The Georgous

Ever since Georgia watched Hannah do cartwheels down the track off Caldicot Castle, she has been fascinated by gymnastics. After a good month of waiting, we finally had our first session at Kestrel Gymnastics. We went along today with Cary and Anwen and joined the Pee Wees the 2.5 – 3 year old classs – It was a Blast! As it was only Georgia and Anwen in the class they had most of Shirley’s full attention.

Particularly popular was the inflatable track which made walking running and hopping tremendously fun. What I had not counted on was that they would be allowed on the actual gymnastics equipment – but this they did. They were lifted up on the lower rung of the parallel bars and taught to do some basic movements.

Definitely good fun although the distance is rather a bummer — still we will be back again next week for sure.

Georgia started Ballet at the Caldicot Leisure Centre with Angela Fryer (Angel School of Dance) in early October.

Georgia has been able to recite numbers from 1 untill approximately 20 for some time now. However, it is only recently that she has started to formulate some sort of understanding of what these numbers mean.

She has been trying hard to use her fingers to represent these numbers and can now successfully use the V sign for two, and progressively move on to 3, 4 and 5.

Earlier on, she had to use her other hand to help keep the right number of fingers up. Frustrations did mount when her thumb wasn’t quite long enough or agile enough to hold down the other fingers in the representations of two and three….”thumb-thumb needs to kiss the other fingers”

Well done Georgie!

Georgia pretty much knows all of her ABCs now. I know what John Holt says about teaching them and not testing – but it’s amazing and fascinating to see how well she remembers and recalls the letters.

Books from Caldicot Library

Miffy’s Dream – Dick Bruna
Poppy Cat Splash – Lara Jones
Guess how much I love you in the Summer – Sam McBratney & Anita Jeram
A wolf at the door – Nick Wark
Frog finds a Friend – Max Velthisjis
Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp – Carol Diggory Shields & Scot Nash

Georgia had a tantrum of significantly epic proportions today – much which consisted of whining and an indeterminate volume of tears. It was hard to determine what set it off or why…it was frustrating for me, almost in an anger-inducing sort of way, and yet at the same time, I could empathise  – I too remember being little, feeling at odds with myself, not knowing what I wanted and yet knowing that I could not have it or get it. I remember feeling confused, upset and utterly powerless.

Being ‘Mum’ now, I feel almost as frustrated and as powerless as I did then, but for significantly different reasons. You see, my well-behaved, smiling, nearly always co-operative toddler has now morphed in to this demanding, bossy, constantly pushing the boundaries almost-three year-old.

Over the past year I have seen her grow and learn so much and in an virtually reciprocal way, I have learnt from her, about her and of her….and yet these days I find myself on a fuse so short sometimes I wished I didn’t have to deal with her…and that’s when guilt sets in.

Every morning when we drop Daddy-dear off at the train station, Georgia blows him a kiss and says

“Goodbye…My Snoopy Dear”

Books borrowed and read from Caldicot Library

The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter
Fast Fox Goes Crazy – Allan Ahlberg
Animal babies in ponds and rivers – Kingfisher Press
Yum Yum Poppy Cat – Lara Jones **
Ridiculous – Michael Coleman
Lemono P – Sam McBratney; Catharine O’Neill – enjoyed by now purposely says LemonoP Instead of LMNOP
Little Lucie’s DIary – Louise Pfanner
Off to the Fair – Christopher Wormell

A couple of mornings ago, downstairs in the kitchen, Georgia announces very confidently,
“Mummy’s a boy!”
So I ask her, “Oh, when did I become a boy?”
To which her immediate reply was “On Sunday. When Daddy became a girl!”

she wasn’t there!

We stopped at Windsor on the way back from Croydon. Being able to step straight in to a working living castle is expensive albeit fascinating.

There have been some changes at Windsor since I last visited in 2004, there’s now the Moat Garden, which looked very pretty over the castle wall, but most of the exhibits and the format of the tour pretty much stayed the same.

While we were there, we made it in time for the changing of the guard, which in itself was heart-throbbing (thank the drums) and very colourful. Unfortunately after about five minutes, Georgia decided she didn’t like the drums – they were too loud. Luckily neither of us were too fussed about seeing the whole changing of the guard thing so we quite happily went on our way. At least it meant that we didn’t have to heave and push with the throng of people when the crowd dispersed.

We made our way in to St George’s chapel, at which point Georgie remembers that she’s here to see the Queen. We had explained to her that this was where the Queen lived and reminded her of the nursery rhyme about the little pussy cat who visits the queen. 

Inside the chapel she sees two chaplains and says to her daddy, “Can we ask them, where is the Queen?”
To which her daddy says, “Ok, you ask the lady where the Queen is and say that you’d like to see the Queen”

So up she totters to this kindly elderly lady and says “I’d like to see the Queen, please?”
Thankfully this lady very politely says,”Oh dear, I’m sorry but the Queen is away on her holidays at the moment. She’s up at Balmoral in Scotland having her holiday.”

Georgie nods, turns around, looks at me and says, “The Queen is busy right now”