A long overdue family update

It’s been a little while since I wrote a family update, things have been rather busy here and it keeps getting bumped off my to-do-list annoyingly as family is the heart of this blog after all.

It’s very hard to believe we are nearing the end of March, this year is just speeding by far too quickly and while I am excitedly looking forward to the Easter holidays and spending proper family time together with the kids, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get things done before another 2 weeks off school.

We’ve had a month of illnesses yet again, Emmy has had a stomach bug which sadly took a while to appear, starting with a fever and tummy ache 3 days before meaning she had 3 days off school (Thursday and Friday with a very high fever, and then Monday as she was sick over the weekend). This means when the school reports are due at the end of the school year I will yet again be told her attendance needs to improve. I know this fully well already, she has had a few days off already due to illnesses this school year, I’ve lost count but it may be around 11 now – she will never be a child who gains that 100% attendance certificate but if she is poorly I will adhere to the school sickness policy of 48 hours. It is there for a reason, I’ve worked in schools and know how quickly germs and bugs pass between children and of course am suffering the consequences here when Emmy picks up yet another bug passed around the school.

If you are following me on social media, you’ll know that Harry is also poorly.  He has enflamed tonsils and a very sore throat combined with a nasty cold which has completely floored him.  He has spent all day today in bed and all of yesterday in tears – if you know Harry you’ll know he just doesn’t stop moving so this is unheard of.

Onto happier news, Emmy was very excited this term to receive her Platinum Reader Award in her Gold Award assembly, this means she has read at home to us 150 times and we’ve recorded this in her reading record.  This equates to reading pretty much every day, which of course is something we always try to do, not because the school ask us to but because we want to.  Its amazing to see her progression in reading, she has a huge love of books, as do we however she is rather bored of the school reading books and it is becoming a struggle to get her reading those. She doesn’t care what Biff and Chip are doing because in her words “it’s boring”, instead she likes to read chapter books and is currently loving the Paddington books I had as a child, The Faraway Tree, The BFG and the Famous Five books.

Parents evening for Emmy was amazing and she is doing so well in literacy that her work has recently been used as an example in class and her teacher couldn’t believe she had written it. She continues having a little extra help with her numeracy in the form of Numicon sessions with a small group of children and her teacher 3 times a week, this seems to be helping her and is building her confidence too.

She is doing OK in her swimming lessons, there hasn’t been any movement for some time now though. She’s been a Green hat for around 14 months so I’ve booked her into a crash course over the Easter holidays, this is a stroke clinic where they focus solely on a different stroke each day, 30 minutes every day for a week. She is also doing art club after school one day a week, which she absolutely loves.

Harry is doing so well at Maths in School he is now working at a higher level than his peers, I was told by the Nursery manager her was working at a gifted and talented level – to be honest, I’ve no idea what that means when you are in Nursery but I am super proud of his.

He’s taken to not liking school much sadly, and I even received a message via Tapestry from his teacher telling me they’d had a chat and he’d told her he didn’t like school. I’m not sure why but it does make me sad.

This week he moved up another swimming level to stage 3 yellow hats, this means he has completed stage 2 (having only moved to the higher stage orange hats 5 weeks ago) and has also gained his 5 metres badge for swimming unaided on his front and back in the big pool. We are so proud of him, especially as he is only 4 years and 5 months old. All his swimming lessons will now take place in the big pool.

Harry also wrote his own name completely unaided and unprompted in Tesco’s this week, he was drawing a picture on a Flowers for the Mother’s Day display – I may have cried a little, as this is the first time he has done this on his own.

As a family we are starting to feel the pain of Mother’s Day approaching, the kids are very excited and have been making cards etc. at school but this of course reinforces the missing family member. Paul, understandably is finding all the Mother’s Day promotion very hard, it will be the second year we are missing a key family member and it doesn’t get any easier. We will be visiting Anne’s grave this weekend and there will be tears as usual. Time passes but the pain remains.

I am not sure how to make this day any easier for him, I’m actually not sure that is actually possible – any ideas are gratefully welcomed.

As a family we have a few short breaks lined up but of course will be trying to squeeze in a few more. At Easter, I am taking the kids to Walton again with my sister and her kids, then we’ve a camping trip lined up with my Brother, Sister-in-Law and my Nephews which we are really looking forward to, my parents may also join us for a day – they don’t camp though so won’t stay over.

As for me, well nothing much changes there. I am still juggling poorly kids with housework, school runs and working from home BUT in very exciting news I did receive this shiny new badge this week and a number 3 position, which was a huge surprise and I am over the moon about, especially as I am listed amongst some amazing bloggers – you can see the full list of Top 10 UK Mummy Blogs here.

I plan not to leave these update so long next time, especially as the children are growing so fast – I swear they wake up almost a foot taller each week, or that’s how it seems when I am forever having to replace their outgrown clothes.

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