Nicasso's latest masterpiece!

Collecting The Captain on wednesday from pre-school he gleefully waves his latest painting at me. "Oh it's lovely darling," I dutifully say. "Yes Mummy," he says to me in his loud clear voice, "it is of you and Daddy drinking wine." All the other mothers nearby smother giggles and the teacher is practically in hysterics. "Don't worry" one Mum says kindly to me, "Alexander's first word was 'wine!'"

Note, the wine glasses in our hands (not bad for a 4 year old!) I can't believe that this is what he chose to paint us doing though! The little monkey! :

The Captain's Clash with a Filing Cabinet

This is what happens when you combine a kamikaze daredevil with an antique oak filing cabinet. Three stitches and a wound so deep that you could see bone. Every person in emergency gasped in horror when the triage nurse peeled the temporary bandage off his head on our arrival. Only the day before I had been admiring his smooth forehead and thinking how handsome he was...

This is what it looks like now that the stitches have been removed. Apologies for the clothes peg hair clip. In this male dominated family we naturally, have a hair clip shortage and my bobby pins were not up to the rigours of a 4 year old boy. Thus, I had to improvise with the clothes peg! Don't worry Captain, that scar will make you look more authentic when you play pirates now!

Baby Pirate has a new identity... Cranky Cowboy!

My favourite sulky cowboy!

Baby Pirate is growing up so quickly I can hardly absorb the changes. He swims in the pool now unassisted. Well, with the bubble on but he does NOT like anyone to hold him or indeed hover around him. He adores playing with his big brother's Thomas trains and the vintage Little People toys. He is obsessed with his beloveds, "Witchard" (a lion soft toy) and "Beee-arrr" (a winnie the pooh bear). He is the polar opposite of N, who did not form an attachment to any soft toys or blankies, whereas H almost always has one of his beloveds in his arms 0r is dragging his blanket (a muslin wrap) around the house/garden/neighborhood with him. I am trying to confine the comfort items to the house, hence the sulky face in the above photos! He is eating us out of house and home and has a worrying sweet tooth! He loves going for walks around the neighborhood in the pram or sitting on the back of my bike in the toddler seat as we ride around the nearby lagoon/lake and wetlands. Every morning without fail he asks to go to the beach and looks so crestfallen if I say no. He has the most divine smile and has a full compliment of teeth,yes even the 2 year old molars! (Don't you know you are six months early stupid teeth?). He is already kicking a soccer ball around quite proficiently and is currently eyeing off the Captain's old balance bike. It won't be long before R starts grooming him to win the Tour de France.