Pre-School Fun

Today, we spent the day visiting pre-schools.

The plan is that, in September at the start of the new academic year, Anna will start pre-school for 2 mornings a week. I was intending to only start by doing 1 morning a week but every single pre-school told me that they did not advise me to do that. Apparently, children do not settle very well if they only go 1 morning per week as they don't get used to the setting quick enough and having a week's interval between each session will mean they do not get to bond with other children as well. At first I thought it was a scam by the pre-school but EVERY single pre-school said it and, after looking at guidance on the internet, it is true apparently.

Government grants do not start until they are 3 years old, where they are then entitled to 5 morning/afternoon sessions. However, I have been told by numerous people recently that Anna seems ready. Her speech is quite advanced apparently (trying very hard not to sound as though I am showing off... that comes later!!!) and she is eager to interact with other children. Whenever she sees other children, she instantly approaches them and says 'Hello Friend' and starts chatting. In the supermarket the other day, she saw a brother and sister sitting on a bench, waiting for their parents. They were showing their boredom by having their arms folded and sighing every so often in a very exaggerated way. Anna then decides to toddle over to them and fold her arms (which she has never done before) and started sighing. She then turned to them both and said 'Hello. What are you doing?'. She also thrives on learning new things and when she does, she uses it all the time. For example, she has learnt that there are 5 fingers on each hand so everyone that she meets, she insists on counting their fingers to make sure everyone has 5 fingers!

There are other reasons why we think pre-school may offer more than her her simple Mummy could do. Anna is displaying a certain lack of ability to share and take turns. The other children who attend her various classes all show a better ability than Anna. Anna may be more advanced in speech but when it comes to the basics like sharing and taking turns, Anna is not so great. We thought pre-school may help with this one.

So off we go to to our visits this morning. I was slightly nervous. When looking at nurseries, when Anna was 12 months old and I was contemplating returning to work, I saw fault in every single one. None were good enough for my daughter. What would happen if I felt the same again today?

The first pre-school was set in the grounds of the school which is also in our catchment area. However, the pre-school has no connection to the school itself apart from sharing the same site.

Within 5 seconds of Anna walking through the door, she was gone. We looked up to find her in the drawing area talking to a little boy about what she was drawing, while the boy looked on a little baffled.

We spent a long time chatting to the staff and they were very friendly but it just didn't seem right for Anna (Not that Anna cared, she had now moved on to writing on the blackboard with chalks). I can't quite put my finger on why but the toys just looked a little unloved!

We then went to the pre-school which is attached to the other school within our neighbourhood (not in our catchment area) and is part of the school community. I did not have great hope for this one. The primary school has not got a great reputation for behaviour, mainly due to the junior department. Basically, an infant and junior school merged 3 years ago. The infant parents were horrified as the junior school has an awful reputation while the infant school was rated 'outstanding' (Many parents took their children to private school after leaving the infant school) but the infant headteacher got the role as headteacher of the newly merged school so there was hope. Unfortunately, it appears that the infant department is still very good but she has not got to grips with the junior staff yet and the children seem to have behavioural issues. However, the preschool is run by 2 qualified teachers who are experts on Early Years and it shows! It was really good.

Basically, the pre-school is in a purpose-built building (part of the £2 million eco-building of the whole school) and there are various rooms which cater for different parts of the Foundation curriculum such as a sensory room and a 'safe room' completely filled with scatter cusions and soft lighting. The displays and the work going on seems excellent. They have topics each half term and the whole pre-school is devoted to that topic. This half term is 'winter' so they have massive displays of art work showing snowman and winter scenery, they have fake snow and, whilst we were looking round, there was a group of 3 year olds with an old sand pit filled with ice cubes (as well as toy polar bears, toy igloos and other things!). They were enthusiastically talking about how it would melt and whether the polar bears could go swimmming.

