Monthly Archives: September 2008

Low key weekend… he kids played & we got the shopping… or did we play & the kids get the shopping? When did Louise & I last get to ‘play’? That’s silly. The kids did go shopping though – both on Saturday & Sunday Jack, Eve & Jude set out to to Morrisons on their bikes. On Saturday I cramped their style & turned up as well (as they only had a portion of the shopping to do. Caught up with them (on my bike) just as they got to the shop, so they couldn’t nip into the cafe to get themselves some toast. On the Sunday they tried to get toast, but they were refused by the very fickle staff there as they were supposed to be 15 or over to be able to have toast. Not that I haven’t seen younger kids being served there – they’re just fickle. Things went a little wrong then because they’d already done their shopping & thus headed back. Stopped off at Heals to get some drinks & Eve was supposed to stay outside (as Jude had the day before when they stopped by the newsagents) to look after the bikes, but Eve though this grossly unfair & said that they would get her the wrong kind of drink, had huff & headed home on her own (they are supposed to stick together). Jack mutters that he probably won’t take Eve again, but it’s been more her general attitude this weekend. Very ‘half empty glass’ & apt to shout about things being unfair (when they aren’t really) & that we don’t understand (possibly all too well) & generally being rude & wailing. We put iyt partially down to being tired still from being so late to bed on Friday….

Friday we went to the Parents Evening up at school. It was not so much a .. hmmm – well – I knew it wasn’t a parent’s evening like ‘meeting the teacher to see how your child is doing’ but more an ‘open evening’ affair. I’m not sure what I envisaged, but parents got to sit at large tables & even buy a beer or wine while the kids went off to one of the halls to be entertained by some sixth formers. We were given a similar lesson to one Jack will have had toward the beginning of term in his ‘learning to learn’ lessons. A little self assessing quiz to see what type of learning strategy would work best for us? I turn out quite high on kinaesthetic; which I guess kind of figures. I discussed with Louise that she would be higher on the aural/verbal learning were some of the questions not skewed to assume you had huge self confidence, but both Jack & Louise scored highest on … oh the ones about being able to take stuff in just reading it. Discussion on all these types of learning & it was interesting enough to stop me doodling & sketching – so that was something. It was also supposed to be an evening where we could socialise with other parents, but .. well we didn’t – we stuck to our table & didn’t attempt to try. We enjoyed it though. Got a brief chat with Jack’s teacher so she can put adults to the child. All went as well as we could have wanted. Must have just missed a bus home because we had to wait a while & Jack & Eve got bored. Eve looked the part – she had her new blouse on, her calotts, her glasses & her hair in bunches. She brought along her colouring books in a small shoulder bag that also added to making a good impression. Jack’s teacher had noticed her. Eve enjoyed herself & likes the school a lot. We need to try to capitalise on this & try to get her to apply herself instead of digging her heels in & telling herself something is hard when she just need to calm down, look at something & get on with things evenly.

Well – we all helped a little with Jack’s homework yesterday because he had some extra… well – not extra because he’d failed to note it in his jotter so he hadn’t completed it by yesterday & therefore had to complete it for today – that as well as the other homework that had banked up a bit meant 4 lots of homework in for today & therefore quite a bit to get done… So we had to lend a hand. My task was typing up some of his written work & Louise’s job was helping him with the written trying to keep an over tired boy focussed. (he was up late the night before reading). Managed it all – but he was to bed late – which is not so good when he’s already tired.

So this Friday we’re off to one of the ‘school events’ which they’ve organised. This is about homework. Should be interesting.

