And SoThe Preparation Begins..

Some may know, some may not, but we are moving Josie out of the private school she has been at for the last 3 years, to a public school in our area. The private school fees were just doing us in.

We are just dreading the day that we have to tell her, and the first few weeks of term 1 next year. She has never been very good with change, and new situations. I guess like most 5 year olds, she is frightened of the unknown, and who can blame her ;-)

So we had and idea that might make the transition to the new school more manageable.

The new school has an after school/before school/vacation care center, right there in the grounds. Its very convenient and not too expensive. So we thought, why not introduce her to it this year. And taking it one step further, why not enrol her in a few vacation camps over the holidays.

So today was the first camp. It was a science camp, and I was having panic attacks last night, imagining the scene that I would have to get through when I left her there this morning.

So we've been telling her for a week or so now that she would be going to three days of camps over the first two weeks of the holidays. She was quite excited at first, she's been to vacation camps before, but affiliated with her current school and where some of her friends go. Last night though, she asked the fateful question: "Will Rachel be there?". And we told her "no".

I must say, she handled it well. She was upset at first, but then accepted it, and was... I wouldn't say happy to go.. lets just say.. tolerant of the idea. I was relieved. We gave her a mission, to find out about two kids and tell us their names and what school they go to. We are hoping she will form some good friendships out of this to carry on till next year.

Then going to bed, she started moaning that she didn't want to go and that she was shy. I was unrelieved.

This morning I was nervous about how she would react. I let her pick out what to wear (a skirt was the key ;-), I told her I would stay for a little while till she was comfortable, and she relented a bit.

I kept up a steady chatter on the way to the school. Its only a 10 min drive from home. When we got there she was introduced to another kindy girl there, Ella, and sat down to colour in. I went and signed her in, chatted with the supervisor, and then sat down next to her. She looked over at me and said: "Mummy, I'm a little bit less shy". This was promising. After a few minutes, I said to her, "You're looking a lot more comfortable now sweety, can I go?" and she said: "not just yet..". I waited a few more minutes, told her I needed to get to work, she rolled her eyes, said "Oh alright then" and went back to her drawing.

Drama averted.

I fretted at work. Even called up to see how she was going and was told that she was good, having a great time, but she had lost her toy dog, but she wasnt upset. Ahh well, if thats the worst that happened today..

I went to pick her up after work at about 530pm and could barely drag her out. She was colouring in, absolutely filthy, and her dog was found, buried under the bark in the playground. Blergh.

And there was a kid, who apparently moaned and cried for her dad from about 5 minutes after he left, till the end of the day. Josie seemed quite proud that she was ok.

As its Erev Rosh Hashana, we were off to Baba's for dinner so on our way we chatted about her day.

Mari: So did you have fun today?
Josie: Yes!
Mari: And did you complete your mission?
Josie: Yes I did! The two kids I found out about were Ella and Aiden and they both go to this school.
Mari: And were they nice?
Josie: Yep, I played with them allllll day! And I played in the playground the most, and I watched a movie! It was Garfield.
Mari: Thats great honey, I'm so glad you had a great day!

So I am incredibly relieved that it went well.

Dinner at Baba's was lovely, if not noisy. I dont think I have ever seen a quite day when Josie and her cousin Jayden are together. The two of them are just... loud!!

So after dinner, and once Jayden had left, I put Josie to bed, and went home. She is spending the day at Baba's tomorrow.

Hopefully next week's two camps go as well as today's did.

Night Wanderings

So we're getting a bit concerned that Josie is still in night nappies. She is such a heavy, deep sleeper that she just does not wake up when she wants to go.

In the last few weeks we have started putting her to bed in undies, and then getting her up and walking her to the bathroom to go to the toilet at about midnightish, when we go to sleep. She does (usually) a wee, and then we whack a nappy on her for the rest of the night. The last week or so she has been waking with a completely dry nappy, usually. So she has one, maybe two wee's a night.

