One of those days...

No, she is not bleeding from her eye socket. She isn't unhappy either, she found the whole thing hilarious but didn't feel like smiling for the evidence shot. Her big brother is now aware of two things:

1. You should never facepaint a baby without checking with a grown up
2. You should never facepaint an eye.

Whether he'll remember these things, or whether we'll have a similar exciting event while preparing breakfast tomorrow, who can say! After a minor panic, we realised it washes off quite easily and she doesn't seem to have any left in her eye...

A long day, which has pretty much carried on in the same way it began. The newly four-year-old is suddenly determined to do his own thing regardless of logic and consequences, which means being extra-vigilant and spending more time shouting warnings than I'd like. I'm still in the endless school/not-school dilemma and days like today really suggest he's not ready for a 28-1 ratio of children-adults and needs more time to develop his individuality and confidence. He's growing a lot, eating masses and stammering a lot, so I know things will change really quickly and I don't want to feel that we're restricting him or keeping him from having a community (where we live, the community IS the school and EVERYONE goes) if he could gain a lot from being part of it. On the other hand, if he's allowed to develop at his own pace and we can create enough community elsewhere (which we can't do without driving to groups about 20 mins away) that may be enough for him. I've never worried so much about something that wasn't a life/death issue! I think I just need to keep reminding myself that nothing is fixed. We know he's not ready right now, so just need to keep re-assessing where we are NOW rather than trying to plan the next few years all at once.

Ah, another blog post which has gone off on a tangent. Some things are predictable, after all!