Nina is so very, very excited about her birthday on Friday and her party on Saturday that she is practically walking on air. She has made some specific requests for treats-- Maoms to hand out to the class, Tangfastics for the tap dancers, jelly (jello), Coke, and salami sandwiches for the party. It will be a dance party and we have also forwarded a list of songs to the dance teacher, including "The Model" by Kraftwerk, "I Belong To You" by Muse, and "Jerk It Out" by The Caesars. I love that she has a playlist. It will be a small party this year which will also be a welcome change. Nina is particularly pleased that she will have "Golden Time" at school on her birthday.
Nina has been doing well in general for the past several weeks. She continues to expand her circle of friends while also playing well with her established friends, which is lovely. A few weeks ago Nina started attending karate lessons before school on Wednesday mornings. She seems to be really enjoying karate. She has also gone back to football, and last Saturday she scored a goal. Nina decided to enter a Floor and Vault competition at gymnastics that will happen in late March. I was trying very hard to figure out if she even knew how to vault-- "Have you ever jumped over this big brown thing?" "The springboard?" "Well, yes, but then you jump up on this other piece of equipment... I'll draw you a picture..."-- but luckily I talked to another mom who said that it really doesn't matter if they can vault or not, so I signed her up with a clear conscience.
We have been putting olive oil drops in both of Nina's ears every night for at least a month now. Yesterday I took her to the docs to see if the drops have helped. She still has significant wax but it is very soft, so we are to continue with the drops. I really don't like putting them in, but it seems possible that part of her recent blossoming may be because she can hear better and is having less pain in her ears, so I guess we'll carry on.
Over Christmas Nina had the chance to go with the Richmond Young Carers to see the Aladdin pantomime at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. The Young Carers organization is brilliant; it is wonderful for Nina to have something like that to help her feel special. We dropped her off at the Centre and they took her and several other children in by coach, and the kids even got to meet the actors beforehand.
I also took the kids to see Ballet Boyz-- The Talent last Friday. I had bought the tickets as a Christmas present. Nina was quite frightened at first as we were up very high, but a very kind young woman sitting next to her offered her a Starburst and that helped enormously. Nina and Lydia ended up striking up a friendship and bonding over Nintendo DS games (I had wisely brought the Nintendos along for the intermission). I'm not completely sure what the kids thought of the dancing. It may have been a bit advanced for them, but I thought it was a great chance to expose them to some professional dancers. Sam liked the "Real Men Wear Tights" hoodies that were on sale in the lobby. :)
The kids will both be in the next dance show that will happen in the fall. There is a Harry Potter theme apparently which works well as it means Sam gets to be an owl in one dance. That is very fitting as he continues to be very into birdwatching.
Sam continues to be deeply interested in math, although curiously he has recently had some difficulty with math at a more basic level recently, such as budgeting. Sam will be going to visit two secondary schools next week. That will mean that he isn't in school as usual which will be a bit disruptive for him but it's important that he feels he is part of the decision of where to go next. We are also starting to talk about the Year Six class trip. In the fall all of Year Six will go for a week to an outdoor education centre for a week. No parents will be along, it will be only the kids and their teachers. That will be a very big deal.
Sam has also gotten into Greek mythology recently. He has been working on making Lego models of all the Greek gods. He read a modern version of The Odyssey for the book group he is in and has also been reading the Comic Strip Greek Myths book.
Sam has continued to show interest in the piano. He particularly likes to transpose pieces but oddly he often does not change the songs if the new key requires accidentals so the result is very peculiar-sounding. At first I thought he didn't hear the difference, but he says that he does, and he is now beginning to add the accidentals in. He has been composing a piece to describe an imaginary planet as part of music at school with a group of friends (they've chosen the name "Zoople" for their planet).
Sadly Nina seems to have given up on the piano for the moment. I feel rather torn about this because she was the one that showed interest at first, but when Sam passed her, she got discouraged. I really hope that she will try again at some point. I continue to hope that we are doing an adequate job of showing Nina that she is very special in her own way and very talented in her own right. She recently was given a coveted Superstar award at school for excellent vocabulary and was rightfully pleased.
