Eight!

 8 years old.  

I can't quite believe it has been 8 years.  Although, it's closer to 9 if I think about the day that we went to Bondi Junction for the 18-20 week ultrasound and the sonographer asked us if we wanted to know your gender, oh I know I replied, it's a little boy.  I was right.    I have been wrong about so many things, but not about you!

At 8 years old you are a true delight. You always have been though. Your love of being outdoors continues.  You have moved on from birds.  Currently you are obsessed with sport.  Specifically soccer, cricket, athletics, cross country running, skiing, surfing and cycling.  When you grow up you are going to be a "champion ski racer and jumper" (actual quote).  

You are quite a character.  You have cut your own hair more times than I can count.   Most children grow out of this in the toddler years or don't attempt it at all!  Not you, I think that the photo above is an attempt to photograph the latest haircut.  You were trying to cut a line in, "like all the soccer players have in their hair." 

You prefer to be outside at all times.  Even if it is pouring with rain and freezing cold I will find you outside, either bowling over and over again at the wickets, kicking a soccer ball into "franklin", playing hand ball against the side of the house or jumping on the trampoline.  You are thrilled when someone agrees to play outside with you, sadly this doesn't always work well with your brother.  It almost always ends in tears and a howling protest of some sort from you.

You play the viola and are in the string orchestra at school, I hope you continue to play the viola for years to come, and that it gives you as much pleasure as it has given me watching you learn to play.  I am so proud of how much you have achieved musically.   

Your best friends at school are Elijah, Scott and Hugh.  Your favourite foods are pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, sushi, sweet potato and vanilla ice cream.  You loathe cauliflower.  I can manage to make you eat almost anything, even mushrooms and eggplant, both of which you are lukewarm about, but the performance you put on  about cauliflower is worthy of an Oscar.  You are a talented athlete and can bowl better than kids much older than you, even better than many adults.  Your current favourite reads are the Harry Potter books,  Deltora Quest, the How to Train Your Dragon books, anything by Graeme Base and your perennially adored, very well thumbed Berenstain Bears books, almost all of which you know off by heart.  You will watch BTN, Top Gear and any sport that takes your fancy on TV but that is quite literally it.  Although, you do also love the Harry Potter movies and drive us all mad, with them.  For when it is your turn to choose a movie for family movie night you invariably choose a Harry Potter.  This is starting to wear a bit thin with the entire family.

You still adore lions and Big and Little will always be your adored side kicks.  I can't even imagine the heartbreak if we lost one of them again.  They truly are part of our family now.  

You are a special boy, little one.  Happy Birthday.

The joy of boys!

 As I haven't written a post about parenting the 'Y' chromosome in a very long time, here is an update:

They break bones, badly.

Both of them.

Probably because they have no fear!  That would be the seven year old up there on the top of that orange pole.  Note all the other 7 and 8 year old boys seem to have remained sensibly at ground level so perhaps it is just that my boys are extreme risk takers?

I often find elaborate "scenes" such as this one, set up in random locations around the house.

Often the "scenes" appear to have been catastrophic.

You quickly learn who all the sports stars are. 

The brotherly love is touching. The 10 year old offered to help the 7 year old find some sponsors for his school Zumba-thon.  For those that can't read his handwriting that would be Bill Gates and Queen Elizabeth sponsoring H some rather large sums per minute.

Yes, the 7 year old was sent to school with this form and yes, I crossed out Nick's additions! 

Every minute of this testosterone loaded craziness is worth it though, especially when you get treated to impromptu music recitals with football cleats on!

Superheroes....

  The boys have never seen an episode of Batman, Superman, Spiderman or even Ben 10.  Nor have they seen any of the movies, nor have I bought them a single Superhero toy.   Yet somehow, (perhaps by osmosis in the playground?), they know each and every Superhero.   Wandering into the Converse shop, I had only been intending to purchase them a new pair each of the classic grey slip ons they both love.  I did walk out of the Converse shop with grey slips on, but I also walked out with these:

I succumbed to pester power.

For the first time ever I bought them a "licensed" product. The little guy got Batman Converse and the big one got Superman Converse.  In my defence, at least they are vintage prints.   They now wear them constantly, even with their pyjamas.

Oh please, please Mummy can I have these?  Even if they are so big that I can wear them as a hat?

Speaking of Superheroes, the King of the Superheroes made a reappearance this week:

This time he was escorted by his trusty sidekick, Super Little:

Together they embarked on an adventure inspired by a true Superhero...  Eliot jones, of course.

Yes indeed,  that would be a "Meteor-Busting Rocket Launcher"  that The King is sitting on!  It is sort of like the one Eliot has to save the world with...

Reader, please be aware that today you were saved by...  

The King of the Super Heroes and his confidant Super Little!  

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!

This child.....

The other day as I was quietly tapping away at the computer, writing the blog post about the sandpit boat I heard a commotion from the back deck.

"I am the King of the Superheroes!" he roared 

The Superhero King glances around to check if his legions of adoring fans are all ready and waiting to observe and witness his moment of glory.

 (Am just loving his underpants tucked into his t-shirt here, in almost perfect superhero form.  Although, technically they should probably be worn on the outside.)

... and then, OH MY!, he jumps.... 

Off the table and back on to the deck.

Love it! (Especially that look of intense concentration)

The Joys of Boys - The Sequel

Parenting the Y chromosome...

They like mud...  a lot.

The little one will be very sad when the new garden beds are finished.  

I will not be.

Cardboard tubes provide hours of entertainment... (as do sand and mud).

You find surprise additions to the shopping list, (considering how well he reads his spelling is atrocious!)

They can entertain themselves anywhere.

(Me: "darling, what are you doing?

