All I want for Christmas

Well nearly all the presents are now bought, wrapped and under the tree. Only trivial ones to go - just those for me and Michaela. Somehow the kids can live with that uncertainty.

Meanwhile Alex's teeth are finally starting to fall out. He's been getting a bit frustrated that most of his mates have been losing theirs for a while, and several friends now dazzle you with two huge top front teeth every time they smile.

No amount of rationalising from us or the dentist seems to convince him that he's better off hanging on to his milk teeth a bit longer.

But now they are starting to escape. In fact every time I look at him he seems to be worrying the latest loose one, whatever else it is that he's doing at the same time - reading a book, eating his tea, playing a video game, they're all accompanied by that relentless fiddling and jiggling.

I guess I shouldn't complain - I'd be more bothered if his attention and finger were forever heading up his nose.

He has successfully helped out the front two at the bottom, and the top two are showing signs of giving up too. In fact one of them will definitely be out before the big day. It's hanging on by just a thread, albeit a rather red and sensitive one when I rashly offered to pull it just now.

So it looks like the photos this Christmas will be the ones with the gappy grin. He's already mastering the Mona Lisa with dangling tooth look, which he rather likes.

Straight in at Number One

Well this little old blog has certainly hit the ground running. Only a week in and already the comments are coming in fast and furious, quicker even than I can make posts. A new media sensation is born.

Which limp blustering hides the fact that I only started this blog one week ago, and already I've had a week without a post. It's not for want of things to say, oh no; in fact I've had at least two or three interesting thoughts in that time, but sadly ne'er a moment to sit down, reflect and type 'em down.

And therein lies the dilemma, I fear. Am I condemned to only ever post when I'm not doing something interesting? Well, if so, here's hoping that one post a week is the most I ever manage.

One of the highlights of last week was Antonia's Christmas concert. She was of course the most talented child on stage by far. Actually, I did notice that her class were one of the few to approach something resembling coordination in their dance routines. When a dance basically involves leaning left, then leaning right, then leaning left, then leaning right, etc etc to a simple 4:4 beat, how is it possible to have fifteen kids moving in at least ten different directions at once? But not Antonia's class, who danced in rings and swirled around in circles beautifully. Apart from the couple of lost souls who just forgot everything they'd been practising over the last few weeks, and defaulted to standing still and staring blankly out into the darkness where a hundred video camera red lights flashed silently back at them.

This year Antonia's part was Snowflake #9. Remarkable lack of hissy fits about that (from her, if not from her Mum), given that last year in Nursery class she starred as the eponymous heroine of that modern masterpiece "Whoops-a-Daisy Angel". (To be fair - if only this one time - she was in fact remarkably confident and charming in the role.) Mind you, after sitting through this year's Nursery class performing the same thing, she merely shrugged and said "Of course it was sooooo much better last year." So a little thespian blood clearly does run in her veins, after all.

Photos to follow. Probably.

Here we go...

Well, I must say, this blog thing really is going rather well so far.

It's only taken me about a year of prevarication to set it up. But after being given a "just click here and you're off, how easy can it be?" ultimatum (thanks Lisa), I have finally taken the plunge.

Which brought me to the first real hurdle - what name to give it? After about ten minutes staring even more vacantly than usual at an empty text box, I really was called away to do something else more urgent.

One cleaned up mess and two calmed down children later, I was able to come back into this room. I decided that I would call the blog the first thing that popped into my head as I sat down. And so it came into being.

Of course I was now exhausted by that creative outpouring, so I headed off for bed before being confronted with the North Face of my first post.

But here I am now, a mere 24 hours later, with a few minutes to myself again. And already I have rattled off the blog description and this rather meandering first offering.

At this rate I may actually have something interesting to post by tomorrow.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see...