checking if she would like a ball pool without a ball machine. As I suspected, it was the machine she really wanted to play with again. So, ball machine - err....this one could be tougher!



In the park, Sylvie wanted to go to the playground and said she was going over the grass. I pointed out that that might be hard in her skates but she could try if she wanted. She thought better of it though and followed the path. When we got there, the gate was opened for us by a little boy she had played with a few weeks ago. After she had taken her skates off Sylvie chased after him over to the slide where they seemed to be having a great time together. His total fearlessness on the slide appeared to rub of a bit and I enjoyed watching her going down lying flat instead of bolt upright holding on to the sides - she even came over to announce she had been 'going fast'!



She also made friends with a slightly older girl and boy and joined in a game they were playing on the slide once the little boy went home. It was of a slightly rougher nature than anything I've seen her play before (it involved one person sitting half-way up the slide facing the top being pushed the rest of the way down by someone else sliding down. They seemed to be enjoying it anyway!) and partway through they all took their shoes off. Sylvie came to ask if she could go barefoot like the other two and I said fine if she was prepared to walk on the grass. She did so readily, a far cry from the toddler she used to be who would scream if a blade of grass tickled her leg!



We eventually got home around 5pm and the first thing Sylvie wanted to do was get out her monkey and hang it up. Her bedroom door doesn't yet have a door knob (the last bit of decoration her room now needs to finish it off) so after trying a few things, our 'Problem-solving' skills led us to her toy tool kit and the giant plastic nails that are part of it. I wedged one in the hole where the doorknob should be and we hung up the monkey.



Sylvie watched the DVD she had borrowed from the library this week - Tracey Beaker, the movie of me, picked because she caught an episode last time we had CBBC on TV instead of CBeebies (a nice refreshing change to Tweenies and co.!) She really likes shows like 'Raven' and 'Trapped!' but I hadn't realised Tracey Beaker had captured her interest. She was very keen to pick something "that won't annoy daddy", a sentiment uppermost in her mind since we came home with 'Annie', daddy's least favourite film ever (he was very good about it actually, but she does pick up on these things, like when she was 2 and got concerned that all her painting stuff was tidied away so daddy wouldn't know she had been doing it because she picked up on his dislike of clearing up after a painting session. He had suffered it well but she still spotted it and we had to reassure her that daddy didn't want her not to paint, he just preferred someone else washed out the brushes!).



She asked to go to bed as soon as she had eaten her dinner (well, her potatoes and beans, she left her meat again because it was 'too chewy'). I took her up while Davy was cuddled to sleep by daddy and we had a small set-to in the bathroom over flushing the toilet - she never does and I want her to. I also mentioned the enormous amount of loo paper she uses again. Niether of these points were recieved gladly and she stormed off in tears after pulling the chain and having to do it again when nothing much happened initially. I told her she wasn't getting a story until her teeth were cleaned and a minute later her head popped round the door again saying "I thought I'd let you use the sink first."



It went smoothly after I let her save face with that one and I read her two more chapters of 'City of Ember'. I have plans to borrow that book and read it myself after we have finished reading it to her, it's a good story and I want to read the bits I've missed when daddy does 'Storytime'.

15th March - A photocall.

I was frankly impressed with how well Sylvie handled today especially after yesterday's very full schedule. She was supposed to have a show rehearsal from 10am, but we had decided to take her to gym instead as we didn't want her missing a whole month of it - next weekend we are heading down South again and the week after is the dress rehearsal which she can't miss.

It turned out to be a good call - the group of children who now have their gold award were put through their paces for the new 'level 8' award and at the end they all came running up with their slips to say they had passed and could get their certificates. If we had gone to the rehearsal instead Sylvie would have missed this which would not have gone down well when she realised! She was thoroughly delighted to be getting another one for her collection.

