Is this a 4-year-old thing? I don’t remember C doing it, so I am not convinced. Child is almost – almost – asleep. There have been several long slow eye blinks. Then, “Mummy. Two makes me fall asleep. I promise.” Oh. You’re not asleep. So you read two books, then, “Mummy? Actually, five makes me fall asleep. This one first”, holding out Fox in Socks, or Wish for a Fish, or anything that is not at all short and actually gives my mouth a workout to be able to read it. Where did that sleep train go? Was there an announcement or did it just sail right on by?
It’s been a week like that. Consequently, there was a hefty stack of books to be cleared near the bed. Never Pop a Penguin. Wish for a Fish. Letters from Felix. Pig Out. Easter Bunny Egg Hunt. Let’s Go Home, Baby Bee. The Little Mermaid. Plus library books. The girls chose a good selection this week. A Very Wiggly Christmas, and I am told each time who is who and what is what as soon as possible. Dreaming, which is a beautiful example of Aboriginal culture and Dreamtime and passing knowledge and culture to the next generation, as well as being a dreamy book for bedtime. Ten Minutes To Bed, Little Koala, which still has all the flaps and has a lovely sleepy koala at the end. Robin Robin, which is a book version of the Netflix movie by the same creators as Wallace and Gromit. C liked that one so much she had snuck it onto her bunk for the week.
And, my new all-time favourite book, Sleeping Handsome and the Princess Engineer. I have not read it every day, but that is because it is just too funny for bedtime. I have, though, read it several times at bedtime, anyway. It’s just that good. As the title suggests, it’s Sleeping Beauty with a few twists, and my feminist, raising strong and resilient girls mind loves it.
C has branched out a bit this week. She is still loving all the Geronimo and Thea Stilton books she can get her hands on, but at her school library borrowing session last week, she picked up a graphic novel in the Amulet series and got into it. At the library, she found one and that was her afternoon sorted. Every morning this week, instead of asking to play a game on the iPad, she has just started reading in bed. Her Where’s Wally Now prize book, and now Kiki Kallira, a hefty chapter book by Sangu Mandanna, which is very exciting. Whenever I go in to let her know breakfast is on the table, she will tell me in as much depth as I will allow what the latest exciting development is.
We are still reading Anne of Green Gables and thoroughly enjoying it. The only problem is that C wants to change her hair colour and length to match Anne. I was not expecting this.
When I started this blog (over 4 years ago now! Wild), I had a plan. Of course I had a plan. I was aiming for 3-4 posts a week. A craft that we’d done, something that we’d made in the kitchen, what we had been reading, and hopefully a little reflection of something that had been going on, like a collection of funny things the girls had said, or new milestones like when someone learns to walk or make their own sandwiches. Things evolve, of course. I mean, for starters, the two girls of the blog beginnings have turned into three girls. Reading took a hit for a while. Crafts have also been sporadic. Weekend food prep felt important recently. Work has grown considerably from actually fairly unemployed to working about 40 hours a week.
Recently, books have come back to be a big part of our lives. To the Me of three years ago with a baby who couldn’t snuggle in for a bedtime story at all and who feared said baby would be well behind when she reached school because she hadn’t had daily stories from you, just chill. Don’t try to force it and she’ll come around. Girls have been having way (I mean, WAAAAYY) too much screen time but that is in the process of being cut considerably, which is going to get its own post soon. This is a big area of life that I am working on. Games and crafts the girls are doing are getting more traction. Snack and some meal element prep is also becoming more of a thing, as work and school and healthy eating are more predominant in our lives. So I thought I might do a weekend rundown post, sharing what has happened when I have 2-3 girls at home with me for 3 days.
So. This weekend felt Big. E had her first proper dancing lessons on Saturday morning, and so I had the first time of taking all three girls for one girl to do dancing. I brought snacks and activities so all was well. The brand new ballet shoes I bought for E at 7.57 for an 8am lesson, though, made it through ballet and the jazz part of jazz and tap but were nicked, for want of a better word, by another girl when they all changed into tap shoes. I am working up to my Private School Mum persona to sort this out. Girls did painting during the day, and watched TV during the middle of the day while I baked, and then we went off to the library. As mentioned in the last books post, C read an entire graphic novel over the course of the afternoon.
Sunday was church, where C learned how to plait yarn and I think I might have a new mum friend maybe. Then, as it was on our way home anyway, we went to the Celtic Festival. It was hot. It was sunny. It was dry. It was pretty, with all the jacarandas in bloom around the place, but I wish they picked a different time of year for this festival. We watched some Irish dancing. We were not there for any highland dancing, which I am starting to really want to start to learn, or have maybe S start. I think it would really suit her. I digress. We had iced teas and the girls turned back to lovely from the cranky pantses they were becoming. I took them home for lunch and the promised ice cream, then back again for the costume competition (very strangely run) and playing in the playground. Needless to say, they were suitably worn out and we had an early dinner.
