I made a

Declan toddled up to me before and proudly said "I made a dinosaur." and held up his creation. It's a bit blurred in the photo, but that there is either a dinosaur or a duck in my book.

On the phone

Declan and I usually go shopping at Woolworths on the way to pick up Callum after school on Mondays. Declan actually gets excited by this outing and I admit I look forward to it as well.

Yesterday we were wheeling our way through the store and Declan, who has the important job of holding selected items, was grasping a bottle of tomato sauce. Out of the blue he put it to his ear and said "Hello, hello, anyone there?". I asked him, "Are you on the tomato phone?". He grinned, turned and looked into the trolley and pulled out a box of cheese sticks and handed them to me - "Cheese phone".

We finished of our shopping with Declan on the tomato sauce phone and me on the cheese phone.

Across the bridge

Yesterday we all walked across the harbour bridge. Well, actually, a combination of locomotive methods was used. Jack and Sue came with us. Jack scooted most of the way, which meant that Callum was forced to run the whole way to keep up with him. Declan dawdled, stopping every five metres or so to point out a new boat on the harbour (look mummy, yellow boat. Stopped moving. Turning around.) until he decided he needed to be carried, and I decided it was a short enough distance that I agreed with him.

It was fun. We went all the way to the Botanic gardens and checked out Alexander the duck's pond, and the bottle tree, and, crucially, the coffee shop where we stopped for sustenance after our journey, and for the adults, caffeine.

After an hour or two in the playground in the afternoon Callum and Declan were weary enough to go to bed without argument at 7.

Luna Park

The boys and I went to Luna Park today, while Evan was at council meetings. I've been designated "rollercoaster parent" for reasons that are mainly to do with Evan's tendency to motion sickness, so I decided to take the opportunity for a bit of reconaissance. We spent a lot of the visit with me explaining to Callum that he was too little for most of the rides he wanted to go on, which augers well for his future roller coaster keenness.

Both Callum and Declan very much enjoyed the ferris wheel (which is pretty big) unlike me who discovered a faint distaste for heights (particularly when it stops, swaying at the top), which I hadn't noticed before.

Shoes

We went shoe and sandal shopping today. The boys were pretty patient and had moments of really enjoying the experience - particularly as the shop has a fish-tank with a "BOOT in it, Daddy a BOOT". And strangely the boys were imitating the goldfish that wasn't in the tank by finding the swimming boot anew on each circuit.

It was a bit hard to tell if Declan actually found any given pair of shoes comfortable as he'd basically look to Callum for his lead; if Callum said yes then Declan would agree regardless of what was going on with his own feet.

We ended up getting a new pair of sandals for each of them for the summer and a new pair of trainers for Declan. Declan is now in trainers a full size larger than Callum's. Their feet measure to the same length but because Declan's are wider he's up a size.

Getting ridiculous

The boys were up before 5:30am again this morning. I'm getting thoroughly fed up with it, not only is it way too early to start a long day but they get crotchety around 11am having already had most a day. We just don't have any good ideas about how to get them to sleep later, especially now they are in the get themselves up and go downstairs to play mode.

Maybe we just need to stop worrying about them being downstairs alone, close our door and stay asleep. Ah if only it were that simple.

Potty Day 2

Well Declan managed an hour without a nappy this evening which covered his entire dinner time. But it ended with an accident. On the positive side he knew he'd had an accident and came and told me so, then he went and sat on the potty. I refrained from explaining about horses and stable doors.

Declan talking

Declan's talking is really coming forward, thank goodness. He now has ful sentences even if they can sometimes be hard to decipher unless you're on his track. He just came out with, out of the blue, "water makes engines go".

A tentative start

Yesterday evening Declan spent 45 minutes in underpants and used the potty once during that time. He received lots of positive feedback from his father and, nicely, his brother. We'll try again this evening and see if we just got lucky.