It is a new award and I found it interesting watching some of the exercises. One, the children were put into pairs facing each other and had to lift their arms in a mirror image of each other. Sylvie was paired with her friend M and her personality shone through - while M kept changing her arms and looking at the coach to check she was right, Sylvie just stared straight ahead, sticking her arm up and leaving it to M to follow her lead, naturally assuming she was in charge! They also had the ribbons out making patterns for the award, something they haven't done for ages but which Sylvie adores. They did a totally new skill I've never seen this class ever do before on the bars too, moving along it hand over hand, similar to doing the monkey bars in the playground. It was an excellent session and we were very pleased we had taken her to 'Gym' instead of the rehearsal.

Davy also caused a stir with M - she saw him breastfeeding and asked "What is he doing to your boob?" in a shocked tone. She is fascinated with Davy and has seen him feed before but this was the first time she had spotted he was attached to my breast to do it - she apparently just thought he was getting cuddled in the past. She had a lot of questions for me and her own mum, establishing that she was breastfed by her mum, her mum was also nursed by her granny and I don't have a cow in my tummy or my breasts making the milk for him.

As soon as gym was over we did take Sylvie to 'Dance' for the end of the rehearsal. We took all her costumes too as the rehearsal wasn't scheduled to end until 12.30pm and the official photos for her classes were to be taken just after 1pm so there seemed little point in going home as there wouldn't be enough time for lunch before turning round and heading back. While I waited, Sylvie's Finale costume was swapped for another one - it had a patch on the front where the silvering had not stuck so we were given a spare one and the original put to be returned. Daddy went home, the plan being that after Sylvie was done I would ring him to fetch us rather than both of us sitting around the changing rooms for a couple of hours. However, they finished with Sylvie's dances by 12, so I rang daddy and we did go home for lunch before the photos.

The photos themselves were an experience! They were a lot less chaotic than last year when the running order got completely ignored and everything overran. In fact, last year's experience meant that some children turned up too late for the group photos as they were expecting things to over-run whereas it all went off on the dot in a very orderly manner.

The first photo was the group ballet pic. Sylvie unfortunately looks like she didn't want to be there, pulling her camera face a little. Then for the individual ballet photos they were asked to stand in 1st position and smile. Luckily I had got myself a good position inside the room so I was able to call out to her to laugh when I saw the dreaded 'Camera grimace' appearing on her face - she genuinely believes this is a smile when she is doing it, pulling her lips tight while pressing them together to hide her teeth and staring wide-eyed with a fixed gaze, but even she doesn't like the look of it in actual photos. Asking her to laugh works better than asking her to smile as long as she doesn't overdo things and in this 'everyone is watching me' environment she was beautifully restrained, getting it just right. Her dance teacher said she loved Sylvie's laugh. I was just pleased she wasn't doing her eyes screwed up, bending forwards, showin all her teeth false laugh - those produce pics that make her look like she's roaring!

Then it was the tap costume photo. The costume for this is an '80's rock chick' image and to my mummy-horror, it suits her perfectly! The costume isn't elaborate - most of it is high-street bought - but she looks very grown up in it. For the photos, they were asked to pose as they do at the end of the dance - with Attitude. All the other little girls did their best to cross their arms and look distainful, but it was apparent it wasn't a natural pose for them and they ended up clasping their elbows and smiling. Except mine. Sylvie crossed her arms casually as if she had been doing it for years (well, she has!) and stared in sulky defiance at the camera (again, a look I'm familiar with!). Everyone laughed and comments were made on how well she caught the pose - exactly like a teenager. I've said she's a mini-teenager for a long time and the usual response I get is 'Well, they all are these days.' On the evidence, not like mine they're not! Time to quiver in worry over what her future teenage self will be like again!

We didn't have a photo of her in the Finale costume. They weren't going to do a group photo for that since the children in the finale were all going to be turning up at different times and we don't plan on buying an individual picture of her wearing it - I took photos of her in all her costumes myself (Last year the photos were extortionate so we stuck with one group photo and plan to do something similar this year too.)

