Jessica asks me the damnedest questions. They can be incredibly in-depth and sometimes beyond my expertise. She notices things in such fine detail that I am impressed by her inquisitive nature.

This is one which has stumped me. Even Papa (our usual fall-back) couldn't provide an acceptable answer. . . .

We went to Jollye's Petfood Superstore on Friday. While we parked the car, Jessica noticed the advertising on the side of the building. Dog Food, Accessories, Bird Feeds, Horse Feeds and Rabbit Food.

She asked "Why do they use two different words in the Dog Food and Horse and Bird Feeds?"

I thought it may have something to do with the fact that both horses and birds can be a commercial business as well pets - but David pointed out that dogs can too with dog racing. Jessica pointed out that, technically, you could also extend that to rabbits too with the same dog racing. . . . Papa decided it is just *tradition* and that people have been talking about Horse Feeds for hundreds of years.

I can't work out it if is carefully worked out and worded from Head Office or if there IS no difference and someone has made a mistake.

Anyone?

Tags: Jessica, Questions

There is a teaching method in primary school called "dependable rimes". It is where the children learn all the words that end with common letters. I don't think we had it in my day and I am not toooo sure why it is *rimes* and not *rhymes* but there you are.

An example would be where the child has to learn all the words ending in *ame* like game, fame, name, lame etc.

Iain nearly wet himself the other night when supervising Jessica's homework. She had to construct a sentence using as many words as she could with the rime *ick*. . .

She wrote out:

"Licking the prick made him sick."

After quickly rubbing out the sentence Iain quizzed her about the word *prick*. No - she didn't know it's meaning and it ISN'T a word we use around the house so I think it was just a word that fitted for her.

It will be one we remember to tease her with in future years though - a bit like the time I asked my grandmother for Vagina Ham in my sandwich rather than Virginia Ham - although I have a sneaking suspicion I knew fine rightly what I was doing at the time.

Had I been supervising the homework I would have let that one go in to the teacher - I don't think they get enough laughs in a day!

Tags: Jessica

Iain bought me some fancy chocolates for Christmas. The pile is getting smaller very slowly because I don't bring them out in front of the children in case I have to share the good stuff with them.

Jessica came downstairs in her new purple satin jammies. She flicked at the chocolate covered almonds sitting in front of me and asked "What are you eating?"

"Guinea pg poo."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Mummmmyyyy. What are you really eating?"

"I'm really eating guinea pig poo."

"Mummyyyy. They are too big for guinea pig poo."

"Yea, you are right - it is really cat poo. They collect them, bake them in an oven until they are hard and then polish them to make them look nice."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Mummy?"

"Yes?"

"You DO know I can read now, right? I think they are . . . chocolate . . . . covered . . .. almonds. . . . "

"Oh. Bummer."

Tags: Jessica

It's Jessica's 8th birthday today!

We got her a new bike - the last one was hilariously too small for her and she needed a new super duper flashy one with gears and pinkified all over. She seemed happy with it. Mind you, she was equally happy with the £2.99 box of Bratz stickers I got her too!

At 2pm Aunty Lesley and I transported 5 girls (no David - he went to a boy's party) to the cinema to see the Bratz movie. I quite enjoyed it. It's hardly meant to be movie-of-the-year and with numerous trips to the toilet I didn't see it all but it was grand.

We then headed to a local diner and had something to eat and the staff presented Jessica with her cake. The staff were all great, very attentive. You'll notice the lack of photographs? I left the camera on charge. Totally forgot to take it with me.

Back to our house and they settled down to a couple of dvds. One girl was too young to sleep-over so she went home just minutes into the first dvd. The others got in to their jammies and settled down with their midnight snacks.

I think Jessica is enjoying herself. This is the fist sleep-over she has had of her own so I hope it is a success for her. . . . .

Tags: Birthday, Jessica, Party, Sleep Over

Jessica and I ditched David today in favour of an easy life. He went to the child minder's and we went to work.

Driving along the road she quietly asked "Mummy, what age does a witch have to be to have herpes?"

I'll let that sink in for a few moments while you think it over.

Witch? Herpes? Age?

Got an answer yet?

"Jessica, I really can't hear you with your window open like that. What did you say?"

"What age does a BITCH have to be to have PUPPIES?"

Ahhhhhhhhhh. That one was a little easier to answer.

Obviously reproduction is on her mind, for whatever reason, as the next question a few miles down the road was:

"Can you choose when to have babies or do they just happen naturally?"

