Ballet

(Written on 1st July, published in December)

Kathleen was involved in a ballet show last weekend. She did one show on the Saturday afternoon, one on Saturday evening, and one on Sunday afternoon. Plus three rehearsals during the prior week.

I started taking Kathleen to ballet about nine months ago. She enjoyed dancing around the house so much I thought she would enjoy it. Plus one of her daycare friends goes too. Term 4 last year we went to the 3.30 Tuesday class. I would pick Kathleen and Victoria up from daycare at 3, but inevitiably we wouldn't leave there till 3.20 and would be rushing to get to ballet on time. This year she was in the 4pm class. Which meant that I would pick them up and then even if we left at 3.20 we'd still have to hang around for nearly half an hour before ballet started. It wasn't enough time to go home but it was too long to sit around and wait. So in term 2 I changed their daycare day to Thursday so that we would be home all afternoon Tuesday and could leave at quarter to four. It worked most times although there was at least one time when I forgot about it altogether!

I think Kathleen enjoyed ballet but I'm not totally sure. She would sometimes complain she didn't want to go, but then she complains about going to daycare too yet when I pick her up she says she'd had a great day and loves it there. At the beginning of this term the girls learnt the dance they were going to do at the show. About halfway through the term they started doing nothing but rehearsing this particular dance. At one point I commented to Kathleen that I was finding it quite boring now just doing the one dance, and how did she feel. She confessed she didn't like it either. Did I put the words in her mouth or did she really not like it? Well, ever since then she has been really complaining she doesn't like ballet, doesn't like doing the dance because she gets tired, and doesn't want to do the show.

I felt really bad and considered letting her stop. But I said to her that she just had to keep going till the end of term, do the show and then if she still didn't want to do it then we wouldn't go back next term. I felt torn - I didn't want to push her to do something she didn't want to do, but I didn't want her to think she could just give up everytime something hard came along.

Last week we had rehearsals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at the theatre where the show was going to be, rather than at the ballet studio. Kathleen was very nervous / anxious / upset. She and the other six girls from her class had to sit together on the chairs, and the mums had to stand at the back of the hall. Kathleen didn't make a fuss, but when I checked on her she had tears running down her face saying she wanted to be with me. But I had to stay at the back and keep Victoria out of trouble. Soon it was time for them to do their dance and then we went home. That night she had nighmares. The second rehearsal went better, and the next one even better, as she got used to what would happen. She still kept saying she didn't want to do the show but I said she should.

Saturday afternoon I took Kathleen along to the theatre. I bought myself a ticket to watch the show and showed her exactly where I would be sitting. Then I took her backstage to get changed and ready. When the show began I ran around to my seat and was so proud watching her dance. I had tears pouring down my cheeks I was so proud of her. All the girls looked so good. Ok so they weren't in time and kept looking at the teachers to show them what to do. But the point was they were all there and looked so cute. They were mostly four or five year olds, with one three year old and one two year old. Afterwards I helped Kathleen get changed and then the two of us went back to the audience and watched the rest of the show.

By the Saturday evening and Sunday shows Kathleen was loving it. Her old fears had gone and she was her usual excited self. I'm very proud of her for sticking with it, even though she didn't want to do it. I'm glad she did it and found it was enjoyable after all. I hope she remembers this lesson in the future when she's up against something new or scary.

She still insists she doesn't want to go back to ballet next term, and I'm not going to make her. I think I'll enjoy not having to rush out each week as well.

-Megz

Potty Training Part V

Victoria is now 100% potty trained, both day and night. As I previously blogged, she has been going toilet during the day for quite some time now. I have now stopped giving her lollies every time she goes poos on potty as she was getting so good at it. It didn't turn out to be a big drama after all. I just said things like "it's too late at night for a lolly now" or "you still need to finish your lunch/dinner" and progressed to "you're a big girl now, you don't need lollies any more". And she just accepted that without question. Every now and then she still asks if she can have a lolly for going toilet.

Kathleen was never night-time trained until she was almost three and I was in no rush to take Tora out of nappies. Especially with the upheaval of moving bedrooms recently. However a few weeks back she woke up in the middle of the night and came upstairs to our room. "I need go toe-lit" she said. So we decided if she was capable of waking up in the middle of the night and knowing she needed to go toilet, and of holding on, that she really didn't need nappies any more. She'd been dry 90% of the time anyway.

So two and a half weeks ago I changed my last nappy and it feel GREAT ! Peter and I were going to have a No More Nappies party but got kinda busy with other things in the end.