In more personal news, we recently attended a meeting with H's MS consultant to review the results of H's second brain scan (the first was in 2009 when he was diagnosed). We were very pleased to hear that there has been a bit of improvement since the first scan. This does not mean that H. is cured by any stretch of the imagination but it was encouraging news, particularly as we had not realized it was even possible for the brain to heal itself at all. We will hope very much that that trend continues.

We had a lovely Christmas break. For the first time in several years, all of us were in fairly good health. Enzo came to join us on December 22nd and his visit, which lasted until early January, was fantastic. We went for walks nearly every day in Richmond Park, and the kids rapidly lost most of their fear of dogs. Nina formed a real bond with Enzo, it was lovely to see. He sat on her lap several times. Sam liked feeding him, and Sam even took him for a walk once around the block on his own, a first for Sam.
The kids' big present was a Wii, with the games Mario Kart and Mario and Sonic at the London Olympics. Both kids are very happy with that present. We went back to Santa this year,and although Nina claimed to no longer believe in Santa, it was clear that she enjoyed hearing about him more this year.
Unfortunately Nina did catch the flu right after school started up again. She had very high temperatures for several days. She seems to be recovering now but is still very tired.
Sam is fascinated by math at the moment. He got a set of Murderous Maths books for Christmas that he has been reading non-stop. He is also extremely interested in birds right now, particularly ravens and crows. In fact, his interest is so keen that he said this evening that he may not want to play cricket this year because he would rather do more bird-watching (!).
I met with Sam's teacher and the assistant SENCo at school today to talk about Sam's new social skills unit. It turns out that Sam is still upset by something that happened at the first primary school he attended. We talked about that incident a bit tonight. I hope that with encouragement and support Sam will begin to find a way to come to peace with some of the events that he is holding on to.
Sam continues to enjoy many of the extra bits of school, such as Latin and chamber choir. It has been wonderful to hear him singing more at home.
Nina has added a few new friends to her circle. She is very much looking forward to her upcoming birthday party, that will happen on Feb. 4th. She was very pleased to be back at school today after nearly a week off, although she did get quite tired by the end of the day.

Nina won the Presentation Award for her class this term for work she did on poppies. Today her class went to visit the Poppy Factory, where the poppies that many people in England wear in November to commemorate Remembrance/Veteran's Day are produced. Nina is very keen on learning about how things are made, and she thoroughly enjoyed the trip. She remembered several interesting facts that she had learnt.
To my dismay, Nina has been talking about weight occasionally during the past week. I still can't believe that this would be a topic among six-year old girls, but it clearly is. I have been assuring Nina that she is just right. I've been trying to emphasize that the most important thing is not how much you weigh, but how fit and healthy you are, and that the best thing is to be, as they say in Sweden, lagom, which translates roughly into "just right." I am again struck by the vast difference between parenting our two children. Sam's path seems often so much more straightforward than Nina's- Nina's seems full of twists and turns.
Sam was asked to join the twelve-voice Vineyard Chamber Choir. He has been really enjoying that and it has already improved his ability to carry a tune.
I am now giving both children piano lessons. I felt a bit unsure about whether or not it was a good idea for me to try to teach the kids piano as I only had lessons from Mom myself. Mom got me through Teaching Little Fingers to Play and I pretty much took it from there myself. So I was concerned about whether or not I would teach them improper technique, but Mom encouraged me to give it a go anyway, and so far it's going just fine. Both kids are doing really well and they both seem to like playing quite a lot. Nina gets frustrated sometimes that she is not as far into the book as Sam is, but hopefully that won't put her off completely.
This Saturday we are going to meet Enzo, a Jack Russell terrier that will be our guest from Dec. 23rd-Jan. 2nd. Both kids have seen pictures of Enzo and both seem to be mentally preparing for temporary dog ownership. I am hoping that this experience will help move both kids past their fear of dogs. It will probably not be easy, particularly at the beginning, but I think it will end up being fabulous.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with the traditional food the Saturday after the day itself, and we will celebrate Lucia this Sunday. It is a bittersweet time of year to live abroad, as we think of the family that we would like to share these holidays with, but I'm glad that we will be marking these special days and keeping some of the traditions of our respective home countries.