In all of this, E had found a partially-coloured in dragonfly picture of C’s. I printed her out a different one, which she has been steadily and carefully working on since Sunday evening. It will be a welcome back present for her favourite preschool teacher who had been gone for ages (4 weeks and it has been a long 4 weeks) and was finally back today. I am incredibly impressed with E’s care and skill here, not to mention her commitment to quality. She isn’t speeding it up and doing a rush job or a messy job or an incomplete job. She is working to make this a wonderful picture, no matter how long it takes. It’s beautiful.
What a week it has been for books in our family. I admit, there has been little reading aside from one or two short ones if a girl is having trouble falling asleep. The little readers version of The Little Mermaid. We’re Going On a Bear Hunt. The lost teddy bear book with the letters inside (which, although I like the illustrations and I like that it is a Tasmanian family and I like that it has letters in envelopes which are SUCH fun, the filler bits in the story feel contrived, as if someone needed to reach a word count or – more likely – they had little elements of a story that they wanted to include and so put them into this one).
But as mentioned in Book Week in August, C’s school does Book Week not in the middle of the craziness of all that is term 3, but at the start of term 4. Which is perfect, apart from the heat that is often present which does rather have an impact on costumes. But right after school holidays is great so that when kids are bored during the school holidays, “How about you work on your Book Week costume?” can be thrown around by parents as something to do to stave off the screen time, earning eye rolls and groans and resistance to make those holidays wonderfully joyful and stress-free.
Ahem. C had the idea in August that she could be the tree from The Giving Tree. I had ideas. She had ideas. It came to the holidays and she told me she very precisely what her costume was to be. I told her my ideas. That was wrong. She wanted to wrap a cardboard box around her torso and stick some green fringing to the top. And she was desperate to win. This was a huge factor. I’m not sure what Book Week is like where you are, but last year one of the winners was a kid who was Snow White AND the seven dwarves. And the year before, a girl in a Cinderella outfit complete with tiara and something like glass shoes and she was inside a homemade cardboard pumpkin coach did NOT win. I was preparing myself for dealing with a very disappointed 7-and-a-half-year-old.
Especially as her first-born perfectionism and a healthy dose of wanting to enjoy not sharing the iPad with her sisters meant that she just did not get started on this costume. Last Sunday, I took all the girls outside with a roll of butcher paper and a bottle of green paint so we got the green paper sorted out at least, as well as making a thorough mess of the outside areas. That made for a good physical activity Monday morning, I must say. Tuesday, big talk about doing this costume before it was the night before. Wednesday, same thing. Thursday morning, she cut out some big sheets of the green paper first thing. Thursday night, I had a talk with her about look at where we are. I’m going to have my shower and then you are getting out of bed and we are making this costume together.
You know how many times she has fallen asleep before, say, 8.30pm this year? Maybe twice. One of those was, of course, Thursday night. She was asleep when I had finished showering at 8.13. Unbelievable. I did my best with this costume, and thankfully she was awake bright and early Friday morning. She ended up in a basic brown skirt/dress, my new linen long-sleeved top, and a stapled together headdress with the green paper. She had scrunched a piece of red paper into an apple, and Glenn stapled green leaves to it and tied it to a string to hang on her wrist.
There were definitely vibes of no adult intervention. But, she also looked like an elegant tree. And you know what? She won the year 2 “Best DIY Spirit” prize. We are all stoked.
Two of the judges were from the local council library, and of course they talked about the library a bit, and so of course E and S were then at me to go back to the library. This afternoon, we did. I paid the fine on all our very overdue books. We borrowed a bunch more, some of which are gold. I will delve into them more next week, I think. I’m tired.
You know when kids just get on a roll with a book? That’s all they want to read or have read to them. For three days. Or for a week. Or for, you know, 3 months. Not that I minded reading Ruby Red Shoes every night for 3 months when C was 2, but it is a memorable part of my ‘reading to children’ history.
I feel we are in the same situation here now. Possibly. Frozen (aka “The Big Elsa Book”) has been going strong now for well over a month. The push-pull Snow White book (aka “E’s Snow White Book”) is enjoying a similar level of popularity. In fact, we went away for a couple of days this week and when I asked girls to pack one book each, those were the choices from S and E. C picked a Dragon Girls book. I don’t think she read any of hers, but the other two had a bit of Frozen while traveling, and E and S both had quiet moment of resetting with their favourite books.
