Somehow, while I was busy running around, a whole month has gone by and it's officially autumn. This week we've finally gotten our first taste of "typical" English weather - it's been grey and drizzly and cool all week, after a glorious weekend.
So what have I been doing? Well, let's see...after a quick week of half-days, Devil started up school full time. Well, the 8:30-3:30 version of full time that is. She loves it. Absolutely adores her teachers, her classmates, and the whole kit and caboodle that is school. She even has homework (!), which she does happily. Of course, since her homework basically consists of reading books with me or Daddy, and occasionally doing some flash cards for words, it's not too strenuous. And she has a whole host of little jingles for each of the letters of the alphabet that are slowly but surely driving me insane (damn you Jolly Phonics!). My mind still boggles at the idea that she will be able to read and write by the end of the year, but she is on her way.
Yesterday was our first experience at a school production for parents - it was her school's Harvest Festival. They typically have an assembly every Tuesday morning, but this week, parents were invited and each class (including the Nursery kids!) stood up and sang a song, or did a little presentation about a autumn celebration. Devil's class did the Chinese Moon Festival, and they each recited what they wished for (she wants a wand, no surprise to anyone there). Then all three of the pre-prep years (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, aka: kindergarden, first grade and second grade) sang a song about conkers, that I've been hearing in bits and pieces for the last few weeks. It was nice to figure out what the damn thing was actually about, since D insisted on pronouncing it "conkiss". Which I suppose is what it sounds like with an English accent, but it's hard to interpret as an American parent.
Boo is still enjoying daycare, blithely running downstairs every morning to show off her latest animal. Her teachers, bless them every one, continue to act suitably impressed when she proudly shows off her giraffe for the umpteenth time. And always the precocious one, she's decided not to wait until February to start acting like a three year old. Little shit*. So life with Boo now mostly revolves around asking her to do something, watching her float away ignoring me, and then wrestling her upstairs to her room as a consequence while she screams at the top of her exceedingly well-excersized lungs. Fun times. The only up side to this is that I have evidence that this too shall pass. It just might take a couple of years.
Himself is enjoying work, and is currently in Italy looking at rocks. Life is very tough sometimes. I'm back at work on a part-time basis, which I'm really enjoying. I can take the girls to school, go into the "office", have 5 hours to get things done (which requires me to actually be productive) and then I pick them up and spend the later part of the afternoon with them. It's working out quite well. I'm not getting paid yet, since I'm still waiting for my British Social Security number, but I'm enjoying being back in the lab/science world and having somewhere to go every day. However, life is about to be horribly disrupted by Devil's half-term holiday in a week and a half. She'll get to come in with me!
So that's it, in a nutshell. My commute is providing me with many entertaining observations on English life, and I promise it won't be another month before I tell you about some of them.
* And I mean that in the most loving way. Really.
No comments:
Post a Comment