Esme is definitely better – been better for a couple of days, but that doesn’t stop her being clingy & more vocally complaining. I have to carry her more… Getting home yesterday I picked up Jude from school (he’d been doing Computer Club) & took him home. We would have gone to the park to join the others, but Jude wanted ‘something’ from 72 (cafe). Because he had a bar of chocolate we couldn’t go to the park (because eating it in front of the others would create ‘ruptions). Met Jack outside 72 & we all walked up home, Jack telling us of his ill fortune buying something on the way home because he was starving getting a bottle of water that he dropped leaving him but a dribble after the pavement had the lions share & a mistakenly purchased sandwich that had tuna salad (the ‘tuna’ on the packaging having been covered with the price sticker . He admitted to the one funny bite, but no more – presumably he threw it away.

We got home & I used the cheap brown sealant that I bought at the ‘pound store’ to go round the top of the rabbit hutch after making Jack a sandwich & a cup of tea & deterring Jude from setting off down to the park with his bike because I was under the impression that Louise & the others would be back at any moment. Pump gun & sealant didn’t hold Jude’s interest long – he want off to play on his bike. I got the top of the hutch done & then just did a little around the porch window not letting Jack help with that as it seemed a little foolishly dangerous to risk him messing about too much what he’s got his clean white school shirt on. Job done Louise returns with Eve & Esme whereupon Esme starts screeching & demanding to be picked up as she’d obviously incapable of using her legs any more after running around the playground merrily & then stomping up the hill home. Hey ho – y’gotta love her…

Chat with Louise (one of Eve’s school friends being abominable to her mum (who seems to be depressed) at the playground… wonder what it’s possible to do?) & then get organised to take Eve to her swimming lesson. Esme protests that she doesn’t want to go… She’s going – we set off. Not late for swimming (makes a change). Eve changed & ready to start Esme & I get a milkshake each from the cafe there but then the seats by the pool are too crowded again to sit down, so I sit us down behind them & we play with the lids from the milkshake bottles. The game develops into something where were throwing, flicking or pushing them to each other & Esme is jolly entertained. We’re only marginally annoying & embarrassing to other parents (this never really bothers me) & we even get another little girl joining in at one stage. I miss all of Eve’s lesson. Eve out of the pool she gets a bun from the cafe & Esme gets Smarties from the machine. Home through the park Eve refuses to come in because she gets stuck playing with Leah, Hanna & Rosie at the bottom of the road. Esme’s tea is Shreddies & Eve refuses the offer of tea (has an apple later when she comes in). Bath & bed routines & then helping Jack… Full evening (as usual).

Well, Esme did a lot better last night – she’s slept quite soundly. On Friday to Saturday she was quite disturbed with the Chicken Pox making her uncomfortable & the fever making her too warm, and on the Saturday to Sunday she was initially being driven nutty by the itching. We gave her some Piriton in the end (should have thought of it earlier) & she was still very frustrated until the small hours & the medicine started kicking in & it all calmed down. Gave her Piriton before settling to sleep last night & she was much better for it. She came up when I was drifting off just after 11 & as she was warm she had some ibuprofen & she seems to have slept soundly most of the night. I slipped out & had some sudofed then so that I could breathe without a gaping mouth & I feel rested this morning as well. Spent yesterday with a headache & things crawling in the corner of periphery of my vision – mainly lack of sleep, with some head cold thrown in for good measure. Not half as bad as Esme’s been having; she’s been doing well really. Clingy & weepy, but she has been playing for the most part. Late afternoon yesterday she tried playing with Lilly when she came round, but had to give up & be held again. I think she was a bit annoyed that she didn’t get to go out with me that day. I’d taken Jude out to his party at Jitterbugs in Littleborough (James & Daniels’ birthday) & Eve had tagged along. Amber had gone out, so Eve had no direction & she wanted to come & was upset that I initially refused on the grounds that she wouldn’t be allowed to the party. This provoked quite a reaction (weeping & gnashing, “You don’t understand!”) so as long as she understood that there was no way she could stay at the party it was fine – I let her tag along. As it turned out we only had tome to go to the supermarket &then a café before we had to scoot back to pick up Jude. Still – it was pleasant to have her along (probably good for Louise to have her out of the way if she was going to be bored & whinging at home). & good for Eve to just be out instead of bored & frustrated. Jack was very sweet with Esme while we were out & made her a colouring book from internet printouts, but Esme was tuckered out when we got back (public transport back from Littleborough was not so good & quite expensive).