S has also been asking a lot for We’re Going On A Bear Hunt. We will sometimes even be suddenly in a game of this while on the way to daycare. I will notice that her walk changes from just walking or just running or being Elsa to the pantomime of hunting and obstacles and I’ll hear her sweet voice in a sing-song of “We’re going on a bear hunt, I got my rinoculass”. Very cute. And when we join in, she is over the moon.
Another book that has found new favour is The Princess and the Wizard (Princess Eliza), a Julia Donaldson book but not illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Rather, Lydia Monks has done the illustrations and so it feels like it’s in a different world. C will read this one to the younger two, as well, doing all the voices to squeals of laughter. It has to be managed, shall we say, at bedtime. I might start a collection of Books That Are Only Allowed To Be Read Once, Maximum Twice, At Bedtime. So far: Princess Eliza, Pig the Fibber. On the Never At All At Bedtime Under Any Circumstances: The Book Without Words.
I am loving reading Anne of Green Gables to C. It was one of my favourite books when I was young. Admittedly, I was much older than C when I read it but I was reading it myself. I hadn’t realised what a slow start it was, but that is proving useful for setting up a scene for C. I see many similarities between my C and Anne. I think C has realised this, too, and loves having a character similar to herself but also is very thankful that she is not at all in the same situation in which Anne started. Side note, this particular copy is riddled with typos. I am not a book-mangler or noter, but I think I will be going through and correcting this one for future. I don’t know much about how publishing works, but come on. This is a classic. Anyway, two nights in a row now I have read a bit (or a lot) and C has been asleep within 5 minutes. Rare but welcome.
The eagle-eyed among you, or the regular readers, may note a different title than usual. But you may have noticed I haven’t posted much for a little while, either, so that explains the former. Life has been busy – good busy, which really means I have had lots of work to do when children are sleeping, which cuts down on my writing time. (I have noticed, though, what a difference this writing makes to my life. The combination of alone-time without 15 ‘mummy’s a second, a cup of sanity tea, and the process of expressing myself and often working through problems as I write, just helps life.)
Books have featured heavily in our lives lately. There was Book Week. Which meant there was a lead-up to Book Week, too, with lots of reading. Last week had a pupil-free day and so my parents came down to see the girls and took them book shopping. C has been off school all this week and one of her screen-free activities was reading. Another was helping to tidy the girls’ room. C is a kid who needs very precise instructions, as well as a different take on things. “Tidying” doesn’t go down so well. I get the rolled eyes and body flop of “This is the worst, most boring thing in the world that you have asked me to do and I protest”. Ask her to make an area look nice, though, and she excels. If there are too many things in that – like, put the books away AND fold the blankets AND stack the cushions AND put all the little things that accumulate and drive me nuts and why do we even have them – those things in the pouches on the door, well, that’s just too much. Stick to one thing at a time and it works.
At the bookstore with my parents, S got right into it. Like we were at a library with no limits on loans. The stroller very quickly had a stack of books in it, then she sat down and had my dad read Peppa Pig stories to her for the rest of our time there. Which meant, unfortunately, that I put all her choices back and we got home to “Where’s my fish book?” – oops. Mum bought her Mr Archimedes’ Bath by Pamela Allen, and she has listened to it but not asked for again. E quite enjoyed it, though. Mum had a particular book in mind for C, a chapter book by David Walliams. Mum worried that it was too big for her. I raised an eyebrow and told her that the Penny books (Penny Draws A Best Friend and that series) that mum gave her the first one of, you know those really thick chapter books, C will read one of them in a weekend. Sure enough, C started her new book that afternoon and read it at every opportunity, finishing it before we left for a birthday party at 8.45am Saturday. She loved it.
E’s choice in the bookstore was a Snow White book. We already have two Snow White stories, one in the Ultimate Princess book and one as an early reader. I said no. The one E wanted was a simple board book version. I said no. E refused all other suggestions. I figured this was not a battle I needed. I relented. Guess which book has been the most-read, most-loved, taken-to-daycare (and home again) book. Yup. All the girls love it. It’s one of those board books with push/pull/slide, and the story words rhyme, and I put in extra bits for the action parts. E can’t read yet but knows all the words, and when she or C read it, they put in all the action parts, too. S has had screaming tantrums at bedtime because she wants E’s Snow White book. I have read it while sitting next to her. I have read it while sitting next to E. I have read it while sitting next to E and holding it up so C can see it from her bunk. I think… I think it was a good choice of book.
