I did some Christmas baking on a day when it was not too hot, but it was still too hot to roll the pepparkakor out, so they ended up a bit puffy I think, and the pig turned into a wombat, but I like the idea of a pepparkakor wombat. I have more dough in the freezer to slice and bake when it cools down a bit (assuming it does).
This boy has a plan...
Fortunately for everyone, it didn't work out.
D'Arcy's knee is just about better. I haven't got any really gory pics of it, but I will take one post-stitches when he comes here tomorrow. He's still quite worried about it, he doesn't want to go swimming, sadly as it's been bloody hot here. I've had enough hot already, and there's plenty more to come apparently.
I think all the present shopping is done as of today, we went down the charity gift route for each other quite a bit this year - we've got things for the boys, or will get. D'Arcy needs a new bike, but we'll get it after, as we need him to measure how big it should be.
The Beloved has been saying for some time that we ought to get some sunnies for E, as we wear them all the time, so why should he not need them too? So I got him some Baby Banz sunnies, and he quite likes, them, but ends up taking them off after a while.
Boots of any kind have become a firm favourite. Even mummy's uggies...and of course his own gum boots, which he can put on by himself.
Erik has (re)discovered mangoes. The other day I cut one up and put it in a bowl for him, which he enjoyed. I looked up from what I was doing to see that he had mashed it up, rubbed it on his hands and applied it to his face and hair, as you would soap or moisturiser.
D'Arcy went to a folk festival a few weeks ago and bought presents. Erik's was a fantastic deerstalker which he loves to bits. He finds it and whacks it on his head at any opportunity.
E has discovered the joys of going out for coffee. He likes a babycino, but more than that he likes to play in the water glasses.
Erik's first impulse buy. We were at BigW looking for more shoes for E. I picked these up to have a look at them and he was smitten. We couldn't leave the shoe aisle without the boots. Like his hat, he finds them and puts them on, or brings them to me to put on. I think they represent 'going outside' to him, he probably actually asking to go out, rather than just have his boots on.
We had two Thanksgiving dinners, one with just the four of us as D was going to his dad's and then one with a friend and my mum and stepfather. Lots of fun. Lots of food, though I think I slightly overdid it on the rich stuff. My liver was not happy the next day!
I got a phone call from D'Arcy's school on Wednesday at lunchtime saying "D'Arcy's fine, but he's cut his knee on a nail under the carpet. We've put a band-aid on it and sent him back to class, but I'm just letting you know because it's going to be sore". He was supposed to go to basketball that afternoon, but his step-mum dropped him home to me instead. About 45 minutes later he said "mum, my knee is bleeding!" And it was, dripping on the floor in fact. Through the band-aid, which was actually two large band-aids in a cross. Because his dad didn't let me vaccinate him as a baby I was already in the process of negotiating a tetanus shot, so we got in the car and went off to the health clinic. The nurse there took off the band-aid and she and I both kind of recoiled at the sight of the wound underneath. It was quite a lot worse than I'd been led to believe. The nurse said "What time did this happen? Why on earth didn't they tell you this needed to be looked at? Don't they know there's only an 8 hour window for stitching a wound?" About 6 hours had elapsed by this time, so we only just scraped in through the window, what with the time it took to find a doctor to do the honours. D'Arcy was very scared, and the process hurt a lot, but he was great. He said the worst bit was the injection of the local anaesthetic, but once that was done he was interested in what was going on, though I wouldn't let him watch the stitching. He ended up with 9 stitches and the tetanus shot (which will need repeating in two and again in four months) and he will have a lovely arrow shaped scar. When I rang the school the next morning to say that D wouldn't be in, I mentioned the surprise of the nurse that we hadn't been advised to get it looked at. The receptionist was really quite defensive about the care that he'd received from them (one of the people who treated it at school was trained as a nurse) and implied that I was over-reacting. I wasn't very happy about that. We have to take him back in a week to get the stitches looked at, and, I hope, removed.
Oh yeah, just remembered that today is Erik's half birthday (one and a half).
