So......the Hellidays are officially over and I've been very lazy with this blog. Free time isn't something I've had much of recently, Simon's family made their annual pilgrimage down to Portsmouth last Saturday & we spent most of the week either with them or running around like headless chickens getting ready to meet up with them. On Sunday we went to Bognor which was fun, haven't been there since I was about 2 so had no memories of the place, but oddly it seemed familiar. Harvey had a terrific time playing and talking to himself on the "wet mud" which was actually sand, our beaches in Portsmouth are pebbly so sand always utterly thrills him. Darcie did the whole "I'm too cool for this" thing and hung out with her grandparents while Simon & I took photos of Harvey which will really embarrass him in ten years and attempted to lure him away from the sea and sand. Bognor is definitely on my mental list of places to visit next summer, the Isle of Wight has also made it onto that list, we went there on Tuesday. Darcie had the day off school & we all went on the steam railway and then onto Shanklin for more sand! We don't go to the IOW very often, but each time we go I remember how lovely it is there & how much I like it. The old London tube trains are very cool and remind me of home, and I also get flashes back to my childhood as I went to the IOW with my parents a few times as a kid. These days we only go over there in the summer and of course it'll be bleak and miserable during the winter like anywhere, but it's a very cool place. We're hoping to have a little holiday in the Isle of Wight next August, hope it works out as it should be fun.
Harvey's first day of school was Thursday, which actually worked out well as we were so busy with his parents that when the big day arrived I didn't have much opportunity to stress. Harvey only went in the morning & finished at midday; we'd then arranged to head straight up to Gun Wharf and go up the famous Spinnaker Tower, before all heading back to out flat for a meal. It felt like we'd been waiting forever for Harvey's first day of school, but somehow I still hadn't got the uniform completely organised, despite plenty of help/random nagging from my mother! After a restless night involving bizarre dreams, I was woken up by Harv at 6.30am and then promptly realised that I'd forgotten to clean the bathroom up from the kids baths the previous evening. I dashed to the bathroom and began desperately tidying up, cursing myself for a) allowing my kids to make such a huge mess b) buying a bath bomb containing massive amounts of glitter which had welded itself to the bath overnight c) being so lazy and incompetent. I ranted to myself as I worked, but by about 7.15am the bathroom was tidy and I'd also had a shower which was fairly impressive really.
As always we were running late (I tell myself that one day I won't be rushing, but that's a load of crap, that day will never come) but by about 8.30am we had both kids dressed in the correct uniforms, Darcie's lunch made and bag packed (I'm hopeful that by her seventeenth birthday she might have reached the stage of considering organising her own stuff) and after the usual nagging/threats from Simon (freakily fast at getting dressed) we were out of the door, leaving chaos similar to that caused by a moderate hurricane behind us.
Harvey looked so incredibly smart and handsome in his school uniform that I fully expected strangers to stop us in the street and ask to take his photo, as he was truly the best looking school child of all time. His amazing good looks mean that he can't walk overly fast though, so I was forced to half drag him as usual, admit cursing from Simon and desperate pleas to hurry up. It's always Simon & Darcie in the lead when we go anywhere, while Harvey and I get left behind, talking to various inanimate objects and hoping that the next toilet isn't too far away. He drinks insane amounts of orange squash and has a hygienic yet annoying obsession with washing his hands, therefore requiring many, many toilet dashes on trips out - I simply have a much weaker bladder than I used to have, and am slowly turning into my mother who needs the toilet approximately every ten minutes whenever she leaves the house.
