Today was Genevieve’s last day in year one. It’s like we blinked and another year had gone by – she’ll be at secondary school before we know it! She was in good spirits going in to school – we had our fingers crossed that there wouldn’t be tears at the end of the day.
James had another fun day with Grandma Margaret and Grandad Stephen. They scooted down to the park and, to quote Grandad, James chatted up some of the girls. I’m sure he was just telling them about an interesting stone he’d seen, or explaining that we’re going on holiday next week. I love how much of a chatter box he is!
Having finished his scooting, apparently James needed a wee but had managed to convince himself that there were ants down the toilet. The imagination of a four-year-old is something to behold! Grandad Stephen persuaded him that he was safe from toilet-based creepy crawlies, so James managed to go in the end.
After a gentle campaign of subtly pointing out that Fitbits are rubbish compared to Garmin running watches, Megan finally decided to take the plunge and ordered a brand new Garmin Vivoactive 4. She’s a proper runner now! After a long internal debate, I finally convinced myself that I really don’t need a new running watch at the moment. Aside from the fact I’m doing no exercise, the one I’ve got (the older model of Megan’s new one) still works perfectly and does everything I need. Consumerism is a real pain – I don’t need a new watch, but boy is it tempting to get one!
While I was working upstairs, Megan was recording herself reading several books in front of camera for her pupils to enjoy over the summer break. She’s going to share them with James’s preschool too. Her enthusiasm and level of care for her students never ceases to amaze me.
In addition to reading books for her existing class, Megan created a video to welcome her new class ahead of the next academic year. This meant filming her own section as well as editing together the submissions from her fellow teacher and teaching assistants. So now she’s a film director and editor as well as top-notch teacher. Impressive work!
Megan went to collect Genevieve from school. She had volunteered to deliver the class’s combined gifts so made sure she was at the back of the queue. The gifts were gratefully received (and very well earned too!). Being at the back of the queue gave Megan an idea – she took the opportunity to arrange an impromptu photo of the children in Genevieve’s school bubble. See if you can spot Genevieve – she was being her usual shy and retiring self.
On the walk home Genevieve revealed that she’d been given another award at school. Apparently she’s most likely to become a famous singer – brilliant! Now she is a confident singer, but I like to think that this particular certificate was code for “she’s rarely quiet in class”. Genevieve seemed less than thrilled with the certificate itself though – apparently she thought it looked like the people in the picture are blowing rather than singing. What a diva!
With both children home we took a trip up to see the friendly neighbourhood monkey. Today he was dressed up like a mariachi performer. Slightly random as the Day of the Dead isn’t until November, but he looked good nonetheless. His trousers were a tad tight though!
We then had a little session on the scooters. James appeared to be doing his level best to crash into every wall he went past – he just wouldn’t move into the middle of the pavement and insisted on scooting to the side. Perhaps he’s just trying to say as far away from the road as possible, but he’s taking that idea too far. Thankfully he didn’t crash, but there were quite a few close calls!
We got home to discover some water around the bottom of our new dishwasher. We’d already made a complaint to Smeg as it hadn’t been cleaning the crockery very well and seemed to be leaking moisture, but to have an actual leak when it’s barely a month old would be beyond frustrating. Lifting the dishwasher up confirmed our fears though – it had definitely been leaking. Not ideal.
The kids were truly awful going to bed. I had to confiscate both of their unicorn night lights, the iPad playing the latest chapter of Harry Potter for Genevieve, and several of Genevieve’s teddies. The excitement of the final day at school was clearly too much for them both (with James having absorbed the heightened emotions by osmosis). Joy.
Entirely unrelated to the kids’ behaviour, I had an emotional breakdown and found myself crying inconsolably in the garden for literally no reason. I think it was just the culmination of weeks and months of frustration, feeling totally useless and unable to resolve the situation we were in, and general mental weariness. As always, Megan was there to comfort and look after me and I was soon back to normal (aside from a snotty nose and puffy red eyes). Post-COVID recovery totally sucks folks – wear your masks.
The mood was lifted with another dose of Tiger King. We’ll be sad when it’s finished!
The Smiths Family Blog 