Good bits: My parent-teacher interview with Robyn's teacher this week went very well. Robyn is in the top reading and maths groups and her teacher seems to like her very much. Says she has a well-tuned sense of humour and tends to pick up on tongue-in-cheek thingies which pass most of the class by. The teacher showed me the work they have been doing thus far and I can see she is a really inspired person who loves what she does and puts a lot of thought into it. I like the way she links things together, for example, they did a fire theme and learnt fire words, read fire books, discussed what you do in a fire, learned lots about fire fighters, and heard about the Great Fire of London.

Lauren is turning out to be quite good at gym. She is very strong and very dedicated. The teacher is great and is not pushing her at all, but mentioned to me she is doing very well for her age. To avoid us all having to be at the gym for ages, I currently have both girls in the same class (age 5-6) whereas Lauren should really be in 4-5 (the lesson before) and Robyn should be in 6-7 (the lesson after). This suits both girls' abilities. Next year I think Lauren will get selected for the advanced class which is twice a week for a longer lesson. Robyn won't though. I hope she will be ok with this.

Bad bits: We're battling to get Daniel healthy. This month has been riddled with bronchitis, pneumonia and vomiting. We were going to have a party this weekend but have postponed it to next weekend. He seems to be getting better again so I'm hoping he doesn't go downhill again. He's off school for this week and the whole of next week as well. This isn't very nice as he definitely has more fun at school than at home with the whole family gone.

Scary bits: I applied for a new position at work this week. The universe seems to be shouting "MAKE A CHANGE" so I'm trying to listen. It's a BI / Training / Consultant position. The odds of my getting it are low, though, because I am still only prepared to work part time, and there are lots of candidates. Work in general is stressful as there is much talk of wheelings and dealings. Should be some large changes in the next few months.

Expensive bits: Robyn has started speech and drama. We both thought she wanted to stop gym last term (as she was starting to find it too much like hard work), and then she changed her mind. I think this was because her regular teacher (who works them hard but is SO much fun) was off for a few weeks, and then came back. I'm happy for her to carry on as long as she can as it is so good for her, but the cost of all these extra murals is adding up. She now does ballet, gym and speech and drama. None is more than an hour a week, and she doesn't want to stop any of them, so it seems the load is only heavy on our bank balance.