Again. Third since August for E. The beloved has gone to the US for two weeks and this weekend is crazy busy, but we're half way through now. Today was D'Arcy's school fete, his second basketball game, and a visit from some long lost cousins of my step-father's simultaneously. We were also supposed to provide someone to do scoring for basketball, but I managed to get out of that. As it was, with E sick, D's step-mum picked him up and took him to the fete. I went for about half an hour, mainly to rendevous with mum, who picked D up to take him to basketball on the other side of town before she went to lunch with the cousins. My dad then picked D up from basketball, and took him back to his house for lunch and a game of chess. They came back here, and I went out and picked up D's birthday cake, leaving E with Dad and D, which worked out OK, as he'd had a 2 hour sleep and wasn't too hot. Blah. Tomorrow is D's birthday party at the local laser-tag place. Also complicated by the fact that his dad has gone to Qatar for a week, but mum is freed up a bit to help with the party. I just want this weekend, and in fact, this fortnight to be over!
At some point in the recent past, Erik has got his hands on one of D'Arcy's pencils that get left lying around occasionally...
D had a good time on school camp, but immediately went straight back into his "I'm scared, I can't sleep" on coming home, which was a bit disappointing.
Erik picked up a book and thrust it at me today. He said something that sounded a lot like "read it!" and his language in general is coming along, but without being readily identifiable. He now does a very cute thing - if he wants something he starts out by demanding "dedditch!", but if I look at him and say "what do you need to say?" he does a really cheesy grin, rubs his hand across his haid and says "bweeee?". For those of you who are not in the immediate family, a translation is probably required. After some time, I realised that "dedditch" means "get it!" which is certainly direct, and lacking in ambiguity. I thought it was about time to start work on some manners, so I reminded him of the sign for "please" (touching the chin) and the sign for "mummy" (touch your temple with 3 fingers). What he's doing is the closest he can get to "mummy" with sign, but saying the closest he can get to "please"...
It happens to us all. We seem to have been simultaneously up to a lot, and not much. The end of winter is a hard time, but today it is spring, 25 degrees and sunny.
So. Erik. Still not much in the way of speech. He had stopped using the signs he had, but I've started a campaign of really making him sign if he wants something. We get a bit of "please mummy" signed if I insist, and help him sign first. He's becoming a climber - loves the sofa, the coffee table and is showing signs of wanting to scale the shelves in the kitchen.
D'Arcy. Seems to be having a hard time, but we're not sure what's at the bottom of it. He wakes up most night, about an hour after going to bed, drenched in sweat and terrified. He can't articulate what it is. I don't think the situation is helped by the fact that he still doesn't have to sleep by himself at his dad's house. It's hard because it makes us the mean ones who make him sleep on his own. Also hard as he has third grade camp coming up at the end of the month. Two nights away. I have no idea how he's going to go. He says he's scared here at bed time. Maybe camp will be the kick he needs to get over it though. He recently had some enormous mouth ulcers. They were so bad he couldn't eat, so I took him to the doctor. Doctor explained to D'Arcy the importance of vegetables in the diet, and almost as an afterthought added "is he stressed at all?" D's step mum and I think he's probably got herpes simplex (coldsore virus) as we're both carriers, and they can sometimes manifest as massive ulcers, rather than coldsores, but that's not much help really!
The beloved and I went on a date the other afternoon to the movies. We saw Julie & Julia and loved it. My mum looked after E, and D was at a party. Everyone had a good time, so we've said we'll do it again soon.
Erik's comprehension has taken a great leap (or perhaps it's just my faith in it) in the last week or so. The other day I was looking for something in the lounge room that I thought he had played with and moved. Couldn't find it. The beloved came home, and I related my tale of woe "if only he could talk" he said. Which made me think "well, he can't talk, but he sure understands a lot". So I said to E, "do you know where the other one of these is?" and he lay down on the floor and looked under the buffet (which is what I'd done to try to find it). D'Arcy went to get a torch, and lo, it was there!
This photo is today's comprehension, and also the first real exhibition of humour I've seen from this boy. I said to him "why don't you come and lie on the rug so I can change your nappy?" so he came and lay on the rug. Face down. Huge grin on his face. He thought he was being so clever. We laughed about that for quite a while, and then he eventually turned over so I could change him. The changing process was much easier than usual too, no struggling and yelling from either of us!
Erik's other joke is when he's playing with something he's not really supposed to have, I'll sometimes say "well, OK, but if you put it in your mouth, I'll have to take it away, it's not safe for babies". He looks at me, and very deliberately puts it near his mouth. When I say "no, not in your mouth" he takes it away again, but a few seconds later he does it again. Almost like he's saying "Well, now can I put it in my mouth? How about now? Now?" Very cute.