However it has not meant the end of washing nappies. I still seem to be doing a load every week, as we now use them to clean up any accidents that the dogs have! Guess Tora ended up being toilet trained before Timmy after all.

-Megz

Catch Up

Well I have not blogged for quite a long time and have a lot to catch up on. Where to start?

Winter has just arrived here, and I am still grumbling about the lack of summer and wondering where it went. Summer didn't arrive till mid January, and then in mid March we were hit with a sudden cold spell. I said "it's ok, this will last a week or two and then we'll get one last hot spell before autumn really kicks in". Well 2-1/2 months later I'm still waiting for that hot spell, have stocked up on firewood, gotten the heaters out of storage and am still shivering after the frost this morning.

This kind of thinking has left me a little confused - I can't believe it's going to be June tomorrow because in my mind it's still the end of March and I'm still waiting for my hot spell of weather.

We have got a new family member. A new dog. Her name is Skye and she is about 11 months old and is a Border Collie. A girlfriend for Timmy (who is 15 months old now). They have been getting on like a house on fire. Absolute best friends who are inseparable. I have worried a lot about Timmy being on his own so much, so it is great having Skye to keep him company. However I think he's also teaching her a lot of his bad habits.

We are now halfway through school-term 2. The girls and I have had some rearranging in our weekly schedules. We now go to Playcentre two days a week, and my day off is now Thursday (when both girls go to daycare) rather than Tuesday. Kathleen goes to daycare three days a week but I will be cutting that back to two days next term I think. She is enjoying both preschools. Originally I didn't want to go to two preschools but the daycare is good because it is near her future school and it gives me a break, whereas Playcentre is great because it gives me adult company and opportunities, plus the kids have the choice to play with me or do their own thing. I am getting a lot more involved in Playcentre now and am working on completing the Course Two training, which I am enjoying.

Kathleen's reading is coming along well. She enjoys playing an online game called Reading Eggs where children play games involving letters and words (e.g. "Click on IS") without even realising that they're learning. I don't know how much of it she is retaining - some but not all I suspect - but aren't too worried about it. I'm not pushing her to learn to read, I don't want her to be too far ahead of her classmates, but she enjoys doing it so I'm not going to stop her either. It's hard to say how many words she actually knows because I think most of the time she is guessing what things say based on the first letter of the word and the context. Another part of Reading Eggs she enjoys is writing her own stories and entering the competitions. She is also enjoying having chapter books read to her at bedtime now (books with no pictures, just story).

Victoria is growing up so quickly. She seems to have gone up a new level recently. It's hard to put a finger on what has changed. She is talking in full sentences (e.g. saying "I want to go there" rather than "want go there"). She is partaking in conversations. She is talking to other adults and being understood a lot of the time. She seems to be coming out of her shell a lot more (although with some people she just clams up and hides behind me for some reason).

And the big news is that in the space of about a week, Victoria has dropped her nap, started sleeping in a big girl bed with no sides, and moved into Kathleen's room. We'd been planning the move for a while anyway. About a month ago the girls and I had a sleepover party one Saturday night and the three of us all slept in Kathleen's room together. Tora was in Kathleen's old bed, and I left the bed made-up afterwards.

Now Victoria's been ready to drop her nap for a while. A lot of the time I'll put her to bed after lunch and she won't go to sleep so I'll get her up after an hour. We're at that difficult inbetween stage - when she doesn't have a nap she's usually pretty tired and difficult by dinnertime, but if she does have a nap then she's not tired at bedtime.

Last week Kathleen said she was tired and asked if she could have a nap with Victoria. So they both got into Victoria's cot together and promised they'd go to sleep. I fully expected a lot of giggling and no sleeping. However, Kathleen climbed out of the cot, pulled a stool over and not only helped Victoria get out but taught her how to do it herself. They both came running out of the room giggling. So a few days later I put Victoria to bed for a nap (Kathleen was at daycare) and 10 minutes later Tora comes running out all by herself having climbed out of the cot. So that was the end of that. The sides came off the cot and now it is very difficult to get her to stay in bed.