Again, Anna was gone within 5 seconds of arriving. James and I kept looking behind me whilst the manager was talking, to ensure that Anna wasn't doing anything she shouldn't (like telling someone off or demanding to see the paints) but the manager said that she would be fine as the staff were aware of her and would make sure she was OK. Therefore, while James and I had a tour of the entire building, including outside, the outdoor storage area and the toilets(!), Anna was having a whale of a time. However, I still expected Anna to be looking for us when we came back. Not a chance, She was having too much fun talking to one of the staff about Kipper and saying 'I love Kipper. He likes cake'. Apparently Anna had seen a picture of him on a pencil crayon. The staff all seemed very friendly and a good age range, from students to women nearing pension age). She had not even noticed we had gone. In fact, when it was time to leave, I said 'Anna. It is time to go now. We have to go home' to which Anna replied 'No Mummy. I'm here. Bye Bye Mummy. Bye Bye Daddy' as she cheerfully waved us away and literally tried pushing us out the door!!!! I do admit to having a little tear well up before swallowing it back just in time.

I only have 2 reservations with this pre-school, despite Anna loving it and me being pretty impressed. The first is that they have 40 children. Admittedly, they do have 14 staff (which includes 2 qualified teachers, a Higher learning Teaching assistant and 6 NNEB's) but 40 still seems a lot. However, they have based their setting on the Scandinavian model which basically means that each child is placed in their own 'family group' with only 8 children so, at specific times like snack time and story time, they are within these groups. They all have a key worker who will be their person who takes the register for their little group and lead their small group sessions (apart from the time with the qualified teacher) and this key worker will stay with them throughout their time at the pre-school. Snack time is done within their little 'family groups' and also 'show and tell' (linked to the topic) so I imagine that the group begins rather intimate and well-known to each other. Each group has their own little bays too so that they can have quiet story time at specific times in the day and they decorate each bay how they want so each group has a personal space belonging to them.

The only other reservation is that, during the summer term before starting school (which is ages away for Anna but still needs to be considered), the older children have the opportunity to visit Hoole school assemblies on a Friday for special celebration Assembly and they also get to go and watch reception plays and other events which are suitable for their age group. I really like this idea in theory because it gets children used to the primary school setting and eases transition for when they do actually start school. However, if Anna doesn't go to Hoole Primary (due to my big doubts about behaviour, league table, Ofsted results and general feeling about the school at the moment), she might feel rather confused about suddenly starting in another school which she doesn't know and which looks very different to the one she is used to). However, at the age of 4, I am sure that just getting to know a school environment is enough to ease transition without being fixed on 1 school. If this is the best pre-school in the area, I think I may have to look beyond the primary school at this point and ask 'What is best for Anna at this time'.

We did visit other pre-schools but, after walking away from Hetty (the pre-school attached to Hoole primary), I didn't get the same warm feeling about any of the others.

So we now have some pondering to do. I think we have decided but I hope that I can resolve the 2 little reservations I have before confirming the decision.

As well as learning lots about the pre-schools in our area, I also learnt that Anna has the ability to impress!!

The first example is when we visited one pre-school and Anna had accidentally tipped the crayon pot over. While I was talking to the supervisor, she waltzed up to me and said 'Oh Dear Mummy. I like drawing. I made a mess. I spilt a bit'. The supervisor looked at me and said 'How old did you say Anna was?' so I told her that she had turned 2 in November'. She just looked at me open-mouthed and said 'But she has the speech of a 3 year old'. I just laughed (feeling a a little smug, embarrassed about feeling smug and very proud of my little girl!).

Then, just to add to my warm proud glow, we were at the Hoole pre-school when Anna found some coloured paper, cut into various shapes. I didn't actually hear what she was saying to the lady staff member but the lady then walked over to the manager and said 'That new girl, Anna, has just handed me 5 shapes and told me what every name was. I am speechless. She is only 2'. Right on cue, Anna shouted 'Triangle' as she ran around the room with a orange piece of paper, which happened to be a triangle! (After getting lots of praise from the lady for knowing her shapes, Anna let it completely go to her head so felt that the whole pre-school needed to know that it was a triangle by shouting it!! She is such a show-off. I wonder where she gets that from!).

Like I say, she is lacking in her ability to share and take turns but it is lovely to know that she makes up for it in other ways! I was one very proud Mummy today. Not only for her talent to identify shapes and her speech but also because she was so confident in every single pre-school we went. She was immediately in the thick of the action with no backward glance to us, her mere parents, and every single place commented on how confident she was. Of course, I am under no illusions and I realise it might be a different story when she actually starts and doesn't have me around for 2 hours but, for today, I am very proud.