At the breakfast table this morning we began talking about religion. This is not uncommon in our house. Both kids know that I believe in God and Håkan does not, and I'm sure they're trying to work that one out. At breakfast Nina announced, "God doesn't exist, and I can prove it." "How?" "Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins went to the moon, and they didn't bump into God." Both Håkan and I found her explanation highly entertaining. I ended up explaining to her that most people who believe in God don't really think that God is someone you would collide with during space travel.
This morning was also notable because it was Nina's fourth Saturday football session at the Vineyard, and she was one of two Players of the Match. Two are chosen from the whole group each time. Nina was extremely pleased to be picked. She complains about going in the morning, but when she gets there, she really loves it. We were lucky to get a pair of used football boots from one of the boys in her year, and they make her "extra fast." Today she got to be in the smaller ball skills section where she did a bunch of goalkeeping practice.
While we were there, Sam and H. went to Palewell Park and played tennis. Sam seems to be moving a bit away from cricket in favour of tennis. He's doing very well at the afterschool tennis club.
On Wednesday of this week, Sam went with the school choir to a singing festival at the Royal Albert Hall. He had a brilliant time and came back happier than he has been on any day this school year. He had been in a group with several friends and had a lovely mum as his chaperone. I think it was actually good for him to not have me along for once. They didn't get back until 5 and I needed to take Nina to her swimming lesson, so H. came home early that day to meet Sam.
Also over the past couple of weeks we have begun the process of looking at secondary schools for Sam. I went to the Grey Court and Christ's Open Evenings, and H. and I went together to the Orleans Park Open Morning. Looking at these schools was a shock. At Grey Court there was gum all over the carpets and the premises on the whole have that somewhat shabby character that many government-run buildings have. But the kids were clearly happy and the head teacher was very well-liked and seemed to be a positive force. At Christ's, I found the head teacher rather flat, but the premises were in much better condition. The music suite was very good and there was a high rock-climbing wall on the outside of the sports hall. Orleans Park had good buildings, respectful kids, and a head teacher that fits the mold of what one thinks of as a head teacher, but I didn't sense the buzz of excitement that I sensed at Grey Court. Orleans Park was more like, "We're a good school, we know it, and you can see it for yourself."
We can't look at Tiffin, the state exam school, until the summer. Tiffin is meant to be fantastic, but it is extremely unlikely that Sam would get a place there. There are something like 10 applicants for every one place, and many of them start tutoring with professional tutors years in advance of the entrance exam. We have been trying to do some of the tutoring ourselves, but it is very difficult to fit it in with homework and other activities. Several kids in Sam's class are already being tutored, and many more will start soon. We will probably just have to hope that he will get through whichever non-exam school we choose. We are lucky in that because of his statement, we can choose Grey Court or Orleans Park and he is guaranteed a place. I'm not sure if that applies to Christ's as well, we will have to find out about that.
Today the kids are taking advantage of the unusually lovely October weather by spending large amounts of time in the garden. This is very unusual, but a welcome change. I've set up the pop-up tent, cube, and tunnel, and they are playing some sort of spy/winter sports game out there. Sam is currently very interested in winter sports, particularly curling. I find this quite entertaining because while pregnant with him I watched quite a lot of Olympic curling (as I recall the Scottish and Swedish women's teams both did very well). We now have "curling stones" (painted cardboard circles with handles) all over the house, and Sam is keen to have a tournament sometime this weekend.

Today marked our fifth screen-free Sunday. I began to realize some time ago that Sam's relationship to his Nintendo DS was becoming unhealthy, but thought I could manage it with timers. I'm not quite sure what prompted the adoption of a screen-free day, but I have to say, it's the best parenting initiative we've had in some time. The first two Sundays were really miserable. Sam broke down several times and threatened repeatedly to report me to the police. The third Sunday was better-- only one breakdown-- and the fourth Sunday was lovely. Today went absolutely fine although Sam is still dealing with the cold he's had for the last several weeks and wasn't in top form. At bedtime, Nina gave this wonderful little speech about how she really likes the screen-free day, and how she is proud of Sam for having gotten used to it. Oh, the heart swells, my little six-year old is growing up. Speaking of growing up, Nina also finally lost her first tooth, and has another loose tooth already. She has been waiting for that for a very long time, so I'm so glad it finally happened.
