Five and almost ready for school
- I hope Maisie will be eager to learn alongside her classmates. She loves playschool and her teachers have been so kind, enthusiastic and patient. Maisie loves drawing, reading books and dressing up and she loves choosing a different toy each week for Show and Tell. I get the cutest photos sent from school and if she’s ever off form we’re informed but this is seldom the case. Her teacher mentioned recently that Maisie wasn’t listening and going off doing her own thing at times. I thought about this and started to worry about her attention skills starting primary school but then remembered how clever she is and perhaps she is just testing them and wanting to be more independent?! We call it stubbornness at home and it drives us a bit mad!
- Maisie has been going to ballet classes for six months now and she really loves it. She’ll know on a Tuesday that’s what we do and she will participate for most of it. I get a sneak peak along with other parents looking through the glass and it’s so lovely watching her enjoying it. Maisie also attends Gaelic on a Saturday, and my other daughter Evie comes along too. My husband works a lot of weekends and my son plays rugby so this is a wonderful sporting and social activity for the girls and myself. It is for kids with additional needs but siblings are welcome and the coaches are so enthusiastic and fun. I always feel happy heading home afterwards although that depends on how easy it is to get Maisie to scoot in the right direction! Funnily enough Maisie listens to her minder Maja who takes her out every friday afternoon, on foot and walks the legs off her. They walk along the main road, go to the playground and the cafe and Maisie is as good as gold for her. I’ll be honest, the more Maisie is contained whether that be in a buggy, a bike seat or in our garden jumping on the trampoline or playing with her toys, the happier and calmer I feel. She’ll just laugh if we chastise her and we find it very hard sometimes to get her to listen to us. We were at the airport recently going through passport control, buggy was on the other side and I ended up carrying a screaming child through as she kept running away from us. Not great for our stress levels or backs but on the plus side she was easily distracted by a fake dinosaur on the other side and we can rely on her older brother now to pick her up if necessary. We booked a place of our own on holiday rather than a hotel room, one of the reasons being she kept escaping from the room last year! So we do what’s easier when we can, and be assured Maisie is still having a blast. Her weary parents get away on their own a couple of times a year, and in saying all of that we do appreciate how lucky we all are!
As you probably know by now our youngest daughter is quite the rascal. She loves when her brother chases or rugby tackles her. Most days she asks her dad to take her to the coffee shop, and the staff have become familiar to serving her. Must make that dentist appointment now whilst I think of it. She has the most infectious laugh which I could listen to all day. She is very loving, always telling me she loves me and she has become more and more independent in positive ways, for instance putting her shoes on herself or operating particular toys. “I do it” is a phrase we hear a lot. She is using more words and sentences now which is wonderful and sometimes there’s a mix of babble and the words come at the end. I think she knows she’s a character but I think much of it comes with the fun she has at home and at school, surrounded by those who love her and I hope she never loses that magical spirit she has within.