Last Wednesday night Victoria decided she didn't want to stay in bed at nighttime either and came running out. I tried to catch her but she ran to Kathleen's room and jumped into the old bed in there. She refused to get out and said she wanted to sleep there. So that was that, and now the two girls are sharing a room. The logistics of which we are still working out. Kathleen likes listening to chapter books at night whereas Victoria doesn't. So still trying to figure out how storytime should work. And figuring out how to keep Victoria in bed. The other morning Kathleen woke up at 6.40am (very unusual) and called out for me, which woke Victoria up too. So we're still not even sure if sharing a room is really such a good idea after all. The reasons for sharing were: It's winter so we only have to heat one room instead of two; Victoria's room is small and Kat's is big, and Tora is going to want more room eventually, but the only other bedroom in the house is the guest room and the coldest room in the house.

Most days I've now stopped offering Victoria the option for a nap (the exception being when she's at daycare of if she's really tired), so that she will be sleepy at bedtime and go to sleep pretty quickly. The days she has had a nap it has been very hard getting her and Kathleen to go to sleep.

And one final development is that the girls are actually playing together now and becoming friends. They still have very different interests - Victoria loves to play with dolls and the dolls house whereas Kathleen likes creative endeavours. They also both LOVE playing computer games and will fight over the computer or watch each other play. However when there is nothing else to do they'll play with each other. Their games are often physical and involve either running around the room, running up and down the hall, or jumping off things. It's so great to hear the giggles and laughter as they enjoy themselves together. And it has freed me up a little bit too. Only a little though, as I soon get called back to sort out disputes. Lol.

Cheers,
Meg

Board Games

Playing Ludo with Kathleen
She has got three pieces home and just needs a 2 to get her last piece home. I still haven’t even thrown a 6 yet to get my first piece out of the starting box. I’m facing a down-trou and Kat’s chanting “I’m cheating, I’m cheating” (obviously having no concept of what cheating means, because she wasn't). I finally managed to throw a 6 and got one of my four counters halfway around the board before she got a 2 to win the game. She had great delight telling me I was PWNED.




Playing Snakes and Ladders with Victoria
Not far into the game she decides she doesn’t like the yellow square she’s on and that she likes the blue square better. The blue square is number 91. I go along with it and she happens to land on a snake and comes all the way back down to the bottom with me. Tora throws the dice and I move the pieces. It seems to be working well until she decides that she is mother and she should move the pieces to wherever she feels like. Then she announces the dice is a baby bird and she cradles it in her hands saying how cute it is. Needless to say the game is now over.

-Megz

Potty Training Part IV

This week I bought Victoria her very own big girl knickers. Not that it was that big of a deal as she has been wearing Kathleen's knickers for about a month now. Before that she was in Pull Ups for about a month.

This time round I've been a bit more hesitant about potty training. With Kathleen I just took the plunge and put her straight into knickers (after making a big fuss and taking her out shopping especially to buy big girl knickers). But with Victoria I was a little more scared to take the plunge. So we took the intermediate step of wearing Pull Ups first. However they didn't seem much different from wearing nappies. She was mostly dry but on the times she had accidents she didn't seem to really notice.

The other thing holding me back was the timing of when Victoria would go toilet. While she was good at doing wees when I would put her on the potty, she would usually do number twos only in her nappy. I didn't quite know how to handle this. I finally settled on bribery. Now if she goes in the toilet she gets a lolly. I'm thankful to say she has never had an accident since we started this. Now every time Victoria goes to the toilet she sings to herself "I go poos on potty I get lolly". Not sure how I'm going to get out of giving her lollies when the time comes but for now I'm still happy to do so.

Victoria also learned quite a while ago (like maybe six months ago?) that the best way to get out of eating her dinner was to announce she needed to "go toe-lit". Because like the good "stick-them-on-the-toilet-every-time-they-ask" parent, I would quickly grab her and take her potty as soon as she said she needed to. She very quickly learned that if she had had enough of eating and sitting still, all she had to do was say she needed to go toilet and I would get her out of the highchair and take her off to the bathroom. Now we're not stupid, we knew exactly what she was doing and how she was trying to manipulate us. So a few months back we called her bluff and said no. She wasn't bluffing and proceeded to go in her pants. Gross! This made me even more nervous about putting her in knickers. However we seem to be doing a lot better now. No more highchair accidents and we often try and get her to go toilet before dinner. This hasn't stopped her trying to get out of dinner by professing a need to go. But she has been able to hold on if we say no, so that is an improvement.

Over summer Victoria also spent a lot of time running around outside naked. If she needed to go in the grass she would, no big deal. Last week I took her and the dogs to the dog park. She needed to go toilet so I said to go in the bushes. So she walked in, squatted down and went wees. Without taking her trousers off first!!! So the poor little thing had to walk about with wet trousers until we got home. That'll teach her.

-Megz