I felt like such a heel.

Over the last four days, Principessa hasn't wanted to go to school. She cries continuously, demanding hugs, for half an hour before she leaves. Today she started as soon as she saw her clothes. I managed to calm her down enough to get her dressed but as soon as it was time to put her boots on she legged it upstairs to Nanny.

Uncle Gaz went upstairs to retrieve her, and took her boots up so that she could hug Nanny while he put them on her. She came downstairs with Gaz, but started her 'Oh woe is me' routine, dropping onto her knees and crying. Give her her due; she acted like a little trooper once her coat was on. She hugged Nanny and me, held onto Gaz's finger, and walked out of the door whimpering and sobbing. She didn't stop at all during the walk to school. When Gaz told me that, I felt so guilty. I felt like a bad Mum for sending her to nursery. I think if she carries on like this I might just stop her going. It's obviously causing her some trauma.

On the plus point for Principessa, she now has her own portable 7" DVD player. She doesn't know about it yet, as she is at nursery right now. I thought it was the best option as there isn't room for a DVD player on the downstairs TV and I am not letting her watch DVDs on the laptop any more. I hope it will be a nice surprise for her when she gets home.

I'm still feeling the loss of the old laptop. It had all the Japanese linguaphone discs copied onto it, so now I am unable to study Japanese until I am able to borrow the discs from J again. Grrr. I'll just have to sit down one night with my Kanji and Kana books and resume learning to read Japanese.

On the subject of Japanese, or Japanese culture, the fabulous Mr. Gaiman left a link to the Japanese art of Dorodango on his latest blog entry. I think I might want to try and make one. I think it's about time I went all Zen and reflective!

Well, it's time to start getting ready for the return of Principessa. TTFN!