A gentleman

This evening, Declan took me out to dinner for my birthday. He and Evan had planned it carefully. Declan chose the restaurant (our local italian) ordered the garlic bread, and his own meal, and paid the bill with some money Evan had left for him the night before. He didn't even take a book, instead making conversation throughout the meal.

The waiter was very impressed at how polite Declan was, which may have almost made up for the fact that we forgot to leave a tip.

The Chess player

This morning, since we had quite a long morning before school (having woken up early, see previous post), Declan challenged me to a game of chess. And he won! He won fair and square too. I made a couple of stupid moves, but not deliberately, and he stomped all over me. He's been smiling inwardly every time he remembers all day.

I think he's got a lot more confidence after beating a Year 6 in his weekly inter-school chess match last Friday.

Excitement

Callum has been in a building state of excitement for weeks now, because Year 5 is off for a trip to Canberra. He could hardly sleep last night, and this morning woke well before his 5.20 (!) alarm woke him. Declan and I drove Callum and Evan up to Cammeray at 6 this morning, and Callum was almost too excited to kiss me goodbye.

Running

In an effort to get us both fit (more me than him!), Callum and I have started running together on weekends. Although he corrects me - we are jogging, because we are not going fast enough to be running.

On last weekend, our second, we went for two runs. On Saturday down to Blues Point and back (with no walking at all) and on Sunday to the whale drawing near Balls Head (but we did walk back up half of Union St).

Callum is doing very well, and well and truly beat me to our walking point on Union St (the bus stop) when I told him we would walk from there. Interestingly, his talking does slow down slightly on the hills, but it never stops.

Cockatoo Island

We decided to go and see the Sydney Biennale today, at Cockatoo Island. We got there about 10.15. For the first hour and a bit, the boys were a delight, loving the opportunity to check out (and criticize) all the different bits of art. But after we'd seen the star attraction (cars in motion - six cars in the turbine hall looking like a stop motion photograph of a car exploding), they decided they'd had enough and it was time we went home.

Unfortunately, we left it another half hour or so before agreeing with them and heading home, and the day deteriorated significantly into grumpiness. But luckily, some food at the Wharf cheered them up, before a ferry home.

Lesson - an hour of art is about right, just don't push it...

In an interesting aside, the boys recognised the cars in motion artwork from seeing it (on TV) at the Bilbao Guggenheim in a Richard Hammond engineering connections special. You can learn about art in the geekiest of places!

Declan at 7

Declan is a delightful boy at 7. His favourite computer game is Spore, closely followed by Rise of Nations. When he finds a book he likes, he loses himself in it (Beast Quest is still his most favourite, although he's run out). He's just discovered the joys of bike riding, and although he has learned that it is not cool to like school, I think he is enjoying school much more this year than last year.

His friends have scattered over different classes at school this year, but in his class his best friends are Finn and Nicolas P and with a much wider group that he happily plays with.

Festival of Declan

We're half way through a weekend Festival of Declan, for his birthday. On Friday night, we had Granny, Granny Marta, Grandma and Grandpa and Uncles Martin and Kevin over for a dinner of pizza and a frenzy of present opening. Declan was in heaven as he pretty much liked every present he got. This morning, he had presents from his parents and brother (books, toy soldiers and a camera) and this afternoon he is having a birthday party with his school friends at Wizzy world.

He has been mammothly excited about his birthday all week, which has been lots of fun to watch.

Measurement

As always on a birthday, we have measured the boys.

Declan is 123.5 cm tall, and 24.4 kg. That's 65th percentile for everything.

Callum is 130.5 cm tall, and 28.5kg. That's 44th percentile height, 59th weight, and 65th percentile BMI.