(Just a little warning to you all... in the weeks leading up to September and September itself, I will be found in a constant state of tears and upset at the thought of Anna braving the big wide world without me for 2 hours twice a week.)

Telephone Talker

Often, when Anna is playing by herself, she will pick up her toy telephone and start talking to the imaginary person on the other end of the line. I'm not always sure who she is talking to but Nanny, Goo-Goo, Grandad, her friend Bruce Ulriikka and Carolyne have all been mentioned in the past few days. The conversations can last for a very very long time too. Sometimes I can understand what the topic of conversation is (Yesterday, she 'phoned' Goo-Goo to tell her that she had seen a camel on the TV) but sometimes I am a little lost. The conversation is obviously far too clever for me to understand.

However, I am starting to get a little worried about how she is using her phone after seeing what happened yesterday!

Anna had been told not to touch the ironing board. (The iron wasn't on it but nevertheless, I didn't want the board to fall on top of her head). She then waited for me to turn round to put the last pair of trousers in the basket and Anna decided to shake the ironing board with all her might. I looked back at her and she just gave me a big smile and started doing it again.

I then did my 'Supernanny' impression and got down on my knees to be at her level and started telling her that she wasn't to touch the ironing board because it was dangerous and Mummy had asked her not to. It worked wonders... Anna just ran straight back to the ironing board and started shaking it again, with even more force this time.

So, back in 'Supernanny' mode, I knelt down and put on my strict teacher voice to tell her that it was not good behaviour. Anna just looked at me like a sulky teenager who was bored with anything that her Mummy might say.

After delivering my short speech, Anna gave me a scowl and stomped off to her play area (Literally, stamping her feet as she went). She then picked up her phone and started talking with a very annoyed tone in her voice while pointing at me! I'm not sure who she was phoning but whoever it was, Anna was definitely telling them that I was a mean old Mummy for telling her off!

Little Miss Helpful

Anna's favourite hobby at the moment is to help around the house.

She helps on so many household chores. I think she started to get the idea when Goo-Goo (her Great Nan) gave her an iron, ironing board, mop, dustpan and brush and broom for Christmas.

She loves helping me load the washing machine and carry the washing basket, which is fully loaded, to the dryer. She tries to help me by passing me all saucepans and utensils (obviously not knives etc!!) as I'm cooking and she does try to help with the dusting although, due to her medical history, I get rather nervous about that one. She also loves putting things away, which she believes are in the wrong place. For example, the other night I had got a recipe book out to refer to and when I turned round, it had disappeared. I thought I was going mad as I had remembered getting it out. Eventually, after lots of scratching of the head and turning the house over, wondering where I had put the damn thing, I eventually found it back on the shelf. I seem to spend half my life looking for things which have moved and it is not unusual to find my boots in some unused cupboard or a whole toilet roll in my handbag!

At Christmas, Anna astonished everyone when we looked out of the window to see her carrying logs to the wheelbarrow, helping my dad to get firewood. My dad was carefully handing her small twigs but Anna soon got bored of that so decided that she would choose her own logs and started to carry logs which even I struggled with. The way that she flung them into the wheelbarrow would suggest that Anna was not struggling one bit! The gigantic smile on her face for the entire time that she was doing it would also suggest that she was rather enjoying it!

However, it has now reached the point where Anna likes to use her own initiative and be a little more independent in her household jobs! For example, I walked into the kitchen this morning to find Anna putting the entire contents of my ironed and neatly folded laundry back into the wet washing machine. There has also been the occasion when I was washing up some dirty plates, turned around and noticed that Anna had emptied the entire cupboard of cereal and other food products and was re-locating them into the recycling bins!

Of course, I can't be annoyed with her because she is only trying to help so, instead, I smile and say 'Thank you so much darling'.

The only curious thing about it all is that Anna never ever seems to keen to tidy her toys away so our house always looks like a ransacked Early Learning Centre, as James walks in and goes flying down the hallway after tripping over Bramble the hobby horse! We think Anna does it on purpose, just so that she can see her Daddy doing his flying acrobatics routine. Well, it amuses Anna anyway!

