A (half) Pictorial day in the Life of the FrogAcademy

Every year, there is a little tradition of doing an 'a day in the life' photo-post. Well, no problem you'd think, being that photos are SO much my thing, BUT... for most of last week my internet was down (SUCH a pain), then it was midday today before I remembered I was supposed to be snapping away! So please forgive the first half of this being wordy. The pictures take over half way through!



I get up sometime around 9.30 (a bit of a late start due a disturbed night) ~ I have missed breakfast time it seems; the children are all already fed and most are ready for the day. I busy myself with changing and feeding the baby (who has been playing with the big kids for a while) and settling him back to sleep for the morning. Then I help Stitch get dressed & DD dresses himself. Everyone else is heading downstairs to get started on their day.


Bugs, Taz, Minnie and TP work on their respective Bible Studies. Lilo is starting on her handwriting (she traces over a Bible verse, joining the letters as she does). 
Once Lilo is finished with that I do Bible Study with DD, Stitch and Lilo ~ we are using a series designed to accompany The Beginners Bible.


Taz by now is busy working on his maths and when he finishes that he plays a game with Stitch which involves hiding three letters inside little plastic eggs around the house. Stitch has to find the eggs and then try to make a word. He has previously been playing this game with just one letter and then finding something beginning with the sound. He did well with the words, making hat, mat and van :) By then it was snack time (11am), after which Taz did GP History & then a spelling test. 


Bugs ~ hmm not sure how he spent his morning tbh... 


Minnie ploughs through her written work in the morning, so by 12.00 she had done MPH Maths &  some written Understanding English (poetry ~ S&S). Then she played with Stitch; Dotty Dinosaurs & then writing letters on a mini-whiteboard and he told her what they were. He carried on playing with the whiteboard for a while afterwards too.

TP seems to have had a bit of a slow day ~ she played on Tut-Pup for a while before 12.00.


Lilo went on the Laptop and earned herself 6 'badges' on Explode the Code then joined in with DD and I who were working together, learning about the difference between 'natural' and 'artificial' things. It's something he's been asking questions about for a while and his attention held well for a good while. We did some sit-down-and-chat-about work first, with a fairly easy worksheet. Then we went on a scavenger hunt looking for 'natural' , 'man-made' and 'mineral' objects, which was a lot of fun.

12:00
TP playing Bus Stop with Stitch

 Lilo working on her maths (converting words to numbers and then vice-versa)

Minnie reading on her bed

Taz drumming (notice the addition of practice pads for school hours!)

DD completing a TUX Paint stamper chart to illustrate the morning's lesson.

12:15

Bugs reading on his bed

chart almost completed

Stitch waiting for LeapWorld to load!

12.20

Baby wakes up and gets a bum-change 

(yes that is a purple nappy on my boy!)

12.40

DD busy on Lego.com as reward for working hard this morning :-)

12.55
TP working on her HeadSprout Comprehension.

13.00
Baby plays contentedly on the window seat with his mirror-rattle and chats to us all :-)

Lilo is coming to the end of her maths work ~ it's taken her longer than usual for some reason.

Stitch is now playing on LeapWorld (which took an age to load!)

Taz is writing his blog and learnt how to embed a YouTube Video.

DD has started work on Explode the Code

Sometime around 13.30 we all have lunch and take a bit of a break.
I fed Baby his fromage-fraise & gave him a breastfeed.

The kids start back when they feel ready. Some take a longer break than others!

15.00
Baby has fallen asleep on the window seat of his own accord :)

Lilo is reading to me.

Minnie is waiting to get on the study PC to do her blog

Before this though she has done some 'Next Stop' comprehension work.

TP is off somewhere reading.

Bugs is on Manga High

15.30

Lilo is doing her third page of a 'sight words' book. 

It's easy for her now, but she's only got a few pages left to complete.

I get to play with Baby for a few minutes (who has obviously woken up!)

15.40

A little bit of song-time ~ I think we were singing Wheels on the Bus here.

Bugs took some pictures of us and practiced using manual focus.

(this one is straight out of camera ~ he has to edit his own shots!)

16.00

Minnie eventually gets to write her blog!