A chat

Callum, sitting on the toilet - "come here Declan, I want to have a chat with you". Declan comes (bringing trains). Callum proceeds to hold forth at length on various topics including various train related and Magic School Bus (TV program) topics, while Declan plays with his trains, and murmurs "yes" at what appear to be appropriate moments (very reminiscent of the cliched 50s husband murmuring "yes dear" while reading the paper).

Visitor

Isabel came to spend the evening with us tonight as her parents were both out at various things. It made for a very relaxing evening for me, as Callum and Declan were too busy instructing Isabel in how things worked at our house to protest about any phase of the evening (in particular, getting everyone upstairs for a bath was as easy as its ever been).

She and Callum both agreed that it would be really good if some day (but not tonight) she could come over and sleep in Callum's room for the night.

Just collecting blackmail material for the 21sts (unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the bath).

We saw an octopus

We all went to Collaroy today and met up with Sue, Jack, Una, Archie and Stan. The boys dug holes all over the beach, ran round the playground like lunatics (and fought off invaders in the play-castle until I stepped in and spoiled the fun before it ended in tears) and explored the rock pools. In one of the pools we found a huge octopus - the first time I've ever found one. Reactions varied from mild interest to fear as the octopus dragged itself towards us and partly out of the pool.

Vegetables!

Callum ate three vegetables at dinner tonight. He ate corn, carrot and broccoli. Jennifer and I sat watching with bated breath, to scared to say anything lest we put him off for life by making too big a fuss.v He also chompeed his way through several sausages.

Declan rejected all vegetables with utter contempt.

Callum's reading

Callum's reading is progressing apace. He's not only managing to read simple books with some fluency, he's sounding out words he's never seen before.

Waking up

Callum seems to have settled into a new morning routine - wake up at 5.30 am, and go downstairs and play. Sometimes he will wake Declan on the way down, sometimes Declan will wake by himself around 6. We've quizzed Callum very closely on what is waking him up - it seems to be the birds (although it's hard to tell whether that's just our suggestions to him).

It's quite noticeable that on Mondays and Tuesdays (when they go to school/occasional care and have a nap at lunchtime) they are much less grumpy in the evenings, so I don't really think they are getting enough sleep this way, but we can't think of anything to do about it. If we put them to bed a bit earlier, they just talk until their usual sleep time.

Meanwhile, Evan and I are having to adapt back to early mornings again- we'd got out of the habit in the last year.

Immune to Daddy

The seriously bad thing to come out of Cal's immunisation, apart from his hopefully transitory trauma, is a lack of trust in Daddy. He went out of the Doctor's surgery and sat with his Grandma. Then when I had to go to Council this evening and left him with Mia he basically told me to just leave. Only a decent hug as he went to bed has given me hope he might forgive me for putting him through this.

4-year-old immunisation

Callum has just had his four-year immunisation. It WAS NOT FUN. It involves a foul-tasting oral medicine and then two injections. He completely lost the plot over the injections - I think that at this age he has the imagination to experience real fear of something happening.

Heights

Callum is 101.5cm tall up from 94.75cm on his Birthday in 2004.

Declan is 91.5cm, up from 80.5cm on Cal's Birthday in 2004.

Interestingly, while Declan has grown more over the year, Callum has put on 3cm in the five months since Declan's Birthday while Declan has only put on 2cm.

Guns

One of Callum's numerous birthday presents included a couple of very small plastic guns. Callum picked one up this evening and told me that guns were for shooting people (but only bad people, mummy). I told him that only special people in the army could shoot bad people, and he seemed satisfied with that. So he picked up his gun and started using it as a pointer while reading the title of a book to me. "This gun is for reading with mummy". A new take on the pen is mightier than the sword!

Callum's fourth birthday

Today was Callum's official Birthday - two days early to allow for a Sunday party. He had a great day surrounded by many of his friends. There were lovely presents and his Grandad and Granny produced a masterpiece of a cake in the shape of the Island of Sodor.