After the 'Modelling' was over, we popped into the supermarket for some essential groceries. I also checked out the make-up section as the show requires stage make-up of red lipstick and blue eyeshadow. Some parents seemed a bit concerned about putting make-up on their children, but I'm viewing it as greasepaint - it's there to make the facial features stand out to the audience and is an important part of theatre costume. Last year we borrowed someone elses, but since it seems Sylvie will be doing this a few times if her reaction last year is anything to go by and the basic lipstick/eyeshadow is the same every year I want to get her her own this time. However, I wasn't prepared to pay top wack for it and since the supermarket only had a small range of not-cheap stuff I decided to leave it and go into town later in the week for it.

Then it was back home for a rest and dinner. Sylvie was showing signs of sleepiness and asked to go to bed early so she would be able to get up to go to Granny's tomorrow. We were pleased that she is taking responsibility for getting up in the morning now.

14th March - Lots of Shopping!

Today was a busy day sorting out various things for Sylvie's show. We took her to 'Dance' in the morning where she received her other two costumes for her tap dance and the Finale. The tap costume came with a bright wig that was something of a surprise! The style is very much '80's rock chick' and according to the costume list we are expected to provide a belt to go with the costume. We asked what kind and were told any as long as it doesn't dangle. Since all Sylvie's belts are quite dangly we added it to our shopping list. We also got given a tiara/headband for the ballet tutu she had had the week before. It wasn't quite what I would have chosen, but it will certainly be easily seen on the stage!



We headed home for an early lunch before going out to Bedworth - we had told Sylvie we would take her to see the Civic Hall after she started to say she was 'scared' of performing on the stage so we went over there to buy tickets for the show and pointed out the stage door at the rear where she would go in and the stairs that led up to the dressing rooms. We were planning to ask if she could take a quick look at the stage, but there was a brass band competition going on so that wasn't on the cards.


We bought Mother's Day cards ready for next weekend - I nipped out to the charity shop next door while daddy and Sylvie were deliberating over the one she was going to get for me, which gave Davy the opportunity to make a new friend of the shop assistant. When they joined us, Sylvie presented me with a little balloon on a stick that said 'Simply the best mum ever' - my Mother's Day gift. I got it today because it was considered rather too hard to hide!

Sylvie was very taken with a Dora the Explorer doll on sale in the shop, but daddy was adamant she shouldn't get it. She was equally adamant that she wanted it. They turned to me to referee and after looking at it, I agreed with daddy - it was a Megablocks set, a building system she grew out of a while a go, and didn't have much with it apart from the doll - and since Sylvie didn't actually have her purse with her she would need us to lend her the money, which is a practice having pocket money was designed to stamp out. Sylvie was good about it, so daddy offered to get her a book he had spotted if she wanted it - a hardback containing all the Narnia stories. Sylvie went for that, so she now has her own Narnia set.


We looked for a suitable belt but couldn't find one that wasn't attached to a pair of trousers so after Sylvie bought her Dr. Who magazine we went to Nuneaton, where daddy and Davy snoozed in the car while Sylvie and I went belt-hunting. We finally found something suitable in Adams, a nice wide gold one that was on sale. Before spotting this one though, Sylvie saw an elasticated one with a heart fastening. It was a nice belt but the colours, red, white and blue, really didn't suit the colouring of her costume. In the end, I bought both as earlier in the week she had been asking for a belt to keep a pair of trousers up and the heart one had an easy fastening she can manage alone.


While we were in town, I decided we might as well use the World Book Day tokens we had got from Education Otherwise, so we popped into Waterstones to use the tokens on the special '£1 or free with one token' books published for the event, each written specially by a well-known children's author. Sylvie used one there, but they didn't have all the books in the collection so we went over to W H Smiths to see if they had any others. They did, so Sylvie used the other token on one both she and I fancied and I spent £1 on a third book for Davy. I was impressed by this years books - they are 'double' books where you flip them upside down to get at a second story in the back, effectively giving you 2 books for the price of one. There was not a lot of choice for the younger age group though, with only the one pre-school type story available.

We then headed off to my parents to pick up a large sausage roll my mum had picked up for us from the butchers yesterday - I had told her I often couldn't get any as the butcher sold out by the time we got there on a Saturday so she had told me she had got it for me when she rang to tell me how her t-shirt had been received. I had planned to nip in, get it and then leave but Sylvie was already getting out the car when I started to suggest this and Davy, who had been sleeping still, woke up so we all went in so he could be changed and fed.

