Missing cats, trampolining and cartwheels

We've almost made it to the end of week 2 of the holidays and we're doing ok-ish.  Next week we're spending two nights at my Mum's and the following two and a half weeks Daddy is off work, hurrah!

The first week of the school holidays were a little fraught.  This happened to coincide with one of our cats going missing.  My twitter feed has had quite a few missing cats on it in the last week or so - I think the hot weather has possibly meant they've accidentally got shut in sheds or garages whilst looking for shade, or that they've just spent an awfully long time sleeping under the stars! Our cat was missing for 5 days.  Actually I'm wondering if our cat just wanted some peace and quiet - he doesn't like Missy people shouting.  

I tried to be as positive as possible but Daddy was getting quite stressed and Missy was also upset. Nevertheless, she decided she wanted to help look for him and we spent Monday morning walking around the fields and posting Lost flyers. Thankfully the cat returned and so did Missy's better behaviour.

This last week Missy had a two-day trampolining course at the local leisure centre.  At first Missy was rather anxious, although insisted I didn't stay. I stayed five minutes by which time all the other parents had gone and Missy was laughing and giggling with two new friends.  I then spent a lovely 90 minutes sitting on the cafe balcony, enjoying the sun, the peace and quiet, with a coffee and my book.  On returning to the hall, Missy was in full bounce, really enjoying herself and bouncing much higher than when I left.  The teacher came over and told me that she was certainly very capable but lacked confidence.  I suspect she also lacked listening skills too.

The rest of the day was lovely and calm in the Missy house.

Day 2 and Missy was much happier to go trampolining.  I was certainly looking forward to my 90 minutes of peace and quiet.   By the end of the course, Missy was doing some great bouncing and turning, landing on her bottom and bouncing back up again.  I would have loved to have got on myself, I do love a trampoline.

The rest of the day was lovely and calm in the Missy house.

Hmmm, see a pattern?  Maybe I should enrol Missy on a trampoline course. I've read a few reports from parents about how bouncing seems to help regulate their kids. It's also known that many kids who have a degree of sensory processing disorder have a strong need to move - all the time.  Bouncing therefore is ideal for them and also helps with their motor skills and proprioception.  Whilst Missy has never been diagnosed as such, it's highly likely from certain behaviours she exhibits that she has a degree of SPD and it was certainly talked about whilst we went through matching.

We've been watching quite a bit of the Commonwealth Games (I say quite a bit, the TV has actually been on most of the time because we love watching sport and it's only once every four years - the TV is otherwise off!).  Missy has loved the gymnastics and this morning was in her leotard pretending to be Claudia Fragapane, the amazing English 16 year old gold medallist.  Missy is always doing cartwheels or handstands - if we're out somewhwere and we walk over some grass she'll want to do a cartwheel.  We also love the swimming (I've been studying closely how they breathe because I am useless at doing front crawl and breathing properly), and the diving.  Once Missy can swim a bit better, we're going to take her for a diving lesson.

Talking of cartwheels, I'm being called into the garden to watch yet another demonstration.  Watching? Watching? Do you get this with your kids?  Them forever asking you to watch them doing things. I've lost count the number of cartwheels I've watched.

In other news, we're all getting excited about our holiday abroad - not too much anxiety shown yet - and Missy has today started to pack her Trunki (we don't go for 10 days).