Saturday?

We had a jaunt out to Bradford, It had been previously arranged that we were going to Louise’s mum’s & meeting up with Elaine & Kyle (Louise’s sister). For…. various reasons we’ve not seen them for quite a while & I guess it all went well. Eve was chatty & friendly with Elaine & the kids behaved quite well.. We went out to the park. Jack took Jude & Eve on the boating lake (I didn’t have to do it) And they had a good little go to the playground. I was relieved to see (or rather had my underlying guilt assuaged) by the presence of another little girl who quite obviously had chicken pox. Esme’s pox are not so easily noticeable as they are mainly on her trunk, back of the neck & head – her hair covers the latter 2. You still feel a bit bad about her being about so much though; doesn’t feel wholly responsible. We were obliged though – it had been arranged – Louise’s mum expected us to be going. We were expecting to be off sooner, but before lunch (we apparently arrived late when we arrived just about exactly when we said we would) it was announced that we would have some eggs for tea? (For tea? – Oh.. OK, then).

The kids enjoyed it all – I think (probably) Eve especially as she loves the socialising & she also managed to pick up a few nicknacks. Jack & Eve even got to play around the fountains at Lister Hall for a bit (Jude got bored & wanted to go back so Jude & Esme went back to the flat with Grandma). Louise & I got to watch fascinating people who had a wedding at the Hall & a photo opportunity in the gardens – we do love people watching.

Construct thoughts. Adhere ideas to page.

As usual I’m over tired & therefore a vacuum exists where coherence is supposed to exist. I just skitter at the periphery of my thinking teasing out something that appears to be here.

Jack suffered a little last night. He’s a stoic sort, but the travel & all the homework got to him a little yesterday. He’s under the weather & he had quite a bit of homework to do yesterday. He so wants to do it well. Still – he did pull it together & he did finish all there was to finish & he did fall asleep jolly quickly. Sleep, for him, has not been so good this week – it may be contributory.

We managed to get Jude a bike – it’s green & blue, it has gears & it has a suspension! Crikey! He’s jolly pleased with it, but he wants a stand. OK – I need to get a stand…. Louise is going to book him into the dentists with his teeth – he’s starting to get teeth growing through – but his milk teeth are still hanging in there – so that can’t be comfortable. Jude has also been good, & reasonable & less apt to lash out this week – which has been noted & appreciated. He’s making an effort again.

Esme has chicken pox – this is not a surprise because Lilly over the road had them. Just got some first spots appearing yesterday. It was doubtful in the morning, but was mote obvious by the afternoon.

I must try to remember to leave work a little early to pop into town & pick up the 9th ‘Series of Unfortunate Events’ books for Eve. She is starting to read these herself a bit, which is encouraging. Reading to herself is not something she especially wants to have time for though – she’d rather be playing. The man game they play at the moment is ‘schools’ – where they are teachers behind desks & so forth. It involves a lot of books in bags & moving things about – but – they did actually tidy up after themselves yesterday – which is nearly a first as tidying up rarely is allowed to impinge on the time that they consider to be time that they play.

Bikes…

Jude needs a new bike, so we were hopeful that the Chopper down at the shop at Patmos would do for him. It was also reduced! So, we took his old bike & Eve’s bike down (her bike needs repairing) on Thursday evening… only to find that the Chopper was too big. He couldn’t ride it comfortably. Eve could, but that was not the point really. So Jude needs another – he didn’t have one in the shop, but said he’d try at his garage & over at a couple of other shops he’s friendly with. Jude didn’t accept that well – the ‘now’ thing was praying on him. He cried & needed carrying home (such was his misery).