E has lately started ‘needing’ a story so she can sleep. Wait, after two stories she’ll be able to sleep. Yes, two stories and then she will sleep. Wait, because she is four now… After four stories, she promises she will go to sleep. And apparently, reading Pig the Fibber (one of the Pig the Pug stories that has recently come back into the limelight and has my girls squealing with laughter) four times doesn’t count as four. Humph.
S is still obsessed with The Big Frozen Book and because C put all the books away I haven’t been able to find (yet) The Small Elsa Book. The Bluey Summer Treasury has also been pored over lately, as has The Very Hungry Caterpillar. C has been reading Geronimo Stilton as well as all the Roald Dahl collection. Also, C and I finished Little Women – apparently the last two chapters were booorrriinnggggg but I get that that was boring for a 7-year-old who has little experience of the world. I loved that it had several elements pertinent to our family, though, like the part where the girls decided to have a break from their chores and then their mother let them have it and it was chaos. Rather pertinent to our weekend, actually, as we have an inspection on Monday so my days are spent picking up Disney coins and hair bows and tissues and pencils and no you can’t do painting today because nobody cleans up afterwards and also could you please just this weekend please leave your quilts and pillows on your beds and maybe somebody could help me make this place just a tiny bit nicer so I can actually clean it before we have a total stranger coming in to take photos of our mess to send to the owners and WHO EMPTIED THE ACTIVITY TUB and OH MY WORD WHO PAINTED THIS ON THE WALL. Humph. Fortunately, even though C is the leader of “Don’t give away our toys”, she also really appreciates and relishes a calm/uncluttered/clear space, so when I put everything on her bunk into two (that’s right, TWO) large garbage bags to be stored FOR NOW in the wardrobe, she was ecstatic.
Bonus of clearing spaces – girls can stretch out on the floor to read and choose books. Love. C and I are now reading Anne of Green Gables, which we started a while back but didn’t get very far. We are loving it this time around, though. It was always a favourite of mine and it is really something special to share a much-loved book with the next generation of readers.
In my Catching Up post I promised a more expansive recounting of Book Week 2025, so here it is. First up I will mention that this only covers the younger two, as C’s school does the parade in fourth term, and I love that the school has recognised that Book Week is big and also when it falls – in the middle of term 3, right after Science Week and the Brisbane show holiday which is around when the school fair also happens, plus it’s the end of winter – might overload some kids or make Book Week and the love of reading just another thing to tick off the list in the middle of a busy term.
Last year, I was probing Book Week ideas from about May. E was, after all, wanting Room on the Broom every single night from about then. She didn’t waver, and I made her a skirt and a cape for her to be the witch. Which, happily, doubled up for her Halloween costume later in the year. Win. S was tricky last year, but she did have a tendency to pick the Bob Bilby book, so having made beautiful items for E, I hemmed a length of light purple (lavender? Lilac?) material, cut a hole for the head, attached a pink panel, and sewed up a bit of each side while C helped me put bilby ears on a head band. Very simple and quick and didn’t quite make it through the day but that’s ok.
This year, I only started thinking about this in late June, early July. Just a question here or there when I’ve read the same story multiple times AND can see how I might manage a costume for a character. This year, I was sure I would be sending a princess along. E’s choice for a little while was Belle from Beauty and The Beast. The village Belle? (Which I can totally manage, no problem). No. Yellow Belle. The ballgown Belle. Ah. Not so simple. Pausing on that idea. Then I started asking S. Are you Slinky Malinki? NO, I’M S! Are you a princess? NO, I’M S! (Put that on repeat for maybe another five characters). Are you… Anna? (Pause, in which I see her straighten her back and feel E change next to me). YES I’M ANNA! E: mummy? Mummy? I’ve changed my mind I want to be Elsa.
Rewind a few years, to C’s first Book Week at daycare, aged about 17 months, I guess. A parade of movie characters had me rolling my eyes and internally raging against dress up events and reading losing its meaning, yada yada yada. My kid would always go as a real book character. I’ll pause while you have a good chuckle.
In my defence, we already had a very simple Frozen book, “I Am Elsa”, but I had a look in Kmart for any others. “The big Frozen book”, as it’s called in our family, was found and bought and has been read most days. Yes, Anna and Elsa are movie characters. But also yes, they are also in books that are thoroughly enjoyed by my girls so who’s to get snooty about it? Ahem.
In any event, before I had started any sewing, E did another “Mummy, wait. I changed my mind. I want to be a ballerina for Book Week”. Okay… we’ll have to find a book with a ballerina in it, then. “Yes. Can you write me one please”. Hahahahahahaha no. As we already had ballet costumes ready to go, this choice was a relief. We’ve borrowed books from the library with ballerinas in them so I wasn’t going to argue or fight over this one.
