So, this time last week Florence wasn’t still screaming when she went into school but she was still very much unhappy at the prospect. She’d made a marked improvement by the end of last week but it still left me feeling very sad as I left her where I knew she didn’t really want to be.

Fast forward one week and my girl is almost back to herself again, what a difference a week makes. She went in on Monday morning happy as Larry, waved me off and her teacher told me she had a good and happy day. It fills my heart to see her run in and hug Miss Pretty, one of her teachers, as I know Florence would only do this is she really, REALLY liked her. It makes me really, REALLY like her too and now, between her and Mr Foxy I have no doubt that Florence is enjoying being taught in school. It’s a good school with teachers who went out of their way to help my little ladybird girl and also who didn’t seem to get too peed off with a hysterical Mother about to break under the weight of it all. Apparently Mr Foxy reads a better story that I do would you believe, while Florence really likes all the voices I do (and put much effort into – every character in every book has a regional accent of their own in this house – frustrated out of work actress) she says she prefers the way he reads a story. Pah!

I won’t say she’s 100% back to herself and we have had tears, screaming and utter melt down at times this week but nothing to do with wanting to go into her classroom. She is, I think, utterly, utterly exhausted and it is coming out in these emotional outbursts which saw her scream at the top of her voice for 45 minutes one morning because she wanted to wear a different dress. One minute she was fine and the next… DISASTER! I almost gave in but stood my ground and reluctantly smiled as she screamed she wanted a new Mummy who wasn’t mean to her. I do find it hard to stay calm in these circumstances and have never had to experience them before as until now she has never behaved this way. I suppose she is growing up, she has lots of new things to deal with and all the emotion has to come out somewhere.

They are obviously pleased with her at school though as I had a lovely letter to tell me how well she is doing and how brilliantly she is working. She’s a clever girl who is definitely working hard so it was well deserved. Phew. And hopefully next week will be even better – fingers crossed.

In other news my boy is growing up faster than I can blink. He’s talking so, so much and I suddenly realised we are now having full blown conversations all the time. His favourite thing to do this week has been pretend to catch spiders with a rubber ball being the offending creature. He puts it in a cup, holds an envelope over the top and tries to scare me with it which is something he has learned from his Father. I do not deal with spiders well and both the boys in this house think it’s tremendously funny!

It really has been a much happier week and we finished it off with a crack into the weekend of our Friday Night Treat Tea which this week was ‘Under The Sea’ themed as chosen by our friends who joined us. Summer weather seems to have resumed so we took it to the park and made it into a picnic. Lovely! Not sure on themes for next week but there will definitely be one. Until then…

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