Thursday photo #247

One of the things the girls miss out on a bit due to our hectic lifestyle is playing with friends. So this weekend, when Lia was invited to a friend’s house, both girls took full advantage.

Playing with friends

When I decided not to put Libby into our local school, I knew that one of the disadvantages would be that the girls didn’t live near their friends. It concerned me that they’d get left out as the other children went on playdates after school. But as it turned out, it hasn’t been a problem.

Libby’s class just weren’t really into playdates. Lots of parents work, many children don’t live in the village and they are all happy playing together at school. It has been rare for her to be asked on a playdate and I haven’t had to turn any down.

Lia’s class has been slightly different. She made one particularly good friend while she was still in preschool and has been to play with him a couple of times. She has now made more close friends and playdates followed. This sparked Libby’s interest as well and I think having friends round will be more of a feature for them both in the future.

Gratefulness

I wrote last week about how we discuss our good and bad things from each day over dinner. One of the things we are aiming to achieve is to make the girls appreciate how lucky they are. This week was one of those times when even I had to pinch myself.

Yesterday, I shared our review of the David Charles dresses. Having never owned a designer dress in my life, it was quite surreal kitting the girls out in gowns made by a designer who has dressed royalty and celebrities for film premiers.

I thought it was important for the girls to understand that things don’t just materialise. So yesterday morning, I had a chat to them about it. One of them was asking me for something and I was trying to get some work done relating to the blog post about their dresses. Cue the usual complaints.

So, I took the time to explain that I’d been up until gone midnight working on a blog post and that I had some work to do that morning. I asked if they knew why I’d done that and both of them answered, “So you can earn money”. When I explained that it was actually so they could have their new dresses, it seemed to sink in a little bit more. Whilst children don’t fully understand the concept of work and earning money, seeing me working in order to allow them to have something physical did make the penny drop.

I couldn’t choose any other photo of the girls this week. This one captures their characters so well. I sometimes wonder whether Lia will ever take anything seriously. In a way, I hope she doesn’t.