So we made it to half term! Last week was another quiet one really – we really don’t do much during the week when the boys are at school and preschool apart from their usual swimming lessons. We did have Toby’s first proper parents’ evening on Thursday night though, and we came away feeling very proud.

Toby’s teacher said he is doing really well academically – his reading, writing and maths have all progressed brilliantly since the start of the year. She also said his concentration has improved a lot which is good to hear. Toby can concentrate amazingly well for a four year old… but only if it’s on something he’s really interested in. It’s getting him to concentrate on something he’s not that bothered about that’s the tricky part.

She also said he is popular with his classmates and his imaginative play is fantastic too. I was really pleased about this because playing with others (when they didn’t want to play the what Toby wanted to play particularly) was something he struggled with at the start of the year. We’ve noticed it improving at home with Gabe too, so I’m glad the same thing is happening at school.

In fact, the only areas that Toby really needs to work on are listening to, and following instructions (particularly when they’re directed at the whole class and not just him), and getting a bit quicker at everything really, but especially getting changed for PE. Apparently it’s not unusual for Toby to be seen wandering round the classroom naked except for his shoes, when he should be getting changed! I swear I’ve told him loads of times that he doesn’t need to take his underpants off when he’s getting changed at school!!

So that’s Toby, we are honestly so proud of how well he has settled into school – I just hope he continues in the same vein for the rest of the year (and beyond!)

He’s still bonkers though – on Saturday Barry went out to a video game conference/ exhibition all day so the boys and I stayed in our pyjamas all day. Toby and Gabe were playing in the hallway with a bouncy ball so I decided to get the camera out and try and take some pictures. Nearly all the ones I got of Toby were some variation of this one…

Gabe’s had a good week too and has also been showing off his intelligence lately. He’s recently become a bit obsessed with Team Umi Zoomi – it isn’t my favourite programme but he’s learning so much from it about numbers and shapes. We were reading The Gruffalo’s Child at bedtime the other night and there was a sticker on the front saying it was the 10th anniversary edition. And out of nowhere Gabe just said ‘one and zero, that’s ten’! He still misses out half the numbers if he tries to count but he’s doing so well too.

He wasn’t in my best books on Saturday night though – Barry and I went out for a meal (the first time we’ve been out to eat without the kids since Toby was a baby) while my mum and dad babysat. Gabe was a bit unsettled at bedtime for some reason and it took me a while to get him to sleep, and then when my dad came to pick us up he woke up again and wouldn’t go back to sleep for my mum, so we got home to find him in the living room.

I took him to our room to try and get him back to sleep again – an hour and a half later he was still awake so I gave up, laid down beside him and went to sleep myself. I presume he must have dropped off at some point after but it meant he was in our bed all night, which I thought we’d seen the end of.

Anyway, this photo of him was taken in the same hallway and stairs session as Toby’s. Toby had wanted to sit up on the windowsill of the window on the landing. And of course Gabe wanted to copy him. But when he got up there he was too scared to let go of me. I managed to take this with the DSLR at arms length while he clung on to me and had a look out of the window.

Thanks if you’ve read through to the end – this has ended up being a bit of a long post this week! We’re not going away for half term but we have got a few days out and days with friends planned so hopefully next week’s Living Arrows pictures might be taken somewhere a bit more interesting than our hall!