Making dynamite

For the first time in ages, we met up with sue and Jack for s walk across the bridge. Sue remembered that there was Art on in Hyde Park so we went to check it out.

There was a craft show on, and all three boys got to crochet a stick of dynamite. It looked fantastic, particularly with a specially created fuse and tinsel explosion.

Manic dinner

We had the Gaynor Vincents, Linigen Langdons and the Lees over for dinner on Saturday night. With that many children in the house, the sword fighting before dinner and the dinner itself was quite wild, but everyone had a great time playing with every iPad available.

Declan gets a tip

Declan successfully did his black-tip grading during the week. Now he and Cllum are both one step away from being black belts.

Declan Distinction

A number of kids from Year 2 were selected to sit the UNSW ICAS English and Maths Year 3 test this year (the School simply said they were in Year 3)

Declan got a Distinction in English which means he performed better than 90% of those taking the test - that's 90% of the Year 3s. We're very proud of him.

A day

Declan was very pleased today to get an award at A Day, for chess. He thought it was for his performance in the school competition, but actually it was because his chess team won the local competition.

Author inscription

On the weekend, Callum and I went to a booklaunch. His classmate from last year, Juliette, was launching the second of her books, JJ Halo, Super cool spyling. Callum was thrilled to be the first person to receive a personally signed copy, and had finished it by dinner time. He feels he has some small influence, as Juliette was also a founding member of the Cammeray SC - (stands for Spy Club, but the cover name was Saddle Club) which used to wander around the playground last year pretending to use cool spy gadgets.

Weekend of exercise

When uncle Bob rang to wish Callum a happy birthday on Monday, he asked if Callum was still running with me. Callum and I were shamed into running this weekend.

Saturday, we ran to balls head, and then ran mod of the way to sawmillers reserve. And then on Sunday, making sure we were well hydrated first (callum's words) we ran all the way around balls head and back. We've agreed to keep doing it on weekends.

Not to be outdone, Declan decided that this weekend was the time for his promised ride across the Harbour bridge. The two of us rode all the way across and back (with a bit of walking before we got close).

Shopping

I offered Declan some more afternoon tea if he went down to the shop and bought it. So he took some money, and very responsibly walked down Victoria St to Blues point road and bought some cheese.

That's the first time he's done that all by himself.

Callum is nine

Last weekend was the festival of Callum, as he turned nine. He had grandparents and uncle Martin on Friday night, computer games for his iPad on Sunday morning and his actual birthday on Monday.

At nine, Callum continues to love computer games, particularly enjoying puzzle and war games. He doesn't much like losing, though, having to be persuaded to play against real people when he isn't sure of winning.

His best friend is Alex Singhi and they spend long hours over lunch discussing military strategy. He has the most amazing memory for obscure facts, frequently coming out with a germane fact that he first read months ago in a Horrible History book.

And he has just decided that Harry Potter is really good, and is now up to number 5 in the series.

Measurement

As is traditional on a birthday, we have measured the boys' height and weight. Callum is 133 cm and 30.35 kg. Declan is 126 cm and 25.55 kg. Interestingly, Callum has grown 2.5 cm in the last four months, while Declan has grown 3cm - well within measurement error, but judging by his trousers, I would have expected Callum to have grown more.

Callum is 45th percentile for height, and 69th for BMI, while Declan is 63rd for both height and BMI.

Flame wars

We've been playing a few online games with the ipads between ourselves. They all have a chat function, so while waiting for their turns, Callum and Declan have been typing messages to each other. So far they have avoided a full blown flame war but there has been a fair bit of misuse of punctuation marks.

Fever

Declan has been sick for the last few days - he's had headache, fever, and has felt unwell. Watching Declan lying unhappily on the couch has made us realise what a good run we've had lately

When the boys were younger, we reached the conclusion that panadol doesn't do much for their fevers - only neurofen works, and it's been so long since they needed it that we have none left!

Blankies

In the last month or so, Declan has decided he is now too old for a blanky to go to sleep with. After the big decision, he went through a week or so of wanting to hug his blanky when he woke up, but these days it just sits, lonely in the corner, ignored by Declan's big 7 year old self.

Callum, on the other hand, still uses his blanky to go to sleep - he tucks it under his head because, "my head sweats a lot while I am asleep".

Lost tooth

As Declan Callum and I were sitting having lunch yesterday, Declan suddenly looked upset. His tooth had fallen out as he bit on a bagel, and he had swallowed it. He'd only notice that it was a bit loose that morning. He seems to have a very neat tooth replacement process. Not for Declan the days of teeth sticking out at odd angles, instead his teeth just loosen, and then fall out neatly.

The tooth fairy was willing to deliver last night, despite only having a handwritten note instead of a tooth.