Last Friday, armed with a screenshot of a Frozen cake topper, I took E and S to Spotlight to find fabrics. They were quite wonderful in finding material to match the colours of the skirt, the bodice, the bag – wait. The bag? Anna has a bag in that cake topper so mummy can make a bag for the costume. We also found a ribbon to edge the bodice and pom pom trim for the cape. Exciting. Extra information, I had been allocated more than my stated capacity for extra work (you know, in my paid job), and taking on definitely one sewing project, maybe two or three rather heightened my stress level but also my organisational level but also entirely reduced my capacity to do basic household tasks like sorting washing.
Daycare does two dress-up days for Book Week, as not every kid is enrolled every day. This year, dressing up could be, if they wished, Wednesday or Thursday. With the sewing I was doing, Thursday. Just Thursday. Thursday was great. Tuesday evening, E gets home and tells me with a very serious face – the sort of face I imagine she’ll have when I mess up the school calendar and think the science project is due next week instead of tomorrow – that they had to dress up tomorrow. Wednesday. Noooo. You can dress up Wednesday OR Thursday. OUR TEACHERS TOLD US TOMORROW. Thankfully, the Little Red Riding Hood costume I had bought for C when she was this age – the week that S was born and I caved and bought something instead of making but thank goodness it gets a lot of wear – was clean and wearable and still fitting E. Also thankfully, S didn’t insist on wearing a costume that day, too. Also, I love that we have two Little Red Riding Hood books.
Wednesday night, I finished sewing on the bodice ribbon and sewing the cape together and adding trim and doing buttons. (If you’ve been paying attention, I did not have time to make the bag.) I went to bed just before midnight, thoroughly happy with myself and my creation, and itching to see S’s reaction and wearing it in the morning. First thing in the morning I said, “It’s Book Week dress up today!” S: “I go as Mickey Mouse”. No. Noyoudon’t. When S saw the Anna outfit though, she did a gasp and “Is that my Anna?” One. Happy. Mummy. Getting dressed, and E got into her ballet costume fairly easily on her own while I put S’s dress over her head. S saw E. I tried to do up the snaps on the Anna dress. She refused to let me. “I WANT TO WEAR MY BALLET!” But you’ve been wanting to be Anna for ages! I knew I was tired and more invested in a dress than perhaps I should be so I walked out to take some deep breaths. Glenn came in to save the day with early birthday presents (dinosaur heads with a lollipop inside) and S was then more than happy to wear her Anna dress and cape and look at the love hearts and pockets and IT’S GOT POM POM POM POMS!
I am happy to report that she was in character for much of our trip to daycare. I managed to get some lovely action-in-nature shots of her. We opened the door to her daycare room and were met with a sea of colourful polyester and I felt even better. One of her birthday presents was a purchased Elsa tutu dress which she wore all of Friday and Sunday but then Sunday evening it came off and she wanted her Anna dress on. And the cape has been worn several times – I mean, who wouldn’t want to wear a pom-pom trimmed cape?!
There have been many articles this year about Book Week and is it losing its meaning and is it too much stress on parents and kids. In those years when I wasn’t aware when it would be, I always got a surprise – but then managed a costume with what we had around. Looking ahead and finding out when it will be and planning costumes, though, is part of the happiness of parenting for me. One thing I absolutely love about Book Week is talking about books with my girls for weeks or months beforehand, and finding out more about THEM. What style of book are they into. How do they imagine an outfit for this character will look. If we were in that world, what would they have around them. I absolutely love this insight into the brain of each of my girls. Thank you, Book Week.
I just counted, and I have seven posts begun but not posted. That is, begun recently and not posted. Writing has been hard to do. Checking what I’ve written before I post has been, apparently, very hard to do. I often have a crying S wanting me to give her bum pats from just after 4am, and even though she settles quickly, I am not allowed to *stop* giving her bum pats. Eventually, I am permitted to lie down on the little sofa – you know those little foam ones? – which is proving less and less comfortable. But I take what I can!
A brief highlights reel from the last month or so.
The girls all had haircuts. For S, this was her first time. E and C had previously asked for “Mummy cuts”, and E had been asking (at wildly inopportune times) for another cut for ages. Eventually one weekend we did it. S had been asking for a haircut, too, and as she had masses of curly hair – think Merida from Brave – then I thought it would be wise. Especially as brushing hair was her least favourite time of the day. So she had a haircut, too, and then looked at me reproachfully for a couple of days with “You cut my curly hair”. I can tell how untrained the haircuts are, but as one of their friend’s mums got in touch the other day to ask where we go, maybe they’re not so terrible after all.