DD is at last getting to play on LeapWorld, but this is his free-time now :-)

It looks, from the pictures, that most of DD's school happens on-screen, but this isn't really the case. He does like it that way, but we try to strike a balance between pencil work, manipulative work and screen-work. I don't push anything too heavily with him really and he seems to be making good progress, so I can't be going too far wrong ~ if I was I know he would be digging his heals in and screaming at me. The only tears we had today however, were when LeapWorld wouldn't load up for him in the Study. He's not the most rational at times!

Somewhere in the midst of all that a load of nappies got washed and some washing, that had been waiting for the rain to lay off, eventually got hung on the line ~ it's still there mind!


I hope you have enjoyed a taster of our days ~ they are busy, but mostly not too stressful! I'm sure there was more happening around the house than is pictured, or even described here, but I really can't be everywhere at once with a camera in my hand!! I know that in the evening Minnie helped Paul prepare tea (spaghetti and meatballs), Taz did some more drumming and Bugs had maths to do because he had 'forgotten' do to it in school hours ~ no biggy to me if he wants to work in the evenings he is free to! 


Click the House to read another great 'day-in-the-life' picture story, and there's a whole load more links to be found at the end of that post and the end of THIS one  :-)

Missing the Mark.

Today I tried to take some of the children to the 'Easter Family Fun Day' that was being held on the reserve, but I'd failed to book and wasn't sure where to meet up. We set out a bit past start time in hopes of finding a crowd, but it all fell flat and we found no-one :( Turns out it all started in the Village Hall, but we didn't quite walk that far. Still never mind, we got some fresh air before the day got too hot, we listened to the birds (and the bees) and I took some nice pictures (despite having Baby in the sling in front of me). Next time, I'll know...

 
We are loving the sunshine and the smiles it brings, so I'm just sharing some of the pictures from Baby's 17wk 'shoot' ~ which turned into a little mini-free-for-all-shoot! Enjoy :-) This is how we roll in the holidays (well, most of the time really, but even more in the hols) !!

Oh ~ and on an educational note... our swallows arrived home yesterday and are busy repairing their nest for this year clutches ~ "WELCOME HOME" little birds, we are all pleased to see you, and the sunshine months you herald in :-)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

And during our non-book week last week, my fabulous, arty, x-teacher friend (and her daughter) came and gave us a Hundertwasser art lesson;

(L-R: Bugs (13), Lilo (7), TP (9), Taz (12), Stitch (3) & DD (5) )

I also signed the three youngest 'schoolies' up for 'Explode The Code Online'. I think Lilo will whizz through it, but it will help firm things up for her, hopefully help her 'hear' things better and set her on the road to writing more and spelling better. DD loves it (and the games he gets to play as reward) and seems to understand it really well. I think he will progress quickly with it. But what shocked me most was how amazing Stitch was with it. He tested in only a little behind DD and although his concentration span is not as good as DD's just yet, he did really well and made good progress in just one session. I was surprised to see that he actually can read a little ~ not only understanding beginning sounds, but sounding out and blending too! He is adding new letters (sounds and names) to his repertoire daily it seems and it wouldn't surprise me if he and DD are both reading a bit before the end of the summer!

Photographic Catch-Up Post

Taking pictures is what I 'do' these days ~ it's quicker to keep a record with a snapshot than it is with a whole load of words. Editing images is so much more me than editing words too, so pictures it is for this post! I hope it gives you a little flavour of life here right now and where the kids are at. Next week we are taking a 'non-book-week'. We haven't had one of those for a while - ages in fact. I can't face three weeks of being nagged into screen time x 7, but the kids all want to 'break-up' as many of their friends do tomorrow. We agreed a compromise ;-) ! So next week will not involve any textbooks, and consequently probably very little written work, probably a fair amount of school-screen-time and as much arts, crafts and sporty time as they like! I believe the weather is going to be good, so hopefully much of it will take place in the garden :).

this is candle making

That's a yellow Jolly Phonics reader in her hand ~ she's finished Headsprout at last  and is well on the road now :D

~  ~  ~  ~

I think you maybe get the general idea ;-)

And if you're not too sick of my pictures yet, you can see them all bigger if you click on them!

My Little Smiler @ 9wks

This Week in not-so Brief...

