New abilities

Declan, yelling down from upstairs because I told him I would sort something out when he was asleep, "I am asleep! I can sleep and talk at the same time, you know!"

The boy's a marvel.

Election fever

Yesterday was the Australian Federal election; Declan's first and Callum's second. This was the first time we really tried to get them to understand what was going on. Callum decided that the most important policy to decide where our votes should go was hospitals; the party who won should be the party that was going to build more hospitals. Not to be outdone, Declan decided that his party should build more houses.

We had a party last night to watch the election results, with accompanying children, which meant that with all the excitement and company they both went to bed about 10pm. Today they have been very crotchety, but we're hoping that a good night's sleep tonight might get them back to normal.

Star Wars

Having got Callum and Declan very excited by the Lego Star Wars game, we decided that they were probably old enough to watch the movie. So tonight they watched The Phantom Menace, not a bad introduction, as the plot and dialogue are fairly cliched, and follow the plot of their computer game very closely.

They enjoyed it immensely, but did find it scary in parts.

Parenting

As the boys were going to bed tonight, Callum started talking to me about parenting styles. "When I'm a parent, my children won't ever have to sit on the stairs. If they're naughty, they'll sit on the couch and be able to watch TV. And they won't sleep at night, they'll sleep in the day, because at night they'll be busy being spies. And I'll teach them to understand my words as soon as they are born."

I'm not quite sure where that came from, because all evening (not having been naughty) he'd been sitting on the couch, as a special Friday night treat, watching TV while eating pizza for dinner.

Star Wars

Evan bought the boys a Star Wars computer game today. Turns out that Declan is an expert in Star Wars, from his friends Lachlan and Zoe at Kindy. He told me, "there is only one Darth Vader, but lots of Storm Troopers". He is very very excited to have a Star Wars game, and could only be dragged away up to bed with the promise of playing in the morning.

Summer is (almost) here

Callum made me add the almost, as he pointed out that we still have 12 more days until summer is really here.

It felt exactly like summer at the beach today. We went to Greenwich Baths and the boys had a wonderful time kicking on surfboards from the beach to the ramp and back again (Callum's also asked me to add that sometimes they walked back from the ramp). We also tried out the icecreams, realising that they taste just as good as Italian gelato, but there isn't nearly as much choice of flavours.

And on Friday night we went to our first noodle markets of the season, where much running around and tree climbing was had by all.

Parent teacher

Evan had the parent teacher discussion with Declan's preschool teacher Tania yesterday. She was very complimentary about how he was going, and how ready he was for school, saying that both academically and socially he should be absolutely fine.

Declan brought home his portfolio which has some nice pieces of art and a few samples of his writing, which have clearly improved quite a lot over the last year.

Speech

It's time for Callum's school speech again, this time on "my ideal holiday". Callum doesn't much like practising speeches, even though we've tried to persuade him that it improves his eventual performance. But I found something to keep his interest - videoing his rehearsals. He did some great practice sessions, although I'm still trying to persuade him to pretend to lick the pretend gelato.

Party central

Sunday for us was a party day - after our relaxed, computer game Saturday we went to three different parties! First Callum went to Angus' birthday party - slotcars in Artarmon. Then Declan and I caught a ferry to a post renovation party for one of my work colleagues. Then finally we met up at the Hayes St street party in Neutral Bay.

Fortunately I was the only one who got sunburnt from all the ferry travel.

Geekery

Half life 2 is a computer game that Evan and Callum and Declan love to play. Today, they finished it because they'd worked out all the puzzles.

To celebrate, Declan and I bought some roses, and made a cake. Here is a picture of them.

Stereotypes

With Dr Goh retiring, we've had to find a new doctor for the boys. Not easy, as Dr Goh was around the corner, very patient, and always willing to explain his chain of reasoning to anxious over logical parents.

On various recommendations, we are now going to a husband and wife practice a drive away, up past North Sydney shops. We took Callum there for his recurrent excema. On his second visit, Callum got the female doctor. Both he and Declan were a bit surprised by this, and commented on it to me. But it didn't take long for them to be prepared to believe that both boys and girls could be doctors. I find it interesting, though, that Callum with his recent heavy usage of the health system has managed to get that stereotype. In hospital there were quite a few junior femal doctors around, but the senior one was male - perhaps he didn't notice the difference between the doctors and the (95% female) nurses.