I had a birthday party yesterday and forgot to take any photos at all, but fun was had, and we had a lot of food left over. I made a cake and some scones, D'Arcy made fairy bread, and my mum made tiny little pizzas that were so popular I missed out on them altogether, as I was making the scones at the time.
So the beloved has recently outed himself as a 'Queen tragic' as he put it. I think this is a fantastic thing. This came about as the result of a number of things, mainly the fact that one of the music channels on our cable service had an entire weekend of Queen, most of which we actually forgot to watch. We also watch that channel as our default "there's nothing on TV" choice. They have an 80s at 8 segment which is occasionally amusing. D'Arcy was slightly bemused by the video for I Want to Break Free so I decided he needed more Queen in his life and showed him some videos on Youtube. He was particularly taken with We Will Rock You (which I think he'd heard some other kids singing at school).
Then, last week, the beloved conveniently had a birthday, so we got him A Night at the Opera because, despite being a Queen tragic all his Queen is on vinyl, and probably unplayable by now. D'Arcy was interested to hear Bohemian Rhapsody and has been wandering around singing it ever since. He came home from school singing it today, so we put the CD on again.
Erik likes to stack things one on top of the other. This is an example. The yellow and orange bits are part of a stacking toy that we've just found in the cupboard. The blue is one of the cats' bowls. They seem to end up all over the house these days.
He's also learning how to stack himself (in more ways than one).
This is his favourite 'climbing box' with which he climbed on to the sofa yesterday. He was very pleased with himself. I was pleased that he managed not to fall off again. Mort, despite the fact that I got his claws trimmed about a fortnight ago, has managed to give Erik a nasty scratch right under the eye. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do really...
In other news, D'Arcy has been wanting 'basketball lessons' for some time, and it turns out the local club actually offers something like that. It's a 6 week clinic-type thing for kids aged 7-9 where they go for 45 mins a week and learn skills. It starts this weekend, so he's pretty stoked about that.
I took Mort to the vet yesterday, to get his claws trimmed after he took a piece out of Erik's eyebrow last week, and to get his weird cough checked. Perhaps he's just got the cold we've all had. Erik was very generous in sharing his around. Joyce was hit particularly hard and has been going through a box of tissues a day.
There are now a bunch of photos up at Flickr that I've taken over the last couple of weeks...
Yeah, we've been sick. Erik got his first real cold, which has knocked us around a bit, and now he's given it to me, lovely boy that he is. However, it doesn't seem to have slowed him down much, his walking is still progressing, and he has more teeth than ever. The lower lateral incisors have finally come in, and I think he's working on some molars. Here's a bit more example walking and cat molesting, sorry it's a bit long.
The turkeys at the US consulate have now redeemed themselves. Erik's Consular Report of Birth Abroad certificate arrived yesterday, and it's all correct.
School holidays finished with a whimper for us, as D'Arcy spent the second week with his dad, though the beloved and Joyce took him to see Ice Age III which I think they all enjoyed. I've been trying to figure out how to get some baby free time, both in general, as it's been a bit full-on while he's been sick, and specifically to see Harry Potter. I'm hoping it'll work out, as I haven't been to the movies for over a year, though I"m not sure if I'll have the concentration span to sit still for 2+ hours. I haven't had to do that for a long time!
I talked to D's teachers (they're job sharing) yesterday in a parent/teacher interview. They're pretty pleased with how he's going, but still needs more support for his fine motor skills. Being left-handed, his handwriting is appalling, but they think with some help it will improve, so they gave us a phone number for the government funded occupational therapists. He's reading really well for his age now, which is a big change from two years ago, and he's now reading more than just Captain Underpants. He read all the Andy Griffiths Bum series almost without pause, and he's started to pick up other books that I've been trying to encourage him to read for ages. A good thing. He also wants to see Harry Potter but I don't think he's really ready for it. I'll have to think about it. He claims he's been reading it at his dad's, but reading it is very different from watching it I reckon.
Yikes, I'd better see what Erik is up to, he's wrecking something in the lounge room!
OK. So on Thursday, the bloke finally got on to the turkeys at the US consulate who said "Ooh, that's not right. Luckily it's still in our computer system, so send us the original and we'll fix it." So he did. They claim they'll send it back by registered post.