I redid the girls’ bedroom. During the school holidays, C led the way in “making a big mess”, as S recounted over the next few weeks. All the clothes were pulled out of the shelving in the wardrobe and all the books brought into the room and all of it was all over the floor along with whatever toys they felt like adding to this mix and, after leaving the scene and doing some kettle bell work (that whole heavy work thing helps so much for me), came back and asked C WTF. I mean, sorry, WHYYYYY. And it turned out that she just didn’t like how they had their clothing in shelves in the wardrobe. As that had been a “We’ll see how we go with this” solution at the time, I agreed to sort out something new. Something new turned out to be the shelving in the wardrobe coming out and holding books in their bedroom, and a new set of drawers in between the bunk beds and the cot. Where my desk used to be.
So, related, I no longer work in the girls’ room. I currently set myself up at the dining table and pack everything up into our bedroom when not working. No, this is not ideal. However, the payoff has been calmer girls. Their room is less crowded. E’s way of getting into bed is far easier. Having books in their room has meant I often walk past and see all girls reading quietly or playing library. Once one of them is ready in the morning they are more likely to pick books over fighting over the little annoying junky toys which I hate with a passion but keep somehow coming into our household to be fought over. They have a calmer room and they are calmer. It was a tradeoff in my working environment that is well worth it.
I had a birthday. It was absolutely lovely. I mean, it started abruptly at 4.12am with a vomiting S who then was AWAKE but that just meant more birthday to enjoy, right? I had cuddles and snuggles so, yes. I even managed a 15-minute nap on my own! That is to say, I was on my own in bed for about 12 and a half minutes before one girl after another came in and then it was just funny and my favourite photo of the day is one Glenn took of me with my three girls all in the bed together. Glenn made me fantastic food all day and took the girls to the shops for a whole hour and a half and it was bliss.
C started an extra Irish dancing class a week, leading up to maybe doing a competition. Now I have to finish work early on a Monday and take her off to class, which I really enjoy. It makes it a bit tricky with work, but not overly so. Speaking of dancing, I have finally made inquiries about E (and realistically, S) starting ballet. Wow. That is such a big statement for so few words. They are both also really keen for Irish dancing, but logistically I just can’t make that work before they start going to school. E has been proving herself to be – for a long time, this is – a beautiful and enthusiastic dancer. Not just ballet, either, although about a year ago the daycare teachers were just assuming she was having lessons because of the way she would play. She will also just start dancing like she is onstage with a rock band or – yeah it’s usually rock for her, but one of my favourite E quotes from recent times was after C and I had asked Siri to play some Paris Combo. After a bit, E came to me in the kitchen and asked, “Mummy what IS this music? It’s making my bum want to dance”. So I am super hoping that she will be able to start ballet as well as jazz and tap.
This last week has been bonkers. Book Week. S’s birthday. School Fair. I have been feeling like SuperMum all week, which has been nice but also just a teeny bit stressful with getting everything done in order to fee like SuperMum. I was going to give a big Book Week rundown but might save that for another post. (I shared my sewing in my @annalikesmaking Instagram if you’re on the gram and want a peek). But, I sewed a dress and a cape for S to be Anna from Frozen, as well as doing an enormous amount of paid work, as well as S having a birthday (VERY lowkey), as well as baking a slice for the school fair, as well as restocking the freezer with baked oatmeal and brownies and muffins. Then taking the girls to the school fair ON MY OWN because Glenn had a gig for Friday and Saturday. Goodness me. I am finishing this on Sunday morning and I am very, very hopeful I can take the girls to church so they don’t bicker at home and I can get some time for me and talk to some grownups possibly about not-children and not-school and just BE in that space. Our whole family needs it.
E: Can you read me a story? Me: Okay, but it’s already really late, so see if you can just listen without asking lots of questions, okay? E: OKAY! Me: Right. Which story would you like? E: PrincessAuroraSleepingBOOOdy. Me: A long time ago, a king and queen held a party to celebrate the— E: What was the queen’s name?
Yeah. That’s how well we do.
Now. I had a realisation this week. Wait, some history first. When I was a little kid, I loved princess stories and movies and outfits. I didn’t ever have those dresses or anything, and as I was #3 child with brothers all around, princess anything was usually overruled. When I was older, I shied away from the princess stuff. Waiting for your prince, having to have a prince come and save you from the dragon or the spell or whatever, was so at odds with the independent, feisty, women’s lib DIY person I was. I thought, if I ever have girls, they’re not getting to watch princess movies or read princess stories. No. Way. But then Frozen came along. Another “True love’s kiss” thing to save the poor princess – but wait! Sisterhood! Okay, Frozen is allowed. Then I watched Beauty and the Beast, and that was another without a damsel in distress being saved by the handsome prince. It’s allowed.
