Time flies (whether you're having fun or not)

It's been 2 weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone? Despite the glorious sunshine, it hasn't all disappeared in the garden where we did spend a lot of time. It has gone on various things, some nice, some not so nice. So let me give you an idea of what happened during those past 2 weeks:

- My jobseekers benefit ran out. I knew that would happen soon, I just didn't know when. I was never notified of the date. All I received was a long form back at the end of January, that I dully filled in and returned. But no letter advising me that my benefit would run out on such a date. So imagine my surprise when I went to collect my weekly pittance and discovered that it was not there. After a few phone calls, I discovered that they could not process my application as a form that establishes my 'habitual residence' wasn't accompanying the form. And how am I supposed to fill that in if there is no mention of it anywhere and it's not sent to me? Another sign of how efficiently the department of Social Protection is being run and how there is absolutely no consideration for the people behind the numbers. Anyway, the situation has now been sorted and the means test has been done, resulting in the loss of quite a few euros a week. I just find it quite ironic that on the same week I have to fill in that 'habitual residence' form, I also get the other form, you know, the one I get only because I'm not Irish and that has to do with Child benefit.

- On a nicer note, my mum and dad came to visit. My mum stayed for a few days while my dad stayed for the whole week (the joys of retirement!). The girls were really happy to see them, particularly Marie who had no idea that they were coming despite a few slip ups on our part. She thought I'd gone to the hospital for a check up when I was really gone to the airport. The look on her face was priceless!

- We finally got her communion dress and shoes in. After a bit of indecision on her part, she has finally made up her mind that she wanted to make her communion. So my mum and dad kindly went shopping with us and we found a lovely, simple and elegant communion dress, paired with lovely, simple and elegant shoes. I think you have all understood that we are going for simple and elegant as opposed to looks like this.

- We also had our first (and probably only) scan. And we can now confirm that the due date is the 7th of August (give or take a few days). We have also found out that we are expecting a little boy! That should round off the family very nicely. I'll just have to learn how to change nappies for boys and how to avoid nappy changing unexpected showers of pee.

-  Noelie and myself developed quite bad kidney infections. Mine saw me take to my bed at 11.30 am on Saturday morning and not really get up until Sunday. The back pain was unbearable and made me walk like a 90 year old woman. We went to the doctor's on Monday and Noelie has now to complete a course of antibiotics for the next week. She has also turned to cranckometer to the highest setting, resulting in a fully blown tantrum lasting 3 hours last night as she was over tired and refused to go to bed (something we are definitely not used to!). And then, suddenly, she just lied on her back and fell asleep.

- We have spent a lot of time outside, gardening, taking walks to see the cows down the lane and enjoying the sunshine.

So, in a nutshell, these were the highs and lows of the past couple of weeks!

How much is too much?

Disclaimer: please note that this post is in no way, shape or form intended to be a criticism of working parents or an attack on them.

We were looking forward to the week end. Mr Foodie's mum and dad were to take the girls overnight on Saturday and we had made plans to meet up with friends for dinner and generally just take it easy. We don't do it often, once a month at the most. We enjoy having a bit of time away from the girls and we are lucky that Mr Foodie's mum and dad enjoy taking them for the weekend once in a while too.

Up until Noelie was nearly one, I didn't (and couldn't bear the thought) of leaving her overnight anywhere. I even wrote a post about it there. It's not that I don't trust other people to look after my children (well, maybe a bit) or that I don't enjoy the odd night out or anything. I firmly believe that my children are my responsibility and I don't rely on anybody to look after them but me and Mr Foodie. I don't like leaving a small baby with somebody else and subjecting them to a broken night sleep, or having them dealing with night feeds. I don't like asking other people for help in looking after my children. I would only ask after I had twisted and turned every other possibility in my head and came to the conclusion that there is no other option but to ask. Now that she is a bit older and that she can't express herself in many other ways other than crying I am a bit more comfortable with it. Marie, being 7, enjoys going off for the weekend and I am not worried about her at all. She can say when and where she hurts if she does, she can ask for food and is a responsible, polite child (if I go by what people are saying).