Boy: "I am spying on the people downstairs")

Got to love the excuse to be able to decorate with vintage cowboy prints though!

And... yes little pirate Prince, I forgive you for the mud! (Lucky you are as cute as you are though!).

Little and Big

                 
                                                                      Or Little Richard and Big Richard.

These lovely lions were presented as gifts to the Captain when he was born.  The little one came from my brother and the big one from my sister in law.  Cute as they are the Captain only ever had a passing interest in them.  The little one however adores them and yes, they are both named after Richard the Lionheart.

The reason for this post is partly to document the presence of Big and Little in our lives.  If you ask the little one who he loves, he will invariably name Big and Little first.  He talks to them, carries them around with him, rubs his face into them and if I insist on washing one (or if it is a particularly disastrous) both of them, he has been known to sit in front of the washing machine ensuring that they emerge safely. Lucky for him we have a front loader with a 15 minute cycle and a lovely viewing window.

Big and Little are well travelled, having joined us on all family getaways.  One eventful trip to Melbourne even saw Little left behind on the City Circle Tram.  We managed to console the distraught child with a hastily concocted story that Little had gone off on an adventure and that he would be back shortly.  Consoling the distraught mother was not so successful.  I rang everyone I could think of trying to get the original Little back and then conceding defeat started to concoct ever more fanciful stories for the boys about what Little was up to on his adventures.

A few weeks later, the little one came to me and said, "Mamma it is time for little to come home!"  Oh the guilt!  He had even taken to pointing at every train we passed,  in his mind trams were obviously trains,   and asking if that was the one that Little was on.  Fortunately, this heartbreak came to an end very quickly.  We were on a shopping trip with my parents, when my Dad whispered to me, there is a shop here that has the right size Little's, should I go buy one?  oh yes!!!

My Dad went and bought him while we were having lunch and placed him discreetly in the little one's pram.  The Captain spotted him first, shrieking "little's back" and then loudly announcing, "he looks different." The Captain was no match for Mummy however:

 "Well, clearly Little was desperate for a holiday.  Look how fabulous he looks now that he has had a decent break and he probably squeezed in a few trips to the day spa as well.  Of course, he looks fabulous now!  His hair has even grown back!"

The little one bought it!  Nowadays these two lions are guarded almost as carefully as the two children.  If you look closely in the above photo  you can see that Little even gets to use the infants attachment seatbelt on a plane.  Safety first people!

The reason for this post though is this post, on this lovely blog.  I showed the photos to the little one and said "look this little girl has a Richard too, although she hasn't cut her Richard's hair by the looks of things!"  "No, Mummy, that is me when I was a baby" he kept insisting.  I gently tried to convince him that there was someone else out there with a Richard but he was outraged by the concept of this.  It ended up triggering a tantrum of fairly phenomenal proportions!  Now, a month later he keeps asking about the little girl with the different Richard!

My two whirlwinds of destruction and mayhem!

I know, they look innocent enough and thankfully most of the time they are, when they get up to mischief however it can reach levels of unprecedented destruction.  The most recent incident of fairly catastrophic proportions happened a few weeks ago.  I am only really ready to talk blog about it now.

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We eat out regularly.   R and I love food and dining out and we are hoping that by exposing the boys to some fabulous restaurants and dining experiences we are doing our bit to raise them as little gourmands.  Perhaps we have even been a touch too smug about our little foodies that happily join us at the table, quietly colouring in or reading whilst we scan the menu and savour the wine list.  All smugness has been abandoned however in the aftermath of our first dining out disaster and it was at one of the most spectacularly located restaurants in Sydney, Le Kiosk at Shelley Beach

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A lovely little restaurant located literally metres from the sands of Shelley Beach.  It really is the most picturesque location and the restaurant itself is definitely a bit more sophisticated that your average neighbourhood restaurant which makes what happened even more mortifying!

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So... as we entered the restaurant R and I waited at the door to be seated and the boys were just behind us.  As I was saying to the waiter... booking under the name of ****** I caught they boys out of the corner of my eyes making their way over to the mirrored wall that runs the length of the restaurant behind all the tables.  Presumably to reflect the view for any diners not facing out towards the spectacular view... but before the waiter had even managed to look up our reservation disaster struck: 

The boys were making faces at themselves in the mirror.

The Captain picked up the little one.

The little one howled in protest and kicked his feet off the wall.

Everything started to move in slow motion, yet Ross and I were paralysed with horror.

The Captain fell sideways into a table set for four.

The table teetered and then tipped over.

A chair quickly followed it.

Both boys fell to the ground.

Four sets of cutlery, glassware and crockery hit the floor.

After the initial crescendo of crashing glassware and smashing crockery, the silence was deafening.

The kitchen staff came out to see what happened.

Time started to accelerate suddenly for some reason.

Both boys emerged from the scene of destruction completely unscathed despite all the hazards they were surrounded by. 

The little one started to cry.

The Captain walked out of the restaurant tears dripping and marched straight across to the far side of the beach (well out of reach of everyone!)

R whispered to me out of the corner of his mouth, "we need to leave immediately!"

I curtly announced out of the corner of my mouth, "definitely not, we need to order up big time and leave a massive tip!"

And, that's exactly what we did. To the credit of the staff they were amazing, Ross and I tried to clean it all up but we were ushered straight to a table and wisely handed a wine list.  A soothing glass of wine later and an apology to the staff from Nicholas and I felt (a little) better.  The meal we had was excellent and the service, considering what had happened was impeccable.  I highly recommend it, just make sure you have a meal during daylight hours to take advantage of the magnificent setting and maybe don't tell them that we sent you!

Photo Challenge - Day 9

"Someone you love"

Most of the time they love each other...

Please boys, continue to love and care for each other...

it will make your mother happy.