We’ve been getting to know the doctors at our new surgery this week! L had us up in the night a few times over the weekend, in a way which made me suspect she may have a UTI. Took her to the doc on Monday, clutching some wee in a pasta sauce jar, and his paper strip test gave results suspicious enough for him to ask for a proper sample to send off for testing. Took her home, gave her lots to drink and just managed to get back to the surgery with a sample in time to catch the courier.
We managed to do Maths and English (my New Year’s Resolution is to sit round the table for at least 30 mins each day doing work together – hoping it will be less painful that way and it seems to be working so far) but not much more, unless you count trotting up the road to the surgery twice in one day – PE? Geography? Lots of playing outside and splashing in puddles 😀
Tuesday started well – no night-time disturbances from L, although she did wet the bed first thing, making me suspect even more that she may have a UTI. J now has a clock-radio to help him with mornings and a reading time to help with evenings and this seems to be helping a bit 🙂 We sat together and did maths (Singapore Maths – both boys have almost finished the first book of this year’s pair so are well-motivated) and English (about 3 Easy Lessons for K; J chose to write about our visit to London last week) then the children had a snack while I rushed round collecting swimming stuff. We got to the pool a bit late for the boys’ lesson, then J (who really would rather not be doing it 🙁 ) dilly-dallied in the changing rooms so they missed more than half 😡 We splashed, played and chatted in the toddler pool for a good while afterwards though, which I guess counts for something. Came home via supermarket to get dishwasher salt and ended up getting some much reduced Christmas stuff to put away for next year – mustn’t forget it though! – and also a doll from the boys to L for her b’day – need to put that away and not forget it too 😆
Wednesday – again a nice easy start (just as well as A gave me a really bad night and I was shattered) with radio, maths (J finished his book), English (L did her first Easy Lesson), K’Nex, Octons, table football, lots of playing outside… oh and another trip to the doc, this time for A’s 8-10 month check (the bit the gp has to do). The doctor was lovely and A really took to him, as did K and L – fortunately he was very patient with their interruptions 🙄 He asked if A was on solids, fully weaned etc and when I said mostly BF he was really pleased and said that his children were all mostly BF at that age too, but in nearly 20 years as a doctor in this area A was the first baby he had come across other than his own who was still breastfed at that age 🙁 I asked about A’s incredibly red swollen gums and he commiserated but said he knows nothing about gums (huh?) and he’ll get the V to give us a ring. He did check her mouth for signs of thrush or other infections and said he couldn’t see any so it’s probably just swollen toothy gums.
Afternoon was gymnastics for the boys, then we dashed home for tea, which the plan had been for Bob to cook as soon as he got in, but instead he ended up going to doc’s for L’s script (she does have a UTI) and then to pharmacy to get it filled. Speedy pasta and jar then, followed by a lightning dash to Badgers for Bob and the boys while L, A and I pootled on the pooter. When they got back J announced proudly that he had signed us up to provide pizza for the presentation evening next week 😯 So that’s Latin, gymnastics and pizza next week… Children safely in bed, A and I went out to see Emma – was supposed to be a girlie evening watching Sense and Sensibility but we didn’t get that far – just drank hot chocolate and chatted.
Thursday toddlers was slow-starting, but soon picked up 🙂 We made doves (using the stuff Gina brought last week and left to use again) and made Roman Army bread, saying the ingredients in Latin and counting that as the Latin lesson for this week, because time slipped away too fast for us to do a lesson as well. Didn’t do French either – must try to do something with my lot later in the week. Sarah brought chess and the bigger ones all played, which we decided counted as maths for the boys 😉 Had to dash a bit at the end (Chris and the little Beans did a great job of helping clear up – thanks Chris – I must remember to warn people the tables and chairs *don’t* get put away next time though 😆 ) because we were picking Bob up from work and going to the photographer who did baby photos of J, K and L to get some pics of A done (bit late, as the others were all 4-6 months, but we’re hoping it will match enough) and we only just had enough time. Ate lunch in the car and got there with a few minutes in hand, which we spent wandering round charity shops looking for trousers for J for Badgers presentation evening. Managed to find a couple of nice Orchard Games at a price low enough to be worth taking a chance on missing bits too 🙂
A’s pics went well, except that she decided she had to scratch her neck (lots!) while I was undressing her so ended up with a huge red blotch on her throat – not a great look! It was speedy enough that the photographer said we could do family pics in the same sitting, so we then had fun arranging ourselves in interesting ways on the floor and laughing at a man with a camera in his hand and a toy monkey on his head :frog: Have to go back on 30th to view pics/spend lots of money 😛
Got back home and the children immediately begged to play their new games, so they started with Greedy Gorilla which went down very well (especially the burps!) and proved to have all its pieces present and correct 🙂
Friday – started rather early, as the children had managed to set their radio to go off at 4 🙄 then restarted rather late (breakfast at 10!) and we didn’t quite do all I’d planned (no formal Maths or English 😳 ) but we did do some other things instead 😀
Started with playing What’s Rubbish?, which we picked up in a charity shop yesterday. There are a few cards missing, but not enough to make it unplayable 🙂 I suspect that the 5 + age suggestion may be to do with the attention span necessary, as the game takes forever! After well over half an hour, with nobody having managed to collect more than two items at a time before losing them again, we decided to stop and watch some schools tv (Primary History on Tudor homes, English Express on describing characters to bring them to life, Pod’s Mission on habitat) but when we went back to playing L lost it completely and wound everyone up by moving pieces on the board, so I sent them all upstairs to let off steam on the climbing frame (it was too grim and wet to send them outside without big hassle over wellies etc – a battle not worth fighting at that point!) and they then decided to tidy away the game and play again another day rather than trying to finish it today. They watched a few Veggietales clips on youtube while I changed A’s impressively full nappy and just as I was mid-clean-up a parcel arrived which turned out to be a hamper I won a few days ago from whyorganic so I had to leave A wailing while I signed for it (J was a bit put out that the man wouldn’t let him sign for it 😆 ) then we put it to one side while we had lunch and investigated after that – see here for what happened next!
In order to make space for the baby food we had to remove an apple pie and some spring rolls (J’s choice for tea) so since he had chosen I got him to cook them and offered to cook some rice to go with “his” tea 🙂 Also managed to make some bread and popped in a pumpkin and some parsnips to roast so we can fiddle with them tomorrow (white carrot cake anyone?) and have a bit of a bake-fest 😀
Bob got back early enough to do some chatting with the boys about CO2 while I cooked and J decided that for his English he would write down some facts about dry ice (it was that, write up the ice cream making as an experiment, write about technology and the Terracotta Army or do a page of workbook) but they only got as far as talking about it, so that’ll be another battle for tomorrow 😕 K wanted to do his next Easy Lesson, but we decided to put it off until tomorrow as A was too grumpy to let us concentrate 🙁 She is very grumpy just now (well, very grumpy for her!) still has incredibly red gums and now has red marks on her tongue too – we’re trying to decide whether they are from biting herself with big new teeth (they’re in about the right place) or whether they go with the red gums somehow as a symptom of something nasty… Practically no solid food actually entered her mouth today or yesterday, although she did play with a bit and smear it round everywhere, but she has been feeding a lot so I’m not worried – I just feel slightly drained-husk-like, as L has also been taking more thanks to feeling poorly.
