Panto

I took the boys to see a pantomime organised by Family Day Care at Council. It was professionally done and very good (interestingly the Santa was an older woman who was tall and thin and didn't even pretend to be a bearded man - and yet she was accepted as Santa by the kids). Both boys had a great time and joined in all the activities with glee.

Peer pressure

We went to the Powerhouse Museum today with Sue and Jack. It was noticeable, again, how differently Callum and Declan react to Jack. Callum is largely immune to peer pressure. He'll occasionally join in a random act of lunacy, but largely just keeps on doing his own thing. Declan on the other hand grabs any opportunity to lose the plot and go wild. I'm at a loss to know whether this reflects upon their personalities or just the fact that Declan is two years younger than Jack and so it's not really 'peer' pressure.

Flags

Callum is familiar with flags to some extent - mainly from computer games, where they are used to denote languages. So when he sees the Australian flag, he says "look - it's the english flag". We try to explain that it's just got the english flag in the corner, because we speak english in Australia, but he keeps forgetting.

Today when we saw a US flag, he also thought it was the "english" flag - he's got a range of computer games in his set.

Eeny meeny miney mo

I started using this method to choose between Callum and Declan for things (such as who gets out of the bath first). Callum has unfortunately figured out what I always forget, which is who wins, as soon as you start. So he gets this smug grin on his face after the first eeny (if he is going to win).

He's also been using it as a method to choose which toothbrush to use each evening (for reasons which escape me, he has three of his own).

So tonight, Declan, with a huge grin on his face, did the same thing. He found two toothbrushes (also his own) and went "eeny, mo, catch a boy, toe, miney mo!!"

Uncles babysit

Uncle Martin and Uncle Kevin babysat last night. Both the sitters and the sittees report a good time was had.

Wet t-shirts

After a strenuous visit to the Chinese Gardens this morning (favourite part: Callum - fish, Declan - ducks, Jennifer and Evan - ferry ride), we had a quiet afternoon including a visit to the playground with Isabel. Towards the end, all three of them descended on the bubbler and had a hilarious twenty minutes or so throwing water at each other. About half way through, they each came up to us and demanded to have their t-shirts (or in Isabel's case dress) removed so that hilarity could continue without them freezing to death.

I wish I had had a camera!

Grandmothers

On Friday morning, Declan was helping me get dressed. He decided to try and do the splits (unfortunately his shorts got in the way, so I'm not sure how successful he could have been). I told him that he should show his Grandma, and that he might see her today. He reminded me that she wouldn't be coming that day."She on holiday mummy. I show you on map." He showed me on the world map downstairs, but his finger was pointing somewhere in the region of Kalgoorlie, rather than Melbourne.

And then this morning as we were catching the ferry to Darling Harbour, we went past a big passenger ship. Callum said "that's the ship that Grannie used to work on" (which impressed both Evan and me, as we had no idea that Grannie had ever told Callum about the ships she worked on once).

Working together

We had a lovely moment this morning. I got Declan a story sticker book a few days ago. It has a story with some missing words to be replaced by stickers. It's too old for him but I thought he'd like the stickers and we could do it together. Instead he and Callum have worked their way through it. Callum reads the words; Declan finds the sticker on the sheet (and Cal lets him do that); Callum peels off the sticker and gives it to Declan; Declan sticks it in place.

I look on with foolish grin on my face.

Things they do

Over the last week Declan has learnt how to take off his sandals (he can sometimes put them on) and Callum has learnt how to do up his seatbelt in the car (I still need to pull it tight). It's amazing how liberating the removal of these little chores are for me.

Invisible

I put the boys to bed this evening at 7.30; a bit risky as they both had a sleep at school today. They're still talking to each other, with occasional cries for help from Declan. The cries are because Callum keeps turning him invisible, and Declan doesn't like it.

He's usually happy with a reversal of the magic spell.

Visiting new baby

We went to the Gaynor Vincent's this afternoon to visit Claire's new sister Zoe (who is beautiful and even opened her eyes for us - something she had failed to when I visited her in hospital). Evan and I had been commenting that Callum had never been interested in dolls, so therefore probably wouldn't be interested in a baby.

Callum still wasn't interested in Zoe, particularly, but did spend much of the visit playing with Claire's doll - pushing her around in a pram, and pretending to feed her a bottle.