Here comes the Bride(maid)

I am so excited.

Anna has been asked to be a bridesmaid at my brother's wedding in July.

When Carolyne and Steve asked us, I immediately said 'yes' while James immediately put his head in his hands. Apparently, he envisages the next 7 months being one full of me displaying excitement, anxious energy and downright panicking (so nothing new there then!). James' fears could also be compounded by the fact that I have been asked to do the 'Best man' speech. The actual best man is rather shy and would feel uncomfortable doing it so they thought that I may do it on his behalf! I was only asked last weekend and I already have a list of witty one-liners that have then all been crossed out for fear of offending somebody. I had already agreed before I then found out that it would be 130 guests that I was addressing. '130 is nothing. You have spoken in front of 300 children in school assemblies with no trouble at all' I was helpfully told. Well yes, but children have much shorter memories than adults. (It will probably end up with 'Ladies and Gentlemen, please raise our glasses for the bride and Groom'. The end)

I am much more excited about Anna being bridesmaid. However, my mind then gets cast back to my first time as a Bridesmaid. Oh dear! It is fair to say that I was the worlds worst bridesmaid that has ever been seen. I was 3 (so a very similar age to what Anna will be when she is bridesmaid) and I was meant to be the cute thing that everyone went 'arhhh' at, when they saw me. Instead, I was the one who is scowling on all of my Uncle George and Auntie Val's wedding photos. In every photo that I am in, I am also accompanied by my father who I refused to let go for the entire day. The obligatory bridesmaid photo has the bride (Auntie Val), the 2 other bridesmaid and me looking like I have just sucked a lemon with my poor dad stuck at the end looking like a right lemon, holding my bouquet of flowers because I refused to. Apparently I refused to walk any further down the aisle once I had got half way as well! I happened to bump into Val's mum at their eldest daughter's wedding only last year. She took one look at me and said 'Oh yes, you were the awful bridesmaid'. I don't think she has forgiven me yet!!!

However, this is Anna we are talking about. Thinking back to when I was 3, I was painfully shy, quiet, introvert and nervous. None of these words could describe Anna. In fact, knowing that she has 130 people all looking at her as she walks down the aisle is probably Anna's idea of paradise. Anna is also obsessed with princesses at the moment. Each night, after getting out of the bath, we have to wrap the huge towel around her like a cloak before she then curtsey's in front of us and we then have to bow/curtsy back and say 'Hello Princess Anna'. To be dressed up in a bridesmaid outfit will probably make it seem even more paradise-like to Anna!

I just pray that it is not going to be the case of 'mother like daughter'. Although Anna will probably think it is paradise, it is also important to remember that this is Carolyne's special day. I can fully see Anna throwing a diva fit and deciding that it is all too much and demanding to retire to her dressing room, just as the bridal march begins and even if we do actually manage to get her down the aisle, it is very likely that we will still be in the midst of the miserable potty training. If current trends are anything to go by, she will be probably shout "Mummy, I need a Wee Wee. Get the potty" just as the music ends and everyone is seated. She shouts that particular phrase a lot at the moment but, unfortunately, when the royal throne is delivered to her, she then shouts 'No potty for me' and runs off. That will make a fun start to the marriage ceremony.

I have already informed James that in the week leading up to the wedding, we will have to hire a church and practice walking up and down the aisle. Otherwise, Anna will decide to run or barge past Carolyne so she can be at the front! James suggested that we tie IgglePiggle to the back of Carolyne's dress so that Anna can watch him as she walks up to the aisle. I'm not sure IgglePiggle would make an attractive addition to the wedding dress.... but I haven't ruled it out yet!

Question Time

Where has the [Christmas] tree gone?
Where is the Garage?
Where is Daddy?
Where is Daddy's work?
Where is my riding hat? (Long story!!!!)
Where has Mr Tumble gone?
Where is Radio 1?
Where is dancing Dani? (Anna's dancing Teacher)
Where is Thomas' house? (Referring to Thomas the Tank Engine - her new favourite toy!)