We showed off our purchases and Sylvie asked for one of her new stories to be read, a Winnie the Witch story that involved entering her poor cat Wilbur in a cat show. To my surprise, there were actually two Winnie the witch stories rather than the one short one I was expecting from my experience of previous World Book Day books. I was impressed! Sylvie wanted to hear that one too, but we had to leave as we wanted to get a few bits from the butchers before they closed.

We arrived as they were preparing to mop the floor but served us happily as usual. Finally, we went home for dinner. It had been a busy day.

13th March - A Sleepy Day.

Once again I am existing on about 4 hours sleep thanks to Davy's horrible sleeping habits. He woke at 11pm wanting a feed and acted like he was going to simply go back to sleep afterwards (Yay!) However, the moment I put him down his head popped up with a huge cheeky grin on it, started 'talking' very loudly (baby babble and screeches) and trying to escape (Aggghhh!). So it was downstairs until about 2am with me playing a computer game with the sound turned off (mental stimulation for me, something repetitive and therefore soporific for him to watch, no sound as that engages him too much) while he fought his body's need to sleep. Blessedly, once he was asleep he actually stayed that way until 6am, missing out the usual 5am feed and no inbetween wakings like previous nights. If he had woken, I don't think I would be able to function at all today - the short nights are really catching up with me.

Sylvie joined me in bed this morning while I was feeding Davy. Her daddy had gone to work early so wasn't around to give her her breakfast. After a good cuddle, we all got up and Sylvie had her cereal while taking 'Media Studies' - watching 'Hoodwinked' again, borrowed from the library this week and referred to as 'Red' by her. She's already watched it about 5 times over the last couple of days and the characters are seeping into her pretend play. She must be growing again, because she had 2 full bowls of cereal!

Davy had to be removed from her vicinity while she ate - he was grabbing for the bowl and glass again. He also proved mastery of crawlling in a forwardly direction by making a bee-line for the stairs. Looks like we are going to have to start shutting the living room door. He had an orange quarter with his breakfast and managed to eat half the peel.

After food, Sylvie put on her 'Day of Fun' video, a really cheap film of kids singing children's songs I picked up for her before she was 2. We have had far more than our money's worth out of it over the years! She 'danced' (read, jumped about excitedly) while Davy watched her and listened to the music. Sylvie loved performing to her small audience and he obviously thought she was great as he giggled away at her!

After the video finished and she had watched the end of some home-improvement / gardening show that seemed to hold her rapt, she gave further proof of my 'growing again' theory by taking herself up to her room and getting into bed for a nap. If only it had coincided with Davy's!

Davy eventually had a nap imself after lunch, which Sylvie woke up just in time for. I couldn't keep my eyes open any more so snoozed while he slept and Sylvie had 'Free Play' in her bedroom. From the snippets I caught, she was playing with her Playmobil castle and someone needed resuing by following a map. I sensed heavy 'City of Ember' influence.

When Davy and I woke up, Sylvie joined us in my bed and the two of them played together. Sylvie wanted Davy in her bedroom, so I got her to put her castle away first before I took him in. She put on a film - The Cat in The Hat - but turned it off again fairly quickly.

Granny phoned to say her red nose day t-shirt had gone down a storm at work - I had put a photo of Sylvie, Davy and their cousins in a box with red noses on on the front for her, an excellent spot of 'Modelling' for Sylvie!

'Storytime' was yet another chapter from 'The City of Ember' read by daddy - it should have been my turn to read to her but Sylvie managed to convince daddy to take my turn. She has been doing that a lot recently - she seems to view it as the best way of getting daddy-time I think. I'm reading to her tomorrow though - that was determined before daddy agreed!

The one exciting part of the day was a pink letter in a brown envelope that came for daddy - it was a Jury summons. This means that sometime in May daddy will sit on a jury in the county court and Sylvie will get her first introduction to 'British Law' through that experience. It should be an interesting experience for all of us, assuming our financial situation can withstand it - court reembursals for loss of earnings may not cover all of my husband's wages, especially to begin with, so we shall have to see what his boss intends to do. The law requires the company provide unpaid leave for as long as the proceedings need, but the key word here is 'unpaid'!