Friday I bumped into Jack on the way home, just past the newsagents, he having parted company with Thomas & finishing of some chocolate (guiltily). Thomas gave it to him (he doth protest too much) as I pointed out (grinning) that I wasn’t telling him off, was I? Popped in at the bike shop & nothing doing – no bike for Jude at the garage or shops in Nelson or Burnley. Ooooh dear…. Eve’s bike not fixed either because no ‘little chain thing that attaches to the gears’ (can’t recall the name). But I make a mental note it’s an 18 inch wheel that we’re after (as well as one with gears, obviously) when he tells me there’s a couple of other chances he’s going to check. He saw that Jude was upset & he was a little affected – he doesn’t like to disappoint.

Saturday morning I pop to get the paper & dib in… nope – no fix, no bike. I remember that Eve’s front tyre needs replacing as well, so point this out. I suspect he’s basically out of leads, so I say not to worry too much – we’ll look if he keeps his eyes open & what will be will be. Jude is disappointed. Eve is disappointed her bike is not fixed as well – she spends a good deal of her play with Amber over the road playing on bikes. Amber looks to have an 18 inch wheel bike with gears, but this also has pinkness & flowery decals.

It’s a low key weekend. Jack has history homework; they have to do a historical figure. Choose anyone from history & write about them – someone who changed the world also seems to be an important criteria. Jack has chosen Dr Barnados; he’s not sure why, but Louise & I kinda suspect it’s the helping the downtrodden, education & equality which (given his Thursday night dream of converting buses into off road vehicles & driving them to Africa to be used as classrooms seems to chime with his general thinking at the moment). He gets upset that we criticise his lifting of phrases & paragraphs from the Internet wholesale & decides that he’ll do Henry VIII instead as he has his own source material (studies from juniors) on the subject. Digs this stuff out (making a mess of his room in the process) and then complains that Henry VIII is boring (and also one of the suggested characters from discussion in class).

Leave it a bit Jack.

We go to the supermarket (him & me) via the library (no books on on Henry of Thomas Barnado) but there’s a DVD he likes the look of & a couple of books I wouldn’t have minded if I had time for reading at the moment). We chat about things on the way into town & he points out that kids his age would hardly ever have seen a dead body, but in Bernado’s time.. I point out that this is a darn good way of opening his history essay were he doing Thomas Barnodo & we chat some more along these lines & let him mull it over.

At home he’s doing Barnado again & Louise & I outline an approach for him to tackle writing it (research on the internet – print things out – read these & highlight the salient points & then write up in the structure plan he has (he had a structural plan all along he wasn’t sticking to it). He makes some good progress.

Sunday, Eve has borrowed Jack’s bike (against his wishes) & is plying with Amber when Amber’s next door neighbours offer Eve a bike. She comes to tell us, I pop over & it’s clear that the bike is somewhat big for her (it’s bigger than Jack’s) but we tend to not look a gift horse in the mouth, we say thank you very much & she’s off (somewhat shakily) on it taking it back round to the back street.

…continuing…

16/09/08@06:51:55

So, we’re all on the back street checking over the ‘new’ bike – Louise has had a go & Jack has had a go & Jude is a bit upset because he hasn’t got his bike yet… He knows my earlier enquiries have come to nothing because I checked when I was getting the newspaper that morning.

So we’re there chatting away & Brenda over the road pops out for something & overhears us. We tell her of our surprise acquisition & the says she has a new bike. Nice ladies bike – folder. John get it out to show us. John says he’s supposed to be riding a bike for his knee, but the one he has isn’t so good – he can’t get it in the car & he can’t get his leg over (queue gag re asking the man at the bike shop as to whether he could do anything with his bike because he can’t get his leg over, “It comes to us all” is the response from the older bike shop owner.) It’s useless to him & it’s apparently offered to me. I’m not paying attention – Louise graciously accepts & I have a bike as well! How did that happen? ” bikes in one day? Not one for Jude though. Poor Jude is upset.

