Publishing

Callum's desk-mate at school, Mary, has been giving him pictures that she has drawn. She slips them in an envelope into his school bag, in an envelope which says "Callum love Mary". He's not the only one, I hasten to add - she's clearly an artistic kind of girl.

So I suggested to Callum last night that he write Mary a letter (thinking that words were more his forte than pictures).

He decided to make her a book. He got a sheet of paper, cut it into six pieces (after drawing lines so he knew where to cut) and drew a set of pictures of the Titanic, from proudly sailing across the sea, to sinking, to sunk. Each one had a caption, describing the events ("Titanic sinking"...."Titanic sunk"). Then he demanded a stapler to put it all together.

A publisher in the making.

Declan OK

Declan seems to have recovered fine from his drama.

Rather cutely he came into our bedroom yesterday morning and announced, "I can breathe in the bathroom now!"

The only permanent change is that he is now completely attached to the trauma teddy-bear he was given in the ambulance. Strange given he's never shown the slightest interest in soft toys before.

Declan, croup, hospital

Declan woke us before 2 this morning with a classic croup cough. He was unable to get his breath or talk. We were scared enough that we called an ambulance, which duly transported Declan and me to Royal North Shore. By the time we arrived he'd calmed down but retained enough of the symptoms for them to verify croup and give him some oral adrenalin. Two hours later he seemed fine and we came home.

This morning he's a bit tired and little sniffly but there are no other signs of a problem. (His parents, on the other hand, are very, very tired.)

Writing

Callum and Declan both wanted to write their own blog posts. Evan and Callum have just tried to fix the tap upstairs, but it didn't quite work. So Callum and Declan both wanted to write about it. I'm not quite sure how "Dear Aidan" got into the post, but they are thinking about him, because we're about to go up to the mountains to visit. Callum and Declan both typed all the letters, and Callum worked out which letter needed to come next (hence the capital letters at the beginning of all of the words).

callum's post

dear Aidan
We Didn't Fix The Tap.

declan's post

Declan is writing his first blog post:

dear aidan
we didn't fix the tap

Sleepover

Isabel came over last night to spend the night with us. Callum and Declan were thrilled to see her. Amazingly enough, once sent to bed, they all just went to sleep! (unlike previous episodes with Jack where there was an hour or so of silliness first). Before going to bed, they had a puppet show and drawing session (clearly Isabel makes them more arty).

Swimming progress

Callum dived into the pool yesterday by himself. He's also making good progress with the swimming although less so with breathing.

Declan wore goggles for the first time which should in turn lead to some more marked progress with his swimming in the coming weeks.

Missing Callum

Declan has started saying that he is missing Callum while he's at school.

Conversation

Tonight, when I got home from work, after a bit of conversation, Declan stroked my arm, and in a very serious voice, said "how was your day today, mummy".

Tintin

We've recently discovered that there is a TV cartoon version of Tintin, and Callum and Declan have been watching it avidly. So yesterday, when we went to the Kinokuniya bookshop, they were excited to find that the rocket bookshelf they've always used as a landmark is full of Tintin books! Sadly, even though they are cartoons, there are far too many words for reading aloud, or for Callum to read himself just yet.

Evan and I have been looking forward to having an excuse to buy Tintin and Asterix books for years!

Stolen voice

Ironically, Callum has lost his voice tonight. I got to the noodle markets a bit late tonight, and he was so tired he was lying on the picnic rug instead of (as usual) manically doing the circuit of the stage chasing Jack.

On the way home, he said that the sun had "taken his voice away" - his loss seems to have coincided with the sunset. It was certainly quite strange to hear him croaking in the back seat.

Talking underwater

Callum and Declan went to visit Juliette, who is in Callum's class at school today. When I got home, Callum immediately went into a 10 minute exposition of all the wonderful things about Juliette's house without drawing breath. I thought it was going to be all about the Thunderbirds (as Juliette has Tracy Island), but actually it was about a door which is only for children because grown ups are too big for it, morphing seamlessly into a discussion of the fishpond.

Eventually, Declan got a word in edgeways.

Stop reading

For some time Declan has been recognizing stop signs. Today he surprised me by reading the word 'stop' in a completely different context.

Now class...

Callum and Declan has a series of posters on their bedroom walls showing the letters of the alphabet.

I went into the boys' room this morning to find Declan sitting in the middle of the fllor looking up at Callum who was walking about the room; well, jumping from bed to bed. Using a wooden spoon as a pointer Callum would tap on a letter, explain it to Declan and then ask Declan to repeat the sound.

It was so cute.