Wow, It's Been Almost a Month!

I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this blog! I can pinpoint the reasons; 1)Davy, who has taken to being awake not just during my usual blogging time but bright-eyed and bushy-tailed around midnight until 2am too, leaving me more in the mood for catching up on my sleep than making time to type 2) We have been spending more time out of the house so less time on the computer and 3) I have other things taking up any spare time I have, namely, my small t-shirt venture.

I have also been loath to update for one specific reason to do with Sylvie - she has learnt something that she doesn't really want other people to know about yet but I can't update this blog without mentioning it. I must trust to the discretion of our readers not to let on they know or I'll never get this thing going again!

Anyway, about 3 weeks ago (wow, it's been a while!) something about her made me think she may be ready to read. Can't put my finger on what it was exactly, but it was probably a lot of different things, like her new-found interest in chapter books as bedtime stories and her ability to hold a story in her head over time ready for the next installment, a subtle change in focus from letters to words, her interest being revived in certain computer games etc. , nothing standing out alone just everything together.

Well, I fished out the set of Key Word Ladybird books she had had for Christmas when she was 3 when she first showed an interest in 'Reading' and asked her if she wanted to look at them. she did, so we went through the first book. We went through it again the next day. After 2 read-throughs it was obvious that she was ready to read, that sight-word instruction suited her far, far better than the phonics stuff and that she could now read a handful of words well. She was not needing any prompting when it came to those ones, she just knew them. Most of the others she either got some of the time or needed a hint almost every time but she still got through the book with only a few pages at the end made up of wild guesses based on the pictures as she got tired.

I checked she really could read the words I thought she could - I was pretty certain from the ease she did it with the books but she has fooled me before! - by writing them out on a list the following day for her to read to her daddy. It turned out though that she was very reluctant to read any more. I may have been over-enthusiastic with my praise, or she may have got a bit wary of the whole reading idea in case she was expected to read things she couldn't yet, or she may just have lost interest, but she wouldn't read the Key Words books any more and she wouldn't read the list to daddy initially - she was certainly put off by the idea that other people should be let in on her reading success. She has never been one for performing! When she did read the list to daddy, it was on the quiet when I wasn't around. He told me she knew them all, but stumbled over the last one, which didn't surprise me as that was one she hadn't always got every time but I had thrown in to see what she would make of it.

The list of words she can read, apart from 'zoo', which she has known for about a year, and her own name, now consists of: a, in, is, like and and, 'and' being the one she stumbled over initially. On Thursday, while getting ready to go out to the breat-feeding cafe we came across the list again and she read them all with no stumbling over the 'and' this time. Not bad, considering it's been about a fortnight since she read it to daddy or looked at the books!

I also wrote out a sentance for her; "Sylvie is in a zoo." I wanted to give her a confidence boost and luckily the words she can read do lend themselves to very restrictive sentances like this. I also wanted to check she understood what she was reading - yes, I'm paranoid, but after being fooled that she could read a little in the past by things she had said while looking at books only to realise that she was just very good at interpreting pictures, I wanted to know! I handed her the piece of paper with it written on last week and she read it immediately. I asked if she knew what it meant and she said "It means I'm at a zoo."

Any suggestion of mine that she show someone else, or I tell them, is greeted with an emphatic 'no' from Sylvie, so if you meet her, please don't be tempted to bring it up or get her to read to you - I'm having to go along in a fairly casual manner so as not to turn her off now as making too much of it throws up walls. She wants it to be her private secret I think.

After the second read-through of the book, she became interested in a new rhyming game on the CBeebies website, and was able to get the hang of it after one quick explanation -you have to match the words that sound the same at the end. She has never 'got' rhymes before, so it was nice to see her playing it so successfully so quickly. She has also started asking questions like "Where do shops have their names?", showing an interest in words, so her 'Reading' continues, even if she hasn't added to her list of words she can read every time yet.

