Apologies

I'm terribly sorry about the last post. That was just me in full on grumpy cow mode, refusing the see the good in anything and allowing all of life's little niggles to crumple me into a tiny little ball and drop me unceremoniously into the waste basket.

I am feeling much better now.

For starters the weather is picking up each day, it's by no means guaranteed here but it means that the problems I've been having lately are lessened simply because Chloe and I can stick our coats on and go somewhere else. The main issue we're having at the moment is that there are no kids in our street Chloe's age, unless of course you count the pack of wild animals who walk on their hind legs and live around the corner. Seriously, if you were to give these kids a grain of salt, they would find something to do with it which would result in a neighbour having to call the police.

Chloe will be allowed to play with those kids over my dead body.

But we can walk to to my mum's house more often now where she has ample friends to run around with and scream and giggle as much as she wants, plus for bonus points it takes the pressure off me to be her personal court jester!

And walking is good, and Chloe needs to know that. She's growing up around so many people who firmly believe that to drive is to live, that it's even more important to me that she enjoys the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other. Aside from the fact that it costs a small fortune to learn to drive here, not to mention the three tests I'd have to take, plus our insurance company's quote of £678 per year to add me as a named driver (with restricted mileage) to our current policy, I just don't like driving and the older I get the more stubborn I get about the whole thing.

Obviously Chloe wants to go back to daycare because she doesn't have any friends at home to play with. I get that and I understand it and I'm better able to deal with it now. Chloe is incredibly social and even though she spends 7 hours a day in school, its a little too structured to be enough of a social experience for her. Plus I have to admit that a mother is never a suitable substitute for friends her own age. She's just needs to have kids her own age to play with and for them to be creative and lead their own play rather than under the instruction of an adult. I was never supposed to be the be all and end of her entire world. It's under consideration and the staff at her old daycare are very excited about the prospect of her coming back again, even if it is only an afternoon or two a week.

And we're working on the whole shyness thing. I've spoken with her teacher on Monday morning and from the admittedly small amount of useful information that we can get from Chloe it seems that she is convinced that talking in school isn't allowed, at all, ever! It's a bit of a mixed bag of where she's got this idea, but we hope a little more straight forward to fix.

It seems all the kids in Chloe's class were taught a little, well I don't really know what to call it, it doesn't rhyme, maybe it's a mantra but it goes something along the lines of "Eyes are for looking, Ears are for listening, Mouths are silent and Feet are still". The kids all know this by heart and can recite on command. Except Chloe, who knows it, but saying it out loud would be talking and that's not allowed.

I've tried pointing out to her that this is only the case some of the time, but it's fine to talk at other times. The problem is that she has a friend at my mum's house who is a bit of a tattle tale, but if the kids aren't doing anything wrong, she'll try to make them do something they shouldn't be doing so that she has a reason for tattling. I've been trying to point out to Chloe the idea of another person trying to get her into trouble which means that when I tell her it's ok to talk in school she thinks I'm trying to get her into trouble and the same theory applies to the other kids in her class.

Her teacher is going to spend a bit of time reassuring her in class that it's perfectly fine to talk and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works and that the whole not talking thing isn't too firmly ingrained.

And I've even managed to finish a few things too. Except to cheer myself up, these are all entirely new things, rather than any of the things sitting around half finished. Still it's a start:)