Fainjin’s badges

Fainjin and Pearl went to a badge-making and sewing class today.  Here are Fainjin’s efforts.  I’m told the dinosaurs are a tyrannosaurus rex and a brachiosaurus, but I have to confess I’m not sure which is which.

The two fire-engines are incredibly cute, and the bee on the flower was made especially for Babess, who was delighted and honoured and insisted on wearing it for the rest of the day.

At the top of the picture you can just see the edge of the “glasses case” (drawstring bag) that he did in the sewing class in the afternoon.  He was a bit worried about the sewing – this morning he said to me, “But Mummy, my stitches are all too big…”.  However, he has done really well, and I don’t think his stitches are big at all!

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Big kids

It’s still summer holidays, and we are still taking things a day at a time, although Babess is back at creche and I have been working some days.

This evening, Babess asked me, “What are we doing tomorrow, Mummy?”

“Daddy will take you to creche,” I answered, “and I’ll take the other kids to their school holiday programme so they can make cool stuff for us.”

Fainjin looked up.  “You mean the big kids, eh, Mum?”

Yes, Fainjin.  The split has changed. We used to have one big kid and two littles; now it seems we have two bigs and one little.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Old films

At the weekend, Pearl went with her cousin and uncle to see Hugo, which she tells us is brilliant.  I have to stop her from telling us too much, because The Dad and I would like to see it too!  She doesn’t mind, I think she is hoping we might take her along and she can see it again.  She had read the book and enjoyed that too.

Since seeing the film, she has been very interested in early films, particularly those by Georges Melies, and has been looking them up online.  They are usually only a few minutes or even seconds long, so she watches them over and over.

I am very tempted to show her Forgotten Silver, just to see how far the hoax goes with her…   I remember watching it the night it first screened, being fascinated and excited and incredulous and slowly, slowly, skeptical until by the end I was howling with laughter and appreciating the joke.  I was a fair bit older than 9, mind.  And there were plenty of people who didn’t realise it was a hoax until they read it in the paper the next morning.

Perhaps I will warn her that it’s not true at the start, lest she be too disappointed.  But I think she would enjoy it all the same.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Birthdays

It’s my birthday today.  Pearl knew, and gave me extra hugs through the day, but the littler two were largely unaware until the birthday cake came out after dinner.

“But when’s your party?” asked Babess, puzzled.  “If it’s your birthday, you have a party.  You have to.”

I explained that The Dad and I were going out for dinner, and that would be my party.  She wasn’t very happy about it, but I pointed out she was still getting cake, and she grudgingly admitted that it could still be my birthday even if there wasn’t an actual party.

“What number are you?” Fainjin wanted to know.  I sighed to myself, knowing that “my number” will be gleefully repeated to all and sundry for days to come.

“Forty,” I told him.

“Forty!” he crowed.  “And before that, you were three-ty…”

Pearl corrected him, “Thir-ty, Fainjin, not three-ty.”

“Thirty, forty,” he said.

“No,” she was not sparing my ego at all, “thirty, then thirty-one, thirty-two…”

I smiled a little ruefully.  What a lot of numbers.

How lucky I am, to have had so many.  I smiled again, less ruefully and more gratefully.  Thanks for the reminder, kids.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

 

 

For Whymommy

Susan’s blog ToddlerPlanet was one of the very first I discovered, and quickly became my favourite.  What a great name for a blog, and I loved her pseudonym “Whymommy” too.

She’s a scientist, and a mum like me – her younger boy and my Fainjin were born just a few days apart.  She seemed like a kindred spirit, although I only knew her through her blog posts.  She was sick, but fighting hard, and she got better for a while and I celebrated for her and her family.

When I started my own blog, I wasn’t sure of the etiquette about linking up, and I write her an email to ask her permission.  She was very sweet to me, so welcoming, and even sent a tweet to her followers asking them to welcome me too.

But she’s like that.  Sweet, and generous, and open.

Our friendship grew, through comments on each other’s blogs, and emails and twitter, and finally last year we got to meet.

I had suspected that, given the chance, we would be firm friends, the sort who could chat a morning away over a cup of tea, talking about everything and nothing, enjoying each other’s company unreservedly.

And I was right.  We clicked.  There were no awkward moments, it was like we had known each other forever.  When it was time to go, we realised we would miss each other – and we’d only “known” each other for a couple of hours.  Except that we knew each other pretty well online for quite a while before that.

