I have officially arrived in the land of blog!

'Cos I've been tagged by Dix!

Here's how it works: I pick five of the following and answer them, and then I tag three people to do the same.

If I could be a scientist...If I could be a farmer...If I could be a musician...If I could be a doctor...If I could be a painter...If I could be a gardener...If I could be a missionary...If I could be a chef...If I could be an architect...If I could be a linguist...If I could be a psychologist...If I could be a librarian...If I could be an athlete...If I could be a lawyer...If I could be an inn-keeper...If I could be a professor...If I could be a writer...If I could be a llama-rider...If I could be a bonnie pirate...If I could be an astronaut...If I could be a world famous blogger...If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...If I could be married to any current famous political figure...

1. If I could be a chef ... I would develop a fabulous amount of healthy delicious low point dishes and open a restaurant for people looking after thier figure
2. If I could be a musician... I would amaze and please people by being able to sit donw at any old piano and playing requests
3. If I could be a painter... I would have the most fabulously visual classroom in the world
4. If I could be an inn-keeper...I would wear the most fabulous low cut leopard skin tops and lean on the bar sipping dry white wine, flirting with the customers and listening to thier problems. I wouldn't let in bitchy girls with attitude either.
5. If I could be a writer ... I would write novels that inspired and interested women like me.

I tag... um no-one as all the bloggers I know who visit here have already done it. *sob*

Ruminations....

Been so busy, and yet there hasn't felt like anything of any interest to the passing reader for me to blog about!

Had a good week at school, today was the First Holy Communions, so spent the morning (a Saturday morning, no less!) calming over-excited seven and eight year olds in suits and white dresses and veils down. Made me feel poignant - won't be too long before that's Alfie! I told Mike that when I got home and he started getting pouty about whether or nor Alfie should have to make his HC or not. I said; "Hey - you're only letting me have one, so we're raising him MY way. Give me another one and you can have that one for the heathen!" That shut him up.

We're having friends for dinner tonight - the lovely Sarah and Chris, our bessie mates who are moving to Exeter (something we said?) and the heavily pregnant Suzanne and the drop dead gorgeous Mark. We are making Indian food - I have done onion bhajis and chicken makahni and naan bread and Mike is making paneer and peas. My stuff is WW friendly - Mike's: not so much.

Speaking of WW, after last week's 2lb loss I have put 2 1/2 on this week, so , back to where I began really! It is TOTM, but even so I was pissed off yesterday. So, I am taking a short break from it. Not to start eating chips with a Cadbury chaser, but not counting points - just making sensible choices. Today, I have had porridge and sausages in pittas with some grapes. And you know what? Not been hungry. And you know what? Not snacked. And you know what? Only had 11 points so far today. Interesting. I'll only panic if I can't get in my 16 trousers!

I love my job!

Yesterday was a big moment in my career - my first "Good Work Assembly". This is where parents are invited, the whole school attends and the children present examples of the work we have done. It's stressful for a number of reasons. It's like a production; children don't just hold up pictures, they have to talk about the work. The parents are there, which is always tough. The other staff are watching, and when you're new to a school like me, you feel under scrutiny. Add into the pot that you teach 5-6 year olds and it's a minefield.

Anyhow, the childnre were fabulous! They did extraordinarily well - we have been rehearsing for weeks but you never know what it's going to be like. Here's what we did:

• showed a Shape poem we wrote about a set of spooky stairs - we did this in a stair formation too
• showed a retelling of a traditional tale using a puppet theatre - three Billy Goat's Gruff
• two children read extracts from thier stories
• showed sunflowers we are growing
• showed observational paintings of sunflowers
• talked about our history project about homes
• demonstrated number bonds to 10 and counting in 2,5 and 10
• performed a musical version of In The Ning Nang Nong
• talked about our Geography field trip
• showed nice words we had thought about on 100th day

...and then I collapsed in a heap!

They really were fab, I was proud of them and the parents really enjoyed it. Everyone on the staff was really complementary.

It's been a good week at school, everyone is very enthused after a trip this week to see a wonderful school in a deprived area. Long may it last!

Picture the scene

04.49am - Dragged from a deep slumber, as Alfie's bedroom door opens and he takes himself to the loo. He gets back in bed. I ... don't get back to sleep at all. Not a doze, not a snooze, wide awake. So at 05.22am, I get up, get a coffee and do the ironing. So, as I write, it is 06.51am, I have done an hour's ironing and watched this week's Desperate Housewives that I videoed as I was too tired to watch it.

Oh, did I mention that it is Saturday? And I have a girls' dinner tonight? I may need a second taxi to carry my under-eye bags with me.

YAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

Champions League final here we come!

Groundhog Day

- he did the same again last night. Bless him.

I am typing on here to distract myself from the fact that as predicted by me on Dix's Blog Liverpool are winning 1-0

Bank Holiday trip!

We went to Dunham Massey today with my Mum for a picnic and walk/football. It felt soooooo good to be able to run around playing football with Alfie without feeling embarrassed about how fat I was/out of breath. Had a lovely picnic of ryvita, hummus, quorn pate, coleslaw, potato heads, cherry tomatoes and fruit. Love that my boy scoffs stuff like that and all his veggies!

Nappi-less, nappi-less...

It feels like a million years since I had to actually initiate any "child development" matters. By that, I mean, making decisions as to when Alfie will take the next step towards something. When they're really little, you decide everything - when they come off the breast to the bottle, when to introduce new and different foods, all that stuff. As they get older these sorts of decisions get taken out of your hands - you can't say, "Right now you can start counting up to three" or "please write your name today". You can encourage and assist but these things are out of your hands.

So, it was an unusual feeling yesterday to initiate something. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you: a child who went to bed with no nappy on last night.

We've built him up to the process and prepared him, bought extra bedding and a rubber sheet and made a star chart.

And it went - ok. First he got up four times in between 7.30 - 8.30 to wee, which is wierd because normally it's lights out, no noise for 12 hours, but we've put this down to nerves and novelty. Then, he made it all the way through until 6am, when he wet the bed - I'm putting that down to him waking and forgetting that he had no nappy on. Also, I think it's probably good for him to experience that feeling, as I'm pretty sure that he won't want to experience it again. Watch this space...