A little later Jack & I set off to Morrisons on the bikes – zooming there in no time (although I have to say I do not like going down Fernley Lee Road – it is just that bit too steep: both brakes on & concentrating on the misshapen road (lots of roadworks) conscious of cars behind & needing to signal direction & you can’t really turn to check the car behind you & you can’t take your hands off the brake to signal. After that the roundabout in the centre of town seemed a breeze.

Coming back we went up Park Rd – less right turns & not so steep an incline (although longer). I was struggling getting a lower gear so really had to push quite hard. As I reached the point of giving up & reached the top of the hill (well – as far as we were going) & turned round to see how Jack was getting on – his bike slips into some delightfully low gears that I’m sure would be easy for even getting up Fernley Lee. I was a little disappointed to see that he was pushing – he’d got off & was pushing! I would have shouted some chastisement but I was somewhat out of breath.

Yesterday – off to the the other bike shop in town – see if he has anything there. Looks to be – 23 inch frame. I call Louise to measure Jude’s inside leg to see if this would be good for him? He has a 21inch inside leg! Ooh. Well – this bike is green & blue, it has suspension& it has gears & it’s £30? OK, yes tiptoes will do fine! I go back to the shop to get it. Ah, but he’s not checked the bike over since it came in… Ah… He checks over the gears & the do not work quite as well as one would expect… hurumph. He’s not going to let me take it away just yet… he wants to ensure all is well (he brakes seem OK). So – now that we have got Jude’s hopes up we have them dashed once more… Bah.

Tuesdays Todmorden closes… It’ll be Wednesday, then…

Jack got homework worry last night… It was Religious studies what done it… They had to write up what Religious Studies was for which is a little bit of a nebulous question, really. It may have been the case that they took notes on the subject class & were supposed to write this up, but it was the last lesson on a Friday & Jack’s notes seem to be a little threadbare on substance. Also: he’s never had to do anything like this before, so he had some troubles with the idea of how to approach the whole thing. It being a tricky question he needed to do more preparation for the writing of this than he was used to doing, but Louise guided him through it well, & by the end of the evening (it took a while settling nerves & discussing things) he had a few good paragraphs which made up a pretty good little essay. Jack’s thought processes always have a tendency to go flying off in the many possible directions he sees… this might not be such a good thing for buttoning down an argument (at the moment) but it is one of his strengths. We decided (as an aid to writing) he could do it on his laptop – the theory being that it would stop him having to worry about having to rewrite things as he was restructuring them & that seemed to help as well. He still wrote everything out long hand before committing it to type & has oddly kept all his notes as well (hoarding instinct?)

Jude’s temper upon leaving school is as bad as ever. I’m not sure what causes all this pent up aggression… probably being ‘good’ at school, as he is good there as he can be at home if his pettiness doesn’t get the better of him. He was up early again this morning as Louise called just before seven to ask where the little camera he was playing with yesterday had gone? Just on the floor by the computer – I saw it there this morning (thinking that he never looks after anything). No doubt that will just have been his first demand of the day.

Eve is doing a lot better. She seems to have pulled herself together a lot following a rocky end to the holidays & start of the new school year. She’s even started reading her books herself, rather than rely on just my reading at bed time to traverse a story. It’s good; her approach to things is generally a lot more stable & certainly a lot better appreciated.

Esme (as usual) is full of life. Her over enthusiasm causes her problems at times – like a sore head she got when she saw me arriving at the playground yesterday & ran across the playground to open the gate, pushed open the gate too hard & when it stopped swinging open she couldn’t stop & bashed her head on the bars of the gate. Tears & screeching ensue so I give her a cuddle & plonk her in the swings (which seemed sufficient distraction). After a few moments all I had left was Jude & Esme but Jude was cross because I refused to push him on the see saw roundabout contraption (no one to balance him out – Esme is not doing it because he’ll be bored with the slow pace) . Jude remains super grumped up all the way home, but he doesn’t attempt to biff me… I wonder why?