Some questions are best answered by Papa. Some by Auntie Lesley. . . I think we need to book a session with Auntie Lesley for this one . . . .

Tags: Jessica, Witch, Herpes

Remember Jessica's stuffed dog she got on holiday last year? Jess? Well Jess was absolutely stinking to high heaven the other day and I made her have a bath in the washing machine. She came out much sweeter smelling and several degrees lighter in colour.

Jessica didn't wait for Jess to dry before tucking her under her arm for cuddles again.

After a while Jessica came up to us, stroking Jess' head.

Mummy, did you use Comfort on Jess?

No. Why? (It's too hard to explain that I use a *two in one* liquid - *No* was sufficient.)

It's just that now she has had a bath, Jess is a little bit soft in the head. What? What? What did I say? Why are you laughing? What?

Little things like that are keeping us going at the moment.

Tags: Jess, Jessica

Last night I checked in on Jessica before going to bed. I wasn't too worried she wasn't in her bed. It is normal for her to fall asleep in our bed. I went there to lift her but she wasn't there either. Nor in the guest room, where both children take turns to sleep for the novelty of Musical Beds.

I decided to check further in her own room. There she was, lying on the floor with a blanket over the top of her while her perfectly good bed and duvet lay redundant on the other side of the room.
Then I took a fit of the giggles. She was actually lying with her head inside a cardboard box a la homeless people. I took several photos but this was the best one I could get in the available light. The blue thing in the top middle is the box.
Strange child.

Tags: Jessica, Sleeping

Walking away from the school with Jessica holding my hand tight and both of us keeping our heads down against the wind and rain, I asked her how had her day been. It's a stupid question, I suppose, dude - she was at school all day - how COULD it have been?

"It was ok, apart from the part where it rained ALL day."

For some reason this gave me a fit of the giggles for a few minutes and we discussed how I find her so funny. I can't explain to her why I think she is so astute.

Iain has taken my car apart - part of the dashboard is sitting in the rear seat. A guy was supposed to come to work and pick the car up to fix the air conditioning in it. I was in work at 9.30am on Thursday and he never turned up. I was less than impressed.

When we got to the car Jessica asked what had happened to the "glove department" and why was it lying open like that. When I told her Daddy had done it to help the man she nodded and told me that "Daddy is very very good at that sort of thing." I was pleased she was able to see that. Until she continued with "It's a pity he takes so long over doing some things though isn't it?"

Oh how astute she IS!

While we were watching Britain's Got Talent earlier on (my FAV program at the moment!) it was a little risqué at one point and the judges started to comment on the sex life of the married couple taking part. The words "sex" and "sexy" were used. Jessica turned to me and, wide-eyed, asked me what "sexy" meant. Where was Iain when I needed him? Thankfully my answer must have satisfied her as she didn't go on to ask what "sex" meant.

David slipped in beside me as I was watching Ross this evening. There was a photo of a naked woman on the screen. "Ew! Ew! Ew! That's GROSS!" I tried to distract him but it only served to remind him of something he had seen recently.

"Mummy, you know the newspapers Daddy puts down for Bailey at night? This morning when I looked at the paper there was a page which had a lady on it and she was NAKED! EW! EW! EW!"

It wasn't long ago we didn't have to worry about that sort of thing. Perhaps I need to encourage Iain to read a better class of paper from now on!

Tags: Jessica, David, Children, Quotes

Here's a wee quick entry for you about Jessica. This would be about the girl who is so clever she manages to work out she needs a stepping stone in the garden so as not to get her socks dirty on the soil when fetching a doggy-toy out of the way so I can photograph my new "garden art" but not clever enough not to be running around in her socks soles in the first place. This photo has been on my phone for a wee while now and I couldn't resist uploading it tonight.

We went for yet another walk around The Quarry this evening. I took the kids and the lad from next door before Iain came home. It is a fantastic place - loads for me to photograph, lots of secret places for the kids to explore, acres of ground for Bailey to run around and of course, by default, a Health and Safety nightmare with long forgotten items lurking beneath the undergrowth and two treacherously deep areas of water which, as they have swans on them are now referred to as *lakes* in our house.

It is only about a mile away from our house and I pity anyone walking their dog up and down the lanes around the village when this place is so close to us. On the other hand - if EVERYONE went there, very soon the land owners would clamp down and our own fun would be spoiled.

