Hindi Dancing and Japanese Clocks

Maya’s bedtime has been pushed back to 8 or 8.30pm as she now sleeps for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. She’s very chuffed at being allowed to stay up later than Lily, who still goes to bed around 7, and can often be found swaggering about her room and the corridor long after we’ve said goodnight to her. The other night, way past her bedtime, she asked me to take her nappy off as she needed the loo. As she was sitting there, a sweet, sleepy look on her face she said in a soft voice ‘Mummy, I’m so proud of you.’ I couldn’t believe it – it was so adorable it almost brought a tear to my eye! Of course, the reason she said this was because Andy and I are constantly telling her the same and no more so than in the past couple of days since she has started her new nursery.

When I first dropped her off, she looked me straight in the eye and said with a fiercely determined little voice ‘Mummy, I not crying.’ So yes, I was extremely proud of the little lady. It certainly helped that another poor wee soul was in the throes of a dramatic sobbing fit, clinging to his mother for dear life. Terrible though this is to admit, Maya has always observed such scenes with voyeuristic interest, partly because she’s pleased it’s not her and also partly, I’m sure, to pick up tips for her own next histrionic meltdown. On her first day, I returned after one hour to check up on her – no problems so out I crept and left her there for the full three hours. Maya was full of beans when I went to collect her, clutching a beautiful bright cardboard cut out of a kimono-clad Japanese lady holding a movable-hands clock. She seemed genuinely happy and I heaved a big old sigh of relief.

This morning was not quite so simple. Despite the fact Maya had been looking forward to returning to nursery, when we got there she decided after all that she didn’t want to be there. After many tears and a great deal of guilt on my part, I decided to stand for a short while outside where I was out of sight to see if she would soon calm down. And calm she did, after just a few minutes. I called the school an hour later to see how she was getting on and was reassured that she was in good spirits (perhaps they weren’t telling the truth, but you have to trust, don’t you?). Sure enough, at 1pm she came running out to greet me holding her latest creation (a cardboard traffic light pen holder no less!) and today was told by the principal how much Maya had enjoyed the Hindi dancing. (There’s my girl - I knew all those dancing sessions to i-tunes mixes around the sitting room would have to pay off one day!!) When we got back home, I asked Maya to show me the dancing she’d done at nursery and she gave a brilliant little hip-wiggling flourish – we’ll get her an extra part in a Bollywood movie before no time at all!!

So far, so good on the nursery front. The staff seem genuinely interested and kind and there’s lots of space both in and outside. Next step is to find somebody reliable and trustworthy to look after Lily in the mornings so I can do some voluntary work and also write….my next novel!! I’ve been waiting for my theme for months and this morning, quite literally, it came to me and I now am ridiculously over-excited and longing to begin…Watch this space.