Wishes

Declan and I were having a conversation tonight. He pointed to his n*pples, and commented that they were small, but that mine were big. He said, "when I'm a grownup, mine will be big, like yours!".

I had to break it to him that because he was a boy, that wasn't going to happen. They would stay small. He broke down into tears, and was inconsolable for five minutes.

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* asterisked to avoid googling.

Tricks

Callum got a new book today, to celebrate the first day of school (which he appears to have enjoyed). It has tricks in it, and he was delighted to try one on me when I got home. A glass of water with a straw in it was waiting for me at the dinner table.

Sadly, the straw had pinprick holes in it, and didn't work! Callum's face as he tried (mostly successfully) not to laugh as I tried to figure out what was wrong, was hilarious.

The Archie trap

A few weeks ago Callum's friend Archie announced that he had a magic cloak of invisibility and came to check on Callum and Declan each night. This has absorbed the boys somewhat. On the weekend the boys and I made a basic pressure switch attached to a light. Cal then made a siren with his electric kit and we attached them together. Now anytime someone stands on the second step of our stairs a siren goes off.

The weird thing was that the night before last I was sitting at the computer, the kids were in bed, and the siren went off all by itself. All by itself, believe it or not.

Grandparents

On the weekend we had Grandma and Grandpa and Granny and Granny Marta over for lunch (the Lang grandparents stayed the night and gave us parents a sleep-in, which was very pleasant). A good time was had by all, with both Callum and Declan taking full advantage of the opportunities to show off in front of people inclined to tell them how wonderful they are.

Callum got much better at balancing on his bikeboard (which we practiced at the BP park some more after the grandparents had gone) and Declan got the chance to boss around many adults so that his train set was just to his liking.

Australia Day

We went down to under the Harbour Bridge today to watch all the Australian Day activities. First we watched the ferry race - the boys were disappointed when their favourite ferry, Charlotte only came second. Then we went up to the Celtic festival with Milly and Alice. Declan very much enjoyed the highland dancing, while Callum tried unsuccessfully to get us to move on to our next stop of the day...

the swimming pool! The swimming pool had a special family day, with an inflatable slide, and Callum was in seventh heaven. He queued for the slide as many times as possible, while Declan had a great time mucking around with Jack playing with floating rubber mats.

It was a beautiful day - not too hot, and lovely and sunny, and we've sampled the best Australia Day has to offer.

Boating stories

I bought a small rubber dinghy the other day and Cal and I took it to the beach this morning.

Vignette 1: Callum at the front of the boat directing while Jack is at the back half-in, half-out and kicking up a storm. Boat flying across the water. Two minutes later: places reversed and Cal kicking ineffectually. One minutes later: places reversed, permanently this time.

Vignette 2: The boys return from a 'voyage of discovery' and proclaim they now deserve cinnamon toast.

Vignette 3: Callum at the back of the boat repelling a great many boarders (how to make friends at the beach: bring a boat) by shouting "only two persons on the boat at any time please... and I'm ONE".

Tom's birthday

We went to Tommy's fourth birthday party on Sunday. In spite of it being ridiculously hot (mid-40s) in the Mountains, the boys had a great time; especially sliding into the pool and jumping on the bouncy-castle with the hose on.

Heart-melting moment

Callum's theatre course last week was a great success - he had a wonderful time. He also did well in the performance at the end.

The heart-melting moment came at the end when, the performance over, Cal rushed back out from the wings and called out: "I love you Evan."

Swimming

In spite of only being able to make some small headway on the surface, Declan has joined his brother in discovering the delights of underwater swimming. He now loves nothing more than jumping in the pool and retrieving diving toys. And he's become amazingly proficient.

Speaking up

We went to the Flying Fruit fly circus this morning, and at the end, the director asked the audience (of a few hundred people) if they had any questions. Declan's hand shot up immediately, and stayed up. When handed the microphone, he said, "ah... ah.... how do they swing on the ropes?" and seemed satisfied with the answer that the boy who did it had trained for six years to learn how.

Not a shy boy.

Proud of my boys

When we visited the doctor yesterday, Callum noticed a poster on the wall showing the human body. He proceeded to describe some of the bits he knows and then explained to the doctor that he didn't know how joints work (this accompanied by a head-tilt and finger on the cheek to indicate deep thought). The doctor explained how tendons are like strings pulling on the bones.

Declan listened with interest and then, very politely said "Excuse me Dr Goh, I saw a puppet show at yellow group."

Callum's skin again

About a week ago Callum cut his nose and eyelid with his fingernails while wiping his eyes. It seemed OK at first, but then the last few days started becoming deomstrably a problem. I took him to the Doctor last night and he confirmed impetigo. So now poor Cal is on antibiotics and an anti-bacterial cream. His skin is definitely his achilles heel.