Now, you probably have noticed that that first paragraph is written in the past tense. That's because that was the plan up until this afternoon. It's not anymore and I am a bit pissed off about it. I don't mean to sound bitchy but I know that, unfortunately, it is the way I am going to come across but hey, it's my blog and it's a subject that Mr Foodie and I have been talking about for a good while, and we keep going around in circles. He agrees with me (to a point) and is getting sometimes a bit frustrated about it too although he sees it from a different angle than I am.

I can accept the fact that things don't sometimes go to plan, I can accept the fact that sometimes things happen and plans have to change. I can accept illness, forgotten previous engagements. I can accept things out of everybody's control such as broken heating, water leaks, snow, broken cars and the likes. But there are things I find hard to accept.

Mr Foodie's mum and dad look after the new baby (well she is not so new anymore since she is nearly 10 months old). When I say they look after her, I mean, that they take care of her for anything from 2 to 4 days at a time, while her mom works and rests (she works shifts). She recently started working again after her maternity leave and , as far as we know, this is a temporary arrangement, only for few months, until she is back on maternity leave for baby number 2. Now, as much as I was overprotective of Noelie, they are the complete opposite. They left the baby overnight with Mr Foodie's parents when she was a couple of weeks old. And have done so every week or so since ( her reason being that she was tired and needed a break). But now that she is back at work, it is more and more, for longer and longer periods whether she is in work or not. Most weeks, they will mind the baby for 2 or 3 nights in a row. I do understand that she works shifts and is pregnant and has hospital appointments and that she gets tired etc. He works too. But working for himself, he only does the hours he wants and he decides to work at night when he could as easily work during the day. He has that flexibility that a lot of us don't or didn't have when working. He goes to college once a week too, in the evenings but is finished by 10pm. So why leave your baby with somebody else if you can mind her when your other half is at work (whether it's him or her)? Why not just ask that they come and babysit in your house while you're out so that you get up with her in the morning and spend time with her? Each to their own of course, but I know that I felt terribly guilty when I was working over not being able to spend more time with Marie and that was without leaving her overnight!


Now, don't you all start thinking I am jealous of how much they take the other baby or anything like that. It's not at all the way I feel. As much as I think it's not fair for other people to get up for night feeds or getting their sleep interrupted looking after your baby, it is their own decision and their own arrangements. Both parties are doing it willingly. My point is that Mr Foodie's parents are in their 60s, they are not as young as they'd like to think. And a 10 month old baby is hard work, especially one that won't sleep without being held and who doesn't take her own bottles. It is difficult for any parent, but I'd say it's even harder for older people and I'm pretty sure most of you would agree, no matter what your feelings on the subject are.

So what's her problem, I hear you ask. Well, my problem is that their arrangement is starting to have an impact on us. The mom only found out yesterday (ahem) that she would be working late on Saturday and Sunday and has let Mr Foodie's parents know so that they could mind the baby. And despite our previous arrangement, they felt that they could not say no and agreed. They told us that they would take the 3 girls overnight but not to let the other mum know that our girls would be there too.The only thing (and you could say it's our fault) is that we won't allow them to take both our girls and the baby overnight at the same time (that and the fact that they only have one travel cot too). We feel that it is too much for them. Noelie has me exhausted most of the time, Marie is fine as she is much older, but add to the mix a rather demanding 10 month old baby and you more than likely end the day on your knees and that's at my age (no I will not tell you! OK, early 30s). So imagine what it must feel like in your 60s? We can see how tired looking they are when they pop down for a cup of tea to see the girls and they have the baby. We can see how even more tired they look when they leave because the 3 girls were there and the 2 babies were constantly looking for attention from them both. So we politely refused the offer and we told them why (again as it is not the first time we tell them.)