I decided that after half term we were going to knuckle down a bit as we have a nice long stretch now until Easter. It had been a mad busy half-term with a birthday party, a birthday, sleep-overs, The Gathering 2011 (meaning really late nights for the big boys) & Granny staying, but planned outings turned into a wash-outs, so we hadn't spent as much time as I'd have liked outside. Monday the sun came out a little - typically! So I gave the kids an 'inset' day (lol) and sat on the pc doing a little planning and printing (no playing - honest!!). In the evening I also renewed the activities on Stitches 'school' shelf ~ I'm hoping he'll like to do what's there, but screens are way too inviting to him atm!


I absolutely LOVE lessonpathways ~ it's simply so much of a time saver. I headed on over to look up something to do with DD this week and fell upon 'My Shadow' for literacy, so decided to tie that in with the 'shadows' for science and do a sort of 'four-in-a-row' mini unit (we don't work on Fridays so normally only four in our house, but this week only 3 in reality as we'd skipped Monday!) :D
It's been a lot of fun so far and DD has really enjoyed it. Lilo and some of the others wanted to join in too and I think they've all learnt something new, so that's been good too. We began by talking about Robert Louis Stevenson ~ "boring!" in DD's words, but I kept it short and sweet. Sometimes I feel it's good to let them hear stuff they are not so 'into' ! Then we talked about where light comes from and how it is essential for the survival of all living things. This was developed today with the older children over lunch, when we had a discussion about vitamin D & 'rickets' ~ they were asking to go on the Wii and I was kicking them outside instead! (I have the policy that the Wii in the daytime is only for wet and freezing days, otherwise they have to go catch some rays!) For 'hands on' stuff, we have drawn around our shadows on the yard (DD and Minnie did anyway) and then watched them move and grow. DD has been really grabbed by this and keeps asking "HOW?", but I've left that question open for next week: now his curiosity is really sparked I think he will be even more absorbent of the answers!
We also talked about how light 'bends' and 'bounces' and played with a big bowl of water. He was fascinated by how much bigger his hand looked in the water when he looked through the side of the bowl and I attempted to explain how the curve of the bowl bends the light so that it magnifies his hand. We also dropped objects into the water and noticed how much harder it was to grab them out whilst looking through the side of the bowl ~ fun!
He played with the little BBC Bitesize interactive 'thing' from my last post and enjoyed that.
We attempted to make a sundial, but the spot I chose was too shady after 4pm, so I need to 'move' it and try again on another sunny day, but we did manage to plot 3 hours worth so he got the idea.
And inside we made shadow puppets and a screen to show them on ~ great fun :D


We didn't actually finish all I'd planned to do with him on the topic ~ mainly because two of our computers were being stupid today and ate my Solomon-free time, so we didn't do any shadow work today (grrr). Next week we will finish off the science element and work on the literacy side ~ writing some fun poems together :D ~ definitely something that some of the others can join in with too if they want to!


Aside from shadows, DD and Stitch played 'letter bingo' with Bugs and me today (Bugs played to take the other board) and I was amazed how quickly these boys are picking up their letter sounds now. I haven't worked much more on this in the last week or two, but they have at least two or three more that they each know now :D. I was pleased to notice this week that Starfall have now added to their site and I paid up for the extra 'stuff' this week. That, together with Education City, their Leapsters and Leapworld (which they get as part of the package with their Leapsters) are all making up a very comprehensive package of stuff that they both love to spend time on. Stitch also still loves Poissonrouge (which keeps getting better). It's hard to limit computer/screen when I know they are gaining so much from it, but I do pull them off from time to time!! So today, we also did a jigsaw and talked about 'opposites' (that's what the jigsaw was designed to help teach). Stitch already knew most of them, which was reassuring as I haven't 'taught' them as such at any point. Tbh, I am discovering more and more just how much these boys learn by simply being allowed to explore and discover. I am happy that it is so as it makes my life SO much easier that they are natural learners. Lilo is too to a great degree and given the right tools (introduced with careful timing) she can really fly off on her own. She is beginning to read things independently of me now (of her own choosing) and likewise to write things that she wants to down at times.  She has made amazing progress this year and she knows it! She said today, quite flippantly, "I'm getting much better at my reading now." ~ I guess she really means it is beginning to feel easier to her, which is very pleasing.