The screen-free days apply not only to the kids, but to everyone in the house (although it ends as soon as the kids go to bed). It includes ALL screens. What has been lovely is watching the kids come up with things to do. They have actually played with toys more, done more pretending, and played games with each other. What I realized is that to a rather considerable extent, the reason I allow the amount of screen-time that I do is that it makes life easier for me. When they can use screens, there is no mess, little roughhousing, and only the noise of whatever they're watching or playing with. When they can't use screens, toys and games come out, there are more requests for help/play, and there can be far more noise. But the noise can also be lovely. Today Nina spent considerable time practicing the piano, and Sam did some good drumming practice. The other night they sang a song together, which was just so wonderful.
I am hoping Sam will be able to get over this cold, but I fear his particular makeup is just not designed for swimming pools, so I think the rest of this term may be difficult from a health perspective. But hopefully I'm wrong and he'll soon be back in good shape. He has learned to blow his nose, finally, so that is very good.
Sam ended up sticking with tap dancing. He likes that you can do Morse code with tap shoes. He and Nina seem to have worked out how to be in the class together, so that's good.
Nina continues to really enjoy gymnastics. She reported that she had climbed to the top of the ropes a couple weeks ago. I was glad I wasn't in the room for that one. :)
Both kids really liked the circus that came to school a couple weeks ago. It was very low-key, with only five performers, and felt like a big school party. I feel very lucky to have the kids at a primary school where all the teachers were willing to come in one evening to help with an event like that.
I have been appreciating the school more lately because last week we started the secondary school selection process by visiting two schools' Open Evenings. That was a very eye-opening experience, and I'm very glad to have started it this far in advance.

Today Nina tried Saturday morning football at the school for the first time. I admit to bribing her with the promise of a treat afterwards, but I'm very glad I did, as she really seemed to enjoy it. There was only one other girl in her age group, but there were several boys that she knows. It was wonderful to see her running around and she did manage to kick the ball a few times in the mini-match at the very end. I saw her tackled once and she reported that there was one other tackle, but she brushed them off. I was especially happy that she had fun as it has been a difficult week from an afterschool activity point of view. After seeing the kids, particularly Nina, in the water over the holidays, I really felt that I should sign them up for swimming lessons. From a financial and mental health perspective, I should really only be subtracting rather than adding activities, but I also know that starting in January 2013 Nina will be doing swimming lessons with school and I'd like her to be a strong enough swimmer that she doesn't place in the lowest group. But of course it turns out that swimming is extremely tiring, for all of us. That may be alleviated by taking the car instead of the bus-- we'll find out this week. There has also been trouble at dance class. At the end of last term Miss H suggested that Sam should try the tap dancing class as he could be in the same group as Nina. He tried it two weeks ago, and seemed to like it. Yesterday he was very happy to go in and did some tapping before class started. But Nina was decidedly not happy to have him in the class, and they bickered to the point that Miss H needed to separate them. After the class Nina said that she would quit if Sam carried on. Sam said, "Well, I think it seems hard, so I'm happy to play on my Nintendo instead." In addition, the class has gotten huge, and it is later than last term, ending at 5:30, which is very late on a Friday. I feel badly that Sam may be missing out on something he likes, but I feel sorry for Nina if she doesn't get to have tap as her dance specialty.
Since the start of school, Sam has been coming home very out of sorts. His hours have been reduced, and while I understand that writing much in the home-school book isn't possible, I asked in my last entry if it would be possible for someone to just tick that my entry had been read. That didn't happen, and there was also an issue on Thursday where they ran out of the food Sam was hoping to eat at lunchtime. As a last resort, I went to the office yesterday morning and asked to speak to the SENCo or SENCo assistant. Ms B, the assistant, called me as I was on my way into town. We had a long chat and I told her all that had been concerning Sam. She asked me to speak to Miss Taylor after school. I did, and Miss Taylor showed very appropriate concern and said she would be very happy to take over the home-school book. Sam reported that lunchtime play had been much better as there had been an adult supervising. Ms B said that I could give them a copy of the menu with Sam's choices highlighted and they would save out that sort of food for Sam, which I thought was very kind. To top it off, Ms B called me from her home phone as we were on our way home from dance to explain that she had begun to talk to Sam about the issues, but that she had been interrupted as everyone was melting down on Friday.