In the meantime this has been happening a lot.
This particular vid was taken at my friend Amanda's house (which is much tidier than mine, and has lovely cork tiles on the floor) where we went for a play yesterday. Erik was particularly taken by Emily's red ribbon, which she tried to take away from him several times (she's three) but he held on to it and flapped it some more.
Dylan and D'Arcy had a great play together. Dylan is 11 months younger than D'Arcy, and their relationship has been interesting. They haven't seen each other much over the last couple of years, so there's always an adjustment period when they play together. They're both the kind of boy who wants to impress the other, so that can go badly, but yesterday there wasn't much of that. D'Arcy was really keen to go, and they got straight into it when we got there. Emily felt a bit left out though, she usually gets Dylan to herself to play with, and she didn't much like having Erik around I think.
It's been more than a month since Erik's birthday, and I did manage to get pics of that up, but that's about all I've done. Apologies. Actually not much has been happening in a busy kind of way. ABout a week and a half ago we finally got to Sydney to go to the US Consulate to submit the 'Consular Report of Birth Abroad' for Erik. This was no mean feat I'll have you know. It involved a lot of paperwork. For a start, the beloved had to prove his citizenship. Not too hard, as he has a passport. Then for his citizenship to be transmissible to his child he had to prove that he'd been living in the US for at least 5 years, some of them past the age of 14. So he got school and university transcripts sent here. That was a bit more of a pain, as the Consulate wants 'official' copies of everything. OK, so far so good. Now for the annoying bit. We'd been advised over the phone (and the literature accompanying the application form also suggested) that despite the fact that we'd got married before Erik was born, the fact that he was conceived out of wedlock maight be a sticking point. SO we started to trawl through all our power and phine bills to prove that the beloved lives here. We made copies of all of these, as the Consulate charges $1USD/page. We also had two friends sign affadavits saying that they knew that we had been together for some time before Erik's birth. Beloved reads some more fine print which says "if you are also intending on applying for a social security number, please provide two copies of your supporting documents". Back to the photocopier. We now have three large piles of paper that are increasingly in danger of getting mixed up. Original, #1 copies and #2 copies. We put them all in cardboard files to try to keep them together. Of course when we front up at the consulate for our appointment the bloke behind the glass screened counter looks a little alarmed. I should point out that this bloke was as Aussie as they come. We'd been joking for weeks beforehand that our interview with a consular official would be with some Ivy League young thing called Chester or Chase or Savannah, but of course on the day, the preliminary stuff was all handled by some bloke called Bruce (or possibly Jayden). We did get to speak to a consular offical later, to sign the forms. His name was Christopher, and as we confirmed later, we both giggled a bit inside that most of the letters for 'Chester' were there. Christopher says "you're all done, the passport and CRBA will be sent to you in the Express Post satchel you've provided within 6 weeks, the Soc Sec number might take up to three months. Fast forward to yesterday when a courier knocks on the front door. Sure enough, it's the passport and official CRBA certificate. I pull out the camer and begin taking pics of my boys with the new passport, and then pause to read the certificate. "Bastards!" I say"?" says the beloved. "They've spelled my name wrong"... so on the phone goes the beloved, only to find that the people he needs to speak to are in Sydney, at the Consulate, and their phone number is only available between 2-4 weekdays. They haven't answered it over the last two days during that time, and the beloved has been leaving increasingly annoyed phone messages....
In the meantime, Erik has been almost learning to walk - he's taken a few steps between me and a chair - and is getting into all kinds of mischief. I fitted child locks to most of the kitchen cupboards. He still thinks that D'Arcy is the funniest thing ever, and he's still reliably using the sign we came up with for 'finished', with a few others occasionally. I've seen 'cat' and 'dog' and 'food' but none of them consistent.
I'm not sure if you can get to my other Youtube videos from the one embedded here, but there are some others that I put up at the same time that might be amusing.
Also pics at Flickr...most of which seem to feature eating, or the immediate post-eating phase.
Part of my problem right now, apart from having the beloved home for a holiday while his mom is here, is that he upgraded his laptop, so I got his old one. This means that I have the current Flash player, so I can play Lexulous and Scrabble on facebook again. 'nuff said really.