Imagine these questions (and lots more) on a continuous loop for 12 hours and you have a picture of my day today!

Before I start, I must make clear that I am NOT complaining... much! Of course I am very very proud that my daughter is inquisitive, clever, observant and keen to know about the world. I sometimes just get a little baffled, wondering how I can explain that the Christmas tree has gone because it isn't Christmas anymore and why Christmas isn't every day, all in a way that 2 year old can understand.

A typical conversation will usually start while we are eating breakfast and go something like this...

Anna: Where has the tree gone (as Anna points to the vacant empty space where the tree stood)?
Me: It has gone in the garage because it isn't Christmas any more?
Anna: Where has Christmas gone?
Me: Christmas is only once a year when you opened all your presents and it is gone now
Anna: Where has the presents gone?
Me: The presents were under the tree but then you opened all your presents and you play with them now?
Anna: Where is the tree?
Me: It has gone in the garage?
Anna: Where is the garage?

So I then lead Anna out to the garage and explain that Daddy put the tree out here and it is having a rest until next Christmas. For a moment, I actually think that I have satisfied her curiosity and I can get on with cleaning up the breakfast debris until I hear... Where is Daddy? I then find myself explaining all about work and that people have to work and Daddy works in an office and where the office is and where Daddy's' desk is and so on and so on!

This will then continue all day. Deja Vu occurs on an hourly basis as I find myself answering the same questions that I was replying to an hour earlier. My days are certainly never dull!

Apparently last night, James informs me that I was even answering questions in my sleep. 'The tree is in the garage darling. The garage is next to the house. The house is on a street. The street is in Chester...'

James must have woke up and thought I had finally flipped! He might be right!

A Tigger-tastic Christmas

Christmas is over and normality has returned. James is back at work, the clubs are starting again and there is a pile of ironing stacked up in the laundry basket.

However, reminders of Christmas still remain such as the 20 stone that I put on over the festive period. (My New Year Resolution is no chocolate except Easter! The resolution starts once all Christmas chocolate has been consumed... which should take until December to be eaten!)

If it is any indication of how much Anna enjoyed Christmas, I am no longer greeted each morning with 'Hello Mummy, How are you'? as I draw back her curtains and say 'Good Morning' to my darling daughter. Each morning, from boxing day onwards, I am now told "Hello Mummy. I love Christmas and I love presents". I think Anna is trying to convince us to have another Christmas Day next week!! People keep asking me if Anna understands the whole Christmas concept yet. If the meaning of Christmas was just the involvement of lots of presents, Anna has it understood perfectly!

For me, the whole build-up to Christmas this year was just as important as the day itself, as I watched Anna's face when she met Father Christmas, saw the real reindeer and became fascinated with all the glitter and sparkly lights that accompany the festive period. It was simply magical and I can only hope that the next few years will be just as good, if not even better as her understanding becomes even greater.

For me, the most important part of Christmas is meeting up with family and friends and we were lucky in that we had 4 special occasions to do just that. The first was spending the day at Grandma Lynn and Grandad Flob's house.

In the last few weeks, Anna has become a very fussy eater (She gets it from her father!) so I was a little anxious when I heard that our alternative Christmas dinner at Grandma Lynn's house (to save us from having 2 Turkey dinners in 3 days) would be venison. In fact, we even had to lie to James and tell him it was beef until after the meal was over as there was no way that he would have liked it otherwise. Fortunately, he tried it and, because he thought it was beef, actually loved it. Anna loved it too! In fact, she finished the meal with a clean plate! After feeling very full, we then opened presents around the tree, in which Anna was thrilled with her Duplo. (James is showing a natural flair for building Duplo models, which Anna loves to watch. I just look at the Duplo bricks with no idea whatsoever and Anna looks on disappointed at me!)

