Birthday treat

Naomi wanted to go the play place for her birthday treat so we invited one of her friends' family to join us and we went after a trip to the doctor first! Rose and Josh both have ear infections so are on antibiotics and Naomi was declared well. Our doctor has disappeared but the "relief" doctor was very nice and helpful.

Unfortunately, Josh was feeling so yuck that he didn't even have the energy or the inclination to play, but Naomi had lots of fun until the person dressed up as a clown showed up and then she wouldn't play anymore.

Naomi turns 3

Today was Naomi's third birthday. Part of me can't quite believe it and part of me thinks she has been 3 for ages!!

She was pretty excited most of the day as were Josh and Rose. It was fun to see them enter into her excitement. Naomi had chosen a penguin cake and my first attempt came out far too thin - the good news being it inspired a trifle for the weekend! - and my next effort was really thick but I knew no-one would be disappointed by that :-) She had made me promise I would take her with me to buy the candy floss so I duly made good and she helped put it on the cake.

We didn't invite any other children to the party as she doesn't really have any identified group of friends but she was happy because we did have Bonnie, Wendy and Kate.

The advantage of having had so many visitors recently is that we have received lots of presents from home so Naomi had a huge pile between us all and it was great that Sam and Emma were here to share the occasion.

However, we are meeting up with one of Naomi's friends at the play place tomorrow for an hour of fun!

Positive reinforcement

We have been enduring even-worse-than-usual broken nights with the children suffering from colds. Joshua has a habit of shouting really loudly to announce to me that he is awake so one of his targets on his sticker chart is to not shout out in the night. Anyway, the first time he woke up last night he did not shout out but just appeared by our bed and climbed in. Even in my groggy state the first thing I said was, "Good boy for not shouting out" before rolling over and dozing off. When I remembered that later I thought it was pretty funny that even in a sleep-deprived state and half-asleep at the time, my first thought was to affirm my son.

Time Lapse

As I was out this afternoon I asked Lea to make the dinner - fish and chips, yum! I was back by 5 and I was surprised dinner wasn't ready as Lea is usually very punctual with our food and most times has it ready early. Anyway 5:30 rolled round and Lea cme in and said "OK, dinner's ready. Do you want it now or wait till 5?" I said, "it's half five now". She was very flustered and said, "What?" Turns out the clock in the kitchen only said 4:40 so while Lea thought she was in plenty of time, all the other clocks said 5:30. It was kind of funny, although poor Lea was very embarrased!

Lego Day

Sam and Emma were out for the morning and I was by myself with all three kids, as Rose has not been at school today and yesterday because she has been unwell. We had a really fun, relaxed day hanging out together in the playroom. The lego came out and I ended up spending the whole day - and I really mean the whole day, with a minimal lunch break - building things for Josh, then Naomi, then Rose, then Josh.....

I enjoyed just spending time with my children and it reminded me how they like my company as well as other people's. That may sound daft but sometimes I wonder if being with me every day isn't the teensiest bit boring!

Naomi's birthday is on Friday. She has had her cake picked out for weeks so I asked her what she would like to eat for dinner on her birthday. She looked at me quizzically and eventually replied, "lunch". (I was asking her at lunchtime which probably wasn't the greatest moment). I said, "well what's your favourite food?" She said, "cookies". I'm pretty sure there's going to be more on the menu that cookies.

Rose's Teacher

I was helping out in Rose's class today and Bonnie was modelling writing a story with beginning, middle and end. She was writing the story of her guinea-pig, Curly. She had got to the end section which was about Curly's death and was explaining that Curly had died on Christmas Eve. One of the boys asked, "Did you eat it?" I had to try very hard not to laugh but to Bonnie's credit she didn't break stride.

I am so grateful that I release my daughter to my trusted friend every day and I know Rose is in brilliant, capable, loving hands.

Entromorphing

Yesterday, Sam overheard Rose and Joshua having this conversation while playing with their toys:

Josh: They're entromorphing. I don't know what that means.

Rose: Yes, they're entromorphing. I don't know what it means, either. Perhaps it means collecting rocks.

This was then followed by them creating snow from polystyrene and singing "hip, hip hooray for the snow, hip hip hooray for the gecko. Thank-you for the snow in my heart, which makes it clean!"