I never seem to have so much to say about the bigger children, but they are doing well too :D I guess they just need me less these days ;( I mark what they do and it's mostly correct. They call me when they need me, which seems a lot collectively, but really isn't individually! I really want to get back to some 'group' stuff now though ~ geography, astronomy, history, art, music ~ they all seem to have been sidelined for far too long. Bugs was even asking about doing some Geography again today. I think they miss it ~ I know I do! Although I don't miss the noise that usually accompanies group-work! I just need to get my head around it and work out a time when Solomon is consistently asleep for long enough to do it. It'll be summer before we know it and I hope it won't take that long before we get back to at least one them, however long summer days learning in the garden do lend themselves nicely to topic work ;)


One thing I need to blog though, is that after setting down MPH maths with TP for almost a year I decided to give it back to her the week before half term. I asked her to complete a few practices towards the end of the book (where she had begun to come un-stuck). With minimal coaching, just a little reminding of how, but only once, she did them with ease. She went on to work the 'revision' (which I use as an end-of-book 'test' ~ meaning they get zero help from me when they are doing it) and got 86% correct! I was thrilled for her. She has now gone on to 2A and says it is easy :D I'm so glad we took a break. I am becoming ever more the advocate of child-paced learning. I always have been in theory, but the reality has been hard for me to find my way to. I think at last, after almost 10 years of not-quite-getting-it, I am finally beginning to see how children really can learn of their own free-will, if they are given the right 'space' and tools to do so. I even sat and explained to Taz today why our 'school' does not always seem 'fair' ~ that being because they are all different, with different strengths, weaknesses and passions and if each of them were doing the same as the next, then I would not be doing my 'job' well in meeting their individual needs. I think he understood, although I don't think he liked it! He pines after 'going' to school a bit just lately. I think he would almost like to prove me wrong about it! Although what he'd be setting out to prove I don't exactly know ;) He thinks they are all saddled with HE because I didn't like school ~ but that is not the entire truth really (only a small part of it). I just have no faith in state education as an effective way to learn. Taz doesn't get it, but then I wouldn't really expect a 12yo to. He thinks if he went to school he would make a whole gang of close friends ~ he doesn't believe me that that is not very likely. In reality he might a few good friends, for a few years, who he will then completely loose touch with the day he leaves, keeping in touch with maybe one or two if he's lucky. That is not so unlike where he is at now!! He even implied to me today that he would like to find out just how much he would hate it at school ~ sort of like he knows he would, but just wants to taste the disappointment!! Odd child! But he can save it ~ I'm not sending him ;) 

Ok ~ that's enough now ~ enjoy the pictures (click to see them bigger if you wish too) ..!

Shadow Links 4 Little Kids ~ Science & Literacy

Science
http://printables.familyeducation.com/tv/printables/orange/sp-33.pdf
http://cybrarian.edu.glogster.com/My-Shadow/
http://www.brainpopjr.com/science/energy/light/grownups.weml
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/F_Keeping_Cool_With_Shadows.html
http://www.sfscience.com/english/grade_1/unit_B/chap_2/act_5/1.htm
http://www.sciencekidsathome.com/science_experiments/sundial-1.html#more
http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/kids/sundial_base.pdf
http://www.yourskinandsun.com/article1097.html
http://familyfun.go.com/playtime/shadow-play-706838/

Literacy/Craft
http://www.yourskinandsun.com/article1097.html
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Sc-St/Stevenson-Robert-Louis.html
http://printables.familyeducation.com/tv/printables/hmco/cgtgacrosticpoem.pdf
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/haiku-scroll-663328/
http://printables.familyeducation.com/tv/printables/Moutran_0876283024_52.pdf
http://printables.familyeducation.com/tv/printables/Moutran_0876283024_139.pdf
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/shadow-puppets-663981/
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/squawking-parrot-669935/
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/lanky-giraffe-669945/
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/toothy-alligator-669955/
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/pdf3/tvs6636_shadowpuppets.pdf

A Bit Out Of Touch..!