Yes, it's true. Erik just turned one. We had a small birthday party for him today, and I made the cake (pictured). It was inspired by this blog I ran across in my internet wanderings, although the temperature issues that my oven has affected the result somewhat. Rather than neat layers we got a marbled effect, but that's not so bad really. I don't want to do it again in a hurry though - I think all the food colouring gave me a headache. There are a bunch of pics at Flickr, if you click on the cake pic. But I'm tired now, and can't remember what else to say. Oh yeah, we had fireworks. Erik like the fountainy type ones, rather than the big bangy ones.
But we're back now. Beloved has gone to the US again to work and bring back his mum for another visit. They'll be back just in time for Erik's birthday, which is planned to be a fairly small event thus far.
In developmental news - I have been using a few modified AusLAN signs with Erik, and he's just started using one himself, which is pretty exciting. He now tells us he's 'finished' with everything - food, nappy changes, sleeping, being held...It's become slightly confused in the last day or so though, as he's also started clapping, which for a few hours was the sign for 'more', but now tends to be tacked on to the end of a 'finished' sign for amusement. Anyway, here's a post-breakfast video, showing these skills.
And while we're at it, here's another one showing another skill, which made me laugh a lot the first time I saw it. I'm trying to find a nice block trolley for his birthday, as he seems to be ready for it. He will stand on his own for a few seconds at a time, but doesn't seem to be very happy about it, and is still a way off walking I think. I hope.
D'Arcy is still Bakugan obsessed, but the school just banned them, so his opportunities for playing/swapping/obsessing have been curtailed now. I remember at school it was always this way, each new fad was banned and replaced by another equally inane thing, but with less marketing than these days. And the benign things like jacks or elastics were pretty safe. In fact, looking back, it was the "games that the boys played" that got banned more, and being "one of the boys" I was affected by this on many occasions. Yo-yos. Marbles. Trading cards. Things that could cause arguments or disfigurement. Interesting, and I don't think it's changed much. All his Bakugan mates are boys, but he is 8 after all, and right now girls are just weird.
I know I should have written a new post, but by the time I realised that I'd put the photo in... Anyway I forgot to mention my presents. D'Arcy had made me something at school, which turned out to be a bead key-ring, and it's fabulous! I love the colours (pink and orange together - yay!) Beloved asked me what Erik should get me for mothers' day. I replied "more sleep" with a laugh. Beloved and I were shopping on Saturday and went into Myers as I'd seen contour pillows there recently, and I've been looking for one since my physio suggested it might be a good thing. We scoped them out and then went to DJs where there was a better one and it still had its 'sale' sticker on, so Erik got me a new pillow. It is marvellous. I told a friend that it's like sleeping with your head and neck cradled in someone's hands.
End Edit
We had a great mothers' day yesterday. I got to have a morning nap with Erik before my mum and step-father came for lunch. They brought a lamb and quince tagine, and the beloved had made another one with chicken and dates. I'd stewed a bunch of quinces and we had them for dessert with Mungalli Creek honey chai yoghurt. It was totally spectacular eating, and I heard some interesing family stories from mum. D'Arcy came home for afternoon tea, and my stepfather brought his mum over too. The only sad thing was that I totally forgot to take any photos whatsoever. Sorry.
This is essentially a not very exciting (and wobbly) video of Erik just mooching around on the kitchen floor one evening. It goes for about a minute. There is a much longer one here which shows him playing his favourite game, "where's Erik?" with a square of silk. I really just uploaded them for the benefit of The Americans, who haven't seen any action for a while, and his Grandma Joyce is probably getting sad that it's almost his birthday, and she was going to come over for it, but she's got cold feet (swine flu). We've said we'll wait and see if it really is as bad as they say, before we decide. The beloved is supposed to go over for a conference later this month. When he mentioned the possibility of his non-attendance to the organiser she said "But Baton Rouge is nowhere near Mexico" he laughed at her. Everywhere is near to Mexico in teh US.