Let me remind you a little about Jessica. This is the child who LOVES extreme sports. I mean - she couldn't get enough of swings and play grounds and see saws when she was tiny. Such a difference between her and David who hated anything quite so exciting. Only last week Iain and I were commenting on how fearless she was and how cool she is trying thing out at the age of 7 which David still isn't keen on doing.

Now let me tell you about the massive heap of black rubble at the quarry, which Iain told the kids was a lava flow and they believed him ( I think he believed it himself!) and they now have to climb every time they go there. David and Jack, with their longer legs, made it up in no time this evening, Bailey was up and down several times but Jessica chose a less than obvious route and ended up getting stuck three quarters of the way up. And stuck she remained. And "Stuck" she cried. I watched from below because I am not all that unlikely not to get stuck myself.

I once got stuck three quarters of the way up (or in reality: one quarter of the way DOWN) abseiling down a very tall cliff in a village in the South West of Scotland. (You know I just searched the internet there to find out if it was Kippford or Portpatrick but I still can't remember and sure, it doesn't matter much because no one reading this was there with me and no one can contradict me - so let's go with Portpatrick huh?)

When I say stuck, I mean stuck. I took a panic attack and could not move. There were people above me waiting for their go, there were people below me coaxing me down. It wasn't helping much. I was stuck. what part of stuck didn't they understand? They rope was slipping ever so slowly through my fingers - they have never told me that I needed to keep a grip on the rope! The longer I stayed still the less secure I was and the less secure I was the more I clung to the cliff edge with my toes through the soles of my boots!

I was there so long that seagulls started to nest in my coat hood.

Eventually one of the guys underneath decided that he would have to climb up, which he did. By the time he got to me I was in floods of tears and couldn't see where I was going any more so that helped enormously. I always felt so guilty that I made him climb all the way up there to rescue me both from a "risking his personal safety" aspect and a "please don't think of me as a girly girl now" way.

Anyway, that little story is to illustrate that I knew exactly how Jessica felt. She was standing still, clinging to the face of the lava flow with her toes and finger nails and the more she stood still the more she started to slide. Someone was going to have to help her out and although Bailey was able to lick her tears away he couldn't coax her down. Finally I had to climb up, without ropes, may I add, to her aid.

We have finally finally found something that shook Jessica. I assure you there isn't much that will!

After her wee scare we continued around the quarry to look for fossils. Jessica quizzed me as to what "fossils" actually are and I was gratified that she was impressed that my answers matched those of Daddy from a previous Q&A session. Obviously we have both been watching the same Sky programs! She found a stone that had markings on it (from then on anything that had a mark at all on it was a fossil by the way!) . She traced over it with her finger and pointed out that this was a fossil of the "cartoon character in The Pink Panther". I thought "Yea Yea" but in fact - when I looked at it closely it was the spitting image of Inspector Jacques Clouseau! She was right!

Right now the quarry is the number one place for entertainment - it has been a big hit and Iain and I are dreading when it is no longer available to us - dude - we may have to drive TWO miles to the local park then!

The more astute among you may recognise my new Garden Art and may even call it something along the lines of "a load of old off-cuts from a couple of railway sleepers" but it is ART and I am going to charge THOUSANDS for this!

Tags: Jessica, The Quarry, Garden, Family

You know the theory there are different ways of learning - by doing, by seeing and by listening - you know all that malarkey? Well I haven't really worked out what way I learn - other than sometimes it can be fairly slow and if you are trying to teach me something you may have a thick skin, loads of patience and some ear plugs. I have a feeling David is going to be the same way.

My darling daughter Jessica on the other hand is a child genius I tell ya! She is now size 1 shoe size - the size that the powers that be decide children ought to be able to tie their own shoe laces and stop making velcro'd shoes so readily available. Oh, yes, they are out there but they are harder to find.

Yesterday in Tesco's Jessica fell in love with a pink pair of trainers. She had to have them (although she HAD to try on size 3, then 2 and THEN 1 before I could persuade her that was the size for her). They fitted ok but I had to tie them up for her. Big pink laces. I explained to her that she would need to learn how to tie them herself because I wasn't going to be able to do them every time. She nodded and I braced myself for weeks of screaming and frustration from her. Cos, that is what we had from David. He had a terrible time learning how to tie his shoe laces.

So, back in the kitchen and she decided it was time to learn - in the middle of me having my tea. It is actually pretty difficult to teach someone how to tie shoelaces because it is a thing you do without thinking. So I showed her once, twice and three times. There was no moaning, no trace of tears and nothing but enthusiasm.

