Inventing words

We've been reading a book about Shakespeare. Today's chapter pointed out how many words Shakespeare had invented in his plays, and listed a few. The boys were very impressed, but more impressed with themselves when I pointed out that they had invented their own word - "bednight" (for bednight story).

That was pretty good, but then Declan remembered that he had invented another one - "thumbtoe" - which he still uses occasionally.

Paying

Most Wednesdays, we go out to our local italian restaurant for dinner. Callum and Declan generally share a pasta (tortellini gorgonzola, ordered by Declan tonight), and Evan and I have whatever we feel like.

Tonight, Callum reached a new stage in grown-up-ness, because he did the paying. Normally he comes with me and we hand over my credit card together, but this time he did it all on his own. Went and asked for the bill, came back with a bill for my credit card, delivered it up and then brought back the slip for me to sign. He also put in his own tip (into the little jar).

He was quite proud of himself, and skipped most of the way home.

Speech

This term Declan has to do his first speech for school. One to two minutes on "my favourite animal". He chose wombats (because they are learning about them at school at the moment, so not too much research) and yesterday morning he started work.

Before we got up, he did a google image search on wombats, found a picture which he printed out, and then glued to an index card. Then he wrote the first part of his speech on the same card:

wombats
wombats hav very sharp claws. The mother digs with her pouch fasinge backwards. they hav burows.

Sleeping in

It's been cold the last couple of days, (it was only 9 this morning, which is quite wintry). It makes absolutely no difference to Callum (who gets out of bed at 6 on the dot to play Lego Star Wars) but Declan has been sleeping to nearly 7. I can see that he's one day going to be the teenager that you can't get out of bed in the morning (even if it's hard to imagine, now).

Callum on the other hand... probably will turn into the Winston Churchill type who sleeps three hours a night.

Bednight stories

We're reading a book about some kids who have time travelling adventures at bedtime at the moment. The current one is about going to one of Shakespeare's plays at the Globe. Declan is very proud of his Shakespeare knowledge, and immediately went to get our Dorling Kindersley book about Shakespeare to get extra local colour.

I first read him that book about a year ago when we were doing ATYP together. Interestingly, though, he's completely forgotten that class (in which he pretended to be a goblin from a Midsummer Night's Dream) and just remembers the facts about Shakespeare and his theatre.

Wii Fit

We've bought a Wii Fit, which the boys are enjoying. Although like every other game, Callum hates losing (or on the Wii Fit not succeeding). He's become the master of the tightrope game, which involves balancing carefully while pretending to walk across a tightrope (derrr..). But when it gets harder, and you have to jump over things, and he falls off.... he's not happy.

It's very funny watching them doing the running. The idea is that you jog on the spot, holding the remote in your hand or in your pocket, so the Wii can pick up you are running. Callum has realised this, and occasionaly stops completely, just swinging his hand. That's usually only after he's exhausted himself into a frenzy by running as fast as possible, though.

Declan's favourite game is the ski jump, in which he took an early family lead (and is still close to the top of the leaderboard, even though Evan figured out the trick to it).

School Magazine

Callum and some of his classmates have decided to start a school magazine. So far there has been a lot of planning. Callum is going to have a page called "Callum's code page". His friend Alex will have "Alex's aeroplanes". Angus will have "Angus' automobiles". And Juliette is going to be in charge of the pictures.

Callum views it purely as a money making scheme. "We're going to sell it in the canteen, and half the money will go to Cammeray Public School, and we'll get to keep the other half". He was astonished that not everyone wanted to join in. "They don't seem to want to make some money!"

But he now seems quite keen to make it a long term proposition. He's decided that his current team will have to each take on apprentices, so that when they all go on to highschool, there will be someone to continue the school magazine at Cammeray Public School.

Dental visit

I took the boys to the dentist this afternoon, just to check on Cal's loose tooth and to be sure Declan didn't have the hole he thought he had.

Dec has a small chip on one tooth which he was interpreting as a hole. The dentist said there was nothing to worry about.

Cal's tooth is fine. The dentist pointed out the one beside it is also loose and the two top teeth are looking like they're about to start. All good and we'd expect more marked developments over the coming weeks and months. She was happy with everything but warned us to watch when his major molars started coming in as that's where we'd see any impact from the various hospitalisations over the last years. She also encouraged Cal to push his loose tooth about while reading and watching TV to try to help it come out.

Tropical Holiday

We're just back from a lovely week in Palm Cove, in Far North Queensland. We went up there because two years ago we'd had a great time as there were lots of things for two boys obsessed with animals and mechanical things to do. This time, by contrast, we had a much more relaxing time, spending lots of time in the hotel pool.

Callum learned to snorkel, and spent much of the week declaring that snorkelling was his new hobby. We'd taught him (and attempted with mixed success to teach Declan) in preparation for a trip out to the reef, where Callum did have a wonderful time snorkelling with a noodle for floation assistance (although for the accompanying parent, he's just scratched the surface of what you can see). Declan, once there, was too scared to do it in the open ocean, even with accompanying parent, and his own noodle, but had a wonderful time spotting things in the glass bottom boat trip.

We also went to the Crocodile farm, and the Cairns Zoo (with some more crocodiles), so it wasn't a week with no excursions.

Highlights of the week included milkshakes in the swim up bar of the hotel pool, pizza in our very own terrace at the hotel, the beachside playground, where the play equipment forced cooperation by the way in which sand had to be loaded at the bottom to be hauled up to the top, and lots and lots of games of Killer Bunnies for the whole family.

We didn't take the computer, which worked out really well, with Callum reading his Alex Rider books fairly constantly, and Declan having a great time writing postcards (which may require a bit of translation for the recipients).

The only downside was that everyone seemed to wake up earlier and earlier all week - perhaps in unconscious preparation for our last day when Virgin Blue switched flights on us, making our civilized 11.30 am flight into a horrendous 5am departure.

Unsurprisingly, Declan was asleep on the couch by 6.30 this evening.

Spring has sprung

This evening the boys went down to the plaza under the harbour bridge for an hour or so of chasing their remote control cars with Jack. And then I joined them after work for fish and chips on the grass next to the bridge.

So we sat, as the sun went down, watching the lights of the city and the bridge gradually overwhelm the setting sun, while scoffing our fish and chips. All three boys scarpered off to the playground to let Sue and Evan and I enjoy some adult conversation, which included some reflection of how Sydney can really be a wonderful place to spend some time on a warm Spring day.