School Blues

Luke is not happy. He really has not settled in well to school this year. There has been a change in the tutor system so they are in mixed year tutor groups, and Luke has found this rather unsettling, combined with some rather "shouty" teachers, who have struck the fear of god into him, so now when he is confused about something he won't ask, for fear of being shouted at. He doesn't want me to intervene, as it would make him feel "a baby", so we are stuck.

Its heart breaking to see him so sad, and having had a miserable time at school myself at his age, I can empathise so much with him. The best I can do is make homelife as stress free as possible (not easy when organisation really isn't my forte!) so at least he has some nice hours in the day. I had thought of going behind his back to speak with the teachers, but that is just too much of a risk, one that I am not prepared to take, if he ever found out, how could he trust me again?

This parenting lark is tough! I cant wait for half-term to have him happy again.

Fortunately the other two are enjoying school, I must be grateful for that.

Normal service is resumed

Today I had to turn the burglar alarm on, for the first time in AGES! Stuart is now back at work, children are back at school (after already picking up those bugs that abound at this time of year) and it was just Sophie and me.

My Parents-in-law are doing very well at home, taking things steady, and helping each other out. So, fingers crossed, things are looking up.

Sophie is now so confident on her feet. Any opportunity and she is walking somewhere! After those first few steps she took, she didn't really go on from that for quite a while. It was last Wednesday when she suddenly decided to walk about 13 steps across the kitchen, and now she's off. Even trying to run! I love this age where you can see so many thought processes slotting things in place. She knows that when Daddy gets up early in the morning she has to wave bye to him (sometimes before he has even gone!), she knows keys go in the door, shoes go on feet, socks go on heads (well when you are playing they do!)

I look at her now, and all signs of my baby are gone, she is a wonderful, inquisitive toddler. It is an end of an era, one which I feel so priveleged to have witnessed through the development of all four of the children. But it is time to move on. I am getting rid of the baby clothes (apart from all plain things that have tie-dye potential), the car seat is going, as is the cot (she never sleeps in it anyway!), and various baby toys too. We are going to decorate a room for her, so she has her own play space, and you never know, one day she might even sleep in there!

A mish mash of things

Apart from the ongoing saga of my parents-in-law (MIL back in hospital with a racing heart), what else has been happening this week?

We had the boys returning to school. They have all settled in ok, although Luke had some teething problems with his rather strict form teacher. When will they learn that to gain a child's respect you have to respect them, not dominate them or strike the fear of god into them?

Mum, bless her, has been down the allotment regularly harvesting what is ready. We have maincrop potatoes coming in now, along with more runner beans, cooking apples, plums, a bit of purple sprouting, we had to pull all the carrots and they were riddled with carrot root fly, but we were able to salvage some. And we should have had some lovely sweetcorn, we'd just been waiting for it to plump up, and when Mum went to harvest it at the weekend she found some vandals had beaten her to it, and have destroyed some plants, strewn the ripe cobs around which have subsequently been eaten by local wildlife, and we are left with a few cobs which are not ripe, but, fingers crossed, will come to something later. It has been a regular occurrence on the site, but the first time we have been hit. Hopefully the instilation of high, locked gates will help deter the trouble makers. Only time will tell.

I have managed to add to my jam store with damson jam and plum and apple jam, which will hopefully help to make up some jam hampers for Christmas, hopefully I'll be adding quince and blackberry to this. As far as Christmas goes I've also made a start on some longies for Sophie, it will take me til Christmas to get them done, as she seems attracted to the needles!

Stuart is planning to go back to work this next week, his recouperation has not been as restful as we would have hoped, but he has put a very brave face on it all.

The Mother

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And the rollercoaster carries on!

A week after Stuart's operation, his Mum had to go in for a routine op. No problems there, it went as planned. However, Stuart phoned his Dad to see how he was, as he gets nervous when in the house by himself. Stuart felt his Dad was not sounding right, so made his way over to see him. On spending a couple of hours with him he felt he needed to see a doctor, so the GP came to the house, who then called the paramedics to admit him to hospital with suspected pneumonia.