I was very impressed by the speed which with the school took action, and very reassured that they really are looking out for Sam's welfare.
Another very good thing that happened recently was that last Saturday, at the last church cricket game of the season, Nina got to play quite a bit with a young yellow lab named Puppy that one of the families had brought along. She got to pet Puppy a lot, hold Puppy's lead, and give Puppy sticks. Even Sam stroked Puppy a couple times, which is a huge step forward. That, combined with meeting Chester the cocker spaniel on Richmond Green yesterday, makes me hopeful that we are making inroads into conquering the kids' fear of dogs. That cricket game was also fun because H. actually fielded and went in to bat at the very end, making a respectable hit. We're looking forward to next season!

The kids have given me a couple of good laughs lately. On Sunday, while Nina had her first gymnastics session, H. took Sam to the Teddington walk-in clinic as Sam's rash had gotten worse. I had at first suspected sunburn, but when it didn't go away and when it actually spread to his arms, I thought it was important to have it looked at. Sam was diagnosed with scarlettina- scarlet fever "lite"- and put on antibiotics. We were meant to go to a 50th birthday lunch for a friend of H. that afternoon at Petersham Hotel. I wondered if it was OK to go, and I wondered if we would be able to get to the afternoon church service afterwards. We were discussing this when Sam said, "Well I can't take it at the party, because I could get Hepatitis C."
H. and I looked at him, completely confused.
"What? What do you mean you could get Hep C?"
"If I take amoxicillin at the party, I could get it."
"What makes you say that?"
"When we went to the walk-in clinic in Westminster after Nina bumped her head, there was a poster there that said, 'If you've taken drugs at a party, you could have hepatitis C.'"
At this I just couldn't keep a straight face. "Oh sweetie, there are different kinds of drugs. There are good drugs, like amoxicillin, and there are bad drugs, like the kind they were talking about in that poster. I can't believe you remember that poster, that was over a year ago."
The conversation went on to cover what sorts of drugs were good and bad, and when the kids were satisfied, we moved on. H. pointed out to me that it would be wise to consistently call antibiotics "medicine" in the future.
This morning it was Nina's turn to make me chuckle. H. has had to take a shower in the bathroom with the tub the last few days as there has been a leak in the shower he normally uses. He was showering this morning when Nina went in for her morning bathroom visit. I heard her ask him, "Pappa, I've been wondering, why do you wear your underwear to bed?"
"Well, I don't like to get too hot at night," H. answered in Swedish.
"Oh. But why don't you have pajamas?"
"Pajamas would be too hot."
"Oh." Pause. "Do you like Mum's nightgown?"
At this I began to smile. Even I don't really like a couple of my nightgowns (the long-sleeved ones both have a snowflake motif which is fine when it's really winter but always feels a bit odd when there's no snow). I was quite sure that H wasn't really a big fan of my nightgowns, and I laughed to myself when he said, "Yes, I like Mum's nightgowns."
I have overbooked the kids with activities this term, although I technically should be taking them out of outside classes rather than putting them in. Our free day is Tuesday. The main addition was swimming, which I already regret, although the kids clearly love to be in the water. The problem is that the pool closest to us has a waiting list for every day for Nina's level, so we opted for a pool that's really a bit too far away. But we'll get through the term, and maybe if we're lucky, the waiting list at the close-by pool will get smaller. The other problem with activities is my urge to be fair, and to give each child the same number of choices. And there's the dance show looming on the horizon-- if Nina were to drop either ballet or tap, she would undoubtedly regret it when the show rolls around in the fall of 2012. But next term I will have to do something to make sure we are a bit less busy.