So instead, well, we changed our plans, assuring them that it was OK. We postponed the dinner to 'some other time' and we will have the girls at the week end (not that I mind ). What I mind, is that once again, we are the ones changing our plans. I don't see the other parents changing their plans once in a while. I know this was only to give us a break and so that we could relax for a couple of days and that her going to work is more important. But what about him? Could he not change his plans for once and look after the baby? And let us enjoy one of our rare nights out? And what about the other times when she is not in work and leaves her overnight just so that she can have a break. We all need a break from time to time. We only ask for a break every 4 or 5 weeks (sometimes longer) and we try to work it around the times when they don't have the baby (which is quite tricky considering how much they have her), or any other plans they have made (they have their own lives too!). But now, even when we have plans made that have been carefully worked around all that, it seems that it is not sufficient enough. And it annoys me that we are the ones backing down. I know we are doing it for the right reasons, out of consideration for Mr Foodie's parents who also need a break, because we don't want to cause a fuss. I know that Mr Foodie's parents hate to let us down like that too. Maybe it's our fault for not leaving our girls overnight more often, or for not wanting to be difficult, or even for not being selfish enough. I'm sure the other parents don't even realize that the amount of time their daughter spends with her grand parents has an impact on our girls spending time with them too, or that we make our plans based on them and their schedule. It is a difficult subject to talk to them about as we don't want to come across as criticizing how they decide to live their life. So now, we will go back to the drawing board and try and figure out when we can reschedule our dinner and when the girls can go and stay overnight. So far, it's not going to happen for at least another 3 weeks. Ah well, it will be a well deserved break by then.

We just hope that the situation doesn't get worse when baby number 2 comes along in a few months. We were even joking (OK somewhat sarcastically) that maybe they would devise a schedule so that they only have one baby in the house at a time while the other one is in Mr Foodie's parents'. But then again they would also find it tiring since at the moment, they only have that one part time since they leave her there even when they are not in work.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? How did you deal with it? Please leave your comments.

Operation Potty training.

Yes, we have started the massive Operation that is potty training. Armed with the essential items that are potty and pants, we started on Saturday. And so far, it's been more of a disaster than anything else.

Here is a small idea of what I'm talking about:

- Saturday: pants on for 10 minutes, I'm sitting on the floor beside Noelie, watching her like a hawk, trying to read her body language. Is she about to go? Yes, no? Several attempts to sit her on the potty have been met with screams of 'no, no, no' and trying to get up. Suddenly, dribbles, quick, sit on the potty, no time to take the pants off. Accident number 1. She is quite happy with herself as we cheer and clap. Not sure she understood why we were clapping and cheering but she dutifully comes with me to empty the contents of the potty into the toilet and wave it goodbye. Time for a pants change. Mr Foodie decides to throw me a clean pair of pants. Unfortunately, these bounce off Noelie and land, I'll let you guess. Yes, in the full potty. Does that count as accident number 2 for Noelie, or accident number 1 for Mr Foodie? 2 pairs of pants wet in a matter of minutes. Good thing I bought a 10 pack!Thinking she won't go again for a while, I relax a little and decide to give her a bit of space. Wrong! 5 minutes later, puddle on the carpet. Oops, she says. She doesn't seem very pleased with herself or comfortable. Time for another change. We are now less than 30 minutes into potty training and I already have 3 pairs of pants to wash. Despite efforts to try and get her to sit on the potty (even for just a few seconds), she is defiant, she will not sit on the bloody thing for more than 5 seconds at a time, screaming no and panicking.  We all take turns sitting on the potty (fully clothed, of course) trying to show her it's ok to sit there. In the process, Mr Foodie nearly does his back in. It is a long way down to sit on the thing and joints you wouldn't even know existed cracked and protested at being maltreated in such a way. Another 2 accidents in another 30 minutes and we resign ourselves. Let's forget about it for today and start afresh tomorrow. And who knew a toddler could pee so many times in so little time? At least, we know that she won't be suffering from another UTI in the coming days!

