Wednesday 25 September 2013

G can read!

I can't believe it's been more than 2 months since I posted here.

Happy to report that Adriano is now pretty much fully recovered from his throat surgery.  His shoulder hurts now, but that's another story (old motorcycle accident injury).

We have a new kitchen.  I was the lucky one: I took the girls to stay at my parents' house for 2 weeks (was supposed to be one but there was a discovery of a rotten floor joist...etc) while poor Adriano had to go to work as usual and let the builders in every day, plus do trips to the rubbish dump in his spare moments.  All while living in the turned-upside down house.  But now it's done, and it looks good.  So nice to have a whole room finished, even if it is a small galley kitchen.  While we were away at my parents' house I tested some of my family's blood sugar levels with my monitor, and it turns out my dad has diabetes and has had it for a while.  My auntie says I'm his guardian angel.  I don't know about that (she has her tongue firmly in her cheek anyway) but it certainly was fortunate that it has now been picked up.  His blood tests back in January showed it but it was missed.

C's vocabulary is absolutely astounding at the age of only 26 months.  Her sentences and paragraphs go on and on and are usually grammatically correct.  She still has her adorable lisp, although sometimes I detect that it's changing to more of an 's' sound.  Since her birthday she has continued to be so much more sociable in all kinds of different situations and it is lovely to watch. She barely uses her pushchair now; most days I don't bother bringing it out at all.  For a few weeks I brought a sling out with me for her to nap in, and now I don't even bring that. We walk miles together, if at snail's pace.  She frequently walks 4 miles in a day and doesn't nap!  She does fall asleep in about one minute at bedtime, unsurprisingly.  Wish I could say the same about G.

G's news is that she can read!  I feel so excited for her that she is now getting some joy out of putting the sounds together.  This last week she has been choosing favourite storybooks from the shelf and reading many of the words for herself, rather than asking me to read them.  When she first put sounds together to make, say, 3-letter words, I would ask her if she was proud of herself and she would say 'No'.  Now when she manages most words on a page of Charlie and Lola (the proper books, not the books adapted from the TV shows), I squeal with happiness for her and she looks at me, unable to hide the slight surprise and pride in her eyes.  She's a complex character and I try all day to connect with her.  At the moment it's not easy to do that, as she often pushes against me.  I think it might be to do with the fact that I'm the main boundary-enforcer.  Unfortunately for her, although sometimes I feel I am the kind of parent I would like to be, at other times I don't manage it.  I imagine the up and down-ness of that must be hard for her.  I constantly try to be more constant (ha!).  Yesterday I made her a promise that I was going to try to stop shouting at her completely.  I said that although I would still tell her when I was feeling angry, and why, I would try really hard not to get my point across by shouting it.  Then I suggested that she might like to do that with me too.  She very sweetly said 'Oh mummy I would never shout at you!' which made me laugh as she has too much indignation in her for that to be the truth.  Oddly enough I found it easy to keep my promise today, hooray.  I wonder how long it will stay easy.  I really want to do it.  I don't like shouty me, or the consequences of shouty me.  I'm not shouty all the time, I promise, although it's more than I want.

I am feeling quite peaceful about living in our new town.  I feel as though I know lots of people to say hello to at toddler groups or around the High Street, and there are a few budding friendships which I am really grateful for.  It's helpful that it's easy for me to talk to new people, or to go with confidence into new social sitatuions.  I know that for some it's agony and that I'm lucky I'm not one of those people.  Even so, I'm proud that I've managed to make friends here after arriving in February not knowing a soul. 

And the worry about home educated children not being social enough seems totally laughable right now.  We barely have a free day in the diary for weeks!  







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* proud new mother * last child * youngest daughter * tallest sister * favourite auntie * honest lover * furtive photographer * diary writer * compulsive dancer * tree hugger * mooncup promoter * chocolate taster * house plant murderer *