Dec at the bottom of the pool

Declan the fearless has for some time been leaping into the pool with little regard for consequences. He can swim well enough to generally make it to the side and I've made a point of making sure he does just that, while hovering over him in case of problems.

Yesterday he reached a new milestone. He can now leap into the pool, stop at the bottom and pick up the diving toys and then make it to the side. I'm not sure ifd all this is a good thing, but it does help in that it means both boys are undertaking the same activity at the same time - and that stops me splitting myself in two.

Underwater circus

Cal's declared he's going to have an underwater circus (after much swimming underwater at the pool this afternoon).

As we walked to the doctor's this evening he explained the main act: " I'm going to do a bottom burp underwater. And not say 'excuse me'!"

Mountain trip

We went up to the Blue Mountains on Friday night and stayed in Leura. On Saturday we went on the Zig Zag railway and on Sunday we walked to the Three Sisters and then went and had lunch at Jodie and Chris's place. The boys had a wonderful time with Aidan and Tommie - they all played for several hours without parental intervention other than filling thew paddling pool for them to splash in.

The trip was interesting in its contrast to the last few we made (last was about 8 months ago). The boys have become much more active and less amenable to being taken out, especially as their favourite game at the moment is chasing each other around and that almost invariably ends with Declan in high-pitched hysterics. They still charmed the waiting staff at the Post Office restaurant but by no means as completely as in past visits. My theory is that now Declan is old enough to become actively involved they tend to spark off each other much more.

All action

The boys, and us, have had an action-packed few days. We've visited Wetworld at the Maritime Museum (great fun had by all); been for long walks; Cal's done Latin at UNSW; Dec's been to summer Kindy.

Yesterday we went to a playground at Mona Vale and met Jack, Jake, Tom, Tom F, Dan, Jude and assorted parents in the morning. We then had a library visit and then went to catch up with Sam and Rowan (ladder building was the highlight). Then a swim. I'm not sure who was more exhausted by the end.

Company update

Callum's company is now called the Archeology Egypt Company. Their work office building is going to be a pyramid! They are going to look all over Egypt for the Sphinx's nose. In their spare time, they are also going to clean the River Nile from pollution, and grow fish in it.

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!

The boys found a new book at the library yesterday - Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! They have a great time with Callum reading the words, and Declan interjecting, "No!" every time the pigeon wants to drive the bus.

Last night, I read it to Declan for his bed time story. He enjoyed it, but really wanted Callum to read it to him. Unfortunately, Callum was too busy reading about carnivorous plants.

But this morning, we all three read it together, which was very enjoyable.

When I grow up

Declan's ambition when he grows up has been stable for a few months now; he wants to be a zoo-keeper who looks after the giraffes. Callum, on the other hand, tends to change around. Right now his ambition is to have a company, currently called the Callum Cairns Spy Company, which he will bve in charge of. It will mainly have spies who will find out things.

The other day I asked him if he was still going to marry Anna (from his class) when he grew up. He said that he wouldn't. It seems that you only need to get married if you are going to have children, and if you are running a major spy company, there is no time in your life for children.

Dimensions

We measured the boys (as we generally do on New Year's Day). Callum is 110 cm, and Declan is 102.5. Roughly, that means that Callum is 50th percentile, and Declan is around 75th percentile. Declan is just slightly under the height that Callum was a year ago.

We don't weigh them as obsessively as we used to, now that Callum occasionally eats food. Roughly speaking, Callum is 18.5 kilos, and Declan around 17 kilos. That makes them 25th and 50th percentile respectively for body mass index (for their ages).

Most not good

Declan has been on a promise that when he can count to 100 we will get a cat. He has been able to count to 30 for some weeks now but hasn't gone further. This morning Jennifer asked him how his counting was going:
D: "It's going really good, thank you. [Long pause, and then a shake of the head] Except most of it is not good."

Funeral

It was Dad's funeral yesterday, that and the following wake all went off neatly and it was touching to see so many of his friends in one place.

The boys did us proud, navigating through all the emotion and people with great charm. Cal had drawn a picture of Grandad and placed it in his workroom as a reminder. As each person arrived at the front door they were dragged of by Cal and Dec to be shown the picture.

The boys also had a good time looking after their little cousin (half-first-cousin, once removed?) Vinnie. Watching the three of them play brought some smiles into the otherwise somber occasion.

Fireworks

We went to North Sydney Pool for New Year's Eve. The kids had a great time with the huge floating water-slide (Jennifer and I were nervous wrecks watching them in the maelstrom with a hundred other kids). The view of the fireworks was spectacular - the first time I've seen the barges shooting the fireworks up as well as them going off.