Sometimes I have so much to say and I can't wait to capture on my blog.
Not so the last few weeks.
Nothing dramatic happened - no great belly button gazing self analysis (I know, weird huh?!), no greatly difficult times with the children (all well which is wonderful) .... I guess just in the middle of school term, in the swing of our manic routine.
We did have my parents come to visit briefly last week - wonderful having them. The boys loved having them to play with and get to know - especially Eddie who hasn't seen much of them. And I enjoyed having adult company all day! We had some lovely dinners outside (with our new BBQ - honestly - for $199 it is fantastic - thanks Bunnings) and enjoyed the kids in the pool and the garden.
We have had two weekends of swim carnivals with Tom. And we have a new babysitter - L, a 18/19 year old boy - graduated from Year 12 Churchie last year, studying at university this year. He is the son of our morning nanny's hair dresser (!) (in Brisbane it is all who you know, not what!!). And he is terrific with the kids - even the baby! So L comes when we have swim carnivals including Friday night swim club.
Oh it is so civilised. It is a date night. Just Tom and William and Damien and I. And after William has swum his race, we drop him home as well. So just D and I and T. And a hidden bottle of wine. Oh bliss.
Tom is swimming well, even his butterfly is improving. He is not the best in the State by any means but he is improving his personal best times pretty consistently. We are happy with his swim squad - he only swims twice a week this term - Sam the coach is so good with the kids and her techniques are great. For example last Thursday she did counting strokes per lap for freestyle. Then she made them swim to time and count strokes, and then add the seconds to the strokes. The aim was to get as low a number as possible. She then made them swim as many strokes as they wanted and see if they swam any faster - no! And it really improved Tom on Friday at swim club with lovely, long, languid strokes.
William has been very tired and emotional lately. They have dropped sleep time at kindy in preparation for school next year and it takes its toll. However it can be managed and cuddled out of him by me. Damien gets a bit too cranky with it, so I do take over most of the time to manage. Ignore is also a major tactic. He literally does an academy award winning roll around on the floor emotional breakdown most days. Ignore is not just a tactic, it is in fact my only option when I am juggling the other children and packing bags to go out, and putting dinner on, etc. Eddie of course learns from William so does similar meltdowns (exact words copied in fact! "I can't move! I'm too tired! I can't! I can't!"). Ignore as well. But sometimes it just starts to gnaw away at you (the background noise of the tantrum) and then something else goes wrong (Tom drops his entire meal on the floor as an example that happens often) and then I lose it! But less often ... I hope....
Baby Sammy is my joy and delight. He truly is my last baby as I linger over bedtime (long breastfeeds) and linger over changing his nappy and kissing his tummy and his neck. And I just hold him often and sniff him. His ears and his neck. I think this is may be why is so happy all the time, and except when tired or hungry, quite happy to go to other people. He is drowning in physical affection! He is so smiley and happy and so incredibly curious! He is into everything - specifically the Tupperware drawer in the kitchen, any other drawer he can get into, the fridge, the stones under the washline and the totem tennis ball and bats! When he is not hungry or tired, he is very self-sufficient and just wanders around the house (with stair gate on and study door closed!) entertaining himself. He is a spider crawler (feet on ground, knees off ground, hands on ground) and boy he can go!
Just the last day or so, he has decided he wants to walk, and so instead of dropping straight to crawling to get across the room he reaches out and walks a bit. He has managed three steps so far! I prophesize he will be walking before his birthday! Which is December 3.
Tom has graduated to Grade 2 writing per our curriculum. We are doing summarising of stories at the moment. Even after only two weeks he is much better at cutting to the chase! Our spelling curriculum has started doing creative writing with his spelling words and as we are learning adverbs and adjectives in grammar, we are practicing adding an adjective and adverb into each sentence. Oh my goodness the boy needs a thesaurus! He struggles to come up with other adjectives than good and bad, or an adverb different to very! But we are making progress......
We are doing multiplication and division word problems at the moment. For example, Jane had eighteen lollies and she wanted to share them with her friend Sally and Peter. How many lollies did each child get? It is interesting how initially Tom couldn't see that this was division, but in a few questions it was easy. Now he can differentiate a multiplication from a division problem very well, even quite complex ones. We are only working with the 2 and 3 times table currently. Next will be 4 and 5.
We did a lot of History with my Dad last week. Dad was impressed with Tom's detailed knowledge of Mesopotamia and related events. We are doing Homer's Iliad at the moment. I kid you not! It is a ripping tale, and when written in shorter form (!) and in easier language quite easy to digest. I hope/aim to get a timeline on the wall so that Tom can put the events we have been learning about in a visual timeline context.
Another swim meet this weekend as well as two kindy functions - so lots going on. But the weather is so gorgeous, even the rolling afternoon storms - that there are always two or three swims per day and lots of time on the trampoline! Also, because I am naughty and can't stop myself, I bought the boys a swingset for Christmas. I think they will love it!