Today she wanted to know if I knew about "double knots" oh god she is on to the hard stuff already - where will it end? I showed her on one shoe and she had a go on the other . . . then I realised that she had already tied her shoes herself and HAD been all day.

She is either a quick learner or I have turned in to a superb teacher! Take your pick - either way *I* am smug!

Ok, so, what's with the Tummy Thing Jessica has going on at the moment? She is so funny. We spent a great hour together tonight before bed time. She came and lay on our bed (we do a lot of our family life on our bed) and we had cuddles and watched tv and chatted and then we did a little job for Mummy (which involved me photoshopping photos of myself wearing Threadless t shirts in a cold studio and having to clone out the "boobie pimples" which had me biting my lip with laughter - you can not persuade me to use proper words when she comes up with alternatives like that) and then we did the Tummy Thing.

It basically starts off as her putting the pillow over my head. I pretend to struggle and gasp and take my last breath and then wait for her to take the pillow off my head saying "Oh pooooor Mummy, dead at last. . . " or "Are you REALLY dead THIS time?" and such like. Mostly she will try to resurrect her darling mother by pulling my closed eye lids viciously open to see if she can find any sign of intelligent life.

When she can't, she will start to kiss me with wet slobbery kisses which cracks me up. Oh don't get me wrong, by the time we get to the kisses I have already been through this routine about 23 times, every time with the pillow and holding my breath that little longer and each time a little bit of a variation to the theme.

Tonight, just as I was expecting the kisses again, I suddenly got Raspberry Blowing on my body. In totally random places. I was ready for bed so got them on my bare leg, my arm, my cheek, my eye, anywhere but where I was expecting them!

Finally, she lay down exhausted and demanded that I do The Tummy Thing. It is easy. All I do is hover above her. Take a deep breath. Hold it. She uncovers her tummy. I pretend to move forward. She loses her nerve and covers her tummy with lightning fast speed. Repeat. Rinse. Lather.

This can go on for HOURS. Or until one of us needs the loo. Most evenings I never make contact with skin. Ever. What's with this? If she likes it - why doesn't she let me do it? If she doesn't like it why does she ask for it? Either way it makes for great fun and loads of squeals of laughter and two exhausted girls by the end of it all.

What's with The Tummy Thing and where does she get THAT from?

Where is the Statue of Liberty?

Is there only one?

Is there only one in the world?

Or is there one on every planet?

Like in Mexico - is Mexico it's own planet?

I have just read five six (thanks Lorna! Anyone else care to expand my count?) blogs in a row (out of about thirty) where the authors have started the entry with stating that today is Tuesday. Weirdness! I have never noticed people mentioning the day before like that, most certainly not so many in one sitting. . . What's that all about then Ted?

I can confirm. Today IS Tuesday - I know - for I was at college all day and the right people were there - had it not been Tuesday I would have seen different people!

This morning Jessica came in to use the en-suite half way through getting dressed. She had her tights and school shirt on. I pulled her into bed with me for cuddles. We love cuddles we do. She wriggled and giggled as I tickled her. Just as I got her all nice and warm she announced that she had to go because Daddy wanted her to get dressed. But she promised she would be back for more cuddles as soon as she was dressed.

I reckoned she had forgotten because a good while later she still wasn't back and I really needed to be getting up. Suddenly she burst in to the room and launched herself at me. We cuddled some more. Seemingly she hadn't been all that time getting dressed. She had been having her breakfast too. She said "I have had my breakfast, I didn't have very much so I could get back here quickly and spend more time cuddling."

Awww. . . . How sweet huh?

I reminded her that she *could* have cuddles EVERY morning. She disagreed with me.

"I couldn't have cuddles EVERY morning. I would be VERY hungry!"

Heeeee.

Jessica has a flair for drawing. She is much more comfortable with it than David ever was. She drew this for us the other day. It depicts us as a family out for a walk. I asked her who everyone is. She named herself, David and me (from right to left.) I asked what the brown animal was. That is a kitten which "started to follow us."

I asked why Daddy (you can ALWAYS recognise Daddy when EITHER of the children draw him!) was on a hill and quick as a flash David said "To make him look taller!" This lead to all sorts of hilarity in our kitchen for a while. Seemingly some cheeky bitches reckon he isn't tall enough!

It is because she accidentally drew him too far up the page and then knew she had to give him something to stand on. Did you spot the bunnies? She's really into bunnies at the moment for some reason.