Where Callum?

Declan got the chance to use his "where" word again this morning as we charged around the North Sydney Dem School trying to find a lost Callum. He also had the opportunity, not yet realised I hope, to learn a few choice swear words from his father. Callum was thoroughly lost, to the point there were 30-odd people searching for him and we were on the edge of calling the police.

With some irony he was found (happily playing) by David Collins, the Deputy Principal who we are to meet next week to talk about acceleration into school.

Where Mummy?

Jennifer is away for a few days (partner's "conference" on Hamilton Island!) and Declan has been very concerned about her. Yesterday he was saying, "Where Mummy?". Today he's moved on to, "Mummy on island.". By the time Jennifer returns I'm aiming to have him up to, "Mummy off having an all-expenses-paid holiday while the rest of us are stuck here."

Lighthouse

We had a huge day today. Playgroup in the morning. Then off to Darling Harbour in the afternoon where we climbed the lighthouse and played in playgrounds and jumped over water. Then the monorail round to the city and met Jennifer. Finally pizza in Blues Point Rd. Got home and the boys started bouncing around while I collapsed.

For the record

The statistical part of Callum's testing the other day was as follows.

His overall IQ according to the Stanford Binet V test was 143 which places him in the 99.8th percentile. As he is so young the psychologist stressed this was a baseline measure and if tested again in a couple of years it should come out higher - one of the main reasons for this is that the Knowledge element is generally low in kids his age, as it was for Callum.

The test has ten subtests which are scored out of 19 and where 10 is the expected score. A score of 19 means that the testing ceiling was reached. The results below show the score and the percentile rank it represents. The overall figure is his IQ in that area.

• Fluid reasoning: Nonverbal - 19 (99.9%), Verbal - 18 (99.6%), Overall 150
• Knowledge: Nonverbal - 13 (84%), Verbal - 16 (98%), Overall 126
• Quantative reasoning: Nonverbal - 16 (98%), Verbal - 17 (99%), Overall 136
• Visual-Spatial processing: Nonverbal - 19 (99.9%), Verbal - 16 (98%), Overall 143
• Working memory: Nonverbal - 17 (99%), Verbal - 14 (91%), Overall 132
• Overall: Nonverbal - 144, Verbal 139, Full scale IQ 143

If you need me

As we left NBK this afternoon Callum pointed to Blue Group (the smaller kids) playing outside. I said that Declan would be in Blue Group next year. Callum thought about that for a while and then came out with:

"Declan if you need me you call for me and I will come running to you. I'll come through the door and I'll find out what is wrong. Maybe you'll need a hug and a kiss and I will give you a hug and a kiss."

Punny boy

A bit of background to this story. Callum has a working knowledge of car engines from repeatedly watching the relevant Magic Schoolbus episode.

So we were in the playground and the climbing frame was a rocket ship. It broke down and needed fixing, so I suggsted the problem might be with the carburetor. No says Callum its the "rocketurator".

Reincarnation

This morning, Callum, when asked what he would like to do, responded that he would like to go somewhere he hadn't been before. So we went (by ferry and monorail, for the fun of it) to the War Memorial in Hyde Park. When we got there, Callum told me that he had been there before, by himself, "when he was a grown up".

Apparently, since that time, he's been gradually turning into a boy.

Gender identification

The other evening I was sitting with Declan idly browsing through the pumpkin patch catalogue. Declan, looking over my shoulder, pointed at a picture of a baby boy, and said triumphantly, "Declan!". So we turned the pages to get to the baby girl pictures (only difference - gender specific clothing). I asked him if that was Declan as well, and got an emphatic "no".

He floats

While Callum's teacher, Paul, has said he's happy with Cal's progress at swimming lessons I must admit I've been mildly concerned that improvement has been excrutiatingly slow (and thought that maybe the teacher has a bit of a vested interest in slow but steady progress).