With this Ultimate Treasury of Princess Stories that is the current go-to book, there are five princess stories. I have been asked to read them A LOT over the last couple of months, and have come to a realisation. There is much in these stories that can prompt discussion, shall we say, about differences in how we live now, in this country, and also much to prompt relationship discussions. Now. Princess – or normal girl who marries a prince therefore becoming a princess – who lives her life true to herself and her values – tick. Princess who pines for her prince, wanting a man to come along and save her – babow.
Let’s assess. Snow White. Victim of a psychopathic narcissist. Pines for a prince. Looks after the men. Kissed by a prince which breaks the spell and MARRIES HIM STRAIGHTAWAY. Not so keen on this one.
The Little Mermaid. Controlling father. Always interested in humans. A bit of lovesick nonsense. She saves HIM. Victim of evil witch. Actually has different endings, depending on which version you read or see … it’s okay.
Cinderella. Works hard. Finishes her work and still gets to go to the ball, where on her own merits she and the prince fall in love. Follows the rules and is home on time. Prince does some work to find her. Tick.
Beauty and the Beast. Prince needs to get over himself. Belle loves reading and is firm on her morals. Sticks up for truth and justice. Prince and Belle spend time together and fall in love over time. Contrast with Gaston who doesn’t want Belle reading or doing things that make her who she is, just to be his wife. Beast does what’s right for Belle, not him. Belle sticks ups for the Beast in front of an angry village mob. Big tick.
Sleeping Beauty. Arranged marriage. Set to be married as early as possible – I know times change and all that, but 16 is still super young, and when it’s arranged by the dads it just comes across as creepy. Keeping secrets from her about who she really is “for her own good”. Pines for a prince. A bit of teenage angst. Taken home to be married against her will. Goes off on her own anyway and nearly dies. Prince battles to get to her. Kisses her. She lives. They get married. Big no. (I’ve been thinking about this one a lot today. So many things could have changed to avoid this. Not impressed).
I still read them when requested, but I now add commentary – and just answer allllll the questions that are peppered throughout anyway – and the No’s score much, much more commentary.
There have been other books this week, too. Yesterday, to be mischievous, C had them all taking every single book off the shelves in the living area and taking them to their bedroom. When I then couldn’t open the door, I told her to make sure all the books went back to the bookshelf. What she interpreted that as was to get all the clothes off E’s shelf in the wardrobe and throw them about the floor, too, then move the shelf to the hallway and put the books on that. I can see where she’s coming from aesthetically, despite the lack of practicality, but this turned into playing library, so as I was sorting washing I was hearing the quiet thud, thud, thud, of books being put on shelves, E reading quietly to herself and then saying, “Here you go. Next book please!” – not at all quietly – and S reading picture books aloud before, “The end. Here you go. That one, please!” So for all that the room was diabolical and of course, no-one cleaned it up before bedtime so I had to do all of that before bathtime and then E got into bed later and wanted the elephant toy of all things and of course I didn’t know where it was… Hmph. Anyway – lots of books were “experienced”, as they say.
S has also been having a few wake ups from the cold, and if she is having trouble getting back to sleep, I am asked to read her a story. The Magic Beach, The Tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle, and Never Pop a Penguin have all been quietly read in the dark by a mum who is falling asleep after every three words or so.
C and I are reading little bits of Little Women every night. It actually made me cry the other night, with the note from Mr Laurence to Beth with the piano. But that was followed by the gales of laughter from both of us over the limes and the girls’ reactions to the limes.
Meanwhile, S turns 3 soon, in the same week as Book Week. Asking for character ideas is tricky because E keeps telling me what she wants to be at Halloween. I’ll work on it.
What a week of reading it has been! It’s been the first week of winter holidays for C and, unlike previous holidays where I have been working and she has done *some* craft/painting/colouring in, mostly while watching shows, this time I put my foot down a bit more. Admittedly, it really helped that Glenn had days off coinciding with some of those days so they did things together and she still had a fair bit of iPad time but really not so much as she used to. She has read quite a few books. I mean, chapter books like the Penny Draws series. One of those takes her a couple of days, but other books like the Ella at Eden series seem to be finished within a day.
E is really, really into reading right now, too. She’s at the level of interest of wanting me to point to each word as I read it, and of being picky about which Beauty and the Beast or Snow White story I read to her. C also read The Book With No Pictures to her, so there’s another bedtime battle for you. If that is a new one for you, another way to say that is it is far too hilarious to be read at bedtime. On account of all the scream laughing and sudden toilet requirements. That said, hearing C reading it to E was fantastic.
