Ahhh Brooke. I feel I should give her an entry of her own. Remember how last year I was at my wits end, she was biting, hitting, scratching us, wanted to kill me, hated me etc.? Well, I'm happy to say that little girl moved out some time over the last 6 months and in her place we have a rather sweet 5 year old schoolgirl. She's not ALL sweetness and light, that would just be weird, but on the whole she is lovely. Still rubbish at bedtimes though. (Some things never change) It's like the girls trade places at 7pm, Taya becomes compliant and sweet, whilst Brooke gets tricky and a bit irritating and repeatedly comes out of bed to tell us
But as a friend once said, all your kids give you something good. Taya at least goes to bed nicely, even if she does wake me up during the night and tries to start the day at 5.45 sometimes because she's hungry ("Well, maybe if you ate your dinner in the evenings", I think, but you know what they say about leading horses to water)
Anyway, here's the birthday girl showing us how old she is now.
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This year she was allowed her birthday party and had 8 friends round for traditional party games, Gangnam style dancing and party food (not Gangnam Style food, no idea what that would consist of). Here is the Barbie birthday cake I lovingly constructed since the girls always used to stop and gaze outside the Bake 'N Make cake shop on Edgware Road.
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I was really pleased with myself, I thought this would make me The Most Wonderful Person Alive in the girls' eyes. And yet, when it was shown to them (after many hours baking and icing), Brooke gave it a lukewarm response at first, then got more enthused and Taya, well Taya declared she didn't WANT a Barbie in a cake and proceded to throw a 30 minute tantrum which included trying to extract Barbie from the cake. So, I totally know what I'm making for HER fourth birthday!
Obviously school is a massive part of Brooke's life now and happily she is learning to read and write. She claimed she wrote this piece all by herself on World Peace Day at school, but when it's followed up thus:
"Yes I wrote this all by myself Mummy. No teachers helped me. It wasn't projected up on the wall or anything"
..well then you have your doubts. But I still think Bravo nonetheless. Her handwriting is better than Chris's anyway.
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School sent a letter home last week asking that any children with chicken pox be kept at home until all the spots had scabbed over. This made me think that the week-old pimple under Brooke's right arm might deserve a second look after all. I took her to the doctors the next day, by which time she had a small collection of spots along her right arm as well. Poor Brooke, she must be the only child in London to be taken to the doctors on an exciting Mummy-and-me morning off, told "Yes, that's chicken pox" and then taken straight back to school, because apparently she had finished being contagious by this point. So there we go, after years of waiting for this childhood illness, we never even noticed she had it. I am merrily telling everyone it is all those healthy germs in our house that made her so resilient. I suppose we'll all have winter vomiting virus next week now I've said that.
Finally, a one-line gem;
"Please can I have a bite of your toast Daddy? I promise not to honk it down like Taya."
and some photos.
Oh I love that girl so very much.
(FWIW, I am remembering that "this too shall pass", the lovely phase that is, not the me loving her bit, natch)
- She's having a bad feeling
- Her bed is too messy
- She needs the toilet
- A plaster has come off her arm
- She wants her hot water bottle made hotter
- She can't get to sleep
But as a friend once said, all your kids give you something good. Taya at least goes to bed nicely, even if she does wake me up during the night and tries to start the day at 5.45 sometimes because she's hungry ("Well, maybe if you ate your dinner in the evenings", I think, but you know what they say about leading horses to water)
Anyway, here's the birthday girl showing us how old she is now.
This year she was allowed her birthday party and had 8 friends round for traditional party games, Gangnam style dancing and party food (not Gangnam Style food, no idea what that would consist of). Here is the Barbie birthday cake I lovingly constructed since the girls always used to stop and gaze outside the Bake 'N Make cake shop on Edgware Road.
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| No! No! Not the Barbie cake! |
Obviously school is a massive part of Brooke's life now and happily she is learning to read and write. She claimed she wrote this piece all by herself on World Peace Day at school, but when it's followed up thus:
"Yes I wrote this all by myself Mummy. No teachers helped me. It wasn't projected up on the wall or anything"
..well then you have your doubts. But I still think Bravo nonetheless. Her handwriting is better than Chris's anyway.
School sent a letter home last week asking that any children with chicken pox be kept at home until all the spots had scabbed over. This made me think that the week-old pimple under Brooke's right arm might deserve a second look after all. I took her to the doctors the next day, by which time she had a small collection of spots along her right arm as well. Poor Brooke, she must be the only child in London to be taken to the doctors on an exciting Mummy-and-me morning off, told "Yes, that's chicken pox" and then taken straight back to school, because apparently she had finished being contagious by this point. So there we go, after years of waiting for this childhood illness, we never even noticed she had it. I am merrily telling everyone it is all those healthy germs in our house that made her so resilient. I suppose we'll all have winter vomiting virus next week now I've said that.
Finally, a one-line gem;
"Please can I have a bite of your toast Daddy? I promise not to honk it down like Taya."
and some photos.
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| At the fireworks |
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| At a friend's party |
(FWIW, I am remembering that "this too shall pass", the lovely phase that is, not the me loving her bit, natch)