I'm feel I am seriously OUT of the blogging loop atm. I am just about managing to hold together my 365 (although even that is a week behind) and I haven't blog-hopped in WEEKS, either to my photography friends, or my HE ones ~ and for that I apologise. Somehow life just seems to have been a whirlwind since Christmas and evening are often tied up with jiggling a restless baby - like they all get in the evenings! We have decided to experiment this week with putting him to bed earlier as he was waking at 5am and really struggling to re-settle. By the time we eventually got him back off it was almost time for Paul to get up and that didn't seem to be working for us! Putting him to bed earlier means he wakes at 3, but goes back off better and we get longer until morning! We'll see how it goes ~ it worked well last night, but I am not a 7am person, even if Paul has to be and the kids naturally are!


HE-wise things are ticking along. Stitch and DD both completed a 'year' on Education City last week, meaning DD is now working at Yr1 level and Stitch at Reception (which of course he would be starting in September were he going). The work on there is just right for them and in fact perhaps a little easy in some areas. Stitch is quick as a wink and misses nothing ~ I am thinking I might be teaching them BOTH to read next year and save myself some time and work. I reckon Stitch is actually almost ready and DD definitely is. DD is already sounding out words really well, even if he doesn't yet know the sounds of all the letters. Let me explain: He can tell me that shoe is made up of 'sh' and 'oo', or mouse is made of 'm', 'ou' & 's'. He would not be able to tell me what letters make those sounds yet. However, some words, like 'b-u-s' he could probably actually write correctly as he does know all those letters well enough and his pencil control is excellent. Letters he knows sounds for consistently are (for the record); a, b, c, e, k, o, p, q (and qu), s u, x, z. ~  that's almost half the alphabet even though I've not made any concerted effort to teach him any yet! He knows some of the others sometimes; f, i, l, p, r, y.
Stitch also knows a few ~ although he seems to be learning a mixture of sounds and names due to the sources of his learning (i.e. mainly Starfall and Ed'City!). Consistently he has; a (sound), c (sound), e (sound), k (sound), o (sound), p (sound), q (sound), r (name), s (sound), w (name), x (name & sound), z (sound) ~ interestingly almost exactly the same ones as DD has picked up, only the u/w is different! I wonder why that might be???
Lilo is eventually picking up with reading at a more rapid pace, although she still does make consistent errors that I wouldn't expecting by now: she still, almost always, reads 'd' for 'b', she still sometimes still reads 'i' for 't' (and vice versa) and often cannot remember 'j' at all, or reads it as 'i'. She still forgets 'v' on a regular basis too and sometimes, when she remembers it, still makes a 'f' sound for it. I know these are all common errors in younger children, but I am surprised she is still making them when she can essentially read, and that by phonetic means! I think she needs a vision test (well I know she does), but I need her to be more consistent with her letters before she goes, so it doesn't seem she can't see them when she can! She is almost at the end of Headsprout. She had only about 10 more episodes to complete, so just another couple of weeks - she'll be finished by half term. I am thinking of enrolling her on Explode-the-Code online. They have a 3 for 2 offer on atm, so I could enrol all three youngest ones at their own levels! I think it might be a fun way to sure up Lilo's phonics, whilst still taking her forwards by doing LOTS of reading with me as-well. Her confidence is growing, and that is good, but it is still not brilliant and I believe that is half the battle with her. Where she is confident, and almost able to self-teach, she excels. Reading has not really been something she has been able to approach in that way, or that has come to her easily, but she IS getting there at last and I know she is happy about that :D
Maths is progressing nicely with all of the younger ones too. Lilo has completed Miquon Orange and is rapidly pacing through Singapore MPH 1A (it's a cinch for her now). DD is working through Grade 1 Math Mammoth, which is also relatively easy for him, but gives him a stretch. He resists the stretch a little, but the work is not too hard!


The older four are plodding along nicely, although I do feel their work is too much 'on your own' atm. I want to be able to input more with them, but just now I can't see how. They do have plenty of things they do which are not book work and there seems to be a significant of arts and crafts happening atm which is off their own backs. I like that as a&c is not really my thing at all tbh. They are enjoying playing some games together sometimes too ~ also which I like. I would like to find some to get back and finish our long abandoned Astronomy project (which we were all enjoying) and get on with learning some more History from our Diana Waring series. It all seems to have been on hold for TOO long now. Maybe after Easter Solomon (need to pick web-name for him soon), who will be 4 months by then, will be in a more predictable routine and/or be happier to sit and play while we work. At the moment, when he's awake he wants to be held, fed or stimulated by one of us. He does sleep most mornings, which gives me time with the smaller ones, but he less often sleeps after lunch so the big ones only get me avec babe-in-arms, which is not conducive to Mummy-led teaching :(  I guess sooner or later we'll find our way again ~ we usually do...


