Check this out

Mostly this will be interesting to those who know Jenny Pruden (Chapman, I mean):  http://gap-mag.com/

(Scroll down to the second set of photos.)

*** Sorry, you missed it!  She's not there anymore.  No more cute Jenny in cute outfits.  

Weekend photos

Lulu is really happy because she's eating at the table with Tommy instead of in her seat.

 My new favorite things, from my very sweet mother-in-law who understands that I love pretty Christmas dishes.

 In this picture, Lizzie is having a fit and Tommy is consoling her.

 It worked.  Feeling better.

 Tres cute, n'est pas?

 She's a big girl, walking down the street.

 In Bishops Park:

Eli's trip without his family

The view from his posh hotel room:

 At night:

 Em, in her car, driving on the wrong side:

 Em & Sid's place:

 Em & Sid's place, inside:

 Em & Sid's place from the outside again:

 The tallest one is where Em works:

 Ferry ride:

 Sid & Em in front of a silly looking building:

 The picture that makes me most jealous (lucky Em & Sid):

 Or, maybe this one makes me most jealous?

 For the Walters:

 Bidding Eli farewell:

Lizzie's words

Daddy

No

Mommy

Apple

Moo

Moon

Airplane

Juice

Milk

Please

Walk

Pasta

Kitty

Meow

Dog

Baby

Uh-oh

Hi

Hello

Bye-bye

Happy

Book

Off

Up

Down

On

Swing

Slide

Play

Out

Shoe

She intersperses them liberally with screams and a newly perfected growl.

And, again.

So this is another post about how awesome Tommy is, and I'm telling you here so that if you are weary of these posts you can skip it.  It will not hurt my feelings at all.

I have three stories for you today.

First, on Wednesday on the way home from football, Tommy wanted to color instead of scoot home.  Mandy said no, and Tommy got mad and scooted away from her, really fast.  When Mandy got to him, she took his scooter away because he hadn't listened to her.  Then, he was angry for a while, even threatening to tell Eli and me that she had taken the scooter away.  Mandy, bless her, stuck to her guns.  After a pause, he looked at her and said, "I'm sorry Mandy.  I got really mad and I lost my temper.  You're the best nanny."  At which point she returned the scooter and they all went home.

Second, when I dropped him off at school on Thursday, his teacher Miss Anna told me that he'd spent the whole of the previous day with Sophia.  They even, she said, hugged during carpet time.  So I mentioned to Tommy that it's fine to hug people, but that we want to be sure they want to be hugged.  "Oh, mom.  She loves to be hugged by me."

!!!

Finally, and this is the worst, so stop here if you hesitated at all in reading this post after the disclaimer at the top, today his teacher, Miss Jo, told me that she did some assessments with him yesterday and he knows all his letters and sounds so will start learning to read next week (!!!) and that he is a "pleasure to have in class."  She said that he says things like, "Miss Jo, I just love this classroom!  It's the best classroom ever!" and then all the other children hear him and get excited and repeat him.  I mean, really, how adorable is that? (I acknowledge that it might not be as adorable as I think because I am his mother, but it's still a little bit cute, right?)

Last night was curriculum night so we learned about what Tommy will learn this term and also more about the school philosophy.  I have felt since he started two weeks ago that we made a good decision to send him to Eridge house, but last night I felt absolutely affirmed as the head teacher told us that above all, they want children to be happy there.  Amen, I shouted.  Not really.  But, well, you know that he's just four and where we come from, four year olds don't go to proper school, and my biggest fear is that going to school so young might make him stop loving school, so it was reaffirming to hear Miss Janey say that.  She also said that the things we need to do as parents are (1) get our kids to school on time, (2) feed our kids breakfast, and (3) not feed them chocolate for breakfast.  To use Tommy's favorite phrase (because it rhymes), "easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Tommy has an opinion about his uniform.

One clarification:  he says the shorts are too short, but he really means they're too long.  He is still obsessed with the shorts covering his knees.

(And just so you know, this is the summer uniform.  He is going to haaate the winter one, which includes a turtleneck and a scratchy sweater.)

First Day!

And to keep things interesting, I've posted the photos in the wrong order.  (Blogger's fault, but what else is new?)

Here is Tommy's classroom.  He's in the fruit stand:

 The classroom.

 Outside of the school -- see the white wall and the blue sign? The gate is to the right of the blue sign.

 Walking to school.

A week in, and Tommy seems to love school.  He doesn't complain at all about going, and he has lots of interesting things to talk about.  Like, the names of the ladies who serve lunch and what he accepts from them and what he does not.  On Friday, I picked him up at one and the first thing he told me is what he had for dessert (ice cream with a biscuit).

Our week and, more importantly, weekend without Daddy was just fine.  We missed him, and I admit that on Sunday morning I lost my business with Tommy when he had a fit about something stupid (nope, no idea what, because Sunday afternoon was about how the soup was "sloppy"), but mostly, it was a really nice weekend.  Tommy got to watch "Mary Poppins" and sang all the songs for the rest of the weekend.  Then we all went to a cooking class on Sunday morning and baked savoury scones.  Lizzie made the biggest freaking mess I've ever seen and it was not in my house.  

And a very happy Monday to you all.