Friday, September 29, 2006

Steeeeeeeeeeve!

Boy, this girl likes having visitors. Steve arrived last night for dinner and Maia was so excited, she rushed about saying "Steve is here! Steve is here!!" all the while jumping up and down like she was attached to a spring.

Part of her excitement was due to the fact that, last time Steve came over, Maia persuaded him to read her a bedtime story. Not only that, but she got him to read one of the ones that Mummy and Daddy tend to try and hide because they are either: Too Long or A Bit Dull or Too Princessy or Don't Rhyme Properly.

Steve, being a Story Reading Novice, didn't know how to extricate himself from the rubbish books. Then again, we bought them, so they must be OK on first reading. And Maia likes them...

Fun Evening? Not So Much...

OK, am beginning to see just how different it must be if you have a kid and don't work from home. I have had an avalanche of work. Most of it is with the States, so I have been working a full day (mostly on my company stuff) then picking up Maia and sharing dinnerbathbed duties with Pat, and then going back to work till late.

Now, if I wasn't working from The Garage, and my journey to work took more than 20 seconds, I would never see her.

I mean, NEVER. The night before last (when Maia and I had all these great plans for a fun evening) we had a surprise dinner guest. So, straight after school, we had to go food shopping. I had been planning a Cereal for Dinner Day, and that is strictly family only. Then the latter part of Maia's day was spent watching me cook and listening to Pat play music downstairs. I think she had fun, but I felt rotten. No part at all was spent colouring, playing, looking at guinea pigs and enjoying each other's company. And she didn't even get fish fingers, because we were all out. Ugh.

Have got her from 1pm today though, so we are going to have a run about in the park with George and have tea with Isabel, George and possibly Sofia. Then it is the weekend, so should get some good stuff in there... And I am going to go stock up on fish fingers.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Maia's Plan for a Fun Evening

Yesterday was a bit crazy, what with work, dinner and Pat and I talking about grown-up stuff.

Maia was playing by herself for a bit. She does not do this terribly well. She has never been one of these kids that finds themselves a little corner to go and play with trains or dolls or anything. If she retreats to a corner, it is usually to rehearse for her next "Watch me, Mummy, I am going to do a Show!" And we have only just got her to retreat for that - we used to be treated to the whole shebang - rehearsal, show and encore. All at top volume.

We talked about her day at storytime and she said that she had not had a very fun day. We agreed that we would try and make tomorrow better. How were we going to do that? Well...

Tomorrow, she said, she wanted to play with me after school, instead of being on her own. Now, I am a people person too, so I know exactly where she was coming from.

Her plan for today is that we:

Come home from school
Play in the garden
Bounce on her trampoline
Watch the guinea pigs in their outside home
Come inside and do some colouring
Have some dinner (fish fingers and peas and beans, please)
watch a little bit of tv (Scooby Doo is best, if not, then SpongeBob Squarepants would do)
have a bath
go to bed and have stories.

Sounds like a good evening plan to me. Will let you know how we get on.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Catherine F's wedding

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a wedding reception in East Sussex for my friend Catherine Fisher and her new husband Mick. Maia was a superstar. She was so excited about camping that she didn't really complain about the long trip down there.

When we got there (after a bit of a diversion to get lost) Maia settled into the serious business of Making Friends. There were a load of space hoppers in the field by the marquee and Maia bounced her way into a few groups of kids and adults to say hello.

Later on, after dinner and speeches (and a rather amusing episode with an insistent Maia, a box of confetti and the bride who was eating her pudding) she and I were bopping on the dance floor. I had her high on my shoulders to see exactly what was going on, and three (3) separate groups of people, whom I had not met, said "Hi Maia, how you doing?"

She replied "Good! My mummy and I are dancing!" When I asked Miss Maia who these people were, she said "People I met. They like me."

What a superstar.

We spent the morning after the night before picking sloes to make homemade sloe gin. Have to say, she is better at making friends than fruit-picking...