On Christmas eve, we visited Grandad Peter (James' Stepfather), Auntie Sally and Uncle John (who arrived from Edinburgh 5 minutes after us!). Again, it was simply great to have everyone in the same room at the same time. Anna loved it too, mainly due to a MASSIVE cuddly toy dog which Sally's partner, Ben, had given to her as a gift. I am not exaggerating when I say that this dog would not fit on a single sized bed. Last time that we were at Peter's, Peters eldest daughter was also there with her 2 gorgeous children, Niamh and Finn, so Anna had great fun 'riding' on the back of this dog with Niamh and Finn alongside her. This time, Anna had the dog all to herself! It wasn't quite as much fun on her own but her smiles soon told us that she was more than happy with having to play with him by herself! The visit was made even better by Auntie Sally and Ben's present of a 'Night Garden' book which has huge pop-up pictures and a song at the end. Anna treated us all to her special Upsy-Daisy dancing, which everyone was most impressed by! Grandad Peter and Anna then sat on the carpet and happily completed the huge puzzle that her Uncle John had given her. Well, more accurately, Grandad Peter completed the puzzle while Anna argued that the octopus in the picture was a spider because 'it has 8 legs' (which were actually tentacles!!)

So then, after a long drive down the M6, we arrived in Hereford on Christmas eve. We were greeted with a 10ft Christmas tree outside, complete with flashing lights galore, reindeer in the window and fairy lights adorning the outside of the house. This was all for Anna's benefit of course, who was fast asleep in the back of the car!

Our plan had been to take her straight to bed when we arrived (it being 10pm and all) but, upon hearing Nanny's voice, her eyes shot open and it wasn't long before she was insisting that she showed Nanny her 'amazing' book (Anna's own words!) that her Auntie Sally had given her!

Last year, Nanny and Grandad's tree was magic because 'Night Garden' characters suddenly appeared from amongst the branches so it was only right that this year, another magical character emerged! So, as Anna held her breath, her Nanny started to bring something out of her 'magic tree'. Anna instantly recognised him! It was a 2ft Kipper!

This Christmas, I had looked EVERYWHERE for a Kipper toy but to no avail. I finally found a knitting pattern for a Kipper cuddly toy on EBay. The picture looked such a brilliant likeness to him that I had to buy it, hoping that Anna's great-great Auntie Eileen would knit it for her. I didn't realise how popular a Kipper knitting pattern would be and I ended up getting in a bidding war for it! You know me, once I have my mind set on something, I won't give up so I did win but you do not want to know how much I paid for it!! It would have bought several brand new toys! Thankfully, it was all worth it though once Anna became acquainted with it! Her face lit up - a Kipper of her very own! (Auntie Eileen did a superb job as I knew she would. She was determined to get it done for Christmas despite my insistence that she shouldn't worry and there was no great rush. Even when her reading glasses broke, she made sure that she got them fixed ASAP so Kipper could be finished in time! Anna is very lucky to have so many talented, creative and kind people in her family!)

Christmas day finally arrived and Anna woke up to find her parents peering over her cot, looking a little gormless with big cheesy grins on their faces! Anna just looked at us as though we had gone mad and turned over to go back to sleep (There are some days when I'm sure she is a teenager in disguise!) but after a little coaxing, we got her up and, when entering the living room, was presented with a pile of presents.

The first present that she opened was a book which, on hindsight, may have been a mistake. Anna will quite happily look at a book for hours at a time if she like its so, it took LOTS of encouragement to get her to open another present. However, when I happened to mention that the big present had come from Father Christmas, it wasn't long before she was tearing the paper. It was a keyboard, complete with microphone and loud speakers. Nanny and Grandad's neighbours were soon being woken by the sound of Anna singing down the microphone and giving us a few delightful tunes on the keyboard itself!

(As you can see in the photo, Anna insisted that Kipper attended all of Anna's musical performances on Christmas Day!)

Now, for the observant amongst you, you may remember that Anna asked for 'Tigger' when she met Father Christmas so, being the reliable and wonderful man that he is, Father Christmas did bring Anna a Tigger too.

