A strange day.

A very strange day.

Hazel and Iris went to Playcentre without me. Sometimes they go with Sean but today they went with Grandma. Hazel was happy about it but palpably tense, "Does Grandma know how to drive?" "Will Grandma be there all the time I am there."

As a baby she was unhappy unless I was within her reach until she could sit up and then she liked me to be in view.

She went through a more independent stage when she was about one and so I left her at CBD kids when I went to the dentist. I've worked in ECE centres, we did a decent job of settling her but after I left she screamed the place down for a couple of hours until I came back; and she went to having a 2m mental bungee cord to the parent on hand for a year.

That bungee cord has very slowly become fastened to some other people and lengthened. She happily visits some people without us and she's beginning to go to the toilet alone. But it's hard work for her and sometimes it all falls down in a screaming needy heap. Iris really helps, even though she is small she is family and that matters.

At ballet lessons last week Hazel went into the class without me or Iris, talked to the teacher all the time and was happy. This is the first solid support for my belief that she'll be fine with school in a year.