Sunday: operations resume in the morning. After breakfast, we put a pair of pants on. We also bought some hideous tracksuit bottoms for her, things she can have as many accidents in as she wants. 1 hour in: still no accidents. Good. She won't sit on the potty without having a hissy fit though. She goes off and starts playing with her sister. Less than 2 minutes later, she comes back in. Did she have an accident? I check. Not sure. Feels dry enough. Time for lunch. I grow suspicious 2 hours without an accident. That's not possible not after yesterday when she proved that she could pee 5 times in less than an hour. After lunch, I check. There we are. There was an accident. Bloody stupid tracksuit bottoms are so thick that they just absorb everything. Time for a nap anyway so nappy on. A lot of questions go through my head. Is she ready? Is she not too young? After all, she just turned 20 months. Why does she not want to sit on the bloody thing? She plays with it and puts her dolls on it. Surely she knows what it's for. Is it not comfortable? How come she peed 5 times in less than an hour yesterday? We only put the pants on her yesterday, no tracksuits. Could she have been cold and it made her pee more than usual? I just don't know. Maybe she is not ready to try for more than a few hours at a time. How long do I need to keep following her and watching her like a hawk for? What about things I have to do? Surely, I can't just keep following her like that. What if she wants to sit on my lap, and she's wearing pants? I am not putting her on my lap, just in case! She gets up from her nap and we put another nappy on. Enough for today. I have things to do.

Monday: What do I do? I have so many things to do this morning. Can I run the risk of putting pants on her again? OK, we'll give it a shot. We can't just give up like that. So on go the pants. She is playing around and is ok for a bit. I try to get her to sit on the potty. She manages to sit on it fully clothed for a few minutes as long as I am sitting behind her. I try and get her to sit on it, not fully clothed and the screaming starts again. I wonder maybe I need to research this a bit further before we start properly. Time for lunch in a few minutes anyway so I put a nappy on because then it will be nap time. She has worn pants for about an hour without an accident. So not all that bad really.  While I get lunch ready, Noelie strolls into the kitchen with none other than.... a pair of pants on her head. Oh boy, this is not gonna work, is it?

Any tips or ideas on how we could kick start this thing?

A new hobby.

Dear blog,

I have somewhat again neglected you over the past few weeks. I have been busy, what with the bake sale at school for which I baked 6 big cakes, 32 little cakes and 6 loafs of bread (although only 5 made it because my dear neighbour who was in charge of taking them there decided to keep one for herself). There has been a christening (not Noelie's). There has been the discovery of delicious Swedish cinnamon rolls that I can't stop baking and eating (I'll post the recipe soon if people are interested). There has been sickness (a baby up half the night for 3 nights does not make for great inspiration although I could have posted about that but I feel like it has been done and redone and I had no new insight into it that people would find a) interesting, and b) useful. There has been studying for my course. And there has been the discovery of a new hobby, knitting. Marie had to bring in needles and wool into school and teacher showed them how to knit. Do you know how difficult it is to find knitting needles and wool these days? I hadn't knitted since those summer nights when I used to stay at my grandmother's and she taught me how to knit. But I decided to give it another go. So I went in search of more knitting needles (the kiddies ones were somewhat too small for me) and some nice wool (once again the one brought into school wasn't the nicest looking wool). It took me a few days to find it. I had to travel a bit to get my supplies in and I also bought a kids book on how to knit. People can laugh but kids books are great. I bought one for Mr Foodie so that he would learn how to cook and it worked. So I bought one for myself on knitting.

And so far I have managed to knit one scarf and hat for Noelie and I'm about half way through knitting a scarf for Marie. What I really appreciated though were the comments that I received. Mr Foodie, when I sent him a picture of Noelie wearing scarf and hat, said that it was lovely (of course it was lovely) and then admitted that he didn't think it would be nice but that it actually was. And so did my mum. Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys! I know that I try this and that and don't always succeed. I know that my hobbies change like the wind and that I still haven't finished that beautiful ABC embroidery I started when I was pregnant on Noelie. But it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy doing it or that I am not good at it. I just kind of lose interest after a while.

People look at me weird when I tell them I knit. It's something that their grand mothers used to do, not our generation. And I think it's kind of sad that all this knowledge and art is being slowly but surely forgotten. Not just the knitting, but the baking and to an extend the cooking. We are forgetting how to do all this when not so long ago, it was a normal everyday occurrence. We are hungry, we just buy ready made meals, we are cold, we buy a scarf and hat, we want something sweet, we pop into the shop and buy a pastry. Is it fulfilling? Not really. Instant gratification but no lasting sense of achievement. And although some people might find me weird and that even Marie calls me a granny (because you know, mummy, that's what grannies do. They sit on the couch with a blanket over their legs and they knit), I don't really care. I am proud of what I do. I am proud to see that people enjoy my food and my pastries. I am proud to say that I made that scarf and hat. And I am proud to say I baked it, I cooked it and I knitted it. Because it is fulfilling.