Inventions

Callum's been thinking up so many inventions lately (that he's going to invent when he's a grown up) that he's started a special invention journal to keep track of them all. It has a diagram of each one, with labels. My favourite is the teleporter, although the hologram TV comes a close second.

Friends

When I got home tonight it was to the sound of four children going wild. Milly and Alice from around the corner were here, and they were all playing up in the loft, after having (from the evidence all over the floor) played dress ups for a while.

It took about four attempts before Robyn successfully dragged her two away, but she finally succeeded, albeit to almost tearful protests from Milly. To get to their place, you have to cross Victoria St, but Callum is almost ready for the responsibility that would involve. It would be great for them to have friends that they can visit on their own.

Shakespeare

As the boys were going to bed, Declan and I found a book about Shakespeare on Callum's bedside table (archeological evidence would suggest from about three months ago). Declan was very excited by this, because we've been learning about Midsummer Night's Dream at ATYP, and insisted I read it to him for his "bednight story". It's got lots of fairly grown up concepts in it, including pickpockets, hangings and the plague, some of which I attempt to skip over, with mixed success.

But after I'd gone downstairs, Declan came down with it again. "You've skipped a page, Jennifer". Said page was all about the devil, and how he was represented in 16th century theatre. After I gave him a quick summary he proceeded to quiz me for 10 minutes on why the other actors didn't fall through the trapdoor the devil came up through.

Party fever

Today the boys busy social schedule caught up with us, as Callum was invited to Archie's 6th birthday party while the whole family was invited to Zoe's second. That meant that by the time Callum (and Evan) made it to the Gaynor-Vincents, he was too exhausted to actually party. Declan, on the other hand, pacing himself nicely with only a one party day, had a great time playing with all the gang. A scary number of children were there - Callum, Aidan, Tom, Declan, Claire, Tom (Mitchell), Jemima, Zoe (Gaynor), Zoe (Mitchell), Emma and the latest addition, Zoe's cousin Amy.

The highlight was the inspired use of packing material to create a swimming pool made out of boxes and butchers paper. You probably had to be there to get the full effect.

Playing

This afternoon, Declan and I walked around to the spanish shop for a milkshake, joined on the way by Isabel and Griffin, who needed someone to play with. As I sat with my coffee, the three of them got down from the table, and started playing Toontown. This generation has not grown up with cowboys and indians, but there is a clear need for a simple heros and villains story that can be played with everyone understanding the language.

They took turns being cogs and toons, and throwing wilder and wilder gags at each other, and generally had a wonderful time. Perhaps there is a TV series in it? I'm sure Disney has already thought of it.

Swimming

I took the day off on Friday, which meant I got to go swimming with the boys. Declan has his lesson first, then Callum, so each gets some one-on-one swimming time with a parent. I was very impressed that Callum can now quite easily swim a lap of the 25m pool freestyle (he was puffed at the end, but there didn't seem to be any risk of drowning).

Declan hasn't really got the idea of freestyle yet, but loved the chance to swim around and show off his "somersaults" (sideways not front or back). He's completely at home in the water, but doesn't especially like to try and go forwards (either freestyle or doggy paddle).

Spy company - the latest

When he grows up, Callum is going to have a spy company. The spy company is going to save all the banks in the world, by catching all the bank robbers. It will have jet lifts, one down that can go up and down like a normal lift and one to the side, which will go side to side.

The spies will sit watching screens, with a teleporter next to them. When they see a bank robber on the screen, they will go out in the teleporter, and it will take about a minute to get to the bank robber (using magnetic gloves), who they will catch and teleport back to spy HQ.

School

On Wednesday, Declan got to have his first taste of Cammeray Public School, with an introductory visit to meet the buddy he will have next year - Christopher. He was in a class with a few friends - Alice from around the corner, and Dan and Rowan whose brothers were in Callum's class last year. Alice and Declan put their arms around each other for moral support as they went into their class, which was very sweet.

Christopher helped Declan do some colouring in, and make a book about the Billy Goats Gruff which Declan very proudly showed me when he got home that night. He was slightly nervous the night before, "but what if the teacher asks me to spell a word that I don't know how to spell?" but, as expected, enjoyed it immensely, and is finding it very hard to wait the three months or so until he starts for real.