The truth of things. October 3, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in Conversations with Principessa.3 comments
Princi: Mummy, our family tells lies and stories.
Me: What makes you say that?
Princi: Do you know when Uncle Gareth says ‘Don’t pull a face because if the wind changes your face will stick that way,’ is it true?
Me: Well, not really.
Princi: And when Nanny says ‘If you watch too much TV, I mean television, that you’ll get square eyes,’ is that true?
Me: Well, no.
Princi: So our family tells lies, then?
Me: When you put it like that, I suppose so.
Princi: So stories aren’t true, then?
Me: Some stories are, but other stories that may not be true are called ‘fiction.’
Princi: Fiction? What’s fiction?
Me: It’s when a story is made up. ‘Coraline’ isn’t true, but it’s not a lie, so that is fiction.
Princi: So our family tells lies, then?
It’s nearly time for the Pimms! June 21, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in Conversations with Principessa, Wimbledon, tennis.2 comments
Woohoo! Wimbledon starts tomorrow. I can’t wait.
It’s bad news about Rafa though. I love watching him play, so for him not to be there to defend his title is a bit of a downer. His knees must be completely wrecked for him to have taken that decision. I am hoping that it’s not going to force him to retire from tennis, after all, there has been speculation that the pressure he puts on his body through playing tennis might cause him to retire early. But, if it were me, I’d rather take the choice of keeping what movement I had than to continue in a sport I loved and risk the chance of crippling myself. It sounds as if that’s the kind of decision Rafa might have to make. If it is, I don’t envy him.
But I digress. I am looking forward to some good tennis matches. I am also hoping that a few of the other Brits in the main draw can make it into the second round. And I am hoping Laura Robson has the ability to fight her way past Daniela Hantuchova in her first round match tomorrow.
Yay! Wimbledon! (Sorry, I’m just a bit excited.)
On other things… Princi hasn’t been well today, she has been running a slight fever since this morning. Thankfully she decided she was hungry just before she went to bed - she pushed all her other meals to one side, even a packet of Quavers – and she demanded a ‘hot, crispy, toasted sambwich’. Oh, she wanted Twiglets on said ’sambwich’, but there were none. And she finally had a good, long drink of orange juice. I hate it when she feels ill, she refuses to eat and drink. The not eating I can deal with, but the not drinking really scares me.
Something else that scares me – her habits with scissors. OK, at the moment it’s only plastic scissors that can only just cut through paper. What scared me was that she was playing with a pair of the plastic scissors today and she put her tongue between the ‘blades’. I took the scissors from her and then told her why it was a bad idea to snip her tongue.
Me: If you cut your tongue with scissors, you’ll snip the end off and it’ll bleed profusely (making blood spurting actions with my hands). Do you know what profusely means?
Princi: No. Do you know what patience means?
Me: Tell me, what does patience mean? (This is her usual response when I ask her what a word means.)
Princi: It means waiting.
Me: Yes it does. And what does profusely mean?
Princi: I don’t know. What does it mean?
Me: It means lots and lots and lots and lots. Do you want to cut your tongue off?
Princi: No. I wouldn’t be able to lick lolly pops then.
Me: You wouldn’t be able to talk, either.
Princi: Oh. I want to talk.
And that was that. Although I think the only thing she took from the whole exchange is that profusely means lots and lots.
The food thing. May 26, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in Children and food, Conversations with Principessa, French Open, tennis.1 comment so far
Grandand: What do you want for dinner today?
Me: Would you like lamb, noodles and carrots again?
Princi: Yes. Tomorrow.
Grandand: Then what do you want today?
Princi: Salad and crisps and Pringles and tuna.
Me: Do you want tuna mayonnaise or fresh, cooked tuna?
Princi: Fresh, cooked tuna. But I want the pink tuna.
Me: (Confused, until I suddenly realise what Princi’s going on about.) Oh, she wants salmon!
That tickled me, I can tell you. At least she is starting to eat food that is not lamb or tuna or carrots now. Although the scrambled eggs at breakfast was a pain, I ended up having to feed her despite trying to make breakfast into a picnic.
Ho hum. No play at the French Open. It’s tipping down.
The technicalities of spelling. May 19, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in Conversations with Principessa, The Principessa Files.2 comments
When Princi came home from school today we sat down as always to talk about what she’d learned.
Me: What did you do in school today?
P: I played in the sandpit. And I painted a picture of a house.
Me: Did you? Well done! Did you learn any more letters?
P: Yes.
Me: What letter did you learn? (She has been learning letters phonetically with Jolly Phonics at school, which is good as I have the JP stuff here, too.)
P: I learned s-a-t.
Me: Oh, and what does s-a-t spell?
P: S-a-t spells sat!
Me: Wow! Well done! (Wondering if she could apply it to other words.) What about c (kuh)-a-t?
P: Mmmm. Cat!
Me: Yes! And t-a-t?
P: Ummm. Tat!
Me: Yes! (Wondering if we could do longer words.) What about f-l-a-t?
P: F-tal?
Me: No! F-l-a-t.
