The moving castle tea room touches down for the 29th time

[UniS]

Welcome to the tea room. Open to those with one child and those with more and maybe some with none ( hi dave the trucker).

This time we are heading to the mists and mellow fruitfulness of Autumn in a moving castle with a mind of its own. The roaring fire is maintained by magic and Mellors the gardener handles wine and spirits along with massage duties.

The first rule of the tea room is this
No fisticuffs.
The second is this
Put the kettle on for and help yourself to a

Oh, finally, some good news today! Mom's been "re-squished" and radiologist read everything on-the-spot and said it's all clear. YAY!

That's great news Scout - what a relief!

Good night, lovely tea room and its inmates inhabitants.

Hot (tearoom variety) and sticky gingerbread anyone? to suit the autumnal weather... MC rang into school in the windy rain this morning with a big smile on his face because of the rain (everything will die without it).

Dr last night was helpful - didn't dismiss concerns - MC was rather beside himself with tiredness by the time we got in as we had to wait 40mins to see her and it was after after-school club in the first place. Luckily I'd popped into a shop and picked up drinks and snacks so he wasn't starving and thirsty as well as tired. He did manage to set off the emergency alarm in the toilet though as I let him go alone (as I could see the door of the toilet from where I was sitting in the waiting room) - I'd told him what it was and that he shouldn't touch it when we went in when we first arrived (but he'd drunk a big carton of apple juice and two glasses of water from the watercooler, so I wasn't surprised he wanted to go in again). She's also recommended a local dyslexia centre that do overall assessments which sound like a good thing.

Scout - good news from your mother!

MT, that sounds like positive stuff. Any idea of timescales yet?

Yes please to the and gingerbread. Just waiting to go out on site and could do with a something.

no idea on timescales - but as things are postiive at school at the moment its not quite such a panic (because the 'good' at school happily spreads out into the rest of our time as a family) - apparently there are two different options and she's going to see what the wait looks like with one (0-16 team) and then move to the other option if that looks months off. She says, based on what I said (and wrote in a letter to her) that he sounds as though he's on the end of the 'normal' spectrum which is where I think I put him - but as we know the spectrums all have a tendency to merge and overlap rather a lot at times....

The best gingerbread I ever made is when I was following a pooh cookbook recipe which had 2 gingerbread recipies on the double spread. I am pretty sure that I stopped working from one and swapped to the other at some stage - but the trouble is that I've not been able to replicate it. What I know, however, is that it sank beautifully in the middle and had that glossyness when you cut it (and was VERY sticky). Amber, I have prepared a slice for you without any sticks if that would be suitable?

There's veg soup and rolls du jour (I think that they're raid clouds or the sun today for a change)

YAY for MT's doctor! Fingers crossed for you.

Creepy window guy came back today and knocked on the kitchen window while I was dancing around the kitchen like a fool making sure TS was eating his lunch and not throwing it overboard. Knocked on the bloody window! He claimed he saw me in the kitchen as he was walking by -0- it's very difficult to see in (you can, but you have to be looking) unless you're heading into my backyard.

What did he knock on the window for today Scout? Surely there's no reason for him to be knocking (unless it was to pick up the cheque for x not y)

I believe he was looking for payment, which had already gone out as I told him it would. (He had asked yesterday if I was going to be in today and I said I didn't know.) Told me he'd be around next week to do the windows. Not convinced of that.

But really, why come up onto my property and knock on the window?! If you saw me in the kitchen surely you could have knocked on my front door like anyone else. The postman doesn't knock on my window!

Forgot it rained here overnight and took TS to the playground this morning. Had it to ourselves but he did end up with a damp bum from the slides. Still, he had a good hour running around, climbing, swinging, sliding. He has suddenly (over the last month or so) calmed down in regards to books/stories and being read to. We spent AGES this morning on the bed, reading books and "tallking" about the pictures.

OOo scout - I really don't like the idea of creepy window guy checking out your windows to see if you're in the whole time!
How did MrScout break all the reindeer? :(

MT - that's great news from the doc - glad you have someone on board with you to give MC any help he might need - fabulous!

Gingerbread - sad though it is to say, i've never been a real fan but I was a massive fan of that McVitie's Jamaican Ginger Cake that you could buy (can still?) - it was so gooey and squashy and just yum - I'd love to be able to make something like that :)

Well, I got miniThumb to swimming this morning ok, his cold/cough doesn't seem to have changed as a result (still may be allergy type rhinitis instead) and he did well up until the point where the teacher tried to get him to go underwater again. He really doesn't like it and refuses. Even when his best friend there does it - he still won't. On one side, that's quite frustrating because I hoped the peer "pressure" thing would help him - but in another way I'm quite relieved that he doesn't bow to peer pressure because he's a right little sheep when bad behaviour kicks off in his other classes, so it's good to know he can stand his ground when he needs to, even if I wish it wasn't about going underwater! IYSWIM. :)

Hallowe'en names, anyone? I fancy Thzumbiewitch but am concerned people might not "get" it - what do you think? spelling too bad to be obvious I mean zombie but don't want to lose my Thumb?

