No eating on the bus

It happened with Kat and now its happening with Kit...whilst sending them off in the school bus is a great bonus for me, the downside is the food issue that I had to deal with Kat and now with Kit.

Kit Kat go to the same school (different divisions and different buses) and although Kat’s is much further away than Kit’s (for a couple of years at least), that does not stop Kit from complaining that she gets hungry on the way back...the school has a "No Food" policy on the bus and I have always stuck to that. Now here comes the problem – I am one of the many mums who will comply with what the school says but when your kid comes across a happily munching kid on the bus, you are in for some serious conversations!

While Kat (now of an age where she understands right and wrong...well, I hope!), I am often faced with heart breaking questions from Kit. READ MORE>>

Go Nemo Go!

I have always wanted to be a good swimmer – forget about good, I could have been an “okayish” swimmer but even that has not worked out :( Learning how to swim at 30+ years is never easy (there is SO much to fear!) but I somehow (surprising to me too) overcame that barrier and once I have my fins (or mermaid feet as Kit calls them) I can actually swim! Getting there...VERY slowly.

Maybe it is this lack of swimming instincts from my end (Papa does great!) but both of us are...er...very pushy parents when it comes to swimming for Kit Kat. This is one sport that is not taken lightly at our house (oh yes!). Kat has been a great swimmer and was in the swim team for some time but then she started ‘fearing’ the instructor (he was very very strict) and her twice a week lessons became a major challenge for us. Kat promised that she would swim in the pool downstairs as many times of the week as she could manage but she could no longer swim in THAT place with THAT instructor – she did stick to her promise for a long time but now with Middle School, even walking with the backpack on is a challenge (the new gym routine made her so achy in the first week – where has all the calcium and energy gone? – one can only wonder at the 3 months long summer vacation which has thrown everything and everyone out of sync) READ MORE>>

Lifeguard on Duty

OK - August has been very eventful for us. 2 weeks driving down the West Coast from San Francisco to LA (around 1500 miles in all). An earthquake last week and then Irene (a hurricane and then a tropical storm) – all these combined with several migraine attacks! We’ve been busy...

It has been a never ending round of packing and unpacking suitcases this month (latest being the one we packed few days ago in case we had to rush downstairs when Irene struck)...all is getting back to normal now (sort of!)

Kat was actually sad to get out of the rental car (aka our mobile home) because she felt that it had been her home for the last 2 weeks (I don’t blame her – with all the snacking we did on the road, it did seem like ‘Mom’s kitchen’!) READ MORE>>