Also on Sunday we had our first screen-free day for the entire family. It went really well and I am hoping to make it a tradition.
Sam is currently very into the idea of winter sports. He has made a snowboard, skis, and various other winter sports kit out of cardboard, painted all of them blue and yellow, and is teaching his doll Fwonk how to use them. He and Nina have had curling and hockey contests with cardboard stones and pucks.
I am trying hard to help Nina to understand what is appropriate in terms of proximity. I think she is a child who craves physical contact and really needs that sort of input, so I am trying to help her figure out how to get that in a positive way.
Nina has shown a strong interest in codes and puzzles over the summer, particularly Morse code. She got an absolutely lovely trophy this week for a tap dancing exam that she took on Sam's birthday.

This evening at dinner we started talking about walking up to school, when suddenly Nina said, "You know that brown cafe?"
"The one by school?"
"Yeah. The really little one."
"The Alberts Deli?"
"No... the brown one."
"The Richmond Hill Bakery?"
"No. The one with hot chocolate."
"The one that's on Sheen Road? Have we been there?"
"No, but you know what, if we lived there, on the second floor, then you wouldn't have to cook, and you could just go down and get everything that you need. That's where I want to live when I grow up."
At this I couldn't resist smiling broadly. "That's a very sweet idea, Nina."
"And then you could cook, and we wouldn't have to pay for the food, because it would be ours."
"Yeah," concurred Sam, "And you could make your trademark rainbow feta pasta. And it could be called Pasta and Pizza."
"Yeah," chimed in Nina. "Pizza and Pasta."
Words can not begin to describe how much I adore my children. :) It has been so lovely having them around this summer. I have watched Nina make friends wherever she went, and found that quite reassuring. Sam has developed a more significant interest in the news. One evening while we were in Randolph, Sam announced that he had been reading the BBC News website online, and that he was following the surge in Libya. He took his napkin ring and his napkin and illustrated the position of the opposing forces.
Speaking of Randolph, we had a wonderful visit there from August 13-29. The first week we spent seeing lots of family, including Aunt Nancy and Uncle Craig whom I hadn't seen for well over twenty years. Uncle Jeff made the trip up from MD, Auntie Karen, Uncle Ernie, and Cousin Seviah travelled from Brattleboro, and Great Grandpa&Great Grandma Cliff drove up from Pennsylvania. What a good way to celebrate my birthday! :)
On Thursday of the first week we drove down to Brattleboro to see where Cousin Seviah and family live. It was great to see their home and their town. Nina even got to join in at Cousin Seviah's gymnastics practice which was an amazing treat. Seviah and Nina really enjoyed spending time together during this visit which was absolutely delightful to watch (although it does pull at the heartstrings to know that it can only happen through transatlantic travel).
At Grandma Susan's house we played a lot of Vielle Fille (Old Maid- for some reason Grandma has a bilingual version which increased the entertainment value of the game substantially). Nina was particularly entertaining during these games as well as she had some very creative strategies to assure that she would not be the Old Maid. Kerplunk was also a favourite game and brought out Grandpa Steve's and H's engineering backgrounds.
We ate lots of blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and also were lucky enough to eat at the 99 restaurant twice the day after the Red Sox had won, meaning the kids got to eat for free.
We visited with several of my very dear friends, Maureen, Lauren (who took the bus up from NYC and stayed with us for a few nights), and Sarah. We also had the chance to see many of the people that H. was close to during his time as an exchange student in Randolph when we went to his host father's surprise 80th birthday party. At that party the kids and H. waded in the river that would later break its banks during the hurricane, but while we were there, it was just sparkling in the sun.
Sam got to introduce Grandma Susan's neighbour Ben and his dad Mark to cricket.
The end of the trip was very dramatic. Hurricane Irene changed our plans for the final weekend as my friend Michelle and Grampy&Grammy were all very concerned about what the hurricane would do to their homes. We decided to stay in the cabin at Rochester Hollow, where we had been staying since our arrival, on Saturday night. But the rain started and immediately the ground started to show signs of strain. Grandma Susan drove up and told us we needed to leave promptly, and she was so very right, because if we had been even a half-hour later we may not have made it down into town. We would have run out of potable water and had to make do with very limited food. The road between Rochester Hollow and Randolph washed out completely and is still not passable by any vehicle other than a four by four. We were driving a Ford Focus rental car. Just thinking about how close we cut it is a bit scary, but we made it out safely, and were able to fly out on Monday.