So I finally caved. D'Arcy has been at me for weeks about Bakugan Battle Brawlers. At the start of it we went to the local stupid market where we knew they had them, and saw how expensive they were. $19.84 for one figurine, one 'gate card' and one Bakugan. "Not bloody likely, it's such a rip-off" I said to my darling son, but he was determined. Every time we went to the shop he'd look, and we'd debate the pros and cons of $20 worth of plastic crap. He had an idea "you know that $20 I got for Christmas? I could use that" and I reluctantly agreed that if he wanted to blow his $20 on plastic crap, maybe that was OK. Since then, however, there has been a city-wide Bakugan shortage. Until today. We went to BigW and saw that you could buy a $19.84 pack of 1 Bakugan, 1 'gate card' and 1 'ability card', or you could buy a $38.88 pack of 6 of the above. After some negotiation D'Arcy is the proud owner of 6 Bakugan Battle Brawlers. I've said that that's the end of it. I hope it is. Erik loves the crunchy plastic packaging it came in, so everyone's a winner tonight.
As a kind of post-script to it all, when I showed D'Arcy the picture I took I said "that's the one I'll use for the blog post." He said "What are you going to call it? Plastic crap?"
But today we went to the zoo to try to combat it all...apologies for the wobbly nature of the vid.
I've got a cold, Erik is covered in mystery insect bites, and D'Arcy's step sister Neve has chicken pox (which isn't what Erik has, they've been like that for weeks now, and I have a few too....) We spent a day lying low, thinking that D'Arcy was about to break out in spots at any moment, but not so far, so perhaps he's got to wait the 10-21 day incubation period. Annoyingly, I never had chicken pox, whcih was confirmed in my blood test when I was pregnant with Erik "you ought to get vaccinated after the baby is born" my GP said. I didn't get around to it until Thursday. Apparently the vaccination is protective if you get it early enough after you've had contact with an infected person. Now my arm hurts like a bastard, I have to have another shot in 4-6 weeks to be fully covered, and I'm still likely to get it, though not as badly...blah.
Zoo was fun, but now I'm tired, and Erik didn't get enough sleep today.
Edited to add the "official" photo that the zoo took for $5, which, on top of the $10 for the experience seemed pretty good. I have cropped it for better blogging.
So the beloved said to me last night "you haven't blogged the toilet paper incident yet?" "No. Should I?" Apparently I should. Erik is now at the point where if he's left alone for any amount of time he'll get into whatever he's not supposed to. This time it was the toilet. I'm hoping we'll learn to keep the door closed soon. I think what is best about this pic (apart from the fact that he's just about to shove another piece in his mouth) is the distance over which he has scattered shreds of paper.
Goodness, his left eye really does turn in, doesn't it? We've got an appointment with an ophthalmologist in May to with luck he'll let us know if we need to do anything about it. The 'anything' will be patching the good eye for a while to make the turning one stronger, which, while it's obviously a better option than surgery, i can't imagine he's going to love it at all.
D'Arcy had a spectacular little boy event last week. He was buggering around in his classroom (it was raining, believe it or not) with a mate, who grabbed him and catapaulted him into his desk. Result: teeth/lip interface and lots of blood. Two neat holes in his bottom lip where his bottom teeth went in and two more marks below. I don't think they went all the way through - I think the marks are from his top teeth - imagine if you bite your your bottom lip - your top teeth are below your lip, and your bottom teeth are on your lip. Or something. Of course, despite being the injured party he was the one who "got in trouble". His teacher isn't very understanding, and he was being an idiot before it happened, so I can kind of see her point, but a little more sympath would be nice, and a little more even handedness - I don't think anything happened to the other kid who probably played the "I was trying to stop him running" card. Grr.
edit Forgot to add: Ezz iz not longer a vampire. His top teeth are coming in at last. Left one is first, but right is not far behind. And he'll be 10 months next week.
For his birthday D'Arcy got a Dymo labelmaker, which I though would be fun for an 8 year old boy. It was. Kind of. The problem is that the labelmaker doesn't really work. The tape gets stuck and doesn't feed well at all. So D'Arcy wrote them a letter to let them know how disappointed he was. In November. It's now the end of February and we have heard bugger all. Occasionally he gets it out and struggles to make a label for something, but it really isn't cutting it. What would you do?
Here's a picture of someone's four (4) teeth. There are more, including some of him in the outfit that his Grandma Joyce sent him for Valentine's Day, at Flickr. Not all that much going on really. Eating and sleeping. Still fairly cross-eyed at times, which we'll be getting checked out in May. There's some fairly enthusiastic and increasingly co-ordinated crawling going on, and some more communicative noises. Still very growly though.
We've had the lovely Davy staying with us for a few days, and the boys love him a lot. He likes playing a game with Erik with the caterpillar...
