Who’s Normal Anyway?

Grrr… M and the girls went over to the play park and came back saying some of the other kids had asked them if they were really girls (not being in girly pink clothes but sensible playing out gear). They were all also called “gay” as an insult.

At the fairy fair M and the doublets bought a silver coloured wrist band each and wore them around the fair, playing at zapping each other with them, using them as wrist armour and at one point I think they had healing powers LOL.

But this evening M has said a few times he thinks he shouldn’t have bought his and he thinks he might not like it anymore. On further questioning, he really liked getting his wristband and does like it and even talked about polishing it up to make it really shiny. But the kids in the playground here made fun of him for wearing jewellry and going to the fairy fair, asking him if he’d dressed up as a fairy and worn a tutu. So we’ve told him some people are very small minded and lots of men wear jewellry. Why do people have to be like sheep doing the same as everyone else, and have such narrow minds? Isn’t it sad?

We didn’t do anything interesting at all on Thursday or Friday so I had nothing to blog about. Yesterday M went to cricket practice, which is a new thing that he started last week. He paid £5 to become a junior member of the local cricket club and they are running a 90 min practice session at no extra cost every Saturday morning until mid July. The rest of us sat in the car and watched, then A went for a bit of a walk round town with L and came back for the end. For the rest of the day I made courgette and aubergine lasagne and garlic bread and M got very very excited about friends coming down to visit and he was looking out of the window for them every 5 minutes, well before they could possibly be here.

So we fed and watered them, M did a house tour and the grown ups had a tour of the garden. M and the girls went out to the playpark to run off some surplus energy and then they left us to go back to the campsite.

Today we all went to the Fairy Fair and it was excellent. I can hardly believe how many people were there it was just so busy! Lots of little girls in fairy costumes, even some adults dressed up, very green and organic without being wierd! We arrived about 10.30am and queued to get into the car park then joined a massive queue to actually get in. Then there was another queue to sign up for workshops throughout the day but by the time we got to the front of the queue at 11.15 everything was sold out that M and co had wanted to do, so we settled for the last few places in the shield making workshop at 4pm.

There were lots of tents and stalls, people in costumes, storytellers, woodland walks - loads to look at and join in with. I especially liked the trolls under the bridge.

We looked around all the stalls in the morning and had coffee and fairy cakes. I stopped to admire some baby carriers at one stall and A was enthusiastic about them (!) so I took my chance while it was there and bought a wrap LOL. Well, you can’t have too many pretty carriers.

We bought tickets for the float race on the river and jostled on the river bank to watch the race and the antics of the trolls and river creatures who were helping them along.

After that we walked back through the woods and went into the performance tent for a sit down out of the wind.

We watched a puppet show about “The King who had donkey’s ears” which was very inventive with the props and quite amusing for 45 mins. Then there was time for another cuppa before the older 3 children needed to be at their workshop. They made shields from sticks, recycled bottle caps, bits of wool and other oddments and all chose a badger symbol for the centre of their shields.

We’ve just got home and we’re waiting for the pizzas to be cooked now!

I don’t feel like we’ve got an awful lot done today. This morning we had to be out by 10.45. Before that M just managed to finish some maths about gallons and pints and he wrote a letter to his grandma and grandad. He even wrote in his address at the top of the paper and composed and spelled everything more or less himself. His writing is really coming on at the moment.

As we drove towards town the sky got more and more black and it pelted down with rain and hail. There was a slight let up as I parked and got a ticket and then it tipped it down again as I was getting L out of the car. I fastened him on as fast as I could and zipped him up in my coat so he was fine, except he didn’t appreciate not being able to see out. So we dripped our way into the homeopath for our return visit. It went well and we discussed where we wanted to go next with everything.

Afterwards we walking in to the shops and got some lunch in a cafe and then went to the bank to cancel some direct debits and pay in a cheque. Came back via a stationery shop where I bought M a scraperfoil kit to try and some charity shops where I found some books. It was gone 3 by the time we got home again and the whole day was gone. M did a bit of scraperfoiling but it wasn’t going to his satisfaction and then he played on the computer.