Maybe I was just born in the wrong era. What about you? Is there anything that would be considered old fashioned and on the brink of extinction that you enjoy and are proud of doing?

Serious lack of self discipline

The course I have embarked on recommends that I write something everyday no matter how silly or significant it is. Just to 'sharpen' those writing skills. In itself, it makes sense and is a wonderful idea. But what happens when you just seem to 'dry out'?

Since I have started the course, I have managed to post once, maybe twice on this blog which would obviously be the perfect place to 'sharpen' those writing skills of mine (assuming I have any). But I can't seem to find either the inspiration or the will to do it. I don't know why. It's nothing to do with the course I am sure. I am one of those 'impulse' writers. I just put pen to paper and write what I feel like writing. It's not because I am trying to focus on what I write or the way I write it. So what the hell is it? Arghhh, it really annoys me.

Is it because there aren't enough hours in the day? I don't think so either. My body decided last night that there were more than enough hours in the day. For some strange and unexplained reason, I could not fall asleep. That is very out of character for me, even if I desperately want to watch something, if my body is tired, I can't help but 'rest' my eyes. But last night? No way. I couldn't fall asleep. Could it be that I was too taken by the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' which I am reading at the moment and admit that I can't really put down? Could be, but the fact that I love the book didn't stop my eyes from itching and closing the nights previous. So what the hell was it? No idea.

Is it because Noelie takes a lot of time and attention during the day? Not even that. Since she is walking by herself, I have a new found freedom. She doesn't need me to hold her hand for hours on end, walking around the house in circles. She just goes where she wants to go whenever she wants to go there. She is also a big fan of 'In the Night Garden' and will happily sit in front of Cbeebies (I know isn't that evil and bad of me to let her sit in front of the TV watching people in costumes who can't express themselves properly jump up and down) in the evening while I or Mr Foodie get dinner ready.

Is it because I am cooking or baking too much? Not really, practice makes perfect (or so they say) and, despite baking my own bread nearly everyday, I think I have nailed it and as the name implies, it does really only take me 5 minutes to do it. As for cakes, cookies and the likes, it doesn't really take that much time and Marie helps. I admit that sitting in front of the oven watching cakes or bread rise somewhat magically is not a great way to free up time but I embarrassingly admit that I do sit in front of the oven and also the washing machine, especially on a coloured wash, it is just amazing! Beats watching TV anytime, and is seriously not half as depressing as watching the news these days.

So why the hell, can I not manage to have a bit of self discipline and sit down and blog everyday (or nearly everyday)? That remains a mystery.

The beauty of it

I've been pretty quiet in the past few weeks. Nothing special has happened. We have just been busy living and enjoying it.

The last time I posted, I was getting ready to receive my mum and dad over in our new house for the first time. They were supposed to arrive on the Saturday and leave on the Tuesday but they unfortunately had to cut their stay short and left on the Monday due to the strikes going on in France and their Tuesday flight being cancelled. So they were over on a very short 1.5 days visit. Short but very very enjoyable. The girls loved them being over. We went on a nice walk on the Sunday followed by some cake and bread baking and a lovely dinner. We all walked down to school on the Monday before making our way to the airport.

I am glad to say that they loved the house and the surrounding area, although we didn't get much time to explore much with them. Noelie took her first steps after a lot of coaxing by my dad. She is now flying around but only on her terms. If she wants you to hold her hand, she will not walk unless you do. And then, after a while, she will just let go and doesn't want you near her. Her speech is also developing at an incredible rate.

Marie has already had 2 outings in her new school. One exploring the woods, from which she returned with a bag full of dead leaves (what for!!!), conkers and various other sticks and stones. Another one, to the library where she got to meet Steve Cole, author of the Astrosaurus children books which she loves. Tomorrow is the last day before half term and they can get all dressed up in their Hallowe'en costumes and finish early and the Parents association have organized a Spooky Hallowe'en disco for the kids tomorrow evening. Marie has decided that she wanted to dress up like her sister and so, will be going as a witch.