In other news D'Arcy is back at school. He has two teachers for his class (they job share, half a week each). One of them is the same one he had for first grade, which is OK - we're not overjoyed, but she's fine - just not really dynamic somehow, but D'Arcy is perfectly happy with her. Sadly he's still not in a class with his best friend, and it seems to be affecting their relationship. Still, at least this year there are three straight third grade classes (no composites) so they're all in the same corridor close to each other. Last year there was a 1/2 2 2 and a 2/3. The two 2s were next to eeach other, with the 1/2 next to one of them, but the 2/3 was a long way away. So they eat lunch together and do lots of stuff together.
I bought him the Pirateology book and an accompanying model pirate ship, which he built, with a bit of help...
It's finally cooler here, and the Beloved got home yesterday, jsut in time for the end of it, so he feels like he's had some, but not too much heat. I think I acclimatised by the 3rd day of 40 or almost. It was weird. It will be weirder sleeping with bedclothes tonight.
As my Facebook friends will know, Erik has a new favourite food for breakfast - mangoes! Here he is having a go of the seed. Sadly the season is coming to an end, with the yummy Kensington Pride variety already over to be replaced by the ridiculously oversized and comparitively bland R2E2.
It's been bloody hot here, but not as bad as Adelaide or Melbourne where is has been well over 40°C. In Adelaide it's been that for about a week now. My coping mechanism has been to go to the local pool if I have D'Arcy, or one of the local malls if I don't. Both strategies work fairly well, though the house is hideous when I get home.
Erik is almost crawling, as one of the other Flickr photos will show. He can wriggle backwards to almost any location in the house. Under the liquor cabinet is a favourite, and I'm hoping it doesn't say something about his coming years, though if he's anything like his father....
And I can now bring you some footage of Erik scooting in his Bumbo. Not to reach a power cord, or the fridge magnets, but some plastic shopping bags. Notice how Erik checks his trajectory and makes a correction, I was particularly impressed by that. Cameo by Larry's tail.
Beloved is in the US again, so I bring you a LoLcat instead. It is vaguely relevant, as Erik has learned to scoot his Bumbo backwards across the floor by pushing off with his feet. His favourite destinations are the fridge (covered in interesting magnets) and the cats' food and water bowls. D'Arcy has been spectacularly helpful this week, watching Erik and amusing himself when required - also a lot less mouthy and attitude-ridden. A joy to be around really, which is what I've been hoping for. Two more weeks of summer holidays, and countless trips to the pool to follow I suspect, the forecast is for 30° and over for the next week.
Of the new tooth. If you look carefully, but you might have to go to Flickr to see it big. There are also a couple of other pics there, including one of Erik in the car seat!
Here is a boy showing off one of his new skills. He's still pretty wobbly and crashes sideways or backwards a bit, but he seems to be better balanced every day. His other skill is pushing up on his hands and knees/toes. He's also on two meals a day. So far he likes to eat most things - breakfast has been cereal and fruit, with peach being a favourite along with red pawpaw, and lunch is vegies pumpkin and sweet potato being the current favourtes there.
We just got a new carrier for him from NZ, a sling that I can wear in the pool, so I'm looking forward to trying that out next time we go.
Erik's tooth has finally happened, but of course, because he is a baby there are no pics of it. Every time he opens his mouth he has his tongue over his gums, but the tooth is there. I've felt it.
He's also getting very ready to crawl. I should shoot some video and post it, but it's too hot to do anything here at the moment, except go to the pool and sit semi-comatose in the water. Should be slightly cooler tomorrow, but I gotta do the shopping. Who said blogging wasn't exciting and cutting edge?
(D'Arcy is fine, but spends too much time playing his DS)
We went to the pool for the first time this summer on Boxing Day. It was hot, and I reckoned (correctly) that the pool might not be too busy with everyone away, or at post-christmas sales. We had a great time. Erik loved the baby pool, and we got some video of it...
So though I haven't finished with the one of him laughing on Christmas Day there is this one. Commentary by daddy. There are more still pics at Flickr if you're interested!
D'Arcy has been at the coast with his dad for the last few days, and apparently he got a temporary tattoo of a dragon on his arm at some seaside carnival. It looks pretty scary, but he says it should wash off "maybe by the time school starts again" which is the beginning of Feb.