Darcie disappeared into her playground without even saying goodbye on Thursday morning, annoying really as I was hoping to thoroughly embarrass her with a huge public display of maternal affection. Simon & I found Harvey's classroom and were informed that rather than the usual starting time of 8.40am (yeah right, never going to be there at that time) he in fact wasn't meant to be there until 9am that day, making us early by default for one of the first times in my life as a mum. We hung around in the hall outside his Rabbit classroom (the other one is Field mice, having a pathological fear of mice and rats I was utterly relieved when we discovered that he's a bunny) before his teachers took pity on us and said we could go in and wait. Harvey's main teacher is Miss Cummings who seems really nice (I met her at his induction afternoon at the end of last term, typically I forgot about it and we were late but she doesn't seem to hold that against me) she actually spoke to us which is more than some of Darcie's teachers have done in the past. A tiny little girl called Lily was there too, obviously having been abandoned by her parents - either they had to dash off to get to work or simply couldn't stand being with their daughter for another minute after the endless holidays! Harvey went all shy as expected and made sounds rather than constructing sentences, we played with chalkboards and magnetic letters with him and desperately attempted to get him to communicate using words. Finally his friend from nursery, Cameron, turned up with his mum (not the most maternal woman in the world and went for the kiss-and-run method which I failed miserably at) I honestly felt love for Cameron when he held Harvey's hand and declared that they were best friends, suddenly Harvey perked up and allowed himself to be led away from us. The time had come to leave, the boys were settled on a mini-sofa thing with their backs to the door, perfect opportunity to sneak off. I fought the urge to stay with my precious son all morning, and tried to impress Miss Cummings and her worried looking sidekick Mrs Morgan (who doesn't look old enough to be a teacher, let alone a Mrs) by saying in a wobbly yet determined voice "OK then darling, Mummy's going now, having a wonderful time." hugged my little boy who I'm sure was only crawling around last month, and headed out of the door. Harvey turned around to look at me as I left, I blew him a kiss and to my delight he blew one back before returning to chatting to Cameron. As a mum there are certain images and moments which stay with you forever, and I know that I'll have that picture of my little curly haired boy blowing me a kiss on his very first day of school in my memory for the rest of my life. I'll look at him when he's a great strapping 35 year old and remember that moment.
I'm always glad to have Simon with me on these occasions as he encourages me to leave/ physically drags me away, assuring me that Harv is fine, which he was. Even so, there was a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes as I walked down the road as a mother of two school age children.
Fortunately as I said, I was too busy to let the tears flow, we dashed straight to Lidl and bought stuff to make the lasagne the in-laws had requested ( I strongly suspect that they think I'm incapable of making anything complicated, last years roast was a bit of a disaster) We then ran home and spent the next two and a half hours madly tidying up, and preparing the dreaded lasagne. Midday saw us at school once again, and after an agonising wait Miss Cummings appeared holding Harvey's hand.....I did my best to play it cool but I was so happy to see him and so relieved that he'd been okay. He was delighted with the giant tube of smarties I'd bought him as a bravery present, and even more delighted that he'd received the coveted "Miss Cummings Special Award" despite not fully understanding what he'd done to achieve it. I strongly suspect that every child may have receive this award, but repeatedly praised my clever boy and informed him that in the history of the world no child has ever been as brilliant on their first day of school.
We jumped in a taxi and joined the in-laws at Gun Wharf, spent the afternoon up the Spinnaker Tower - granted it's just a view but I've been up it 3 times and each time Harv has spoiled it for me by being a total pest. I spent a small fortune on ice lollies and toys for him in a desperate attempt to placate him, but tiredness and the fact it was boiling hot made him as ratty as hell. Finally we headed off to collect Darcie and then back to our flat for tea, the lasagne turned out okay and the in-laws smiled bravely whilst eating it. I reckon they headed straight to Macdonalds afterwards, but at least we made the effort!
Simons family have gone home today (well yesterday actually as now it's officially Sunday) and we probably won't see them for another year. The kids enjoyed seeing them and it's nice to remind Darcie & Harvey that they do in fact have two sets of grandparents! I never really had grandparents as a kid, and I honestly think it's wonderful that my children have two complete sets who love (or tolerate in my dads case) them. I love that our parents get so much pleasure from the children, and that it's thanks to us!
I'm nervous about the coming week. Friday is Harvey's first day of full-time school and it's going to be weird. I swing between feeling tearful as it really will be the end of an era, he won't generally be at home with me during the day ever again, which is sad as I've loved him being little despite all the hard work. Harv's my mate, and I'll truly be lost without him. I am really looking forward to the freedom though, and feel dizzy at the thought of whole days to myself, just to get on with stuff. In actual fact it's not a long time though, as he finishes school at 2.55pm so by about 2.30pm every day I'll have to be getting ready to leave. I realise the days will fly by, but people keep saying "wow, all that free time, what are you going to do?" and I feel worried as I still don't know. I'm thinking about doing a course, but have no idea what in - I'm conscious that I can't muck around now, if I'm going to do a course it has to lead to a job. I don't want to get stuck doing some pointless course, I'm 31, I need to have a career now. I hate the fact I don't know what to do with my life, it's awful. Nobody seems to really understand, but I guess it's something I'll have to work out for myself, haven't a clue where to start though :o(
Just realised it's 3.30am, bloody hell! I'll be back very soon with more on the job/course thing, but for now I think I'm going to have to go and get some sleep.........
No comments:
Post a Comment