Did you also spot both me and her with long hair? Well that all changed today when we went and got our hair cut. Hers was away down her back but today she agreed to having a whole pile chopped off and it is a neat wee bob again. Mine is a good lot shorter too - short is good - the shorter it is the longer before I have to go back to a dreaded hairdressers again!

Jessica was talking in Pizza Hut yesterday. She was thinking about people with lots of money. Other people - not her.

She reckoned that if a person had lots of money they would be able to buy lots of houses. Castles even. Lots of castles perhaps.

We agreed with her.

It got to about 6 houses and three castles.

Oh. . . and some food. They would need to save some money for some food.

I nodded at the food part. Food would probably be important if you had a lot of houses and castles.

David piped up with some information about a book he has just finished where one of the characters is so rich he had about SIX castles and SEVENTEEN houses! WOW!

Jessica looked at me and said "Do you think there would still be money left over for some food?"

You got to hand it to her - she will look after the practical aspects of our money . . . when we win it . . .

We were driving along this evening when we went past a cemetery. David piped up "Mummy, you know how Nanna and Papa go to the cemetery all the time? Who are they going there for?"

Rather than try to work out which grandparents were in which cemetery I just replied "Daddy's Grandparents."

Jessica was obviously not too sure about this because she asked "ARE THEY STILL ALIVE?????"

Let's hope not. . . .

I just ran upstairs to ask David and Jessica what they want for lunch. We are having a lazy day today because Nanna and Papa are away for the weekend and we don't need to go visit them.

David is only just out of bed, not dressed and hasn't had his breakfast yet.

Jessica has been up for ages, dressed herself, had played with three different friends and is now back in her room trashing it.

David isn't hungry so that is easy made for him.

Conversation with Jessica went:

What do you want for your lunch?

What is there?

Ham sandwiches.

What else is there?

Ham sandwiches.

No really Mummy. Where else IS there?

Ham sandwiches.

But if I don't want ham sandwiches what else is there?

Ham sandwiches.

Ok Mummy. I don't want ham sandwiches. So what else is there?

Um. . . .

It's ok. I quite fancy ham sandwiches actually.


Repetition IS the best way to get people to think the same way as you do, I have found.

Summary only available when permalinks are enabled. Read More...

Last night I arrived home first and went to pick up the kids from the childminder's (next door). I arrived on time but all five of them (my two and Gill's three) were all just sitting down to their tea. I stood and waited for quite a while for them to finish and gossiped to Gill and said hello to Grandma. . .

One by one they all finished, put their plates at the sink and left the table. Jessica was still getting through her chips. Slowly. She eventually asked if she could leave three or four but I think it was because she was feeling left behind - not because she didn't want them.

She managed to finish them all except one final chip. She asked if she could leave it. . . I said "Aw, you don't want to leave just one chip on it's own do you? It is going to be lonely all on it's own. . . "

She picked the chip up. broke it in two, threw the pieces back down and declared "It isn't going to be lonely now IS IT?" and jumped off her chair.

Hmmmm . . . . she might have me there . . . .

I spent the day with Jessica - dumping David with Gill next door. Jessica and I went into town with the express instructions to get "boots."

She had her "has to have" list in her head. She was so funny. We went from shop to shop. I had all the patience in the world because I thought we weren't going to find any with it not being winter n all!

I pointed out a few to her but every time I saw "nice" ones she said "No. I don't like these because of. . ."



We went to five different shops. Eventually we ended back at, dare I say, the first shop? There had been two pairs there and she had fallen in love with the pair with the high heels.

She drooled at the heels. I just said no way - there was no way! . . .

I tried to get her on to the other pair that weren't so high and even roped the assistant in on it to get her to explain to Jessica that the pair she wanted didn't come in her size - which they DIDN'T.



Eventually she had allowed me to take her back there in the hope that I would change my mind about the high heels.

She wanted ones that were very long. She "preferred" brown ones. She didn't like black ones. She kept looking at the womens ones and whispering to me to ask if they had them in her size. I just couldn't get it across that they were different and not available in every size. Her reasoning is fairly sound at times.

She kept on about the high heels - not happy at all with the other ones.

She finally agreed to take that pair but not until after trying to persuade me on to the other pair AND getting a pair of gorgeous sandals out of me too.



She loves her new boots and tickled me all day. She was so into all the details of the boots even though she came home and told Iain that I had FORCED her to buy the ones she didn't want!

Jessica:

"There are two reasons why I can NOT be your sweetie pie Mummy."

Pause to look deep into my eyes for an inkling of understanding on this matter.

"One. I am not a SWEETIE. And two, I am not a PIE."

