A fresh start to the New Year... or utter madness?!

I've noticed something tonight. Sasha doesn't 'catch' yawns. If someone else yawns near me, it takes seconds before I am doing it too. It doesn't matter if it's one or ten I do in front of her though (and I'm not faking them, I am that tired!!), she just doesn't yawn. No idea if she yawns any other time either!

I was about to blog about what a fantastic day it's been to start the year.... but maybe the day is why right now Sasha is upstairs, in our bed, with her own duvet on top, crying her eyes out. Sensory overload maybe? Too much fun? Whatever it is, she can't seem to get to sleep. Ho hum, that's another evening gone for me then!

Back now, after an hour of lying with her until she finally dropped off to sleep... I did still want to share about our fab start to 2012


It couldn't have been more of a contrast to the last day of 2011..... yesterday, the girls were still in their pyjamas at 2pm, when I finally decided I was going stir crazy indoors and that we should all make a family trip outside. The destination was only to be the local posting box, less than 2 minutes walk away. At least Sasha was happy to make it there as she had some cards to post which she had coloured and then written her name on - writing is a new trick for her, albeit in the very early stages, and I'm obviously very keen to encourage that. Tamsin is always less than enthusiastic about leaving the house, as she's an indoors kind of girl (takes after her mum), whereas Sasha loves being outdoors, but only if it's where she wants to go (with swimming or Willows farm being the main two well-frequented options). We can enforce fresh air on Tamsin though... with Sasha it's a little more tricky.


Anyhow we set off in good spirits, but these quickly evaporated a minute along the path when Tamsin ran and skipped ahead and Sasha shouted at her not to. Sasha generally doesn't like being overtaken, or for other people to go ahead of her, but can tolerate it some days. Yesterday was not one of them. Sasha became routed to the spot, screaming and crying for Tamsin to stop and come back, and refused to go any further. With no other real option we persuaded Tamsin back, but then it was Tamsin who got huffy and upset, quite rightly pointing out that it isn't fair that Sasha gets her own way most of the time. It's so true, and I'm beginning to be at a loss as to know what to do about this.


Fortunately this time daddy was around, so we diffused the situation by Tamsin going off for a walk to the shop with daddy, whilst Sasha and mummy went for a longer walk to play at the maze area. We stayed out for a long while, Sasha playing happily with the stones and then running through the grass on the way home. When we got about 4 minutes from home though, in the nursery car park, Sasha began to say her legs hurt (a favoured excuse) and she couldn't walk. I decided it was too far for me to carry her (she's no feather these days!) and besides, her shoes were filthy with mud. She wouldn't budge any more, so I had to call out Chris (who was by this time home with Tamsin) to run back out and carry her home. Sasha was not at all keen on this idea, but would still not walk with me, so I had to leave her in the car park with daddy, throwing herself to the ground and screaming loud enough for the whole estate to hear, whilst I hurried home alone. They made it back a short while later, with no real harm done, but it was difficult letting her go to meltdown rather than caving in, and so difficult to walk away - poor Chris too .

Anyhow, fast forward to a fresh new year starting, and facing the prospect of another day at home, I made the crazy suggestion that we needed to try a day out further afield. Madness really, considering we barely made it to the post box, but I decided to be strong for Tamsin's sake. It's a bit like permanently wavering on the edge though - if all doesn't go to plan and Sasha starts to kick off, one of us needs to be able to leave with her (generally me). It spoils the day for Tamsin whether we stay or go, as she does get embarrassed easily by the meltdowns. I don't want to get to the point where we are always doing things separately, or denying Tamsin some great experiences.

So off we went to big old London town, to visit the Museum of London
(yes, amazingly open on New Years Day, and even better, free entry!). We drove to the station, took the train to St.Pancras where we admired the huge lego tree, jumped on the underground, then walked a couple of minutes in the rain to get to our destination - but all without dispute from Sasha. We then walked round all the museum (admittedly we skipped some areas pretty quickly and Sasha wasn't the quietest person there...), and were even able to stop and look at some displays in detail. Sasha really didn't complain once, although I will confess to resting and letting her play on my phone a couple of times... where would we be without gadgets, eh?!

Then after a couple of hours or so, it was time to leave, and we walked back to the tube in heavy rain with some very deep puddles (poor Tamsin almost disappeared in one, but even that didn't dampen her spirits... much!). Then back onto the train where Sasha had a 5 minute snooze, and all back home happily via a certain drive-thru (that we are seeing more of lately than we'd really care to, but hey they aren't called Happy Meals for nothing!!).

So hip-hip-hooray to the New Year and a big achievement for us as a family. I'm sure most onlookers would have assumed we were fairly 'normal', and I know that to many others a trip out for a few hours is nothing special, but for us it's a small miracle. Now roll on Wednesday and back to school time...