Pony Rides and Mood Swings

Today being Saturday we started with Kai's latest classes and ballet.  His teacher greeted him and said he'd done well last week.  At the end of the session Kai announced his shoes were in.  I'd asked the Ladies who deal with all the money when I'd paid his terms fees about them when we'd arrived but they told me next week.  I was a little concerned to find that elastic to hold them on was only attached on one side.  OK I know I'm dense but didn't realise I'd be left to sew elastic into his ballet shoes, my Homework for the week.

After a brief interlude into town we went to a craft fair at Aston Marina near Stone, there were a few nice little stalls, but not worth the drive over there for us.  The one nice thing was there were a few horses and Shetland ponies doing rides.  Kai and Alana got to ride in the little cart behind the pony.  Alana's welly fell off a couple of times and she slipped down trying to get it, luckily the man with them was keeping and eye out.  But the did have fun. 

The next stop was at the Fire and Rescue HQ, opens day.  I think it was about here we started with Kai refusing to do what we asked, generally getting in strop if things didn't go his way.  Like he wanted a toy police helicopter, I'd said no we got stroppy, I said what about a helmet "I don't want one of those"  ten mins later of please can I have a helicopter he gives up and wants a helmet, by which time I've had enough.

By the number of strops and yelling sessions we've been having lately he's obviously tired from school, but if we put him to bed earlier he just wakes earlier, so what's the point. 

This week, we'll try a week of going to bed  earlier and no sneaky late bedtimes.  See if we can persuade nice Kai to come out and play again, as we know he can be lovely manners (at school) but shame about what happens when he gets home.

Star Awards

While trying to load Kai and Alana back into the car, on Friday afternoon after school, the little girl from next door yells hi to us from the playground.  She told me that Kai had won a star award.  I thought it was just something she and her friends were playing, but on investigation in his reading folder I found a certificate.

It said

Star Award
presented to
Kai Haines
for
fantastic manners and following school rules

On investigation (probing Kai is quite hard work). I found out he'd been given this in class assembly, in front of the whole school.  They seem to do this every Friday in Assembly.  Wow how proud do I feel.  Well I feel proud and then I fell cheated because he's so good at school he wins awards yet home the rules are there to be ignored.

For a treat to celebrate we went ten pin bowling.  Kai has been a few times now but Alana had never been but she enjoyed it, and Kai was thrilled because he got a strike.  All I can say about my performance is say that I'm very glad that we had the bumpers up.  Considering Mark had been bowling with his friend in Worcester the evening before I ended up only being about 10 points behind him in the end.

What clever, well mannered(?) children I've got.

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There are several ways of being told I've added a blog / post on here, some of you will see a link to it on facebook, or you can subscribe using igoogle or google reader.  However the one I think I've now fixed and probably the easiest to do is to add your email address to the box on the side and you'll recieve an email in your inbox to let you know.  (To be honest this post has been written for me to test it's working so unless another message appears saying there's still a problem then hopefully it should work).
Let me know if you want to subscribe but can't or if you have any problems.
cheers

New hair cut

New hair cut

I've even treated myslef to a new hair cut to go with our new life here in Stafford.  Although it's straight now, it's designed to allow it to curl as I just can't straighten it by myself.

Alana was such a good girl sitting in her buggy while I had my hair done too.

1st Days

Obviously new town means lots of new things, but the two biggest for our family were Kai starting school and Alana starting at Nursery.

Because of the move all happening durring the school holidays, we couldn't do much about visiting the school or even speaking to anyone about it as there was no-one in.  We'd spoken to the council who'd given Kai a space at Tillington Manor about 1.7miles from home (according to Google maps).  We were told the teachers would be in on the 6th Sep and the kids go back on the 7th (fab for them, short notice for us).  So first thing on the 6th we rang and arranged to pop over and see the school and meet Kai's teacher (Mr Tucker), he seemed very nice and the class was all laid out ready for the next day so we go a sneak preview.

That night Kai went to bed as normal.  But after we went to bed he kept coming up to us.  So I took him back down and he asked for a story, I explained it was late and we talked for a little while, I leaned over to kiss him and SNAP the bed broke.  Great, just what he needed.
So Kai had to sleep on the spare matress in our room.  So at least we did eventually get some sleep.

The next morning we all got up,  washed and dressed, had breakfast.  Kai looked very smart

There's only one market stall in Stafford that sells Tillington Manor school uniform, and that was closed on the Monday after our visit to the school, so his first day Kai just went in his polo shirt.    We took him into his classroom, found his peg for his coat.  Parents were allowed to stay for a few mins, Kai and I looked around at al the activities he could do and once he found the train set he was ready for us to go.  I couldn't stop the few tears, my little boy was growing up and I knew this was the end of lazy mornings, kiddie classes and Mummy and Daddy being the centre of his world.                                                                                                                  

We then had three hours to fill, so we went to town to buy him a school jumper, then had breakfast in Asda before going to buy him a new bed, which would be delivered on the Friday afternoon.

Waiting for him to come out at lunch time was an anxious time, would he have enjoyed it, would he have made any friends?, would he even want to come home?