I did manage to hang out a bit more washing for the rain to rain on. I planted out my beans, then stood up from planting and hit my head on the bird bath, tipping dirty bird-pooey water down the back of my head and neck. Yuck! So I came in and had a shower while A made pizza for tea.

We went to a wonderful medieval re-enactment day at Norwich cathedral today. It was a schools’ day and we went with a large group of other home edders from Norfolk. After an introduction to life in the 1300s we visited 8 different people in period costume who each told us about some aspect of medieval life.

Both M and I enjoyed hearing about everything and L slept for the first part and then poddled around. We stopped for a half hour lunch break and bad, unfrugal (is that a word?) mother that I am I had neglected to bring a packed lunch so we had to visit the refectory for sandwiches and cake LOL. Our afternoon sessions were all in the cathedral cloisters which L loved exploring. He did come a cropper at one point when he tumbled into a part of the gutter that was deeper than the rest and got himself wedged, but otherwise he had fun trying to eat leaves and chew pebbles and dig in the dirt.

My favourite session was the one with the minstrel. He played a hurdy gurdy (sp?), a medieval recorder and the lute, also some instruments I can’t remember the names of. It was beautiful and I could have listened for hours.

Whenever I sit down to start blogging something usually happens to stop me. I feel like I’m running away from my children trying to get chance to do some things. A’s supervising while they all get dressed at the moment though, so I’ve sneaked off downstairs. Right, brief catch up.

I decided to join in with Netmum’s Making Mums Happy campaign and try and get into a more generally positive frame of mind this week. They send an email late every night with ideas of things to fit into your day the next day. They are fairly simple - exercise, have a good laugh, do something altruistic, count your blessings, talk to people, grow plants etc. I’m having trouble fitting the things into the day though. Just seems like a whole more things to remember!

And now everyone’s back downstairs andI’ve been broken off to change a nappy, which led to sorting out the washing because there was a big pile of dirty washing on the kitchen floor ready to go on so the first lot’s in now, then I remembered I’d run a bowl to do the washing up so I started that, but L wanted to feeding so A took over and I came back in here. Then saw a Paypal payment had been returned so went to investigate and it was something A tried to order yesterday, so went to see if I could find somewhere else to get it (seller suggested another website which doesn’t seem to be there) and then L wriggled and fussed so I juggled him for a bit and now he’s crawled off, and now I really ought to go and iron a top that’s been getting crumpled in the clean washing basket so I’ve something to wear for church, so I’ll have to try again later Think I need to learn to focus!

Yesterday A was due back from his team building holiday in Wales, so we were all looking forward to him arriving home. In the morning we pottered for a bit, M played Sonic, I hung the washing out and L came a cropper somehow in the bedroom involving a potty and a plastic toy - not sure how cos I was in the bathroom, but he got a little bruise on his cheek though it was OK with a bit of arnica. He’s definitely got to that random bruises of a toddler stage.

M got on with his activities OK and chose to do the cups, pints, quarts, gallons section in Miquon green. It’s all very well but it’s American measuring so I had to concentrate to think about the conversions. M seemed to find it OK though.

Then he was supposed to do some spelling, but complained, so I gave him the option of writing 3 sentences out and spelling everything by himself instead. He never usually wants to write anything. I’m so proud of him, he was up for the challenge and spelled the 2 sentences I dictated beautifully. The only word he missed was large which he spelt without the e, though when I asked him what was not right about the word he spotted the problem straight away. The aim for me of using Writing Road to Reading is to get him confident in spelling so he’ll feel confident to start writing sentences, so it seems to be paying off so far. I know if he was in year 2 at school he’d be expected to write much longer things and answer questions in sentences and I do sometimes wonder if he’ll ever get there. He is making progress and willing to try at the moment so that’s good.

We had a walk to the shop for milk and biscuits because L was getting tired and very loud, though it didn’t send him off to sleep. We had a snack when we got back and L eventualy dropped off, so then M and I played some more Age of Empires, fighting off the pirates.

Afterwards we read some more about the later Saxon and Danish kings, building up to Edward the Confessor. Then we read the Canute and the Waves story in Britannia and talked about whether Canute was barking mad or trying to prove a point.