S has been found several times in front of the bookshelf, silently turning pages of books. Or insisting on taking The Ugly Duckling to read in the stroller on the way to the park. E and S are both insistent I tell them the name of the ugly duckling so any appropriate duckling/cygnet names welcome. One of my favourite things right now is hearing S reading a story. It is incredibly sweet and heartwarming, so much so that I have even had a braincell wake up and I’ve videoed it a couple of times.
Actually, today’s video of S “reading” Elepop out loud – yes, sure, describing the pictures but with the inflection of story and the occasional speech element – was taken just after I took a picture of all three girls. This is one of those photos that speaks volumes to me, and most people will be fairly meh about. My girls have loved watching iPad. I have let them watch way more iPad than is good for them. This is changing. I am changing. They are changing. So to catch a photo of all three of them in their room before lunch, before I had managed to put fresh sheets on beds, with E waiting on C to finish her book for the library game that suddenly sprang up, is special.
Yesterday, we also had my brother and sister-in-law over for a play and dinner. They are big fans of reading, and while I gave S a bath and got her to sleep, books were read. I had to go out to them twice to calm it down because The Diary of a Wombat is hilarious, as is The Book With No Pictures.
They were also delighted to hear about what C and I have been reading, and very impressed that we are reading Little Women. Every time C mentions this to someone, Beth toasting a shoe gets a mention because C thinks this is the funniest thing in the world. We now have a policy though, that when C doesn’t understand something, she puts up her hand and I explain it to her. Every few pages I will be needing to explain something, which isn’t too bad, I think, but does demonstrate that maybe we need to start maybe watching some of the good Pride and Prejudice. Just maybe.
Surprise! I suddenly had a braincell wake up last week and say, uh, the books post… you know it doesn’t have to be Sunday night…? Yeah. When I started this blog 4 years ago, C was 3 and E was a little tiny baby (S was “invisible”, or still a dream). There were piles of books that would form all over the place – sofa arms, coffee table, bedside tables – and I would aim to tidy them on Sunday evenings. A logical time to do a post about what books we had read that week was after I had tidied them all at the end of the week.
Fast forward to now, and for about a year now I have changed girls’ sheets and done a bedroom tidy and clean on Fridays. Fridays, because there had been too many occasions on Saturdays when I had gone in to change sheets and found a full-blown cubby in the making and if I needed to remove a quilt cover then that would mean full dismantling of the cubby and there would be tears so I wouldn’t change the sheets that day and so it became a Friday thing. E and S won’t build cubbies without C, who is at school on Fridays. So I have been cleaning and changing sheets and tidying away books and making notes of which books I am putting back on the bookshelf, but things can change.
Yesterday, I did what I used to do. I took a photo of the books we had read, that were strewn across the floor, then put them on the bookshelf. Simple. Here they are.
Friends of the Unicorns, which came with the two main characters as toys. Ten Minutes to Bed: Where’s Father Christmas?, which is rather annoyingly missing its last flap with words. Goldilocks. Peppa Meets the Queen (groan – still). Where Did All The Dragons Go?, which is on an extended loan from neighbours who used to live in the house next door. I love this one. It definitely feels like an older book – think 80s or 90s, so “older” compared to this century – and has good rhyme and repetition that doesn’t go overboard or force the issue.
Then, Disney. The Misadventures of Heihei is one that was in an Advent calendar of books that the girls had a couple of years ago. Honestly, a wonderful buy. 24 books, all with substantial stories of what feels like outtakes of Disney movies. This one is a favourite of C, who will laugh so much she needs the toilet again. E chose it this week and her 4yo brain couldn’t follow and imagine quite so fully as C’s 7yo brain, so there were frequent fingers stopping the page turning and “Wait. Mummy. Go back”, followed by a question or 6. And the Ultimate Princess Treasury – see the benefits of a photo? Now I can tell the correct, actual title of “the big princess book” – has been a definite favourite this week. At least once a day – usually when I think she should be asleep but she has clearly missed a sleep train, but this has also happened at other times – I will find her on her bunk, leafing through the whole 250+ pages, intently checking illustrations. I have read each story to her at least once this week, too, and her questions are developing more into questions about character and reasons for doing things and personality.
C and I finished The Secret Garden on Monday night. This has been such a good book for us to read. Next book: Little Women. We are not far in, obviously, but already C has laughed and laughed and also been quite thoughtful as she takes in the situation. I am curious to see how she responds as the book develops. Not to mention, keen to reread this one as I think I was in early high school (or late primary school) when I read it. It’s been a while. Ahem.
The Stuff of Our Life 