A bit of light relief from all over the blogosphere, but first seen at Atypical Homeschool.  Go to Wikipedia and type in your Birthday month and day only.  List 3 events that occurred that day, 2 birthdays, 1 death and a holiday or observance (if there is one!).

 Me first (31 Jan):

Events (mostly pretty grim ones so hard to choose which to post here!)

1. 1606: Guy Fawkes executed for his part in the Gunpowder plot
2. 1747 (you’ll laugh at this one Georgina!): First Veneral Diseases clinic opened at London Lock Hospital
3. 1990 (you’ll like this one as well, George!): First Russian McDonalds opened in Moscow

Birthdays

1. 1981 - Justin Trousersnake…sorry…Timberlake
2. 1956 - Johnny Rotten!

Death (Apart from Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators as mentioned above!)

1. 1956 - A.A.Milne

Holiday/Observance

1. Catholic Feast Day of St. John Bosco

DH (8 March):

Events

1. 1817 - New York Stock Exchange founded
2. 1911 - International Women’s Day celebrated for the first time
3. 1978 - The first-ever radio episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.

Births

1. 1943 - Lynn Redgrave
2. 1976 - Freddie Prinze Jnr

Death

1. 1702 - William III of England

Holiday/Observance

1. Mothers’ Day in Eastern Europe

I won’t do the girls or it will take me all night!  Might do them some other time

I got up bright and early to call the bank about the mortgage.  The lovely lady thought it would be very possible and told me all the information she needed to make the application.  I went to find the information.  Dh was off work so he played with the girls all morning - no tv for ages!  Then I asked them to please watch it while I called the bank back to make the mortgage application.  It all seemed very positive. 

I then had to go to work (I love saying that!) at the bf support group while Dh took the girls shopping.  They decided to play silly games and we all ended up getting very cross and shouty with eachother.  Very poor management by Dh and I who should have just said ‘ok, leave your shoes and cardis off’ - when will we learn, I wonder?  After work we went over to Mum and Dad’s for an Easter party - egg hunting and bonnet making (with vomit bowls!!!).  Lots of fun had by both Flopsy and Mopsy as they got to play with their cousins again, and a load of other children of different ages.  Flopsy asked to watch tv late in the afternoon but Mum said ‘no’ because we were eating.  Flopsy got very upset so I took her off and said to her that we must follow Grandma’s rules in Grandma’s house and that if she really didn’t like following Grandma’s rules then we didn’t have to come here again if she didn’t want to.  Of course she decided that she’d rather come and not watch tv than not come at all so she cheered up and joined us for supper.  They both fell asleep in the car on the way home, which was lovely

On Monday the girls watched videos from 8am until 9.30am when we all had to leave to take Dh to work.  We had to take him because a clip has come off one of the rear windows and it’s no longer secure so we didn’t want it to be parked in town for a long period of time.  Hopefully it’s going to be fixed today.  When we got back at about 10.15, the girls helped me sort out the puzzle mayhem from Sunday morning.  It was quite fun exercise in the end.  We organised all the boxes and Flopsy and I passed eachother pieces to put in the boxes nearest us, while Mopsy picked up pieces saying “where this go, Mummy?” and singing to Cotton-tail to keep her happy while we worked.  They were both really very good at all the sorting, and bearing in mind that there were about fifteen different puzzles all jumbled up, it was very impressive.  They stuck at it for at least twenty minutes, when they eventually decided they wanted to watch some more tv.  They came down again an hour later, to ask for some Easter egg chocolate so I suggested they have a chocolate picnic outside.  They took some chocolate outside to eat together and stayed out there for another twenty minutes until scared inside by a very insitent hover-fly. 