He came out of school looking all disheveled, trousers undone (at least we know he used the toilet by himself ok) shirt untucked (well so was his teachers, so can't have eveything).  He had a certificate for surviving his first morning, some raisins and a big grin on his face.  Ok Kai being Kai we'll never know exactly what he gets up to at school as his super memory always lets him down when it comes what he's done during the day, but he'd had fun and wanted to go back, so who could ask for more.



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New full uniform



The next day he had his jumper, and while we were waiting for the door to open another boy in the class announced that Kai was in the same class as him.  Since then they've been inseparable.  They've already played at ours and us at their house.    

action shot

One week on  I decided Alana needed to make some new friends too.  So we went to speak to the childrens centre near to Mark's work.  They do a child care option, and had spaces for her to go  on mon and tuesday mornings, which will allow me some time for working on Pippas Web, and maybe even a spot of house work, you never know.
We arranged a few settling sessions, after all Alana's never been left with someone else without us or her big brother there before. 
We had a quick look round her new room and got the guided tour, with the plan of going back the following week to meet her key worker and seeing how she got on with out me.

Alana ready for her first day at nursery

So after droping Kai  off at school we went to the nursery.  She acted all shy to start with and held on tight to me, we filled in the paper work and eventually with a little coaxing she went of to bounce on her own on the trampoline. I think she worried the key worker that she was so clingy to me.
The next morning, she played painting in puddles and then I went out to the reception and she played without batting an eyelid.  When I went back in 20 mins later she'd been out side playing all the time.
Wed morning, I left her to it after only 10mins and apparently she'd got a little upset when they stopped play and sat in circle time (I don't think it was because she missed me, but because she had to stop playing and sit down for a min).
She's got some more settling sessions booked for next week, then the following week hopefully she can start properly.  I'm sure given a week or two she'll be bossing them all around, as long as she has fun that's ok.

Two holidays and a house move

This summer, to allow me time to pack, Kai went on holidays on his own to visit his Nanna first, and then he and Alana went to Grandma and Uncle Lee's.

We drove to Mark's Mum's convinced there'd be a scene at the end of our stay and that Kai would want to come home with us, but in fact he was thrilled to be stopping with his Nanna.

We'd made the mistake of telling him about a visit he was going to make to see a friend of his Nanna and her Granddaughter, and despite the fact it wasn't due to happen until the end of the week Kai start the usual questioning when we go to ......?

It was a bit strange not having him around for such a period of time (1 week) but we spoke every day ( well Kai's idea of talking to people).  However I did notice I was generally less wound up by him on his return which made me happier and I'm sure he would agree.

He'd just got settled home when it was decided that he and Alana would be going up North during the move.  We were waiting for our completion date.
I drove them to the halfway point at Charnock Richards services on the M6 arriving after Mum and Lee.  As it was the day before my birthday Mum had even brought some birthday cake for us to share. 

Unfortunately after we went our separate ways, Mum, Lee and the kids got held up in static traffic, thanks to the M6 Jumper (who didn't).  Even with the additional delay they were really good for them in the car.

While they were there they did things like cake making and Kai had lessons from Uncle Lee.  Kai even got a train ride. My Mum couldn't get on the train with him so she asked on of the train enthusiasts that were there, I think he would have appreciated it more if he was a bit older.

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Kai at the park



Alana and Upsy Daisy



Kai got a ride on the train, and made a new friend.



Lessons with Uncle Lee.
















On Wed 25th Aug after over a year of being on the market, we finally moved house.
The removal men arrived just before 9am, and while I was still packing around them we managed to load everything onto the lorries.  We left a few cleaning things behind so Mark could come back to tidy up the next day, then retrieved the cats who'd been locked in the loft, did one finally run to the dump and then away we drove up the M5 / M6 to Stafford.  We had to go to the letting agents to get the keys then make our way to the house where the removal guys were trying to catch 40 winks waiting for us.

They unloaded everything.  Our Divan bed and wrought iron headboard of course wouldn't go up the second set of stairs to the  loft room that we'd decided would be ours.  The number of boxes piles in the lounge meant you had to squeeze through between them and the sofas (which looked way too big).  So our first job after the removal men was to go bed buying about 4:30pm.  We checked several shops and several beds, we needed a flat pack one to get up the stairs but also quite sturdy to take our weight.  We managed to find one but it would be over a week till it could be delivered.  Luckily we had some flat packed single beds from the old house that had been in the attic there.  So Mark spent his first night setting the beds up.

That night I awoke at 3am and started to panic about the house and all that needed doing and got my self in a right stew.  So I went downstairs and started to right to do lists and a welcome letter to the new owners of our house in Worcester.
Mark got up at 6 by which time I'd stopped panicing he went back to Worcester to sort out cleaning the house, handing over the keys etc.  which left me to sort the new house.  Not too much got unpacked between phone calls to the agents about the stuff that needed sorting and calls from Mum and the kids, calls to say tradesmen were coming to sort the house etc.

We had a few days to try and get things a little straighter, the kids bedrooms and the lounge were our priority before they were brought back on the sat by Mum.  I showed them their new rooms.  Alana also had to contend with the fact that we had made her cot into a bed, something she hasn't had a problem with at all. 

I'm so proud of my brave children  they've been off on holiday with out me or Daddy, and have taken to Stafford life as thought they've always lived here.  Although Kai misses his friends, he's been busy making friends with the two children next door and at school (more to come)
So really all that it leaves me to say now is Hello Stafford, Bring it on.