Splish splash and chopsticks

One of the benefits of our new jobs is a gym allowance, so we have both joined our local gym, which also gives us access to the leisure centre swimming pool (think the Brittas Empire, you're pretty close). While Olga had her gym induction on Sunday I took Lara to the teaching pool for an hour. It was just time for her to play in the water, she's not been in a pool since we were in Holland last June, so this was just an excuse for a splash around and remind her what fun it is.  We enquired about lessons for her, they're not at great times, but once we get settled into this "working from home" routine, we'll find time to take her. In the meantime we bought her some goggles and a float, as the other kids in the pool had these and Lara will need them soon enough. She loves her goggles!

We're getting her used to them by encouraging her to wear them in the bath, last night she had a shower, and loved lying on her back under the spray of water, with it splashing onto her face. We'll probably go again this Sunday - I need to take the plunge and start my training regime; sadly I'm really looking forward to getting a sweat on in the gym, I don't think I've been remotely fit since well before Lara was born, and it can only be a good thing. I'm even going to take a Pilates class! My core stability is about as stable as a Middle Eastern government at the moment, and it gives me all sorts of back problems, so I reckon Pilates is the answer. It was invented by a bloke, you know!!

Lara seems to be really enjoying her new nursery. When she came home on Monday I asked her if she wanted to go again on Tuesday, and she was really excited and shouted "yes please!", which I think is a good sign. Yesterday, to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the kids had stir-fry vegetables & noodles for their afternoon meal, and they all had a go at eating with chopsticks, I would have liked to have seen that. Apparently Lara particularly loved the noodles, so we'll give her a try at those at home one day. She already likes poppadoms, and has had fajitas before, so it all adds to her international experiences.  The nursery has some ideas that are new to Lara, like she wears her slippers there rather than shoes or trainers when she's inside, and on Tuesday night she asked "May I start now?" before tucking into her tea, and that must be something they do at nursery, as we've not taught her such good manners!


Work-wise the home office is nearing completion, a new sofabed arrived this week, as Luda will sleep in the office after she arrives on the 2nd April for her 6-month stay. All our new screens and keyboards and suchlike have arrived, so the place does look more like an office now, and Olga has been putting in the hours up here this week - so long as the internet connection stays up, this working from home thing looks like a winner!
I've got 2 more weeks of limbo between doing little bits for Flare and finishing things up for Geotrace before we'll find out what it's like when we're both working in here...

Settling In? C'est bien, non?

Lara had her second settling-in session at the new nursery yesterday, I left her there for 90 minutes in the morning, and when I came to pick her up the kids were all playing outside, and I was able to watch her for a few seconds before she saw me, and she looked really happy, and not at all nervous or shy. Her new key-worker, Lilian (no sniggering from those Shamless watchers out there!) said Lara had been absolutely fine, she'd struck up a friendship with another girl on a settling-in session, and they'd sat in on the weekly French lesson, although Lara flatly denied this later when I interrogated her in my perfect A-S Level Business French. After that I took her to her Marlow nursery, where she handed out the "leaving cakes" she'd helped to make on Tuesday night:

Tomorrow she has a 3-hour session including lunch at the new nursery, then her final afternoon at Marlow. It'll be sad to leave there, the staff have been very good with Lara, and she's really enjoyed it, I don't think we can recall one occasion when she's been upset at the idea of going to nursery. OK, sometimes recently she would have preferred to stay in bed, but once she's up and dressed and fully awake, she's always been excited about going.
The new nursery, like Marlow, would like us to bring photographs of family & pets in to help settle Lara if she does have moments of homesickness, and I'm afraid I've gone very "Competitive Dad" on this one this time, although Picasa does make this sort of thing pretty easy, but here is Lara's "Comfort Card":

They wanted photos glued to a piece of A4 card, I might have got a bit carried away, but at least I've tested out our new office printer.

The home office, nearly there

We've still not finished getting the office ready, but fortunately Olga's first day tomorrow will be at our boss' house. My part of the office is in need of a bit of filing:

And tonight, when I tried to get up to finish the tidying up, I was pinned down to the sofa by my boys:

Next stop - Tour de France

I took Lara to the park today with her bike; she's not been on it for at least 6 months, probably more, but somehow she knew how to ride it. Last time she basically sat on it and we pushed her, but today she told me "put my helmet on, put my feet on the pedals, and hold the handles", and she could ride confidently (so long as we didn't go uphill, then she needed a push). After we got home I asked Olga if she had taken Lara out on her bike and shown her how to ride, but she hadn't. We asked Lara if she had cycled at nursery, and she said no, and we've not seen any bikes there, so we can only think that she has picked it up off the TV, as plenty of the characters in the cartoons she watches ride bikes. Anyway, it was great to see and will make trips out all the more interesting now, as we won't have to "helicopter" over her while she's on her bike in the park:

No New Nursery Nerves

Wow, nearly two weeks - time is flying at the moment, I'm busy at work trying to clear my task list and write handover documents, and Olga is making the most of her time at home by setting up our home office. This has involved an awful lot of moving "stuff" from one room to another, and quite a lot of stuff will go onto eBay or freecycle.

Olga took Lara to her new nursery today for her first settling-in session; an hour of playing in the pre-school room whilst Olga stayed with her. She was absolutely fine, the other children made it easy for her to play with them, and we've got no great concerns about how she'll be when she starts there full time at the start of February. She has two more settling in sessions next week, that I'll take her to when I'm on gardening leave.

The boys have recovered fully from their operations, and whilst we're yet to test them out off the lead on a walk, they did skip past me out of the front door one evening when I was talking to our neighbour, but they came back when called (OK, after a few moments of investigating the neighbour's garden)