Star of the Week

This week Callum is the Star of the Week, which means he gets to wear a star all this week, and gets to be at the front of the line when KT is going somewhere. He was also interviewed by his classmates. Two sample questions, one I can't remember exactly(something like "what do you like doing in your spare time") - the answer was watching the Adventures of Tintin. The other was "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Answer - "a daddy".

Pronunciation

I never notice when the boys improve their pronunciation normally (I'm too used to correcting in my head), but Declan has just learned to pronounce "l". So he's now saying "Callum" properly, which is nice for all concerned. Callum used to have days where he earnestly correct Declan every time he said "Cammumm", which of course Declan had no chance of saying properly.

Friends

We went to the noodle markets tonight for dinner, and Callum and Declan each ran into a friend from school. It was really nice to see them ineracting. Declan's friend Katherine kept running up to him and asking him to dance with her. They'd boogie for a while on the dance floor, and then Declan would run away back to us for some more food. Callum and his friend Mary just wandered around together exploring.

Visit

We went and visited one of Callum's friends from school yesterday: Sam. Sam has a brother only slightly older than Declan and the four of them seemed to have a great time.

Management not good luck

Declan had a second night without accident as Jennifer and I dared each other into trying again.

Luck not good management

Jennifer had had real problems putting Declan to bed on Monday and Tuesday. I circumvented the going to bed argument by having a complete meltdown with him about brushing his teeth. By the time he got to bed a very subdued Declan went to sleep without a murmur.

But the battle meant I forgot to put him into a pull-up. The result was a his first night without an accident!

Obsession rewarded

Callum got a certificate of merit at the school assembly today for "teaching KT about the Titanic". It's nice to know that the obsession can lead to good.

So much for good intentions

We caught the bus to school today. It did not go well. The bus was late; the kids were not happy waiting a long time by the side of a busy road; the bus was crowded to bursting point; the whole process took significantly longer and was significantly less fun than taking the car.

I'm glad we tried but I'm not going to make a habit of that for some time to come.

Eras ending and beginning

On Sunday we threw out Declan's change table. It was one of the first things we bought before Callum was born, so we were a bit sad to see it go. We're not sad to see the end of the nappies it represents.

Then last night, prompted only by Callum, Declan decided to start using the toilet instead of the potty.

Settling in

I went to a settling-in interview with Callum's teacher yesterday. She's completely happy with the way he's settled in and feels he's keeping up with the class in every way, and more than that in most.

Naaah

Callum asked me tonight, after using the word, "what does 'naaah' mean". I did my usual lazy response to give me time to think and asked him where he had heard it. He told me
"naaah means no in north america - in the united states of america". It's good to to see him improve his understanding of obscure dialects of the english language.

Fish naming

We decided that the boys needed a pet. The best combination of low maintenance and actual animal that does things we could think of was fish. So this morning, Callum, Declan and I went to a fish shop and bought two fish. They each got to point out the fish they wanted, and luckily they look different.

Callum had already decided that their names should be Sarah and Ben. But since one is Callum's and one is Declan's, we told Declan that he could name the second one - it didn't have to be called Ben. He's decided that his fish is called "ice-cream-cone-Ben".

Teasing and other people's standards

I don't know if this post is about Callum or different parenting standards or both.

This morning Callum was sitting on the silver bench waiting for his teacher, together with his classmates. All the parents were milling around in front of the kids.

From a couple of places down Tom and Oscar started teasing Callum. Cal just ignored them; I'm not sure he even realised they were trying to get a rise out of him. I wasn't terribly happy but didn't intervene, even when they tossed a few taunts directly at me.

What left me a little flumoxed was that their parents didn't say anything. They not only didn't intervene but smiled at their children when the kids laughed after shouting out a comment.

I was more than flumoxed when, not getting a rise out of Callum, they turned on Oscar's Mum. "You've got poo on your head.", "You've got wee in your mouth." and so on. Each time they did this they burst out laughing and she joined in, which encouraged them to further heights.

I may be missing something but I just don't get it. To me it's rude and it's the thin edge of bullying.

Wet bed

Declan has been playing games the last few nights. He doesn't want to settle down in bed (thanks to a midday nap at school) and as he can't use the potty with his pull-ups on by himself has been using this as an attention-getting delaying tactic. That said, his pull-ups have generally been dry in the morning.

So last night we thought we'd try a new tack. We didn't put on the pull-ups. The theory was that he could then get himself out of bed an use the potty and so could delay but not get the attention. It worked well enough for the early part of the evening but I had to change his bed at 1am.

Back to the drawing board (and washing machine).