It doesn't happen often...

But wow, when it does, it's something special! The children bathing is, of course, something that DOES happen often - they are usually caked in mud or crayon so we can't pass many days without needing a good wash - but the peace that accompanied the bath this afternoon was very unusual. Maybe it's because it's the afternoon: four hours at Forest School in which it didn't stop raining for even a second meant that we didn't wait until bedtime for the clean routine. Perhaps they were just exhausted after all that hard playing. Whatever the reason, I had to catch the moment (before they noticed me and began pouring water on the floor) where the silent absorption in their own play and discovery was so absolute that I sat outside the bathroom and read my book for five whole minutes. I was a metre away but they both were so quiet and involved in what they were doing that I had to occasionally pop my head around the door to check they were still there!

Our days at home have been challenging as our littlest girl has been ill with lots of different bugs in the last couple of weeks. This has made her grumpy and very easy to antagonise - at which point she forgets her words and resorts to bites and headbutts. Not much fun, but she's much better now and is gaining more vocabulary every day so will hopefully be less frustrated as she can explain herself without battering us all! And in the pauses between tantrums, we've been exploring lots of lego and junk modelling and reading a million or so books daily. Room for much improvement as we adjust to our new cycle, but learning how we work best is all part of the fun. Here's to Autumn!