She has the logic thing pretty much nailed hasn't she?

Looks like I have a vacancy for a sweetie pie then!

I have just taken five minutes to do one of those silly emails that people insist on sending you because they want to look busy in work. Number three was:

3. The one person who can drive me nuts, but then can always make me smile ...

I answered "Jessica."

I answered with "Jessica" for one reason. Yesterday. Yes, basically ALL of yesterday. But one part in particular.

Jessica came in to my bedroom and asked me "IF I go and tidy my room will you get my buggy out for me?" She has a cupboard in her room for toys and they are stacked in such a way that she can't get them out herself. She has worked out in the past that we wont take anything out if there is no room for it on the floor.

I said yes and away she went, to return a few minutes later saying the room was tidy. I went and looked at the cupboard and told her I couldn't get the buggy out and that Daddy would have to for her - it was too awkward for me. This wasn't the outcome she wanted.

A while later I was getting dressed. I always have all my clothes laid out on my bed before I go for my shower so I know what I am going to wear. She came in and asked again. I repeated I couldn't get it out. She started a tantrum. Jessica can do tantrums. She is good at tantrums. Her tantrums never have managed to get her what she wanted but she continues them anyway.

Next thing I notice she has gone quiet and is eyeing up my clothes on the bed. She picks up my bra and stuffs it down her jumper. "If you don't get my buggy out I am not giving you your bra back." I raised an eyebrow at her.

After five minutes the buggy was still imprisoned in the cupboard so she tried another tack. She ran off giggling to herself and when she returned announced "I have put your bra beside my buggy - if you want to get dressed you will have to go and get it.."

Now - I have to admit - even *I* wouldn't have thought of that one. I found it very hard not to tell her she was the cleverest thing ever! It didn't work though - what she failed to factor in to the equation was that it wasn't the only bra in the house!

Later on we were all in the car and Iain and I overheard her telling David about the incident. She told him that earlier she was grumpy and huffy and did this really funny thing. I have never actually discussed her tantrums with her - it is interesting to hear what she calls them in her own head. Grumpy and Huffy.

Sure - can't we all be Grumpy and Huffy at times? Not all of us resort to taking bras hostage though. . . .

I just came running up the stairs and spotted the mess in Jessica's room. I shouted back down at her with a "Your room is NOT going to get you any pocket money you know!"

The idea is that the kids have their room tidy for Daddy coming home on a Saturday evening and they get their pocket money.

Jessica answered with a "Who cares? I already have £4!" as she banged the front door behind her and went to play with Max.

Oh well, that takes care of the future then doesn't it?

We suddenly realised this morning that Jessica was supposed to take three photographs of herself at different ages in to school to talk about herself and her life.

We realised this at 8.45am.

We went into a mad panic, ripping photos off the wall and out of frames, discarding frames and glass and albums up and down the stairs. Iain remembered "four" photos so worked for ages to find a fourth and when we found one we went back to the kitchen to read "three" on the homework sheet.

We found it difficult to lay our hands on three photos of our second child. There seems to be one album of her compared to the eight or nine of David. This is for two reasons. Second children have less photos taken of them as everyone knows. In this case it isn't quite so much to do with not taking photos - but that the ones that are taken are all digital.

At 8.45am (and counting) you can hardly start burning a disc of the last few photo shoots of your child - or open, crop, adjust layers and print in Photoshop. I have plenty of photos of her and if I could send Miss Magowan a link to my journal she would see them all, but actual hard copies that I can glue on to a page and send in to school??

Must try harder. . .

I went to collect two very tired children from the childminder today - they were both still awake at such a late hour last night that I can't, in all good conscience, actually tell when they fell asleep!

When Kim let me in, Jessica immediately ran to me and clung on to me as I tried to get into the house and shut the door.

We all stood around and chatted as coats, shoes and bags were all gathered - why they can't all be waiting for me at the front door I will never know - it isn't as if I surprise them arriving at different times each night. . . .

I watched as Jessica shied away and clung a little more. Something was up - but knowing her it might be a wee while before I get to the bottom of it. Or not!

Kim was quite proud of the fact that her second son (aged four) is now in the habit of kissing Jessica. He looked at me, pleased as punch and announced "I shlurves Yesssica."

Huh uh?

Jessica looked up at me with tears in her eyes and announced "I DON'T WANT TO MARRY RYAN!"

I likes a girl who knows her own mind. But now - do I explain that she doesn't actually have to marry everyone she kisses. . . . or do I let that one sit for a while?