Now we have nearly recovered from jet lag and we are anticipating the start of school on Wednesday. Here's hoping that it will be a good year.

Yesterday Nina and I met H. at Hammersmith, then we all went together to Westfield. We ate at Busaba Eathai to celebrate H's birthday. Sam was given the choice of coming along or going to cricket camp, and chose to play cricket "in honour of Pappa's birthday." Apart from a disagreement in the morning about her outfit (I insisted on leggings under her very short dress), Nina had a lovely day. She was so pleased to be out, so happy to help H. celebrate, and so chuffed to be dressed up on a Monday.
This afternoon Nina indicated that she may want to start learning how to play the piano. I had tried to introduce the piano quite some time ago but neither child really seemed interested. Today though Nina sat right down and focused. After about 15 minutes she could play two songs. She gave us all a mini-concert. Sam then decided to give it a try and did a song one step ahead. I have a feeling Nina will ask for more lessons though, and I'm not sure Sam will, but we'll see.
Sam has been enjoying cricket camp. He told the coach today that he also does ballet and had done well in his two ballet exams. The coach mentioned that to me because apparently Rudolf Nureyev used to live across from Sheen Common where the cricket is taking place. I was glad to hear Sam had mentioned it as I have never been completely sure how Sam feels about ballet, but if he brought it up, that must mean that he does actually like it. But cricket continues to be absolute top interest in Sam's book. Tomorrow will be even more fun for him as his friend Aks will be at the camp too.

This evening marked the official start of "Let's Attempt to Prepare for the 11+." Sam and I went through the first short segment of "How To Do Non-Verbal Reasoning." It took about 20 minutes, and Sam seemed to think it was OK. However, after that, we started reading one of the two books that the Book Club he's been invited to join has been assigned for summer reading, "Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea," and after three pages, Sam burst into tears and told me angrily that we were not reading that book anymore. During the first three pages, the author becomes separated from his sister. I imagine that for Sam, the mere idea of being separated from his sister is too terrible to even contemplate. When Sam was invited to join this group, which is a special group for "able readers," his initial response was "no." I asked him to think about it for a couple days, and after those couple days, he decided yes, he did want to join. But the truth is that Sam doesn't like this sort of book. Fiction becomes almost real to him. Right now he's on Book 3 of a cricket series called "Glory Gardens," and he loves the books, and talks about the characters as if they were real. He even bowls like them.
Sam's reluctance to read a book like the assigned book poses several questions. Is it foolish to think that Sam would want to go to a school where books like that would be par for the course? Do we keep trying with the book group, which is clearly an honour to have been invited to, or do we say, "Well, yes, that was an honour, but it's not for Sam"? It is interesting to see where it ends up being OK to push him out of his comfort zone- dance, drama- and where it really doesn't- fiction, dogs.

But one incident earlier this spring showed me just how far Sam had come. I was able to accompany his class as a chaperone on their trip to the Science Museum. They saw a show there about blood. The presenter called for several volunteers from the schoolchildren there. Sam was selected, and went onstage with another child from his school and 2 children from another school. All was well at first, the presenter was throwing white balloons out of a box and the kids had to put them back in. Then the presenter said, "Now we're going to make it more difficult," and he got out nothing other than a leaf-blower. A leaf-blower is the sort of machine that at ages 2-5, or even 6, would have sent Sam running with no regard for safety with his hands over his ears. I was seated in the absolute last row of the theatre, and said to the mom next to me, who knows Sam, "We'll see how this goes." Sam did step back and plug his ears when the presenter first turned on the machine. But he laughed, and after less than 10 seconds, his hands were down, and he was helping the other children collect the white balloons, now being blown out of the box at great speed. The other mom and I smiled at each other, and I had to bite my lip. It is not always easy, but Sam has come such an enormously long way, and for that I am so, so grateful.