Space Oddity

Emma hiding in the corner because she doesn't want her photo taken.....

....then coming out fighting

Michael and Emma helping mum to make chorizo soup (delicious!)

Michael at the egg and spoon (or golf ball and spoon) race. It's easy to spot him - he's the only one wearing red shorts.






As usual, it's been a busy few weeks.

Michael's getting over a bout of the chicken pox. We noticed he wasn't quite right when he was climbing back into bed at 8am last wednesday. He had a temperature and was very tired. He slept all morning but the spots didn't come out until the next day. He's not really enjoyed it, but seems to have avoided getting too many spots. I totally failed whilst trying to assure him that it's actually a good thing to get it when you're young. He didn't seem to ask why. He did ask me about my illness, which he hardly ever does. Emma's showing no signs of it yet, but apparently it's got a 3 week incubation period.

Emma's becoming quite the outdoorswoman - as in going to the toilet outdoors. Both with Grandma Black on the golf course and with myself at the park just over the road, Emma has needed to go to the toilet and has surprised us by doing the less socially acceptable outdoor type of going to the toilet. Luckily someone had left a plastic bag in the bin at the park and I had to scoop up the poop like someone walking their dog. She didn't seem bothered a jot, and Granddad Black was laughing and reminding me that he'd had a similar experience with me in Peterhead.

Emma and Michael get on great most of the time, but there is the odd bone of contention. The middle seat in our kitchen table is the big one. Every night at snack time (before bed) they fight about who is going to sit there. A couple of weeks ago there was a might cafuffle ending in Emma really crying (not fake crying as she often does). Michael was apologising profusely to her and claimed he'd "accidentally" pushed her off the chair. Accidentally indeed. He knew he'd done something wrong though, and didn't even complain when he was sent to the step. I've tried a couple of solutions - playing rock-paper-scissors may have worked if Emma had understood, and even taking away the middle chair and making them sit on the side chairs doesn't work as they both end up crying. Sarah tried a new tactic last night of sitting on chair herself. That almost seemed to work.

Emma got her report back from nursery. Looks like she's doing really well. The report was glowing, but there were a couple of things that Sarah and I read between the lines. It mentioned that she likes to play with others, but often likes to play independently. We read into this that she doesn't like people telling her what to do and how to play, which is what we've experienced. She got really upset when I told her that her crocs were on the wrong feet, and grumpily assured me that was how she liked them and it was the right way. We talked about it for a while and she wouldn't concede, but the next time she wore them she asked me if they were on the right way (which they were). There was also a section about how she likes to order numbers and letters and will often help other children with their sorting. We read for this that she likes telling other kids what to do, which is something she tries to do all the time. 





Emma absolutely loves this video (Chris Hadfield the canadian astronaut playing Space Oddity on his guitar). She keeps asking to see the man with the guitar. I showed her some other non-musical clips and she was interested until it was a different astronaut.