More memory required

Narnia rules. I'm happy to report that no nightmares have resulted from the children watching it. They are now on their third run through the movie, still fast forwarding through the scary bits - honour bound that if anyone requests a fast forward, they do - my son in charge of the remote, even if the others don't find that bit too frightening. It has sparked a resurgence in the popularity of hide and seek. New, clever hiding places have been discovered, especially the wardrobe, and youngest has finally discovered the art of hiding without making a noise or telling people where she is. She's not quite so good at finding the older ones, when they're well hidden and I get dragged in to help, so have to act blind, while leading her in the right direction.

School starts again tomorrow. It'll be a big shock to the system waking up at 6.30 again, while it's still dark outside. We've been sleeping later and later through the holidays, so it will be a challenge to be out of the house at twenty to eight, fed and dressed, snackboxes filled and nothing forgotten. My six-year old gets to celebrate her birthday again at school on Wednesday, so is excited about that. Her real birthday is already a dim and distant memory, all of two weeks ago, so to have a re-run with cake and crown and birthday story is a major bonus.

I have been asked to provide material about her for the birthday story - incidents from each year of her life. I was horrified to discover that I hardly have any specific memories that distinguish one year from the next, apart from moving from England to South Africa, when she was one. Our time here has been a gentle blur of farm life. Our holidays always at the same place, our festivals repeating every year, the same beach with Table Mountain in the background featuring in all the photos, children getting bigger each year.

I haven't kept a baby book, I can't remember first words or milestones, am I a terrible mother, not being a guardian of the memory of my child's every step forward in life? All the photos are digital, stored on CD and just recently I realised that I have a massive job ahead to make up baby albums for the two younger ones. They were looking through my son's the other day (as the oldest he did get a baby album!) and wanting to see themselves as babies.....So to play catch up, recreate my memories from what is preserved on disk, will be my task in the evenings of the months ahead!