Other things she has been up to; well, she has spent a lot of time at 'Dance' as it is her show at the end of the month. She is in two classes, so therefore had 2 dances she is part of in the show, one ballet and one tap. She was offered the chance to do the Finale dance too and since we knew she was going to have to stay for the second half anyway as the tap dance was the we said ok. This has meant; 3 costumes, which add up to around £65 in total, 2 tickets for us to watch her in the show at £10 each, a rehearsal every week this month, charged at the same rate as her lessons, make-up - I don't have any myself but she needs lipstick and eye shadow to highlight the facial features on stage so it's off to the chemists next week - and photos/video - I don't know how much they will cost but I'm hoping they will be a lot cheaper than last years! This 'Dance' lark isn't cheap!

I was very pleased with how she has coped with the rehearsals though - it is tiring as she has been having her usual lesson on Saturday then a rehearsal on the Sunday, occasionally after a 'Gym' class. She had one all-day rehearsal where we left her with a packed lunch (and had a quiet lunch out together as a couple - Davy kindly fell asleep before the food arrived and didn't wake until it was over). Considering we have never left her alone all day without family being present before she handled it with no fuss whatsoever.

She has got one of her outfits - the others we get later. Her ballet tutu! It is a pretty outfit, but I, who will be chaperoning backstage for the dress-rehearsal and the Monday night, can only think of how interesting it is going to be getting about 15 excited little girls dressed up in them! There are a few fiddly buttons and we are definitely going to have to take them all for a toilet break before they get their costumes on! I was not going to let on to anyone I knew was going to see the show what it looked like, but granny came round on Thursday to pick up a t-shirt she had asked me to print with a piccy of all her grandchildren for red nose day and Sylvie took her up to see her room (granny hasn't seen it since before we got the bookcase) The tutu was spotted - she couldn't see it properly as it was hanging upside-down to keep it's shape, but she kept asking questions so in the end we gave in and Sylvie agreed to model it for her.

She has been claiming that she is 'scared' of performing in the show - this came out of the blue as she was extremely keen to be doing it again after thoroughly enjoying herself last year, but we suspect she has either been listening to the older children or has been over-thinking things again. We have promised to take her over to the Civic Hall so she can see where she will be dancing which seems to have helped.

'Gym' has been going well despite her having to miss a few sessions thanks to rehearsals, though there was a minor strop when a lot of the children in her group got certificates and she didn't - they were receiving the last one she had achieved. Sylvie wanted to know why she wasn't getting more ticks for her next one, so her daddy took her to speak to the coach. They have been concentrating on the skills to bring the others in her group up to the same level so they can start them all on the next one together - the awards have changed recently so they wanted to finish with the last few going through the old award scheme skills before starting the new one with them, though Sylvie has been getting a few ticks when she gets to work on skills that are slightly different to the rest. Now they are all going to be learning the same ones it should make her progress quicker, which will please her no end!
Sylvie's confidence is growing and it is showing on the apparatus, especially the beam.
Last weekend, after 'Dance', we headed down South to the birthday party of Sylvie's friend, S, who is now 4. We arrived spot on time and Sylvie changed into her party dress in the car. She enjoyed the party, though she got very hot and asked to go out for a walk towards the end. It was in a small indoor soft play area and Sylvie wasn't too bad considering it was quite noisy and full of children she didn't know. She wanted us to go through with her so we did a few times, but I needed to deal with Davy and her daddy pulled his back crawling through so she only got that a couple of times. She tried to stick close to S, but it was difficult as S was mixing with all her guests very well and Sylvie couldn't always find her or get her to herself (which was her main object!). She spent quite some time sitting next to us, but was happier to play after the food, partly because she suddenly realised she knew one of the other children, K, from the sleep-over (he had been right next to her and we had pointed him out several times, but she only seemed to remember she knew him after she suddenly recalled his name herself!) and partly because someone turned on the ball machine which sucked balls the children 'fed' it up a pipe and dropped them in the ball pool, which she loved. (Davy, meanwhile, was demolishing his first ever jam tart - I was glad I bought a spare outfit for him! - and discovering oranges, chomping away on two pieces of cut fruit, in between reaquainting himself with K's and S's parents and making friends with some little girls who were cooing over him by pulling one's hair and trying to eat the other's dress.)