But yesterday, all of a sudden, things came together and Callum actually swam unaided. He can now go for four or five feet without sinking. He hasn't mastered breathing so after that distance he has to stand up, but it's demonstrably swimming.

A returned call and confusion

The principal of Neutral Bay Public just called me back. She can't help as they have no places for out-of-area kids but was truly helpful in discussing the issues and how they would handle them.

The fact she was so helpful; the fact she said they have a lot of very bright kids (many start being able to read and write fluently); and the fact she could outline how they handle them made me want to send the kids there.

The principal said she recommends against acceleration into K as it rarely seems to work later. The kids can hanlde the academic side of things but can have problems with leadership, "cutting it" in the playground, sports, age-maturity things, etc. She also pointed to research (which echoed Jennifer and my thinking last week) that it is generally the older kids who get scholoarships to university etc. (This comes about because you don't get bonus points for age when you sit the HSC, you're tested against your school year not your age group.)

The way Neutral Bay deals with the brighter kids is to stream them into groups after the first term. So one group may be reading books while another is sounding out letters.

She also said, that with all that said, the significant problem with not accelerating is how to keep him challenged and interested in the year leading up to school.

And so the angst about the right thing to do comes flooding back. Yet more information is needed.

Schools, schools everywhere and not a returned call

We're lucky to live in a place that is absolutely surrounded by schools. We're perhaps not so lucky to have pretty firm ideas about what we want in a school.
1. It should preferably be a public school.
2. It shouldn't have a heavy religious focus.
3. It should be co-educational.
4. It should be able to demonstrate how it tailors its programme to the individual child.
5. It should be in walking distance.

By the time you apply that little list we're down to four schools and only one is in walking distance. So I've now contacted each of the four to see if they can take Callum and to discuss if we want to. Thus far results have been mixed.

SCEGGS is the only private option. They have a waiting list longer than my arm so couldn't consider him until third class.

North Sydney Demonstration School is the one we fall into the catchment for. and is the only one in walking distance We're meeting with them in a couple of weeks but they have not been at all reassuring about their capacity to deal with Callum as an individual.

Neutral Bay Public is just down the road from Cal's current pre-school so we're used to the drive. This is the school for the area that runs OC classes in year 5 and 6 and says some good things about dealing with gifted children. One line I particularly like is they say: "Academic achievement is celebrated by the whole school community. Bright students can achieve their potential without fear of any criticism from their peer group. " On the other hand the initial response in talking to their enrolment people was abysmal.

Cammaray Public School is further away. They has a special teacher for gifted children who works with them in their normal classroom, and thus again recognises they specifically deal with gifted kids. They also have a publicised program of coming up with an education plan for each child as an individual which sounds good. Finally the initial response from their enrolment people was understanding although noone who could actually help has phoned back.

Do I take that step?

For the last couple of months Callum has been waking up progressively earlier. Currently this means round about 5:20 am. Now I must say that's not as bad as it may sound to the parent of a younger child. Callum gets himself up and happily goes downstairs to play with his trains or computer, taking Declan with him only if Dec is already awake. So while I still get woken up early I can stay in bed and doze until there is a sibling meltdown or need for food.

But we'd still prefer the boys to sleep later. If the day starts at 5, by the time they get to the active part of the morning they're already tired. So we've been trying to work out why Cal gets up so early. Generally his response has been that it's too long to wait until 'seven-zero-five' (his agreed getting up time). Today he came up with a new one: I only brushed my teeth six times last night not seven.

Now the dilemma is: do we head down the road into a welter of three-year-old reasoning (cue 1950s movie image of body falling into diminishing spiral) or stay up here in the adult world where cause and effect still roughly align?

If we brush his teeth an extra time tonight will he sleep longer? How do you define a 'time' with brushing teeth? What have teeth got to do with sleeping? Are teeth a code for something else? Does.... oh no I feel myself slipping away...