When we get her up at midnight, she is usually so hugely groggy that we have to lead her to the bathroom. She usually cannot even open her eyes, and she wobbles all over the place. And afterwards, she usually comes in to bed with us.

So last night, Tony asked me to bring her into bed with us, and closed her bedroom door. When she came out of the toilet, she was so out of it, she went directly to her own room and pushed the door open. I asked her if she wanted to come into bed with us, and she stood there thinking for about 5 seconds before turing around and climbing into her own bed, turning over and instantly going to sleep.

Daddy was VERY put out.. lol...

And then the other night she wandered out of the bathroom after drying her hands, took a step towards her own room, changed her mind, turned around and walked straight into me, shuffled backwards a step, tried a couple more times without success before putting her head down and forearming me out of the way with a little grunt of inarticulate rage and frustration. She looked like she was muttering to herself and gesticulating as she stumbled around to daddy's side of the bed, got in and fell instantly asleep.

Mari's 6th 29th Birthday Celebrations

Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes. I had a fantastic day this year.

First, my wonderful husband allowed me to sleep in, and got up with Josie when she woke up.

Then I got a call from Harri, and it was so good to catch up ;-)

Then I got to open some presents - a great set of hair accessories from Harri, Sven & Ella, and from my daughter an amazing iPod ready, audio synched, vibrating seat!

It has speakers up the top, and cables where you can connect your iPod, or connect the cable to your computer. And then, it has vibrating massage settings that you can set on Audio Sync (where it will vibrate in time to the music) or use three settings that vibrate in different patterns up and down your back and along the seat. It is just AWESOME!!

So after trying that for a while (I am using it right now!!), we got ready to go off to Yum Cha for lunch with mum & dad, Vika & Becca.

After trying a new Yum Cha place (East Ocean in Chinatown) last week for Father's Day, which we found to be as good as Marigold, we decided to go back to our old stomping grounds. East Ocean was very expensive.

Yum Cha was.. well.. yum.. and I got some more presents, the monetary kind from my parents and sister & Becca, and Tony gave me another present, a silver chain, he had gotten me a photo engraved silver pendant for Mother's Day this year that I didnt have a chain to put it on. Now I do ;-) It has a photo of Josie on one side, and Tony and Josie on the other. See below.

Afterwards, we went and voted (local elections) and then went home. We hung around at home for a couple of hours, and then dropped off Josie with Granny, and off we went to Mari's Birthday Mega Movie Marathon.

We saw three movies.

The Mummy 3 was good.. it came no where near The Mummy 1 & 2, bt it was entertaining. We missed Rachel Weiss, it was not the same without her. Jet Li wasn't in it all that much but he was good too.

HellBoy 2 was probably my favourite of the three. It was funny. The main Big Bad in it is played by Luke Goss! Who is Luke Goss you might ask.. well!! For those of you who grew up in the late 80's/90's, you should be ashamed of yourselves! Luke Goss, together with his brother Matt, asked the eternal question: When will I, will I, be famous?? Yes, after calling a halt to Bros, Luke went on to be an actor! I can't believe I actually recognised his name, but I still had to confirm with IMDB this morning ;-)

And then Tropic Thunder. Oh Tropic Thunder... the stupidest, most moronic, idiotic movie since Chicken Park. Seriously. It was so stupid I even laughed a lot. Usually I love Ben Stiller, in a sort of 'watching a car accident' kind of way... but this.. was.. just painful.. Tom Cruise was very funny.. Jack Black wasn't.. Robert Downey Jnr was just.. brilliant. Absolutely saved the movie for me.

We got home around 1130pm or so and watched an episode of Stargate, and then crashed (although towards the end of the episode I was so tired I was actually whimpering to go to sleep..). Had a lovely sleep in this morning till 10am, that never happens!! ;-)

So all in all, it was a lovely birthday, thanks to my wonderful hubby ;-)