The whole reason that Anna had wanted a Tigger was because she had seen her Uncle Steve's, who bounces and sings a little song and Anna had fallen in love with it. Unfortunately, Uncle Steve had been given his Tigger a long time ago so that actual one wasn't available anymore. Instead, Father Christmas has found an all-dancing,all-singing Tigger who does cartwheels along the floor, handstands, sings, claps and does lots of other things that you would expect Tigger to do! So, did Anna instantly fall in love, whoop for joy and start jumping up and down with pure excitement at this wonderful new Tigger???? Well... No. She took one look at him doing cartwheels across the floor, walked over to him, picked him up and put him straight back in the box. Every time that we even attempt to get him out the box, Anna shakes her head and says 'No Tigger' and puts him in the first available box that she can find. She still adores to see pictures of Tigger and will jump up and down with glee but the new Tigger just isn't the same in Anna's eyes! We even got Uncle Steve's Tigger and put them next to each other to show Anna that they looked identical but Anna is having none of it. She picks Uncle Steve's from the line-up every time and plays with him for hours but the new Tigger is sent straight back to the box! Poor Tigger!

Due to Anna's new found fussiness and the fact that she refuses to eat chicken or turkey, Nanny Mary had cooked Turkey and Beef for Christmas dinner (as if proof were needed that Anna is a cherished granddaughter!!). Goo-Goo (Anna's great nan) had even made Anna her very own little mini apple pie and custard for pudding! However, Anna was far too excited for food and, instead, was rather excited about the crackers. In fact, she loved the crackers so much that for the rest of our stay in Hereford, which was 5 days, Anna was given a cracker for every breakfast, lunch and tea!

Other highlights over the festive period was Anna greeting my cousin Adrienne with 'Hello Princess'. Adrienne has been described as a 'Goth' in the past so that made everyone's day as she had never been called a Princess before. (Anna has only ever seen pictures of Disney Princesses such as Snow White so I'm not sure how she got a Goth and Snow White confused! Maybe she knows something we don't!). Another highlight was Anna's face when opening Uncle Steve and Carolyne's gift! A train set, complete with 'Thomas the Tank Engine' and 'James.' Steve had been struggling to know what to get her but, after seeing Anna's reaction when she saw the train running around Santa's grotto, Nanny Mary soon had some ideas to pass on! Anna loved it and squealed with delight each time that Thomas whizzed past her!

(The photo illustrates Anna's huge beaming smile when discovering the train set that her Uncle Steve and Auntie Carolyne gave her!)

To finish the festive period in style, we had a surprise visit from Uncle Matthew and Ulriikka, all the way from Finland. So, New Years Eve saw us seeing in 2009 with them, along with Grandad Flob and Grandma Lynn. Anna had a fantastic time playing with Ulriikka, who had amazing patience when Anna insisted on dragging her to the playroom every 5 seconds. Unfortunately, despite identifying all of her family members correctly in photos, she still insisted on calling Matthew, Uncle John and calling Ulriikka, Carolyne! We then got in an awful mess when I tried to explain that Uncle John went out with Charlotte (Ulriikka was then called Charlotte temporarily) and that Auntie Carolyne went out with Uncle Steve (Matthew was then called Steve). Aghhhhh! By the time that Matthew and Ulriikka left on New Years Day, Anna was getting Matthew right but Ulriikka was still Carolyne!

Thank you so much to all of you who have given gifts or cards to Anna this Christmas. It is so appreciated and Anna is very lucky to have such wonderful people in her life

Since being home, the toys have settled in well and Anna is becoming fully acquainted with them all. (Except poor Tigger who was left at Nanny Mary's house for the time being! I'm sure he will be taking up residence in the Gibson household shortly!!) If you happen to visit in the near future, you will be greeted by Anna who will be carrying a toy mop and broom (given to her by Goo-Goo and her Uncle Phil). Anna is determined that the mop and broom go everywhere with her, including out for a walk to the local shop so that she could brush the pavement as she went! Thomas is now running nicely around the outskirts of her play room and the keyboard has taken residence in our living room, which is most appreciated when I am trying to watch a brief glimpse of TV but instead, Anna has decided to give us her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle' sung through the microphone at full volume. Happy New Year everybody.

(The last photo is taken at the end of Christmas Day. As you can see, James was asleep and Anna was still full of energy!)



(Thank you to all of you who have e-mailed or text, making sure we are OK and asking about the blog. Apologies for not writing a post sooner but now that normality has returned, I hope to post more regularly again! There is still loads that has happened over recent weeks that I still have to write about but, as it has gone midnight, my bed is calling!)