I spent the morning feeling very positive about their tv-watching when it all fell to pieces around lunch-time.  I was just about to make us all lunch when I remembered a phone message we’d picked up when we got back from holiday.  It was from an estate agents wanting to arrange to value our house on instruction from our landlady.  She’d already done this once before but assured us that she just wanted to re-mortgage it.  She told us she had sacked the agents and wanted to enter into a private contract with us and that she was happy for this to be long-term - we agreed on a year and she said she’d send us a contract to sign.  So this phone message was a bit worrying.  I called her back before I started the lunch - she told us she was selling and that the house would be going on the market the next day (today!).  I put the phone down and burst into hysterical tears - thank goodness the girls were watching tv upstairs!  I just couldn’t believe it.  We have lived in FIVE different rented houses over the last four years because of similar problems, but it’s never been this ‘close’ before.  What she was going to do is actually illegal as she has to give us at least 2 months notice to move out.  I rang Dh at work, and tried not to sob while talking to his manager who said he’d get him to call me back asap.  I rang Mum and Dad who were wonderful and started looking on the internet at options.  I spoke to Dh eventually who said that his manager had suggested putting mouse traps out when people came to view the house, and making it look really minging!  But all that would be all well and good - we’d still have to move and would still be in an insecure position.  I felt so, so angry that by electing to look after our children myself, we could not afford to buy being on only one income and were therefore in an extremely insecure position, throwing money away each month.  How can it be right that children either get brought up by day-care workers and ruined or families are desperately financially insecure???  Anyway, after much discussion and tears and Dh coming home early from work, Mum & Dad said they’d find a way to help us buy the house by hook or by crook.  We rang the landlady and she sounded delighted and said she’d keep the house off the market for a couple of weeks.  We then went online and found mortgage lenders who will accept parents as guarantors (something we couldn’t find last time we looked, unless the parents owned their houses outright).  So we went to bed feeling quite a bit more positive than we had a few hours earlier.  It looked as though we might at last be eligible for a mortgage (which is further than we’ve ever got before), but that the repayments would be at least £200 more than we’re paying at the moment…some serious scrimping and saving would be coming up!

The girls didn’t watch any more tv until we went upstairs to watch our own stuff.  Then they both went to bed at about 9.30pm and went to sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

Ok, I think it’s very clear that there are a lot of children for whom HE would not be the best option bearing in mind their parents.  However, I find this is the case for more and more people as I realise how most adults view children :-(  I’ve just read a thread on a parenting forum started by a mum asking for an answer for a question her child had asked her.  THREE of the replies started with disparaging remarks about how the child ‘needed to get out more’ or ‘had nothing better to do’ because he asked a question about something he was interested in :-(  The mother just laughed (well, did a laugh smiley!) and replied that she agreed he ‘needed to get out more’ :-(  Fair enough being too tired out to answer every question fired at you by an eager to learn young child, but thinking they’re strange for asking the questions?  And joking about it?  Forget the damage done by schooling - no wonder so many children lose their interest in learning if the primary adults in their lives that sort of attitude.

Flopsy and Mopsy were having a bit of a disagreement yesterday over some toy or something.  Flopsy hit Mopsy on the head.  Mopsy got very upset but didn’t hit back - just said “no, stop hit me head, Flopsy!”, which is quite good for her - normally it’s her who hits and Flopsy who stands there whining about it!  I took Flopsy out to the hall to defuse the situation and sat down to talk to her about it:

Me: Flopsy it’s just not on to hit people, and I know you can sort these things out with words…and if you can’t do that, you just need to come and get Mummy or Daddy to help you

Flopsy (now calm, and sorry that she hit Mopsy): I tried to sort it out with words, Mummy, but Mopsy just hit me on the head with my words

It was all I could do not to burst out laughing, she was so earnest and sweet about it.

While we were away, Mopsy consolidated her new skill of being potty-trained (she’s very good and learnt it very quickly indeed and is now out of day-time and night-time nappies); Cotton-tail learnt to roll over at the age of 15.5 weeks; Flopsy, Mopsy and I held a tarantula; Flopsy and Grandad had a boa constrictor wrapped around their shoulders (so did Mopsy and Daddy but Mopsy got very frightened and burst into tears so we have no photo of that!); we went on the beach and the girls played in their knickers and vests as it was so warm; we went on another beach and were wrapped up warm because it was so cold and windy!; we went for a very short walk (about 1/2 a mile if that!); we ate ice-cream; we watched the chickens, ducks, goats, turkeys, geese, sheep and lambs from our window; we had a lovely time

From 8 until 11 in the morning I was working on the bf helpline and I use the phone in the spare room for this for privacy.  This means that no tv-watching can be happening when I’m on duty.  Flopsy was fine with this and played with Mopsy downstairs while Dh got everyone breakfasted and ready to go to Mum and Dads for the day.  We had a bit of a flap near 11 O’Clock when no one was ready and the girls had made the biggest mess I’ve ever seen…they’d been playing with one of their jigsaw puzzles and were missing a piece so decided to empty out every single on of their other puzzles to find it.  Needless to say they weren’t successful and I now have an horrific mess to sort out…should be fun!