On our way home, Sylvie asked if she could have her 5th birthday there. We explained that it was a little further away than we felt was reasonable. Later I asked her if she wanted a party this year or if she wanted to do what we usually do and have a special treat with family and a couple of friends. She chose a party, so I asked who she wanted to invite, and we hit a stumbling block. I've always known that names aren't her strong point - she didn't answer to her own until she was 2 and finds it hard to remember other people's - but I don't think I can really write out invitations to 'the girl from dance who waved to me in the car park' or 'the one with the ginger hair.' I asked her to find out the names of the people she wants to invite over the next few weeks.

Hmm, what else? Well, there's been plenty of 'Media Studies' as always, and lots of 'Childcare', especially since Davy has mastered the art of pulling himself up to standing and has started to crawl forwards. One day alone he: Used an open drawer to pull himself up to play with the TV and video player buttons.
Ate a piece of Sylvie's artwork.
Pulled himself up and opened Sylvie's set of wire-frame drawers and tried to remove and eat her Geomag set and her maze book.
Unscrewed the lid of the pot I keep water in for wiping his bottom and poured it everywhere.
Chewed merrily on the TV remote he managed to grab while I removed Sylvie's drinking glass which he had been eyeing up from his vicinity (and has, on subsequent days, achieved his goal of grabbing and tipping up to soak the table).
Opened the flap of the box of one of Sylvie's games without anyone noticing and was about to embark on a meal of dice and counters when he fortunately drew attention to himself by falling over and screaming.
Turned the living room into a bomb-site by shoving everything off the coffee table and testing the balistic properties of his toys.
Tried to pull the cables out the back of the laptop.

Sylvie has had to start to take her glass into the kitchen after eating now and be more careful about what she leaves out - having someone eat something you have just spent ages making is a better incentive to keeping it out of his way than just being told.

She has also been enjoying trying to help him stand, and while she has been finding the newly mobile stage annoying (recently after being told she couldn't use the Play station as Davy had been cooped up in his round-and-round for some time already that day so he needed to be out and about which is bad news for the Play station, she turned and yelled at him; "Forget me Davy, Forget me! Forget my sweetness! I never want to see you again!" and stormed into the kitchen claiming that 'Davy always spoils everything!') she has also been enjoying his new robustness and interest in the world as it has allowed her to play proper games with him for the first time. She has even asked for him to play in her room with her a few times.

The overly dramatic, bad romantic novelist flair has come to the fore in other statements she has made too, such as the classic, "Don't worry Davy, mummy won't leave you there to die." Said to her brother who was wailing because he had been put in his round-and-round while I got the washing in. Very similar to her "Don't cry Davy, we won't leave you here." when he was getting tired and fractious at the town museum, much to the amusement of the other visitors!

One annoying thing, which I suspect is age related - she has developed the most toe-curling high-pitched note to her voice. She mainly uses it when singing, something she has started to do a lot, or when talking to Davy, but we have had to ask her to only use it in a separate room as it has the same effect on both me and her daddy - a desire to stop the sound at any cost!

We finished Prince Caspian and The Voyage of The Dawn Treader at 'Storytime'. Partway through the Dawn Treader she remembered I had bought her the BBC DVD collection and sat and watched the three we had read. She was losing a little enthusiasm for Dawn Treader until she watched the DVD's - the need for a visual 'hook' showing through again. I expected we would move on to The Silver Chair but she borrowed the film 'The City of Ember' from the library and became fixated on that instead so we made a special trip to the main library in town to borrow their copy of the book (it was in the teenage section, not sure why, other libraries have it stocked in 'childrens') and she is enjoying that a lot. So are we actually, it's a very good story.

Oh, and we all played 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' on the Play station together and Sylvie got more right than we did, including one asking what the ruler of Germany used to be known as (Kaiser) and which country has never won the world cup - we think she remembered this one from when we played it at Christmas. We didn't!