Lots of new things.

It's been an eventful and exciting start to the year with lots of new things.  For a start it's a new decade for me, although my change-hating girls have determined that I am now thirty-ten, as they don't want me to leave my thirties.  I had some lovely presents including this cushion that K modified specially for me.

It's Mr Happy!

Another first was a trip to Leicester to Orchestra Unwrapped, organised by a lovely HE mum, J.  It's a 'schools' event, that also welcomes home edders, aimed at 7-11 years to introduce them to orchestral music.  There were a number of pieces to listen to and a specially written audience participation piece, which you get a cd and booklet to prepare for.  We all really enjoyed it and K & M are keen to go again next year.

The really big (although rather small) new things, however, are Beatrice and Bob.  Shortly before Christmas, some friends discovered that one of their two newly acquired young rats had arrived with them already pregnant.  We have been talking about the girls having rats as pets for over two years and indeed had agreed to them having them for Christmas just over 12 months ago, but they decided that they needed to do more research about looking after them first.  The subject had been broached again though and when we were invited to go and meet the babies when they were just a couple of weeks old, K & M were very keen.  The babies were incredibly cute and one thing lead to another and 10 days ago we brought Beatrice and Bob home.

M and Bob.

Bob!

Beatrice.

Not everyone's cup of tea, I know, but they really are great pets.  They come out of the cage for exercise and exploration every day and K & M are doing pretty well with looking after them and helping to clean the cage (they couldn't manage it by themselves yet, as it's really big and takes some doing).

In other news, thank you letters are all finished (just), even the unnecessary ones (to each other, us and people they saw and thanked at the time) although for the first time they have decided to send a joint thank you for presents that were for both of them.  We have also finished reading Piratica and are now well on the way to finishing the first Molly Moon book, which the girls were given for Christmas by their occasionally childsitter (I'm not allowed to call it babysitting), who is a lovely teenager who lives just across the road and occasionally plays with them just because.  And finally, K has agreed somewhat reluctantly to write a review for me for a book she borrowed from the library, Precious and the Monkeys by Alexander McCall Smith, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she has to say about it.