Fantasy

We went to the playground this afternoon for a bit of a run around, and Callum wanted to play "explorers". This involves a parent (usually Evan) telling a story about Callum the explorer and his adventures in the playground.

Well Evan was at home trying to sort out the TV, so I had to tell the story. It ended up being me starting the story, with Callum correcting me at every plot point "no mummy, that's a boat". "no mummy, this is a waterfall, not a cliff, and the water is running through my legs".

I haven't got to the point where he will actually tell the story himself yet, although he may as well.

Hide and seek

This evening the boys and I had a very enjoyable time playing hide and seek. They both hid their eyes and counted - Callum to 21 (his choice) and Declan reliably up to about five, and then randomly adding other numbers until he said "ten! ready or not!". I got a turn as well - they were very good at keeping track of whose turn it was.

The fun for them is in jumping out and saying "boo", so each round was pretty short. It was lovely to see them both playing a game with each other, and smiling and shouting every time a new person was found.

Damage jealousy

This evening, over dinner, Declan insisted on showing me his very small scab, from falling over on the path. (probably about 1mm diameter). He showed me many times, telling me how much it hurt, and asked me to kiss it better. It wasn't until he said "have to go to the doctor" that I realised that he was jealous of Callum's much bigger chin scab (which is getting better, by the way).

Callum to go to school

Jennifer and I visited Cammeray Public School again this morning. we met with the Principal, the school counsellor, and one of the kindergarten teachers who Callum had done orientation with.

They were convinced early entry was the best thing for Callum, and convinced us they had the experience to make that judgment call. They also reassured us about our main concerns and worries. Generally, they came over as caring people with a genuine concern to do their best for Callum - which is probably as important as any other factor.

The end result: Callum will start school next year.

Declan's nose

Declan went for an interminable time with a runny nose. We took him to the Doctor who recommended daily children's Zyrtec. It worked and he's been on it for ages. Finally, a few weeks ago I got a referral to an allergy specialist on the basis we can't keep dosing him forever (the specialist can't see him until February).

So last Saturday we decided to experiment and took him off the Zyrtec. He's now gone for over a week without medication and his nose shows no sign of running. Perhaps he's grown out of the allergy.

Hayes Street Party

We went to the Hayes Street street party today. It's a street that ends in the harbour, so a pretty good spot for a party. The main entertainment involved a talent quest, with a break half way through. Declan (with Jack and many other children) too the opportunity to go up onto the stage and groove away to the music. He had a wonderful time, and was so taken with the concept, that after the talent quest resumed, he continued to dance away at our own little spot in the audience, whenever the mood took him.

Damage

Callum fell over while running down the road yesterday (he tripped over my feet). He managed to come down cleanly on his chin and split it open very neatly. We debated the issue and then took him to the doctor. He was borderline needing stitches and didn't get them; but he did get some advanced dressings and a lovely bandage all over his chin.

Visiting the mountains

We braved the rain to visit Angela, Robert and Tommy yesterday. The boys had a great time. The mountain cubby was a great favourite in spite of the wet; running around in circles chasing a ball on the grass was good; watching a Thomas DVD and comparing observations was cool beyond belief.

Letters

Declan can read a few letters now - D for Declan (or Daddy), C for Callum and M for Mummy. He may also be able to read P for platform and A for Apple, but that's less certain. He recognises the difference between letters and numbers, and can decipher a couple of numbers (1, 2 and 6, I think).

Cal's memory better than mine

Callum and I were in a shop in Crows Nest this morning. As we approached the cash register there was a little boy in a stroller in front of us and his Thomas the Tank Engine had fallen to the ground. Callum picked it up and handed it to him. The boy's mother thanked Callum and then said, "We've met before somewhere." She obviously said it before realising the implications as she and I proceeded to look blankly at each other realising neither of us had the slightest idea where we had met, or even if at all in my case.

After an awkward few seconds I said I couldn't remember where. At that point Callum chimed in, "It was on the ferry." We had sat beside her and her son on the ferry for ten minutes four months ago.

Daylight saving

We have been looking forward to this week for a long time, as daylight saving came in on Saturday night. That means that with their wakeup time unchanged, the boys are now waking at 6-6.30am, rather than 5-5.30 am.

It's worked reasonably well, but they're not as exhausted in the evenings as they were. So tonight there was about 45 minutes of giggling, talking, jumping and general mayhem before they eventually went to sleep.

One day we'll figure it out.