We then went to Mum and Dad’s and had a lovely day where the girls played in the garden on the climbing frame, on the swings and in the sandpit with their cousins all day long.  They managed to be happy consuming only half an Easter egg each…not a feat I think we will repeat today what with Dh having to work and me having to clear up jigsaw puzzle mayhem! 

Flopsy asked Mum if she could watch tv half-way through the afternoon.  Mum said no and I said to Flopsy that she had to follow Grandma’s rules in Grandma’s house - that it was nothing to do with me!  Later on, near the time for us to leave, Grandma let her watch a video for a bit while we got ready to go. 

When we got up in the morning, I got started unpacking our clothes and asked the girsl to wait for the tv until I’d finished as I was unpacking in the tv room and they both tell me off for getting in the way when I do that!  After I finished they put on a video and got stuck in.  Mopsy came downstairs periodically to have a feed/play with playdoh/wander outside.  Flopsy maintained that she did not want to do anything except watch tv each time we asked her if she wanted to join us.  I got working on a display board I’m doing for the NCT ready for the Nearly New Sale next Saturday.  Dh took the girls up breakfast, and lunch, and got irritated by the fact they weren’t outside playing in the sun.  Mum and Dad dropped in on their way back from the holiday house - Mopsy came downstairs straight away and pulled Mum back up to see Flopsy, who had decided to stay watching tv even though she knew Mum and Dad were here.  She did come away from it when Mum and Mopsy came downstairs but sat at the top of the stairs whining like a baby because she wanted to be carried down.  I went to get her and she asked me to read to her while Mum read to Mopsy.  After a short play and a cup of tea and a hot cross bun for the grown-ups, Mum and Dad left and Flopsy went back upstairs to watch Fun Song Factory with Mopsy.  Mopsy wandered down again a few times and at about 4.30pm Flopsy came down to play and her and Mopsy had some lovely fantasy games which I could not make out at all but looked very fun.  We had supper then all went upstairs together to watch Grease is the Word and Any DreamWill Do - both girls played lots of games during this time - making us food from their kitchen in Flopsy’s room next door; and playing doctors and nurses mending my hurting leg/knee/arm/hand/foot.  Towards the end of the Joseph programme, Flopsy asked us to turn the light off and she started going to sleep in Dh’s arms while Mopsy carried on mending bits of me and feeding me pretend yoghurt with a spoon.  Then I took Flopsy to bed in her room while Dh took Mopsy to bed to read her to sleep - she was asleep after only two pages of the first book apparently, and Flopsy also was fast asleep in minutes.  We then watched Casualty together while Dh rocked Cotton-tail to sleep and then went to bed ourselves.

We’re back from our holiday.  We had a lovely time and I will post photos soon.

While we were away, I took the opportunity to read Doing It Their Way again as I have been feeling like we’ve been drifting away from the autonomous lifestyle we want.  It’s made me confront the biggest issue for us which is Flopsy’s worship of the tv.  She asks to put it on, then watches it for a long time, then eventually comes downstairs for a break of an hour or so, then watches it again.  All this time I am displaying my reluctance to let her as I can’t get away from the idea that it is bad for her.  This feeling is despite the fact she shows she’s learning loads from it (and who cares if she isn’t!) and it sparks a lot of imaginative play, rather than dampening it as seems to be one of the concerns of tv-dislikers.  We have decided (after discussing with other autonomous families) that my random limits (ie. depending on how I’m feeling when Flopsy asks to watch it) and my obvious dislike of it could be causing her to ‘binge’ on it more than she would under normal circumstances.  Therefore we are going to aim for total non-coercion in our house for a couple of weeks and see what happens.  If we are still concerned at the level of tv-watching going on, we will discuss with Flopsy why we are concerned and see if we can come to an agreement that suits us all about how much tv and when etc.  I think I will also try to ‘chart’ our progress on this blog and will attempt, for a week at least, to document each day as they happen!  I’ll start with yesterday (as we haven’t really had much of today yet!).