Which meant it was also Miss 5's first tennis lesson today after school. She has been massively excited about starting tennis. Every day when I pick her up from school or after school care (depending on the day) we drive past the tennis courts. And on about the hundredth time she asked if she could learn tennis I figured that it was not just a phase she was going through and she did actually want to play tennis.
You see, with kids you should never, ever say yes on first asking when it involves something such as tennis. Or anything semi-long-term in nature. Because sometimes, just sometimes, Dora the annoying explorer, whose mother doesn't seem to care that she wanders through forests unsupervised and believes that worms talk, has placed an idea into the small ones' heads. Or it could be some fanciful thought that they have dreamed up and are enamoured with. That day.
So yes, always wait. If they keep asking, they they're keen. It's kinda like when I go shopping for clothes. I hate clothes shopping. With a passion. It isn't just the fact that you have to try things on and the mirrors in those change rooms refract the light in such a way as to bounce repeatedly off every bump and ripple on your body and throw the image of those imperfections at the mirror with such force that they bounce right back at you and knock you off your feet. Or maybe that's just me.
Anyway, once again, I digress. With clothes shopping, if I see something I like I say cool, I like that, and will ask them to hold it for me. Sometimes. Sometimes I won't. Sometimes I'll just leave the shop. And it is that nagging feeling. The one that makes you go back and look at it again. Or try it on again. Or try madly to justify in your head why you simply must have that item. THAT is what means you really want it. So I applied that theory to Miss 5.
Well she loved it. She gets her new racquet tomorrow. Today she has a loaner. But she loved it.
That said, I'm not so sure if it loved her. Combine the first day back at school with a 45 minute tennis lesson after school, and then half an hour at after school care before I made it to her after work, and it took all of about 80 seconds until the first meltdown. Why? Because she couldn't put her seatbelt on. And the tears flowed, and she was yanking on the seatbelt harder and harder, and of course the harder she yanked the less success she had because the seatbelt was doing what it is designed to do and 'locking' with the force, and so she was becoming more and more frustrated. And it was then I realised she was trying to do it with her right hand, and she is left-handed (incredibly dominantly) so I suggested she sit on the other side and use that seat, which she did, and, calming down a little, the seatbelt worked. Phew. Relief.
Then we arrived at the daycare to get the other two. And the tears started again. As soon as she got out of the car she said how tired she was. And then I felt like the world's worst parent. Was it too much for her to do a whole day at school and then do tennis? But she so wanted to do it. And sport is great for kids to get involved in. And surely as she gets a little older it will be easier. And maybe it was just because it was the first day back?
Stop. Over. Thinking.
It's one day. One reaction. Calm. Down.
So we got the other two. Their days went well. And we got home to find some wonderful friends had sent us piles of the Woolies animal cards, which the kids adore. So I sorted through to find the ones we were missing from our album (only five more to go!!) and the rest were divided up amongst the kids and they then started a game of something or other playing with the cards and guessing the names of the animals.
I love those cards. Fabulous idea. And brilliant marketing on the part of Woolies. Kudos to you grocery giant. And the kids learn whilst playing! And us mums end up feeling like drug dealers as we swap envelopes with people we barely know, just to get the cards we need......
One thing about having a party and having some cancellations last minute is that you have a lot of food left over. We do. So tonight was leftovers for dinner, with an after dinner snack of leftovers. Tomorrow I'm tipping will be something fairly similar. The kids are loving it. Why? Because I'm used to doing kids parties aren't I. So for dessert I made jelly in shot glasses. And when people asked what was in them I answered "jelly". And they asked "anything else?" And I said "No. It's jelly." And then I realised that at most grown up parties, jelly served in shot glasses usually contains a small modicum of grog.
Oops.
No matter. The kids loved them. AND I used it to bribe Master 3 to not cry when I dropped him off this morning. "If you don't cry when I drop you off you can have TWO shot glass jellies!"
"YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!"
Yep. Mum. Of. The. Year.
Anyway, it worked.
Good enough for me......
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