Beth rang up this morning to say she’d read a page and a half of the first Harry Potter book. We worked out that each chunk of a longer book would count as a “block” under MS readathon rules, the way that a chapter of one of the shorter books does. She says she wants to continue reading it. I will forgive J. K. Rowling for all most some of her sins against literature if B does indeed persevere with the tripe book.
She also nagged me again about ringing Russell, but this time I bounced it over to Nannie and gave her R’s mobile number. She talked to him tonight and he would love to meet B, now we just have to set up a time, and I need to decide if I want to be there or not. I know I ought to be there, but there’s a lot of baggage…
Anyway. B had a rather exhausting horse riding lesson with a very stubborn pony, then came home and watched Rollercoaster, then Hogfather and/or Doctor Who episodes in her room until she went to bed, with a short break for dinner. Nannie included a couple of pages of spelling words and a comprehension sheet based on HP. And apparently there won’t be any repercussions about missing the course on Sunday – she picked up the second homework sheet and we will try to make a start on it tomorrow.
In the meantime, K and I had quite a nice day, which didn’t contain as much Play School as usual after about 11am because I dragged myself away from the computer to be entertaining. We went to the library to return our overdue books, and borrowed more (including our old friend Kipper’s A to Z), most of which I have already read to her. Go me. We have also played her favourite let’s pretend, where she is Dr Katy and I am her hapless patient in hospital. I am eating a lot of imaginary jelly, and taking doses of medicine which are apparently delivered through the medium of a large yellow pencil. She is using a piece of one of B’s construction toys as her doctorly equipment – it’s a cord with a miniature solar panel on one end and a screw-type attachment on the other. She adds other bits to it at random, the better to poke me with. I am tempted to suggest getting her a doctor’s dress-up kit, but it’s just so enchanting seeing her imagination flow that I think I will continue to let her make it up from bits and pieces instead. There was also quite a lot of silly giggling of the mutual face-squishing , peepo- and jack-in-the-box singing and ferocious tickling variety. I like having my belly-bag back, it means I can lounge in much greater comfort while playing with Katy, even with Rosy kicking the bejeezus out of my insides when I’m lying face-down.
What else? She “helped” me make pumpkin soup – there’s nothing soft enough for her to actually cut up in this recipe, but she did get to pour lentils out of the jar into a pot, then pour them from one pot to another a few times, which kept her entertained while I did the actual vegetable surgery. She has coated the floor throughout much of the house with sultanas, having somehow taken the dried fruit container (heavy and above her head) off the shelf and burst open the packet all over the dining room floor, in order to fill up a bowl which she then ended up tipping all over the living room floor. Scrublet… She did have a nap this afternoon, which she was most reluctant to be woken out of in order to go pick up her sister. And after dinner she read many books, with both me and her Daddy, prior to fairly reluctantly going to bed at about 9:30ish.
Oh – and the cuteness! I asked E if his Dad had spent a lot of time with them as kids, and as he was thinking about it a little voice piped up immediately, “Yes! Yes!” Katy had obviously heard the question as addressed to her. What a testimonial, you wonderful Daddy you 🙂