Failing at this blogging deal, but trying to catch up 7 months worth. I finally uploaded some pics to Flickr. You oughta check them out... It might give some idea what we've been up to. Facebook has taken over my life, but I'll try to get a longer post up soon.
OK. so I've just been to a parent/teacher interview at D's school, so I'll start with him. After a tricky year, where it took him most of the year to settle in, he decided that maybe his new school wasn't so bad after all, at least no worse than his old one. He liked his teacher and had made some good new friends, without losing contact with some of his old besties. Win win! This year, there was a change of school again, kind of. His new school follows a kind of US style thing with Junior School (years 3-5) being on a separate campus from Middle School (6-8) (Early Childhood is split between the two campuses, and Senior School is on the same campus as Junior). Fortunately though, he's moving with all his mates, so it's really not a drama. Much less than last year. He's in a class with two of his good friends from last year, and while his core teacher isn't that inspiring, he's got electives this year, so he's exposed to a broad range of teachers. His favourite elective seems to be Theatre and Performance (aka 'Drama') which is great. It's something I've been trying to encourage him to do for years, as I had a feeling that drama might somehow fill a niche for him - he's always been what I call a shy extrovert. He loves to be the class clown, but then doesn't know what to do with the attention once it's on him. His teacher said that that behaviour was a problem at the start of the year, but seems to have diminished. Partly, perhaps because she discouraged it, but I'm hoping it's because he also has an outlet for it. Other new things for him..not much - he's determined not to play any sport, but is keen on trying fencing. This plan had to be put on hold, as he broke his arm at the end of the summer holidays. Stacked his mate's scooter at low speed, but that was enough for a greenstick fracture. He was actually quite pleased with accomplishing one of the rites of passage I think, and I was pleased it was so non-traumatic. He's had the cast off for about 3 weeks now, but it was one of those fabulous fibreglass ones that you can shower and swim in, so it wasn't any trouble at all really.
Erik is pootling along being 3. He settled into childcare quite well, once he got 2 permanent days a week. They're talking about moving him into the pre-school room after Easter, although his birthday isn't until June, as he's getting bored, and is the oldest in his current room (the curse of an early June birthday, when the school year cut-off is the end of April, so he's not due to start formal pre-school until the beginning of next year!) He's really keen to start reading, he's asking about letters and what sounds words start with.. he can recognise his name and 3 or 4 letters other than E. We moved him into his own room at the beginning of the year, and he took to it pretty well. We still get occasional visits in the night, but it's manageable, and his bed is big enough that there's room for me in it with him if I have to. He's also really getting the hang of using the toilet (finally!!) and is pleased with himself there. Swimming lessons started 2 weeks ago and he loves it. We'd always meant to take him when he was tiny, but time got away from us, and now at almost 4, we're doing it. Another new skill is that we've borrowed a balance bike from a friend, and he's taken to that fast too. Scary!
Having spent last year losing weight, I've decided to spend this year getting fit. I've joined a gym, and I'm loving Zumba classes, and a boxing workshop. I've also been running voluntarily for the first time in my life, which is totally unexpected, but kind of fun really.
