Halcyon

Parent's evening

Nikki and Jack arrive at Poppy's nursery and make their way into the room Poppy are usually in where they are greeted by her key worker, Rachel.
"Hi, how are you both?" she asks as she sits at the desk that was set up for them and indicates for them to do the same.

"Were okay thank you, long day but probably not as long as yours." Nikki chuckles her hand resting on her bump slightly as she sat down.
"How is pregnancy treating you?" Rachel smiles
"Okay, so far it's been as kind to me as Poppy's was," Nikki replies looking at Jack who takes her hand and smiles.

"So, you know we use the early year foundation stages to track children's development and monitor their progress?" she questions

Nikki and Jack both nod as they were told this when they enrolled Poppy. "this is tracked in months, Poppy is hitting all of her targets and even exceeding in some areas." Rachel smiles handing Nikki a piece of paper containing a graph which showed where Poppy was currently progressing.

"Why am I not surprised she is excelling at communication and language.... all she does now is talk." Nikki laughs.

"She is a chatterbox, we love how she talks. She has a great understanding of the world, she often comments on things she notices and she even recognizes little changes in the environment which is fantastic for her age. Her number of recognition is outstanding. We can tell you both do lots with her at home." Rachel says.
"We try. It's tricky with us both working long hours but we do try." Jack admits.

"It shows. We can tell a difference between the children that are babysat by the tv and those who do things with their parents." Rachel explains.
"We particularly love her rendition of 'let it go', she always asks to sing it at circle time and she even does all the actions." Rachel laughs.

"She's such a diva. Does she have tantrums here?" Nikki asks.
"not often and when she does it's usually because she is tired or hungry. Is she having many at home?" the nursery nurse asks.
"Since she found out about having to share mummy, she has been a bit more difficult, she has her good days and her bad ones but I guess that's normal?" Jack sighs.

"Absolutely. It's completely normal for a child of Poppy's age to behave differently, they tend to sense change way before it happens, so she probably sensed something was coming before you told her about her sibling and that possibly has had an impact on her behavior." Rachel explains.

"She's doing okay then." Jack grins.
"She is doing fantastic. She is an asset to her class." Rachel replies.
"That's really good to hear, thanks so much." Nikki beams standing up.

"Oh before I forget, she won't be in next week, we are away for a funeral so thought it would be nice for her to spend some time with her Irish family." She adds smiling weakly at Jack who just shifts awkwardly.
"I'm sorry for your loss, I'll make sure the office knows so you don't get a phone call when she doesn't arrive. I hope it all goes as well as a funeral can." Rachel replies sympathetically.

Nikki and Jack thank Rachel before heading out to the car where Nikki lets out a sigh of relief.
"Well, at least they didn't say she was a brat." She laughs.
"I'm so proud of her. It's all down to you, you know that. You do so much with her Nik." Jack says kissing Nikki's cheek.

"You do too. It's not all me Jack, she's got your brains." Nikki laughs.
"I think we should take her out for a treat at the weekend. Maybe the soft play. She hasn't been in a while and keeps nagging to go." Jack suggests.
"She would love that although you'll have to do all the chasing after her." Nikki chuckles.