P: F-lat! (Close enough!)
Me: Yeah! How about s-p-l-a-t?
P: Ummm. Spatal.
Me: No! S-p-l-a-t is splat!
We carried on for about five minutes, but I am very impressed. Although she can read and spell out a written word (not phonetically), she hasn’t been able to spell through verbal triggers until today. Well, not with me anyway. This makes me a very proud Mum today. Yay!
And then, to top off the proudness with a giggle, I gave her a couple of minty Matchmakers. She takes a nibble on one, then turns to me:
They sure are minty, aren’t they?
And they surely are!
Beware, the bitey fish! April 30, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in Bitey fish will eat you up., Conversations with Principessa, David Crystal, Reading with Principessa.add a comment
This afternoon, Grandand picked Princi up from school and took her shopping. Before buying in the food, he took her to a pet shop. When they got home, Grandand asked her to tell me all about what she had seen at the petshop.
We saw mice, and fish, and there were bitey fish that could bite you all up.
Not Pirahna, no. Bitey fish! That made me giggle. But not as much as Princi nicking one of the books off my shelves and declaring it was her favourite. She’s not wrong. She used to love it when I read to her from this book when she was two-ish. The book is The Stories of English by David Crystal. However, when I asked her to read it to me, she flicked through the pages and decided it was no longer her favourite because the words were too little. She then went and found a little book of Celtic mythology to flick through.
Well, my back is sore from sitting at the computer. Time to relax a little.
It’s tricky, tricky, tricky. April 24, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in A215, Conversations with Principessa, ECA, Poetry.2 comments
Last night, Uncle Gaz popped over before Princi went to bed. They played hide and seek for a while, and then moved onto I spy.
Gaz: I spy with my little eye, somthing beginning with g.
Princi: Television.
Gaz: No, that begins with t.
Princi: Floor.
Gaz: No, that begins with f. (Starts staring and pointing to the glass on the table.)
Princi: Milk!
Gaz: No, what’s the milk in?
Princi: A straw!
Gaz: No, what’s this? (Picking up the glass)
Princi: A glass!
Gaz: Yeah! You got it right! Your turn.
Princi: I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with g.
Gaz: Glass?
Princi: No-ho-ho-ho!
Gaz (and me): Oooohhhh!
Princi: Hang on, we need to swap these around. (Goes to the table and swaps the full glass and the empty glass around.) This is the correct g for glass. (Points to the empty glass.)
That had Gaz and me in tucks. If only he had picked up the empty glass!
Earlier in the day, Princi and I had been reading a book about a beetle and all the creatures the beetle meets. On one page, there was a pop-up of a bison. As Princi read the line she said, ‘… and the beetle met a buffalo.’ That was it, for five minutes we sat there, me saying ‘It’s a bison,’ and Princi saying ‘No, it’s a buffalo.’ She found it highly amusing.
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Right. Time to get down to some writing and/or editing. Going to start the commentary for the ECA, I think. I’ve been having a tinker with Mecha Lexy and the Rafa Nadal poem this morning. I’m quite happy with the Rafa poem, but the Lexy poem is still feeling not quite right. I’m not sure where it is tripping up, so it might be a case of pulling it to pieces line by line. Ho hum. Still, if it gets me a good poem, then I wont complain. At least I’m mostly happy with the autobiography piece that’s going along with the poems.
When I’m cleanin’ windas! April 22, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in A215, Conversations with Principessa, ECA, Poetry, TMA05.5 comments
This evening, about 15 minutes before bedtime, Princi disappeared upstairs. I thought she had gone to sit with Nanny, but noooo. Just as I was juddering my way upstairs to put her to bed there was a thump followed by a whine of pain. Grandand was already on his way up the stairs to help me up at the top, so shouts of ‘What happened?’ and ‘Where are you hurt?’ echoed across the landing. Princi walks crying out of the bathroom, cradling her right hand. ‘I hurt my hand,’ she sobbed.
‘What were you doing in the bathroom?’ I ask, as I slowly wind my way up the stairs on the stairlift.
‘I was window cleaning,’ she says. ‘But I hurt my hand. I’ll never do window cleaning again.’
‘Princi! You shouldn’t stand on the side of the bath and play with water, it’s very dangerous. You’re lucky you only hurt your hand,’ I say. Grandand helps me up and I go into the bathroom to see what she had been up to.
Had she ever been cleaning windows! The window ledge was flooded, and there was a toothbrush (luckily, the one I replaced yesterday) caked in soap. A build-up of soapy scum had accumulated at the bottom of the frame. Little terror!
At least she went to bed without much fuss after eating a marmite sandwich and drinking a glass of milk. (Oh marmite, why have you forsaken me? I used to love marmite, but now I can’t stand it.) I’m hoping she’ll stay in her bed tonight instead of being the surreptitious starfish in the night.