In the meantime, I have started on my course. It is a distance learning course and I really need to get cracking. I have nearly completed 2 modules of it already but there have been no big assignments yet. I have also indulged again in my love of baking and baked fresh bread nearly everyday. I have discovered a wonderful recipe for bread that requires very little time and effort and have been using it ever since. My parents tried my home baked bread and found it delicious. My mum even stole the recipe off me. My brother and his girlfriend who were over in August have been already converted and bake their own bread too, despite both of them working full time and working shifts! You can find the recipe here: Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day. Look for their master recipe and you too will be able to make your own bread in no time at all and with no sweating from all that kneading!


Doesn't it look nice?

Other than that, Mr Foodie has too succumbed to the baking lightening that seems to have struck our house lately. He tried his hand at making cupcakes, no less and cookies. I have to admit, he did a very good job at it. I am no icing queen and the first time, I just made normal icing, none of that fancy swirly pink glittery stuff. But the second time, I tried to make THE frosting. And didn't do that good a job really. The stuff looked like it had split. I tried piping it onto the cakes and it just looked like a big pink blob had landed on them. Mr Foodie made them look a bit nicer by adding sprinkles and other stuff on them. He was all proud of himself and I was really proud of him too. He even brought some into work to share with his colleagues! Some of them probably thought that he was trying to poison them, but I can confirm that they are still alive one week on!

And the rest of the time? Well, the rest of the time, I have just been in awe at the beauty of the countryside. When you live in town, there are too many things around, too many streetlights, too many buildings, not enough trees to notice the beauty around. I have been looking from my kitchen window at the century old trees lining our little country road, their leaves turning from green to yellow, red and orange. I have looked at the mist hanging mid air and the sun rising over it. I have looked at the stars and the moon and the shadows it casts in the fields around. I have looked at the gust of wind taking with it colourful leaves from the trees and depositing them lightly onto the ground. I have listened to the conkers falling from the trees and hitting the road. I have watched the squirrel who lives on the big tree at the end of the garden, jumping onto the telephone lines and making its way safely across the road. I have looked at the pheasants in the field next to us and admired their beautiful autumn coloured feathers. I have enjoyed walking into the crisp morning air to the school and back, all wrapped up. And I am just wishing Christmas would come quick so that I can get a nice, decent camera to take pictures of it all and share them with you. But until then, I will make do with the better photographer of the family. Here are a few pictures that my dad took when he was over.

X
Foodie Mummy

An afternoon of country living

Before we moved to the countryside, our afternoons were never that much fun. I would collect Marie from school. Stress in the car that traffic wasn’t moving. Get home, get some lunch, do our homework and basically just get ready for the evening ahead. Nothing terribly exciting. Marie would probably play outside for a bit but I would constantly be looking out for her, making sure that she stayed in the back garden and not the front as it was too close to the main road with little boys racers flying up and down.
How things have changed! We now walk up and down to school almost everyday. I feel bad about taking the car for the half a mile journey. Marie loves it. Half way up, she usually asks me if she can run. As there are very few cars on this road, and you can hear them coming more than a mile away anyway, I let her. The other day, while sprinting up, she suddenly stopped and started waving across the road. I caught up with her and asked her who she was waving at. She was waving at cows in the field. Cows are of a very curious nature and they all came flocking over to see what that thing on two legs was doing. We stopped there for a few minutes and both Marie and Noelie were waving and talking to the cows. After we got home and all our homework etc was done, and Mr Foodie had come home from work, we all ventured out to the garden to pick up some blackberries. Noelie was sitting in her pushchair. Marie was standing beside us with a big bowl while we were trying to get to the blackberries without either falling into the thorn bush or slashing our hands to bits. Once we’d picked as many blackberries as we could reach, we went back in and washed them and eagerly ate them all. It was such a wonderful afternoon of country living and the best thing was that it was all absolutely free.
After such a nice afternoon, Mr Foodie decided to treat us to dinner and we drove to a big shopping centre about 15 minutes away. We didn’t fancy the usual fast food outlets but didn’t want to spend too much money either. We stumbled upon a Pizza Hut restaurant. They are running a special offer called Kids Eat Free.
 
