Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a festive & happy New Year's. We drank a bottle of Cava and were alseep by 10p!! Of course we were awoken at midnight by the huge fireworks outside. Poor Dexter was ready to jump out of his skin, so I medicated him with some Xanax. :)

Kate started her new school today. It is a Montessori, and she has loved it the few times she's been there to "settle in". One of the tenets of Montessori is promoting self-sufficiency. The intention behind having children set their own tables and prepare their own food (that which is age-appropriate, anyway), put their own activities away (and properly, too), that kind of environment is incredibly fulfilling for independent kids and is part of the whole-child learning that I love about the philosophy. Well, of course my kid loves the ability to prepare her own food. We walked in this morning and she made a beeline for the snack table to help herself to some carrots & water. She has done that every time. I swore to her teacher that I do in fact feed my kid at home.

Her school was just awarded as having "the best fed children in the UK" of any school!! They have a full time chef who prepares all of the foods from scratch using organic & free range products. No convenience foods (i.e. junky crackers or chex mix) are given. Of course that makes my heart go pitter-patter.

However, this morning she awoke very early when Danny left for work. I told her to come get in bed with me for awhile and she said she was going back downstairs to get her book and she would be right back. Well, I guess I dozed off again because the next thing I knew I heard her clomping back up the stairs and I realized 45 minutes had elapsed. I asked her what she had been doing and she said "Um, eating chocolate". I asked her where she got it, and she said "Um, probably in the kitchen". (Everything is "probably" these days). I went downstairs and realized that I had left the tin of chocolate Chrismas biscuits on the counter last night. I opened it and of course there were only a few remaining. But there were telltale crumbs and chocolate everywhere, including her face, hair & hands, the floor, Dexter's bowl (!), and in my coffee pot too.