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One good thing that happened today, I have more or less finished TMA05. There’s only a little tweaking of both poems and commentary left to do now. I think I’ll leave that until next week and move onto the ECA. There’s still the commentary to do on that, and I have to have a play around with the poems and life writing, just to make them as perfect as they can be. I’ve got about another 4 weeks to get it all sorted (TMA05 goes off in three weeks), so I’m not feeling too panicked at the moment. So here’s the WIPs:
- TMA05 = Publication research, themed sequence of poems (at least 3) 40 lines (max 42) + 500 words reflective commentary + reading final chapters of BRB. (May 15) *
- *Revise drafts of Persephone, Cassandra, and Yggdrasil. Begin planning submissions commentary based around Iota magazine. Have chosen Poetry magazine instead. Commentary @ editing.
- ECA = 1,200-1,300 words prose (life writing) + 40-50 lines poetry**+ 700 words reflective commentary. (June 5)
- **Revise drafts of Mecha-Lexy UNDER REVISION, At the feet of Rafa Nadal UNDER REVISION, Meat, and the life writing narrative UNDER REVISION. Complete first draft of Foil and Gambling on inheritance. Choose which poems to use for ECA. Begin planning the commentary.
So there’s still a bit to do, not least the 700 words commentary. But I’m now at the final push, and actually feeling quite good about it all. Me and positivity, not something that happens often! Especially where my writing is concerned.
Take me out. March 30, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in A215, Conversations with Principessa, Life writing, Principessa in hospital again, Procrastinating, Still feeling yucky, TMA04, writing.4 comments
Yesterday afternoon, Princi began complaining that she had hit her head and that it was hurting. After making sure she had found hugs from everyone possible, she ran off and continued doing whatever it was she had been doing. Then she cried again saying that her head still hurt and started asking for her new favourite comfort – to rest your hand on the injured area. So we did, and she once again felt better. Then she fell asleep in Nanny’s bed, but unsure if she had really hit her head, Nanny woke her up and Princi once again began crying. I was worried to begin with, Princi doesn’t really make too much of a fuss if she hurts herself, she’ll cry, I’ll hug and kiss better, she’ll run off and play. However, the continual return to crying and complaining each time that her head hurt really had me worried. I asked her ifit hurt when her head was touched, and she said no. I asked her if it hurt inside, and she said yes. That was it, off to the walk-in centre with Grandand.
When she got back home, she was her normal self. Grandand said that the doctor who examined her said there was nothing wrong, and I joked to Grandand that she did it just to go out before bedtime. When I got upstairs to put her into bed, she was talking to Nanny. I stopped to listen.
Nanny: Are you ok?
Princi: Yes.
Nanny: Does your head hurt now?
Princi: No.
Nanny: Did you just want to go out?
Princi: Yes, I just wanted a ride in Betsy car.
And there we have it. Two hours of worry while she was at the walk-in centre because she wanted to go for a ride in the car! Little pain. She’s her normal headstrong self today: refusing to eat her dinner and to stay out of the kitchen, and demanding that we read books no matter what books they are (it was Tom’s Midnight Garden before school), so all’s well that ends well.
As for me? Still got the sore throat. Have woken up the past two mornings with my tongue glued to the roof of my mouth. I don’t know why my mouth is so dry recently. Maybe I should stop stressing about the next TMA. Got to get that done by the end of the week, and tomorrow is a write-off as Princi has a day off school because it’s parent’s day. Bugger. Just leaves the last three days of the week to get it done. I seriously need to crack the whip of Getting Things Done. It must be time to take the computer to bed with me. At least the evenings (once Princi’s asleep) can be made of productive time.
Wonder what time Andy Murray is playing tonight…
Slacker? That’s me!
Princi’s at it again! March 22, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in Conversations with Principessa, The Principessa Files.1 comment so far
Making me laugh with what she says, that is.
Princi: I love ya, Mummy.
Me: I love you, too, babes.
P: I still love ya, Mummy!
M: I love you to infinity.
P: And beyond!
M: Times infinity.
P: Times beyond!
Cheeky monkey, I usually catch her out. Not today, though! Then later, she brings in half a packet of mini sausages and a Dairylea cheese and puts it on her desk. Grandand comes in and pinches three of the sausages.
P: Give them back!
Grandand: I’ve only taken three!
P: That’s not fair, robbing a girl’s sausages!
You can’t help but laugh! And she says she’s not funny.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? January 21, 2009
Posted by phoenixaeon in Conversations with Principessa.add a comment
The other night, just before switching the Myths of King Arthur audiobook on, Princi took hold of bedtime conversation.
Princi: Mummy, how do plants grow?
Me: They use a process called photosynthesis.
Princi: No-ho-ho-ho-ho, plants can’t take photos.
Then, the next morning while eating breakfast…
Princi: Mummy, what do spiders eat? Do they eat flies?
Me: Yes, they eat flies. And if they’re big enough they eat birds too.
Princi: No-ho-ho-ho-ho, spiders don’t eat birds. Spiders eat flies. What do snakes eat?
Me: Mice. And birds.
Princi: No-ho-ho-ho-ho, snakes don’t eat mice or birds.
As you can see, the giggly no has to figure in nearly all conversations, except for the ones where she knows the answers!
