I write this week’s diary entry with a melted heart as we have just watched the Fenwick’s Christmas window reveal (virtually) as a family and the kids spent the whole time transfixed and waving at the Santas. They really are at such a cute age and I don’t care what restrictions are in place – I know Christmas 2020 is going to be really special.
After the excitement and adventures of last week, the return to normality brought us down with a bump. Of course it coincided with the new stricter rules coming into force which has meant exactly no change for our usual routine given how reclusive we’ve become. The only real blessing has been that there has been no excrement in the bath or shower this week. We worked out that if we don’t wash the kids, the risk of a repeat reduces to nil. Another parenting win!
Right, here we go with the top 5 for the week:
1. We had to get back into E’s school routine pretty quick after half term. Now, E is definitely not the fastest at getting ready in the morning but boy is she quick to blame everyone else if anything goes wrong. Sadly not all of the family had raised their game and so Mammy was in the firing line. On Monday she forgot to put E’s pencil case in her bag. Not content with that, on Tuesday she put her in the wrong jumper, as we had mistakingly believed that the requirement to take a jumper for “Street Games” wasn’t limited to school jumpers only. It went from bad to worse on Wednesday when she forgot to make sure E had her glasses on when she dropped her off. This culminated with E saying on Wednesday “Come on Mammy. Let’s try and have a good day tomorrow.” She didn’t, of course, and forgot the Poppy money on Thursday! 
2. I’m writing my second highlight very carefully as discussing a lady’s weight on a public forum usually is guaranteed to end in disaster. Basically my good lady wife mentioned to me that she had been on the scales and weighed xxx and four quarters. I can see now that bursting out into laughter was never going to go down well, especially as it took rather a long time for her to realise what she had said. A slip of the tongue apparently! Now this was a few days ago and it’s still making me chuckle – a marriage full of laughter has got to be a good thing! 
3. Fireworks definitely have split the family, as Steph is really not a big fan whilst E absolutely loves them. M just doesn’t seem bothered either way. E wanted to help me take the bins out on Thursday evening to see if we could see any, and she certainly wasn’t disappointed. They were going off in every direction and she was making all the usual “ooh” and “aaah” noises. It was lovely just having the two of us spend some quality time in the freezing cold trying to spot some flashes of colour behind the neighbouring houses. I took the opportunity to have a secret chat about Steph’s upcoming birthday and try and get some present ideas. The best E came up with was a firework(!) or perhaps some gin. She clearly knows her Mammy so well! 
4. The love of Strictly continues in the Low household, with the kids wangling a late night so they can see as much of the live show as possible. E is obviously very taken by the dancing and the outfits and insists on joining in with her own dance routines. I just wish she wouldn’t do it right in front of the tv! M is more interested in the scoring and loves shouting out the numbers as the paddles are held up. Can you imagine when someone receives a 10?! E’s only frustration is Craig Revel Horwood and she tuts every time he provides some constructive criticism. “He’s a cheeky one” is the usual line she trots out. Who is this girl? 
5. We finish with the biggest news of the week as it’s hard to ignore the huge and hard fought election. I have also now heard first hand about the rather sinister vote rigging that was going on earlier in the week. Now, don’t get me wrong, the US Presidential election was quite a big deal, but I am referring to the Year 1 class councillor election. Now, how you expect to be able to get a group of 5 and 6 year olds to vote in a meaningful way is beyond me, but my ambitious daughter has revealed that she entered into a pact with some friends to each vote for the other. I suspect that all they achieved was cancelling out each other and paced the way for someone else to romp home to victory. Such is politics, and I’ve reassured her that her teacher was perfectly entitled to count every vote cast and not just stop at the point she was ahead. 
LawyerLow Diaries 