Susan is a writer, a mentor, an advocate.  She is a wonderful mother, perhaps the most present parent I have ever known.  She is funny and caring and kind.  She has taught me an awful lot, in ways she doesn’t know even know about – and more than likely in ways that I haven’t recognised myself yet.  If I had to choose one word to describe her, it would be grace.  She lives a life enveloped in that beautiful quality.

Susan is in hospice care now, at home.  She is surrounded by the love of her family and friends, and the hundreds or thousands of people whose lives she has touched through her writing.

If you’d like to add a message of love, please leave her a comment here.

Susan, dear friend, thank you.  For all of it.  The science, the kinship, the laughter, and even the tears.  This is not goodbye, I know you’re not ready for goodbyes yet.  I certainly am not!  But it is another beginning, another chapter.  May hospice bring you relief and comfort, and more good times with your lovely husband and children.

Much love,

Kate.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Sleepover success

Babess & Fainjin enjoyed their sleepover very much indeed.  They loved all the attention from their cousins and adored Auntie B, and spent their time playing with new-to-them toys to their hearts’ content.

I understand they were well-behaved and slept well, settling easily at nights (having big cousins reading several stories in bed helped, I’m sure).

But when it was time to come home, they were less than enthusiastic.

“I don’t want to go home,” said Babess, doing her sad face.

“But Mummy and Daddy will miss you!” replied Auntie B.

“They won’t miss me if I stay here five nights,” Babess asserted.

“How many nights have you had already?”

“Three!”

“So how many more would you want?”

“Five more.”  Babess is already adept at manipulating numbers to her own ends.

“Oh, they would miss you.”

“No, they won’t miss me.  But I will miss the trampoline…”

So nice to know where we come in the ranks of her affection!

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Just a quick stay

Fainjin and Babess have gone for a sleep-over with The Fabulous Auntie B.  They will be away three nights, and it’s their first sleep-over.  Or maybe Fainjin’s second… I think he might have had a sleep-over there the night Babess was born.

They have been very excited and looking forward to it, and I’m told they have been very good this evening and have enjoyed having their older cousins teach them dances and read stories to them.

This afternoon, when The Fabulous Auntie B came to pick them up, one of the cousins scooped up Babess and said excitedly, “Do you know where you’re going?!”

Babess widened her eyes and said “Yes!  I’m gon’ stay at your house for threeeeeeee” – she held up three fingers – “… minutes!”

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Tidy-up time

Babess came home with a stamp on her hand this afternoon and was very proud of it.

“What did you get that for?” asked The Dad.

“For tidying up!  I putted away five things, that’s this many,” she informed him, holding up five fingers.

“What did you put away?” he enquired.

“I putted away some blocks,” she tapped one finger, “some dress-ups,” – another finger – “some toys” – a third finger.   Then she stopped.

He raised an eyebrow.  “What else did you put away?”

She looked at her hand and frowned, trying to remember what the other two fingers represented.  “Some… more dress-ups…” there was a length pause, “and some more dress-ups.”

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

It’s all in the marketing

The Dad: “Babess, would you like to try some of this yummy pide that Mummy made?”

Babess: “Naaaaah.”

The Dad: “Um, how about some special pizza?”

Babess (excitedly): “Yeah!”

And that is how Babess came to eat pide (Turkish pizza) for dinner.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Going Back

Fainjin finished at daycare just before Christmas.  He could have stayed on until he starts school in February, but we decided he should have a summer holiday like other school kids, so he has been hanging out with Pearl and playing with his Lego a lot.

Today, though, we needed to see the specialist about The Dad’s elbow, and it was going to be a long boring day full of long bus trips and waiting rooms.  We fixed Pearl up with a play date, and enrolled Fainjin back at daycare for a “casual day”.

He wasn’t all that keen.  “I’m finished at daycare!” he pouted.  Fair enough, too.  I tried to sell him on the idea of it being a special visit day, but he was still dubious.

Until we were nearly there, and he saw one of his friends also approaching daycare this morning.  They ran to each other, jumping and laughing with joy to see each other again.  Once we got inside, he settled right in.  The other kids made a bit of a fuss over him, glad to see him back, and he enjoyed their attention and being “the big kid”.

He had a much better day there than he would have if he’d come with us.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.