Double digits

The Captain has recently celebrated his 10th birthday.  It seems but moments ago that the Doctor at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, a gentlemanly old Sikh, nodded kindly at me over his desk and said yes, Madam, there really is a baby in there, as he read my blood test results to me.  I must have looked quite disbelieving!

To celebrate reaching double digits, the Captain chose to have a sailing party.  Luckily, Balmoral Sailing Club have a fabulous kids program that includes holiday camps (the best!) and Birthday Parties.  

The party celebrations began with a Hobie Cat race.  As the Captain sails on an Optimist in his Development Squad, he loves any opportunity to jump into different sailing craft and Hobie Cat's are one of his favourites.  They can pick up a bit of speed which appeals to little boys of course! The boys were split up into two teams and off they went.   

They had the time of their lives out on the harbour for an hour or so, meanwhile we sat back on the beach and enjoyed the wonder of hosting a party for a dozen 10 year old boys.  It was so peaceful watching the two rainbow coloured sails darting about on Middle Harbour!  

Eventually, the boys did reappear though and both teams of course insisted that they had won the race.  Before they could actually establish who truly had won, the instructors managed to distract

 them all with a stand up paddle board lesson.  Nick loved this so much that a paddle board has been added onto the Christmas list this year!  

The final activity was some crazy made up game that the instructors from the yacht club came up with.  I never actually quite got the gist of it, but it involved lots of running, crawling and hiding in a maze of paddle boards propped up in the sand.  The boys LOVED this.  Lots of stealth type stomach crawling and deviant dashing between the paddle boards, the boys were in their element.  

We ended the party with fish and chips and chocolate cake.

So my darling boy at 10 years old you are: feisty, determined and dare I say, a little bit witty.  Your determination never fails to astonish me.  You are an incredible athlete and excel at cross country, athletics, sailing and skiing.  You also love cricket and soccer. 

Up until last week you wanted to be an architect.  This all changed though after Grandma and Grandpa took you for your first proper experience in a flight simulator and as a consequence you have switched career paths to aviation.   Your favourite TV show though is still Grand Designs (UK of course), closely followed by Top Gear (UK of course).  

Your favourite books are the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz and The Henderson Boys series by Robert Murchamore.  As a result, you have also dabbled in espionage as a career choice and did request that we send you to Eton as you considered that a pre-requisite!

Your favourite colour is still red.  Your favourite food is pizza.  You are pestering us for a dog.  You play the classical guitar and sing in the school choir.  Your favourite subjects at school are art, drama and sport. You have a lovely group of friends at school.

You are a skilled negotiator and are willing to debate anything and everything.  This skill of yours is simultaneously infuriating and impressive.  I, for one, look forward to seeing where this takes you in life.  Happy Birthday Captain.  

There's a mad scientist in the house and he is seven!

 Happy Birthday Captain.  At seven you are quite the artist, your art teacher asked to buy one of your art works.  I said no, I wanted it.  You are the fastest runner in your class.  You love reading and read prolifically, well thumbed books are Beast Quest, Zac Power, James and the Giant Peach and the Famous Five. Your favourite toys are Lego and Playmobil Top Agents.  You can climb any tree, rope or pole like a monkey.  I frequently have to reassure people as you wave to us from the top of a lamp post that you are fine.  Your favourite foods are pizza, pink lady apples and those revolting cheese and bacon rolls from Baker's Delight.  You still skip your way around a soccer field and daydream instead of following the ball, I will be so sad when you stop doing this.  You love science club and fencing at school, skiing is another favourite.  At school you still love to play BB's vs Fairy House and construct elaborate cubby houses out of sticks and stones.  I love that your school allows you to do this.  When you grow up you want to be a paleontologist or a policeman.  You are going to marry Bronte.  I hope you always have a Bronte in your life.   Your Dad and I love your style, your Dad thinks you have an element of Ferris Bueller about you.

Sometimes I can see it!

Happy Birthday Captain!  

The apple didn't fall far from the tree after all.

 This is how I found him as we were about to walk out the door this morning.  Can you make out the cover?  I am beyond delighted.  (Apologies for the rubbish photo, I had to capture the moment quickly and get said child to school before the first bell at 8.25).

