So says Taya, apropos of Ben & Holly's.
The good news, Taya has been given a temporary nursery place! She does two full days a week. I skip home and enjoy doing the housework in near silence (major building project next door = very noisy) and drink tea without warning "HOT TEA! HOT TEA!" like a parrot because they are no small clumsy people approaching. I sort out paperworky type things and make phone calls to companies who don't want to hear me remonstrating about no more biscuits before dinner. I'd like to state for the record one more time how much I LOVE the girls' nursery. It's not just the kids they look after there. Truly amazing staff, who really deserve their outstanding Ofsted rating. Hats off. Taya has settled in really well and, apart from stripping off all her clothes and refusing to eat any lunch (two separate incidents, not some strange naked protest), is doing swimmingly.
More good news. Brooke seems to have a penchant for The Eagles and LMFAO. Good eclectic taste. She also does a pretty good shuffle dance. Taya however, still jumps on the spot and demands BOTH of my hands as her version of dancing. Will not permit me to dance with Brooke. Also does this thing where (usually naked) she plants her feet wide apart, pushes her bum out and declares it to be "a bom bom dance" (Dance said to rhyme with Romance. Every time she says it I think of Chris de Burgh. Bom Bom means bottom) Nutter.
The bad news. Well Noel is still in hospital, having good days and bad days. He is much much better than the first time I visited him, thank goodness, but obviously pretty fed up with being stuck in hospital for so long. I try to visit when I can but it is tricky to go with any child who is awake. Taya always wants to press the buttons that operate the bed, and every time I tell her no, she says "Just only dockers?" This is a favourite tactic when getting told she can't do something; establish exactly who can do it, or what one can do instead.
More bad news - so many of my friends seems to be having a really rough time at the moment. I don't want to name names but I'm thinking hard about you all and hope things get better really soon. Really we all need some excellent news before too long. Here's hoping.
Other bad news. Remember how I said the girls were racking up their sticker stars for going to bed nicely? Well scrap that. Brooke in particular lulled me into a false sense of security and then WHAM. She went bad-ass. Screaming at me, screaming in my face "MAKE MY DINNER NOW!", biting, kicking, generally being defiant and unpleasant to be around. I have sobbed, and felt like a failure and asked no one in particular what I should do now. I put her in the naughty corner, she tells me "I'll just come right out!" and is true to her word. I ask her to get dressed / brush her hair / brush her teeth / put on a coat / get in the bath / stop hitting Taya / go to bed / anything else quite reasonable in the course of a day and I get a scowly face and a stomping foot in return. I spent the evening of her birthday drinking my tea outside the front door to avoid getting kicked any more and cancelled her birthday party and didn't feel the least bit bad about it. I've rediscovered my love of white wine all over again.
Obligatory photos (thinking ahead to dynamic views)
The good news, Taya has been given a temporary nursery place! She does two full days a week. I skip home and enjoy doing the housework in near silence (major building project next door = very noisy) and drink tea without warning "HOT TEA! HOT TEA!" like a parrot because they are no small clumsy people approaching. I sort out paperworky type things and make phone calls to companies who don't want to hear me remonstrating about no more biscuits before dinner. I'd like to state for the record one more time how much I LOVE the girls' nursery. It's not just the kids they look after there. Truly amazing staff, who really deserve their outstanding Ofsted rating. Hats off. Taya has settled in really well and, apart from stripping off all her clothes and refusing to eat any lunch (two separate incidents, not some strange naked protest), is doing swimmingly.
More good news. Brooke seems to have a penchant for The Eagles and LMFAO. Good eclectic taste. She also does a pretty good shuffle dance. Taya however, still jumps on the spot and demands BOTH of my hands as her version of dancing. Will not permit me to dance with Brooke. Also does this thing where (usually naked) she plants her feet wide apart, pushes her bum out and declares it to be "a bom bom dance" (Dance said to rhyme with Romance. Every time she says it I think of Chris de Burgh. Bom Bom means bottom) Nutter.
The bad news. Well Noel is still in hospital, having good days and bad days. He is much much better than the first time I visited him, thank goodness, but obviously pretty fed up with being stuck in hospital for so long. I try to visit when I can but it is tricky to go with any child who is awake. Taya always wants to press the buttons that operate the bed, and every time I tell her no, she says "Just only dockers?" This is a favourite tactic when getting told she can't do something; establish exactly who can do it, or what one can do instead.
More bad news - so many of my friends seems to be having a really rough time at the moment. I don't want to name names but I'm thinking hard about you all and hope things get better really soon. Really we all need some excellent news before too long. Here's hoping.
Other bad news. Remember how I said the girls were racking up their sticker stars for going to bed nicely? Well scrap that. Brooke in particular lulled me into a false sense of security and then WHAM. She went bad-ass. Screaming at me, screaming in my face "MAKE MY DINNER NOW!", biting, kicking, generally being defiant and unpleasant to be around. I have sobbed, and felt like a failure and asked no one in particular what I should do now. I put her in the naughty corner, she tells me "I'll just come right out!" and is true to her word. I ask her to get dressed / brush her hair / brush her teeth / put on a coat / get in the bath / stop hitting Taya / go to bed / anything else quite reasonable in the course of a day and I get a scowly face and a stomping foot in return. I spent the evening of her birthday drinking my tea outside the front door to avoid getting kicked any more and cancelled her birthday party and didn't feel the least bit bad about it. I've rediscovered my love of white wine all over again.
Obligatory photos (thinking ahead to dynamic views)
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Copying her big sister |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| A typical expression |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  | |
| I love this. Sitting there playing with her beloved and most wanted birthday present, the Barbie Water Park, with a look that says it all. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| How I'd like to remember her 4th Birthday |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Good old Pinterest |
