We have Big News.
Young Brooke, of the aforementioned slapping, throttling etc., has changed her errant ways! Her stint in the countryside with her Godmother and god-cousins seems to have turned the tide, and now instead of screaming at me she blows kisses. Gone are the slaps, replaced with caresses of my cheek and hair. I ask her to do something for me, she replies
"Of course, Mummy". I am not sure what
Cuckoo did exactly, but my girl has come back changed for the better. Thank you my gay wife, THANK YOU!
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| Remember the scene in Mad Men? |
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| Maybe the sunshine baby had a quiet word with her. |
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I am not for one moment suggesting she is all sweetness and light
all of the time, we still get flashes of defiance and cheek, but my goodness it's a vast improvement! So well done Brooke, for getting through that troublesome fearsome fours phase. (Much worse than the tyrannical threes or wimpy terrible twos IMO). She still has trouble getting to sleep sometimes, but I tuck her up and tell her I'll be back in 5 minutes. Then I resnuggle her and say I'll be back in 10 minutes, etc. and keep increasing the time until she's asleep. I only go back in if she stays in her bed though, and so far so good.
In other news I have learnt more things. Namely, that Taya is not to be trusted with the hoover. Bless her, she does love to help out with the housework, and I have often let her loose with the hoover. Recently I did see her zap up Pascal (Rapunzel doll accessory) and a sock so I knew that when the bag was full I'd have to cut it open to retrieve them. Well, that moment came last week and here is what I found.
So we have here: a stone, play money, a soft ball, a wooden doll, a sock, a hairclip, Pascal, pink Barbie accessory, red pencil, a paintbrush, foam shapes, a crayon and yes, a carrier bag.
So, since there have been other unopened hoover bags in the past, I guess that answers my question about where all the lost things go!
Brooke, however, is welcome to carry on helping:
The girls thoroughly enjoyed the recent snow. When it started in the evening I took them out to the street to see it. Taya was overjoyed;
"MY CAN'T WAIT! MY LOVE SNOW!" It didn't take long for them to get chilly. The next day we went to the square gardens which had been transformed into a winter wonderland. Thick, deep bountiful snow and plenty of neighbourhood kids with whom to build a flat-faced, rudely-appendaged snowman. (the boy who stuck that stick in said it was his belly button. Yeah,
right!)
I also had my lovely niece staying with me for half term, and one day I asked her what she wanted to do.
"Go outside" she replied. So we saddled up and went for a walk, aiming for the canal at Little Venice to feed the ducks. Along the way we passed by the fire station. I remembered a friend telling me that her husband had taken their son there and the firemen had let them in to see the engines so I let them venture up to the closed concertina doors and we all peered through the little windows.
"But what if the doors open?" said Brooke,
"We'll get squashed by the fire engine!". So imagine Taya's shock when the doors did indeed open and a burly fireman stood there saying
"Hullo!"I cannot express in words how that poor girl literally went
"ARGH!" and did a most abrupt about turn and sprinted away from him. I legged it after her and retrieved her inches from the main road. She recovered quite quickly once it was clear we were being invited inside, but that moment was pure comedy gold. In fact Alyssa couldn't stop laughing about it afterwards and we replayed the moment over and over, enjoying retelling the story. Anyway, they had a lovely, if somewhat speechless, time in the fire station where they were allowed to sit in the back whilst the blue light flashed, and shown the hoses and other equipment. What lovely firemen we have!
More random photos:
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| Brooke made a Taya-cake. |
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| Since Alyssa has hair you can see how fast that thing really went. |
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| I love those grins. |
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| Joseph and Taya. Future love match. |
Oh and I took Taya on a trip with nursery to a place in Stratford called
Discover. She had a lovely time with all the slides, playshapes, noise making machines and so on. The story studio downstairs was just beautifully decorated, with all kinds of monster shops.
Well worth a visit I thought. Sadly it was raining that day but the playground and garden look excellent. Shame Stratford's quite a trek away.
Feel like I have loads more to blog about. Been really busy! More soon :)