Enid Blyton vs Beast Quest

Well, despite my best efforts it appears Enid Blyton hasn't quite made the cut for this one.  I know it is... a great disappointment.  The many years I have devoted to collecting First Edition Blytons, with the view to one day sharing them with my own children... has possibly been in vain, sniff.  He has become obsessed with something else.  The obsession part is all too familiar, the staying up and reading under the covers long after the rest of the house is asleep, the dreams about the characters and the nose continually stuck in a book.  Meal times, in the car, walking around, you name it, there is a book in his hand!  All of which is of course fabulous and I am delighted that he loves to read.  Curious, I picked up a copy of one of his Beast Quest books and was intrigued.  The author is Adam Blade (real name? not sure...) and he is prolific, there are 60 books in the series and counting.  We have 40 of them.  Hmmm, sound familiar?  Blyton wrote around 800 books over a 40 year period.  As Blade is only in his 20s there should be plenty of time for him to churn out some more.

Each book features a quest that the protagonist Tom (12 years old) and Elenna (his best friend) need to complete to help save the Kingdom of Avantia.  There are lots of dragons, weapons, wizards and beasts to keep things interesting.  The Captain clearly adores them and so I would recommend them to anyone looking for a series of books to engage a little boy starting out on their reading journey.

Convalescing

 My big boy is sick.  I needed to wash his sheets so I relocated him to the back deck.  The natural healing properties of fresh air and sunshine must have helped.

He rallied and asked for some Tintin comics to read. Crossing my fingers and toes that the rest of us don't catch it!

The Tooth Fairy has paid us her first visit.

The Captain has lost the first two of his little baby fangs, interestingly the first two to make an appearance have been the first two to vacate the premises.  It has been a long time coming, he is the second last kid in his class to lose any teeth so he was starting to get a little antsy about it all, even requesting that we pay a visit to the Dentist to "check everything is ok?"  Which reminded me... he was the last baby in my Mother's Group to get teeth in the first place!

So on Monday morning when the first one finally fell out whilst he was getting dressed for school he was literally beside himself dancing around and squealing "aren't you proud of me Mummy?"  I took the opportunity here for a quick parenting lesson... "oh yes, so very proud darling but you make Mummy ever so proud when you are a good listening boy who is kind to his brother and" ... he lost interest in me about then and danced off....

Later that afternoon on our way home from swimming lessons the second little fang fell out in the car.  Oh my was he delighted with himself!  We then had to ring his Dad (in New Zealand) to share the excitement and then when we got home the teeth were very carefully placed under his pillow.

                                                              7:05pm his lights were out, bless him.

The tooth fairy brought him a lovely certificate that he can glue into his scrapbook to mark the occasion and she also reimbursed him for his gorgeous little fangs with a $5 note stamped with gold fairy dust, carefully folded up inside this little pouch.  The Captain is quite the fan of the tooth fairy now!  

School Holidays Round Up

RIP my favourite sunglasses.  

Someone who shall not be named stood on them... 'tis, very lucky the culprit is cute... 

.... and loves to shop!  

Caught up with the gardening.  My assistant landscapers were occasionally helpful!

We also explored some of the local parks and beach paths.  

And, the story behind these two walking together ahead of me: after months of sibling fighting and me desperately trying to referee, R instructed me to leave them to it and that they would sort it out themselves.  Best suggestion ever, as they are finally learning to resolve issues without my intervention.  As we walked up this path they both wanted to be the leader... after a bit of discussion they agreed to walk together and hold hands.  Proud Mama moment!

The Captain is currently obsessed with climbing trees.  Every tree we encounter is examined for tree climbing potential.  At home he spends hours drawing up plans for tree houses.    He has now read all the fabulous Magic Tree House books and I suspect that they might have ignited his passion! I am now steering him towards the Emily Rodda books... both Deltora Quest and the Rowan series.  Any other suggestions?  

The new Koskela showroom!

Yesterday the Captain and I stumbled across the most fabulous place, the new Koskela showroom in Rosebery!  He had an appointment at the studio next door and as we walked past I caught a glimpse inside the converted warehouse space and I was instantly captivated!  It is full of the most spectacular treasures and is well worth the visit.   As the lovely FF would say:

"run, don't walk people!"

Loving these vintage birdies!!!

The most exquisite bed linen for children that I think I have ever seen!

The Captain's croissant came to him literally straight out of the oven! His review... delicious!

We will be back, the Captain is hankering after one of the embroidered tree house doona covers!  

All of this wonderfulness is at:

Koskela 1/85 Dunning Ave Rosebery