Birthdays and school and ponytails
Yes, yes, I know. I've been lax and haven't updated. The fact is, the holidays make me totally lose the plot. I'm serious. Preparing for them, then actually executing the whole thing (presents, food, tree, all that stuff) and then five weeks of school holidays...
Plus, Miranda's birthday is in January. This year she had her very first "real" birthday party. It was at a local restaurant that has an indoor playground, and they organised everything. Lots of food, fizzy drink, games, it was excellent, and the kids really enjoyed themselves. Miranda was thrilled to be having a real birthday party, too.
Then, of course, the long, annoying days of holidays. If we'd actually gone anywhere on vacation, it wouldn't have been so bad, but we didn't, so I had two little kids here for weeks. For the most part, they were okay. They entertained themselves and each other fairly well most of the time, and I do organise activities for them (mostly crafty type things), plus they've got a ton of DVDs and a computer they can play games on (mostly educational games, because I'm sneaky that way).
We still had our fair share of the inevitable bickering and fighting and kicking and hitting and spitting and so on. Not fun. We were all glad when school started up again last week, I can tell you!
Miranda's hair has gotten long enough to put it in a ponytail fairly easily. She used to wear it in a bob that stopped just below her ears, looked very cute, but then she saw all her school friends with long hair and ponytails or braids and she wanted to grow out her own hair, as well. I advised against this somewhat, and outlined for her all th pitfalls of having hair that is both long and extremely thick, but she wanted to give it a go. When she gets a haircut, we just get the very ends trimmed, and trim the fringe (bangs). And now her hair is down to where it skims her shoulders. I've been putting it in a ponytail, using two ponytail holders, one higher, then another one a bit lower, and a few hair clips to manage the strays (her hair is also very silky, in addition to being extremely thick). She normally comes home with wisps around her face anyway because the "non-slip" clips do slip, but she's happy to be wearing the ponytail. I think it makes her feel more grownup.
The little girls also both got their ears pierced on New Year's Eve. Well, during the day, obviously. We went to the local pharmacy, where they have two piercing guns and can do both ears simultaneously. It wasn't some sort of weird New Year ritual or anything, that just happened to be a day we were available to get it done, and I wanted to do it at the beginning of the school holidays to give the ears some time to heal before school commenced.
Anyway, wearing one's hair in a ponytail allows one's special gold sleeper hoop earrings to be viewed by one's friends. It's terribly grown up, you see.
Miranda will be starting violin lessons with a new teacher, as hers has had to move rather a long way away (still in the Melbourne area, but much too far to do regular lessons any more). I'll write about that when it happens this weekend. No, really. I will. I'll write. Seriously.
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