I need to get my finger out about arranging an appointment with the deputy of the local college if we are still going to look at Bugs maybe going there next year ~ time is flying by and it'll be the summer before we sneeze at this rate and he'll be stuck home with me for another year by default, which may not (or MAY be) the best thing! I must add though ~ I think he's going to need to address his work ethic before he goes to college or he won't last there very long at all! The motivation cannot come from me. I can only warn him, and coax him. I cannot force him to work. He might just have to learn his lesson hard when he gets to college. He doesn't believe me when I try to help him understand the amount of work children his age would be set from school. Not that I think that that is a good or necessary thing, but it is a reality for most kids and he simply doesn't believe me! The downside of that being, I know he will be shocked by the amount of time and effort the college will expect him to put into his studies, but I HOPE he will rise to the challenge!
I'd really like to take a trip to London (or somewhere nearer maybe) with him soon, to a photography exhibition of some sort, as I believe this would inspire him and also it would look good on his portfolio/'CV' when he's trying to impress the college deputy!!


So that's us. I feel we are treading water a bit right now, or at least the bigger children are, but all the same they are making progress and life is not too much filled with daily drudgery, so I must be doing something OK. :D Only two more weeks to half term, when maybe I might get a moment or two to look at things again. There's not much I feel I can really change right now, but I might just need to shuffle things here and there to make life a little more 'vibrant' for us all ~ especially with the nicer weather hopefully just around the corner (yeah!).


Next week, on Thursday, Minnie turns 10. I can't believe I am Mum to 3 children in double figures (and three under 6 too, with a couple in between!). She is a very grown up 10 in so many ways... ~ look out for her 'special-day' blog later in the week!


In other news...


I would be very appreciative if those of you who know about my Aunty, would please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Having been exceptionally well right up until Christmas and having had a scan that showed very little change in any of her tumours, she then became increasingly unwell over Christmas, with a variety of different symptoms. She asked for a re-scan in January and it sadly shows that all of her tumours have now spread ~ some more than others. She has developed a cough where fluid is now gathering in her lungs (although this is not distressing her atm), but her most painful symptom is in her muscles, which simply refuse to work at all some days. So much so that she is unable to even turn herself over in bed at times. She has lost a significant amount of weight over the year (it is almost a year since she received her initial diagnosis) and is constantly nauseous (which could be due to the cancer and/or the pain-relief drugs). She is no longer receiving Chemo', but they are discussing radiotherapy to target the cancer she now has on her spine. I am hoping to visit her very soon (maybe the beginning of March, which is her birthday). Thankfully we have wonderful friends who are willing to take on our children for a weekend, so we will just take Solomon down with us. I am not looking forward to it very much because I think I will see a marked change from when we visited last in October. I am sad. I am still praying for a miracle...
Her teenage son (my cousin) is not coping well either and has been missing significant amounts of school and/or simply not completing assignments. He is due to take his GCSE's this year. I'm not sure he will. He is now on mild antidepressants (depression runs thick in my family) and not at school. He has been told that unless he makes up the time he's missed he will not be allowed to attend the leavers ball! I think the school is being grossly unfair to him ~ they have made little or no allowance for the fact that he is watching his Mum getting sicker in front of his eyes, & seemingly quite rapidly now. GCSE's are not where his head is at right now! The real world is not a happy or nice place for him to be and he prefers to bury himself in virtual-reality. I can really understand that tbh ~ pain is not real in there! At the end of the day, it's not like he can never re-trace his academic path, whereas he will never be able to have his Mum back once she's gone and just now he needs to be with her ~ at home. The world can wait!! That's my view anyway... but it's hard to say that out loud - even to them.


On a happier & lighter note... 


Solomon is an awesome baby! .... and I am over a stone lighter now than I was before I fell for him, so he's also a brilliant weight-loss machine!! :D ~ I have few more stone to go before I get to where I want to be, but it's a great start and I am happy to now be wearing jeans I couldn't comfortably wear before I was pregnant!