L woke up and joined us for crackers, cheese, apple and grapes for lunch and then in the afternoon I can’t remember what we did. I know I made chilli and an apple crumble for tea. Oh yes and we dusted and vacuumed through the dining room and front room. M played more Sonic and read a book. Oh and it almost rained on the washing but I spotted it starting just in time for it to only get slightly damp. A phoned to give us a progress report on his drive back and told us he was having lunch in Ikea and was there anything I wanted. Couldn’t come up with anything except scissors off the top of my head! He said he’d be home about 5pm.

He phoned again around 5pm and said he was about an hour away, but then didn’t turn up home til gone 7pm so we were all getting fed up by then. M didn’t want to get ready for bed til Daddy came home and the evening just felt very disrupted. A came in, cuddled L and didn’t make as much fuss of M (grr…) and then got on with sorting out wet washing and started tidying the house which really riled me. I’d rather he helped get M and L ready for bed and took some time to catch up with us all instead of going into this “ultra efficiency” mode. I suppose it is helpful but I took it as a criticism. As far as I’m concerned I worked quite hard to keep stuff going OK while he was away and while the house isn’t perfect it’s liveable and can be caught up gradually if stuff is bothering him. Downstairs was tidy and crumb free, there weren’t piles of washing up, I’d cooked a proper tea, what more can you ask for??!!

Then he went out in the car to fetch something and came back saying it was beeping all over the place and there was no diesel! I left it on one light and an estimated range of 70 miles, but all of a sudden it was going to run out immediately so he went off to the petrol station to save us potentially breaking down somewhere today. Which is thoughtful but just felt like even more of a criticism of my ability to cope when he’s not here. So not a good evening.

Saturday

We didn’t go anywhere but M had the lad next door over to play and he went over there too. They played lots of Star Wars lego games and on the computer. Can’t remember what I was doing, nothing very exciting, just keeping an eye on L I think and doing housey things. Oh yes, we baked cookies. M made choc chip and I made ginger - yum!

Sunday

In the morning we went to Church and L played havoc with a tin of felt tips during the service. It’s a very small and laid back church though and there are several babies, so no one minded the back and forth to sort him out. He crawls all round everywhere and fiddles with things, but M helps keep an eye on him and is lovely with him. After the service they went off into the playroom while I had a coffee and L sat in the middle of the floor watching the big boys.

We had lunch and eventually went out to Grimes Graves where there was a flint knapping demo on. Didn’t venture down the flint mine because 30′ down a ladder with a baby strapped to me didn’t appeal, funnily enough.

We looked around the site for an hour or so and enjoyed watching the demo, then had ice creams. I saw a copy of Britannia and found out what I was missing, so bought it. We already have the inferior “Knights, Kings and Conquerors” which is the first 20 stories but just in small paperback and black and white. The full Britannia is gorgeously illustrated.

Monday

I was bored yesterday. I should have taken us all out for a bit but it never quite came off. M did his maths OK and we did some stuff about Alfred the Great, because M wants to learn about the Normans and I think we should very briefly fill in some history between where we’d got to with the Saxons leading up to how William the Conqueror came into the picture. M was looking forward to playing out with the boy next door when he finished school, but unfortunately his friend has been grounded (for a week!) so isn’t available til Monday. I made pizza for tea and then read him bedtime stories for a while. We’re reading By The Shores of Silver Lake and Toliver’s Secret at the moment.

Today

Started off a bit iffy because we were all tired from getting up too early - M woke at 6am. M did some Miquon maths about temperature and I got distracted looking at something or other on the internet. For history I read him some more about King Alfred from Our Island Story and asked him to narrate it back and he did it as a series of pictures with captions. He says he doesn’t like drawing but often as soon as he starts he seems to get really into it and draw all sorts of quirky details that he enjoys pointing out to me.

When L woke up from his nap we went out to the garden centre and had lunch there and I bought some more seeds. We got back about 2pm and spent ages gardening. L got stuck in to the flower bed and M was picking daisies and then shredding them to add to the compost bin.

We had an early tea so I could take M to rollerblading. He was really tired after that so had a quick shower and went straight to bed.

