Playing together

When people ask me how well the boys play together, I usually reply, "as well as you can expect for two siblings". But in the spirit of fairness I should record that this morning, they came downstairs together by themselves, and played happily and cooperatively together building a lego city for half an hour until we decided to join them.

And tonight, they decided to make up a fairy story, in which Callum was Ruby the red fairy (because there is no pink one), and Declan was Fern the green fairy, and they acted out making a rainbow.

Marriage

Lately, Callum has been playing with Anna, who is in his class, at lunchtime and recess. When I ask him if she's his friend, he says seriously, "yes, and we are going to get married. Because she's a girl. She wears a skirt." Hard to tell how much of that is because he likes her particularly, or its just a proximity thing.

Anyway, her mother is very amused, and we're trying to be amused out of earshot.

Dinner table conversation

J: "What was the worst thing that happened to you today Evan?"
E: "Someone waking me up at 6 in the morning. Who could that have been?"
D: "Me!!"
E: "Yes, Jennifer and I are getting very tired. Could you just go downstairs when you wake up?"
D: "No I need a grown-up. I can't be by myself."
E: "Just downstairs in our house, that would be OK wouldn't it?"
D: "I don't want to go outside."
E: "No, not outside, just downstairs. Then Jennifer and I can get some more sleep."
D: "If your pillow is wet during the night, you just get up and get another one."
E: "Er.. thanks. And will that help me get more sleep."
D: [with withering look] "No."

Times tables

Callum pretty much knows his times tables now. I haven't tested him lately on 7,8 and 9 (which are often the trickiest) but last time I tried he could recite them.

He and Declan were chatting at dinner last night, and Declan started asking Callum times tables questions. After a few, Callum asked me, "what's 2 times 50?". He couldn't figure it out until I asked him what 5 tens were. He said ,"50", then almost immediately said "oh and 2 times 50 is 100". I'm not sure what process he went through to get there, but he's certainly getting better at multiplication and division.

Water babies

We went swimming yesterday, as I hadn't seen the boys swimming for a while. Declan has suddenly (from my perspective) become a water baby. If he knows he can stand up, he will spend more time with his face in the water than out of it - thrashing about in his version of freestyle, picking things up off the bottom of the pool, waving hello from under the water, launching himself into the water - anything he can think of really.

Callum's been doing that for a while, so the contrast wasn't so apparent. But this summer's going to be quite a contrast to last year when we go to the beach.

Bike riding

We went up to the mountains to visit the Langdon Linigens today. The Lees (minus Chris) were there too, and we partook of one of their favourite pastimes - riding bikes in the turning circle.

Callum decided to try too, and for the first time ever, managed to pedal a bike. He got quite into it after a while, and enjoyed it. We've been trying him on other people's bikes for a while, but this is the first time he's got it.

Bedtime reading

Last weekend, to celebrate Callum's new reading obsession, we bought him a bedside lamp. He's now allowed to read in bed until 7.30pm each night. Declan is desperately jealous, and tonight insisted on having three books that he could "read" himself - i.e. he knows the story well enough that he can tell it from memory using the pictures as a guide. They were Where is the Green Sheep?, the Going to Bed Book, and a book about fire engines. He rejected Mr Brown can Moo, because he doesn't know the words well enough.

Friends

We had a nice relaxing day with friends yesterday. First we went to visit the Gaynor-Vincents, where Declan and Claire seemed to have a great time playing lots of different things. After lunch, Evan found them sitting side by side on the couch, reading a book. Of course, every now and again, Declan needed a train fix, and had to find Callum to play with.

Then we went around to the BP park for some scooting with Jack. Jack is about 10 times as fast as Callum or Declan on a scooter, but has the missing front tooth to prove it, so we're not too eager for the boys to get much faster.

And finally a quick visit to Griffin and Isabel to borrow books 8 through 11 of the Rainbow Magic series. (luckily, Isabel shares Callum's obsessions)

Languages

Declan does an hour each of French and Japanese each week at his kindergarten. Since both of us have learned french, we've learned to recognise it when Declan starts singing in french, and we've been able to help him tell us how to count to 10 in french.

Japanese is a bit more difficult, though. It was only relatively recently that I realised that the "orky, corky" song that Declan often sings is almost certainly in Japanese. And he is now a good enough conversationalist that he occasionally tells us about the new word he's learnt that week over dinner.

Last week it was shinkansen - the Japanese bullet train - which probably explains Declan's sudden enthusiasm for all things Japanese.

Rainbow magic

For a few months now , we've been wondering whether Callum is reading well enough for chapter books, but he's not seemed interested, so we haven't pushed it. But on Monday this week, his reading friend Annie came into school with a book, part of a series called Rainbow Magic - 90 odd pages worth, with a few black and white illustrations each page. Callum seemed interested, so on Tuesday, Evan bought the first one of the series (of 46!) . Callum devoured it in a sitting that evening, with a reluctant break for dinner.

Tonight they got the next five out of the library, and Callum has read number 2, reluctantly agreeing to wait until tomorrow to read number 3. He's not happy with getting them out of the library though; we have to go and buy them, so he can have them all lined up on the bookshelf at home. In our household, it's hard to disagree.

Yugoslav boxes

Yesterday Cal was given an Egyptian scarab ring by Granny. We decided it was precious and ought to go into his Yugoslav box.

We also went through the boys' boxes and my own and looked at all the stufff in there. That includes some photos stretching back a fair way. The boys recognised Grandad but no one else. The photos of Jennifer, me, Rob, Angela, Jodie, Chris and Auntie Jennifer just engendered hysterics.

The boys do not yet seem to have inherited my obsessive sense of history. Declan went to put some of the contents of his into the bin - admittedly the pregnancy test kit is hard to explain, and even I'm not sure why I've kept the half-chewed rusk.

Jack's party

We went to Jack's Birthday party yesterday at Playplanet. The kids had a fantastic time, running themselves into complete exhaustion. I was exhausted after five minutes of watching a hundred kids charge around an enormous echoing converted factory, but was saved by the cheese and biscuits and the high ratio of parents to children.

Visitors

Yesterday we had a visit from Hannah (5) and Holly (18 months). Callum and Declan spent some time afterwards trying to decide whether Holly was a baby or not. In the for side, she didn't talk much, and had to crawl up the stairs, but in the against side, she walked very well. Callum decided that she was half a baby, and she would stop being a baby when she turned 3.

Swimming freestyle

Much to the delight of his teacher and watching father, Callum swum freestyle for the first time (with breathing) at his catch-up lesson yesterday.

Showering

Callum has become completely addicted to the shower. He has to have the second shower, as he just likes to stay in there as long as possible, and enjoy the water.

But Declan is the more stereotypical; the other morning he said, "no, I'm not ready to come out yet, mummy, I have to finish singing."