UniS clasps Maud to her bosom, I'm feeling all christmassy now- Thank you.

Have just been given dates and times for christmas choir practise too, will sort out who boy goes to play with nearer the time tho. I reckon we can take him to one rehearsal but he won;t enjoy all 4.

Gingerbread- Fab. just the right on the sticky/ hardness balance. Care for some apple and cinnamon cake to go with? I may try apple scones sometime. Have seen a recipe that is 50% apple.

Thzumbiewitch seems fine to me, I still recognised you in that disguise.

MT- glad the Drs took you seriously and VERY glad school is panning out better this term. I had "one of those lunchtimes" with year 2 today. A 3 plasters and nosebleed and a bursting into tears lunchtime ( tears were not mine).

I have found out that the playground supervisors have a first aid bag out with them when they're out - but after 3 wipes failed to stop mc's knee bleeding on Tuesday lunchtime he had to go up to the sick room and get it sorted out there... and even then it bled out of the bottom . MC was quite pleased I think. And even managed to remember to limp some of the time

::Quite enjoys being the claspee, usually being the clasper::

Glad you're feeling festive, UniS!

Evening all!

Mmmm gingerbread! I agree with you Thumb, that gingercake was fab, I presume they still sell it.

MT - That's great news, good to be taken seriously. And I'm so glad school is going well now for MC.

Scout - at dodgy window cleaner. I wouldn't be happy with that at all.

I'm still sick. Been in bed alot and falling asleep on the couch when LittleDeer is around. Despite this we had a boy from school (and his mom and little sister) around for a playdate after school. I enjoyed it, liked the mom, reconfirmed how not interested I am in babies, and LittleDeer had fun. My only concern is all this guns, killing and bombs play. He seems to have been introduced to all of this stuff since starting school. He used his dinosaurs tails as guns. I don't like it all all but I guess there is nothing I can do, what do you guys think?

Christmas begins on the 8th of December

I suspect the guns thing is an age thing rather than a school thing. It will pass.

I agree about the ridiculously early start to Christmas but I had a good reason. Honest!

It is NEVER too early to start Christmas. Never, never, never!

(I [heart] Christmas)

I'd heard that around this age they get into all of this stuff. Does it really pass? School has introduced words to him that he would not have known otherwise though. Like today bombs and evil were used for the first time, and when the boy left LittleDeer asked me what they meant. What is with all the play about killing people about anyway? Why would they want to play games like that?

I heart Christmas too, but when the shops start filling up with Christmas stuff in September I feel a bit jaded by 25 December!

ooh I'm a massive christmas fan but like it more condensed. On the 8th of Dec schools have a day off and it's 10% discount day and everyone does their christmas shopping and christmas music is played on loud speakers over the town. It's lovely!

Well, as the mum of a girl I don't have much insight into what boys play, but Girl tells me that the boys in her class play football at playtime or swap trading cards. So they've outgrown guns and pretend-killing. What I do remember is that, when they were all smaller, the mums of boys who banned all toy guns found that the boys then used other toys or the tv remote control as a pretend pretend gun, so bans seem counterproductive.

Does it bother you that LittleDeer knows the words bomb and evil? To be honest, I'm surprised that he hasn't heard them before. We all have our own stance on things like this, but (for me and me only) I see no harm in them knowing these words and it's actually quite a good opportunity to talk (in an age-appropriate way) about what they mean and the values that they represent. If the games about killing bother you (and I can see why they might) could you encourage the sort of superhero game that is about using special skills to help people (eg flying up to rescue a kitten from a tree)?

What do Mistle, UniS and Cmot think?

What does Donki think, as the mum of a slightly older boy?

He doesn't watch tv barely at all Maud, and of course the books we read to him are selected by us so that's why he wouldn't have heard these words before. In fact until school he also thought guns were only used by scientists to sedate wild animals so they could free them from traps/move them to nature reserves etc, as we watch a nature documentary together on sundays.

See, I've been known to finish my shopping and then start on the next year before we've even had the Christmas I finished for. Yes, I am a sad soul.

My brother didn't do much (some, just not loads) of guns/killing but used to play Ghostbusters (this was the 80s) and used to make the photon-pack noise to capture ghosts. He was a keen ghost capturer. I can still hear the noise he used to make 25+ years later. Drove me nuts. He also played Knight Rider a lot -- so again, not much guns/killing but lots of chasing and capturing and using random things to help capture "the bad guys." He did outgrow the guns/killing bit but played Ghostbusters and Knight Rider for years.