 For every adult main course or adult lunchtime buffet purchased, an accompanying child can choose from either a FREE 2 course kids meal (includes a drink) or a FREE kids lunchtime buffet (includes pizza, pasta and salad).I had never tried Pizza Hut before and was pleasantly surprised. As well as being very affordable, the staff was very nice and helpful and the food was lovely. As it was quite late, we steered clear of the Ice Cream factory as we wanted to avoid any kind of sugar rush before bedtime, but it did look incredibly fun. What I particularly liked was the fact that the children’s menu was very varied and that it offered healthy, yet kid friendly options such as spaghetti Bolognese and even vegetarian options! We will definitely go back especially since the Kids Eat Free options has been extended until January 9^th2011! Find more details about the offer at http://www.ebuzzing.co.uk/rd/13678_1481_204202_11863_9480/bit.ly/a1DhgJ 

 



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First day back.

Monday morning was the first day back at school for Marie. It was quite a special day since it was not only her first day back at school but also her very first day in her new school. Despite being a bit nervous, she was still fairly confident that everything would go well. I, for one, was probably more nervous than she was, you know, being the new mum and all that. The registration had been so easy and effortless that I was wondering, in the back of my mind, if I had done everything that had to be done, if she was really enrolled there. If I'd made a mistake and not fully enrolled her, would they turn us away?

Mr Foodie had taken a bit of time off work so that he could come with us. So we all got up nice and early (although for him it was more of a lie in, considering he got up more than 2 hours later than a normal working day). After breakfast, Marie went upstairs to brush her teeth, and her hair, and wash her face. Then, I helped her put on her uniform. In her last school, Marie only wore a tracksuit but this year, she gets to wear a 'proper' uniform. She was so smart looking in her pinafore dress, shirt and tie.

This school starts a bit later than her old school but we left the house much later than we would have before. It is only a short country lane walk as opposed to a stressful 15 minutes drive for the same distance. When we got there, we could hear some of the children murmuring: 'This is the new girl.' but I don't think she heard them. We waited outside for a short while, as our neighbour was on her way down. I was quite amazed by the number of children. Where Marie was before, there would have been close to 300 pupils in the junior side alone. But here, there are only 130 altogether. There were only 5 or 6 lines of children waiting to go in. The principal helped her find her line and she stood there. Before long, a few little girls had gathered around her and were talking to her. Thanks to our lovely neighbour, she already knew one of them. Her new teacher came over and talked to her. She introduced herself to us and seems very pleasant. Eventually, Marie's line went in and she followed without even glancing back at us.

We still had to pay for the copies and journal and other bits so we went in to the secretary who remembered us from the time we went in to enroll Marie. She asked us a few questions on how we were settling in and how we liked the area. Once that was done, we left and one of the dads came over to us to introduce himself (well jumped over the wall rather than just came over). He explained that he had met Marie while she was playing next door. He also has a daughter in the school although not in Marie's class but one year up and they only live down the road from us.

I felt a bit awkward (I'm not the best at meeting new people) but I didn't feel intimidated at all, or stared at. Our neighbour also introduced us to a couple more parents and we made our way back home.
Later on, I walked with our neighbour down to pick her up. She came running out, her face beaming. She loved it (big sigh of relief). Everybody has been very nice to her, helping her to get settled. She said that somebody bumped into her by accident and turned around to as her if she was ok. 'In my old school, they would have told me to watch where I'm going', she said.

It's been nearly a week now, she is settling in well. I spoke to her teacher again and she assured me that it was all going really well. When I drop her off, I can see a little girl waiting for her at the school gate. She's made a friend and I'm really happy about it. She also received a birthday party invitation for this saturday. We all really enjoy the walk up and down, morning and afternoon. It's so peaceful, walking up and down this little country road, waving as cars pass us by. I have met more parents, thanks to our neighbour again. She has been so helpful in helping us settle in and not feel isolated that I don't know how I could ever thank her enough.

I'm glad the holidays are over. We can finally settle properly now. Between visitors and holidays and other dramas, it has been a bit difficult to find a real routine but now that everything is back to normal, now, our real country life can begin. And we are all really looking forward to it.