Well, the week has had its lows, with concerns over Stuart's Dad, trying not to let Stuart overdo things, and exhaustion creeping in with trying to hold everything together. There have been highs too, this time Luke's birthday (although quieter than he would have liked, and marred by the return to school on the same day), joy that Stuart's Dad has responded well to antibiotics, and a chance to see family as Stuart's sister and family arrived with Jessie to visit and see the poorly crowd!

Stuart's Dad has now been discharged, a little too soon I feel as they do not see to have recognised the needs of Stuart's Mum who is recovering from her op, and whilst she is very stoic, she too is elderly and treading a fine line between health and illness. Therefore it has fallen to Stuart to try and ease the situation. Family is everything to him, which is one of his wonderful qualities, but I do worry that he will hamper his own recovery. I am hoping things will calm down soon, although I said that last week, and look what happened!

A rollercoaster of a week

The week started off on Monday with Stuart going to his uncle's funeral. He has been diagnosed with throat cancer earlier in the year, and had spent the rest of his time back and forth between hospital/hospice and home. Unable to speak, he spent his time writing, much of which was used at his funeral, for what was a very moving service.

On a far happier note, Tuesday was Sophie's birthday. I always think first birthdays are so special, with the events around the birth still relatively fresh in your mind. To celebrate a year of discovery and growing, we went to the Monkey Forest near Stoke. Sophie loves all kinds of animals, so we thought this would be a lovely trip out. Somewhere where we haven't been before, therefore all our memories of the place are linked to her birthday. I think the rest of us had a great time there too, looking at free ranging family groups of Barbary Macaques acting as naturally as possible with groups of people looking at them.

We returned home in time for a tea party. Friends and family arrived (with my Dad and his wife seeing Sophie for the first time!) She wore her birthday crown with a heart appliqued to the front of it. I explained to the boys that each year I would add another, Alec pointed out we could fit 21 hearts onto it, not sure that Sophie would be happy wearing it for that long though! For gifts, we bought her a whirlygig bee. Again the boys have had their fair share of playong with it, trying to make it drift around corners! The boys got her some maracas, sleigh bells, and tambourine, which she loves. She also got a toy phone (in a vain attempt at getting to speak to people on the phone without her grabbing it off you!) and some wooden blocks which the boys build up into elaborate constructions, until Sophie smashes it down! Great fun!

She got beads on a wire from Grandma and Grandad, and some lovely mini IQ books and clothes from Nanny. And with the money she has been given, I can feel a trip to Myriad coming on!

It took Sophie a good couple of days to recover from her birthday, but she had a great time, and made lots of wonderful memories for us all. Happy Birthday Sophie Grace.

As the week moves on we start to focus on Stuart's impending hernia repait operation. Never going under a general anaesthetic before was a great cause for anxiety. Wills were written, just in case. And lots of questions were going around in our heads. Stuart took it all very much in his stride, remaining positive throughout. When it came to it, the procedure was straightforward, admitted at 1pm, discharged at 8pm! The waiting inbetween though was tough. However, he is home now, recouperating. The hardest part is gently stopping Sophie from clambering over him. You don't realise how often she wants picking up until you are not allowed to!

Thoughts are now turning to the return to school (on Luke's birthday of all days - he's gutted!) A week of quiet family time will be much appreciated!

Willow

Following a post on Pippa's blog about making willow rings, I had lots of ideas as to what I could do with them. But failed miserably on my first attempt.

However, this evening we were invited to Mum's for a barbeque, and to christen her Chimenea we bought her for her birthday last year. Mum has the most fantastic weeping willow in her back garden, so as Stuart cooked the food on the barbeque, I stood by the willow taking off the trailing branches and made a couple of willow rings. It took far longer than I anticipated as Sophie was intrigued by the barbeque! I am really pleased with the results, and hopefully can harvest a bit more willow from the tree!

The boys had their own fun with the tree, first of all hiding within the curtains of branches, then Ethan decided he wanted to see if he could be Tarzan. He discovered he had to hang on quite high up to avoid hitting the ground, and he also needed quite a few branches to hold his weight. The older ones also joined in, but it was Ethan who was entertained by this for ages, with a bare patch appearing on "his branches" where he'd been holding them!

Sophie also joined in the fun with trying to eat the leaves, but also with showering herself with the stripped leaves.

Isn't it great when so much fun and entertainment can be had from just one tree.