L’s been trying some new things the last few days. He’s finally getting the hang of food and has got into eating apple slices and grapes, in addition to chocolate biscuits He also likes to chew on his toes which are a new taste discovery this week LOL. He’s getting much more confident in standing alone too. When we’re out and I’m carrying him, we’re still doing great with EC, but at home (except at night and first thing in the morning) he doesn’t like to sit still long enough to wee on the potty - far more amusing to get off, fiddle with his bits, look at me and wee on the carpet. All a learning experience I suppose LOL.

Quick catch up first. On Wednesday the weather was gorgeous first thing so I decided we’d go to the beach. Got to take advantage of living so much closer to it here. We had a lovely day, the kind where you are so glad to be home edding.

Which is just as well because yesterday was hideous. M had a fit over everything I asked him to do and I was glad when it was bedtime.

Today A had the day off because he’s going on an outward bound type course tomorrow for 5 days as a team building exercise at work. I don’t think it’s on to do team building on a weekend, but never mind.

We went into town for us all to have eye tests (well, except for L obviously LOL). M and I passed with good eyesight but A’s age is obviously catching up with him because he now needs glasses! I think he was sort of expecting it, but it’s still taking a bit of getting used to. Or maybe it’s vanity and he doesn’t want to admit to the blokes at work that he needs glasses. We had eye tests at one opticians where they had a special offer on and then bought glasses somewhere else when we’d been round a few places seeing what suits him. He’s got a pair of sunnies for now and we can pick up his ordinary glasses in the week because they’re waiting on a lens.

Stuff in town took all morning and then we decided to drive to Sandringham and show A where we meet up with the home ed group.

When we got back A and I did gardening while M played with the boy from next door, then we had fish and chips and M’s just been to youth club. Off to do bedtime now.

Trying to think of some positives for today:

L slept all the way to Bury and back in the car

M read the first 101 pages of Homer Price to himself! (would make me car sick doing that) It’s lovely that he so enjoys reading now

It looked like rain but then the sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon

I got some of the fabric for a new carrier sewn and then washed and dried

We sat out in the garden - L played, M sketched plants and I planted out beans

Then M played out with the boy next door while I messed about on the computer and L trashed the bookcase

So it wasn’t completely bad. And we had a great day yesterday. We went to the Sandringham home ed meet up, where we are getting to know some people a little bit now. It was forecast to rain but stayed dry and we had fun walking through a different area of the woods and then chatted while the children played in the playground. I took L for a couple of wees in the bushes and then struck up a conversation about EC with someone whose sister was thinking of doing it with her newborn. M had a long and involved Star Wars conversation with a 12 year old so he was happy.

I drove a round trip of 2.5 hours and 80 miles to Bury St Edmunds this morning to go on a home ed brewery tour at Greene King, only when we arrived they looked in horror at L, said, “This is a food production site, we don’t allow babies!” (what did they think he was going to do, sneeze in their beer?? I felt insulted) and so we came home again. M was in tears, it was one of the activities he most wanted to do.

After thinking it through a bit longer I went back in and questioned the woman on the desk a bit further. Usually they only allow over 12s on the tour, but they do a shortened tour for primary school pupils. “We don’t expect people to bring babies on a brewery tour” they said - so I’m supposed to leave him home alone?? I complained they hadn’t told us in advance and they swore blind they had sent the home ed organiser an info sheet with it all on, she said they hadn’t, then they backed down slightly and decided they’d made a mistake. But still couldn’t comprehend why anyone might have a baby or toddler with them. What a ridiculous idea to take your baby around with you in every day life!

Apparently it’s all down to “health and safety” regulations - isn’t that just the handy cop out? They have open staircases and steep walkways and it might be slippy and I might fall carrying the baby - oh yes, I fall over while carrying him all the time. I’m sure primary school kids always walk nicely and never fall over, and if the floor is slippery that’s their problem to correct, not mine. Can you tell I was seriously unimpressed? Can’t believe they get away with such blatant discrimination against the disabled either - there’s nothing on their website to say there are restrictions and I complained and said they should add the info there.

The home ed organiser offered to let M go around with her, but I didn’t want to send him off by himself for a couple of hours somewhere unfamiliar where he hardly knows anyone and he said he didn’t want to. So I tried to interest him in the cathedral or generally looking around, but Bury isn’t very interesting and M wasn’t in the mood so we got some food and drove home again.