The question of the day

From Ben "Why does July come after June?"
If anyone knows the answer please let us know!

Responsibilities and Privileges

Matthew came to us recently at dinner time and said he felt as the oldest brother he should be allowed to stay up later! Nathan and I considered his proposal and agreed that he could have extra privileges, but with these there would be extra responsibilities. He agreed to our terms and as such he has being staying up until 7.30! One of the conditions of his delayed bedtime was he had to always do his poos in the toilet and not in his jocks. We have had two early nights and he has been perfect since! Recently another change occurred. Matthew asked if he could be allowed (!!!!!) to unpack the dishwasher. We felt he would be capable and responsible enough to do the task and as a result he is getting pocket money every time he unpacks the dishwasher. He must save the 50c we pay him until he has saved enough to buy himself something worthwhile.
So i think we have transitioned into boyhood. This world involves responsibilities, privileges and pocket money. It is slightly scary but it has a really good feeling. We are actually moulding adult life skills! Please, please God help us mould him into a great individual!

G for Go! Go! Go!

This morning Matthew was playing a computer game and i requested he pause it whilst Uncle Brenty swam his 50m Breast (Well done by the way Brenty!) He did this by pressing "P" and then asked his Daddy if he had to press "G" to make it Go, Go, Go again! Anyone think there has been a little too much cheering going on in this house?

Brenton Rickard-100m Breaststroke World Champion and World Record Holder!

Congratulations Brenton. I know how hard you have worked for this. How much you deserve it. We are so very proud of you!

Matthew stood in front of his class mates today to share the news. Most of the kids already knew that "their Uncle Brenty" won! He told them that Uncle Brenty is the bestest in the world. He promised them he would bring Uncle Brenty in for show and tell when he gets back from "over there". (He couldn't remember where there was! He also told his class the last Olympics were in India!)

Benny thinks it is hysterically funny that Uncle Brenty tried to eat his medal. When Matthew told him he was pretending he refused to believe him! He would like to eat a medal too! (Typical Rickard, thinking of his belly!)

Ryan cannot wait to see his medal! "A golden one Mummy, a golden one!"

Now while I am very proud of his effort I am really impressed with how Brenton is handling himself in the media. With all of the controversy surrounding the swim suits I really love how Brenton is making a point of saying it is more important to him to have touched the wall first. I really admire how Brenton looks at many things in life and his way of handling these issues impresses me immensely!

So overall Brenton Rickard is just an impressive individual (even if he doesn't know how to do the dishes!)

A Milestone

Let it be know that on this day, the 24th July 2009, Matthew Rickard has mastered how to tie his own shoelaces. All that remains to be seen is whether lace up shoes are actually faster than velcro ones!

If you have two birthday cakes do you get two years older?

Cos Cleon has had two birthday cakes in one week this year! Her niece her and children came down this week to visit. We had a mini party with a Sausage sizzle for lunch and I made her a (nother!) birthday cake. She requested an Alien cake. .

Then the following night we had home made pizzas with Cleon and her extended family and Trev, Cid and Eli. It came to bedtime so Nathan read them all a book. Doesn't he look like he would make a great librarian!

Star Gazing

As you might know the boys are really into the Solar System. So we are looking at getting them a Telescope for Christmas. So Nathan borrowed one for us to practise with. And here are are the results.......

This is what a telescope looks like upside down!

This is the kids beside the upside down telescope. Do you know you cant see any stars through an upside down telescope!

Ahhhhh! Right way up! Ryan looking at some stars.

Benny. Not sure if he could figure out how to actually look into the view finder. But he claims he saw some!

Matthew.

We were hoping to see Saturn but were unable to. But Andrew (the neighbours nephew) saw a shooting star through it. And we saw quite a few satellites. But not through the telescope because by the time we moved it and tried to set it up they had gone! Hopefully we will get better!

Shoes

So far this year Matthew has gone through a pair of shoes a term! First term I bought expensive ones. So second term I didn't buy as expensive ones. And they still only lasted a term. He is not only wearing through them he is bursting (growing) out of them too! Now I understand why my Mum was always complaining about buying me shoes!
This term he requested one with laces. As apparently the laces are what make Thomas run the fastest and how can he possible compete with him if he doesn't have laces? And after two week of holidays we are still trying to teach him to tie them himself!

He says the sweetest things

Today after Benny's swimming lesson he asked me if I was proud of him. I replied that I was, he responded with "I'm glad to make you happy Mummy!" I am glad he is my son!

A vent!

Playgroup can be the bitchiest place on Earth! I have some lovely friends from playgroup but unfortunately there are also some really nasty ladies. Lately we have been taking collections for the Mums having new bubs. A purse would be passed around and you could contribute if you wanted to. The proceeds would then be used to purchase a gift basket from one of the Mums at playgroup who makes Baby bath products. She makes lovely gifts baskets and she would always include a gift for the sibling of the new baby so they didn't feel excluded. However recently a mother commented that all of the funds collected were going into the gift makers pocket. Well first of all Der!!!! She is supplying the gift! What really pisses me off is this:-

• The gift basket's she gives ALWAYS retails for more than the playgroup has collected! This means she always puts in more than ANYBODY else. She does it willingly and lovingly!
• She has made the products. Why shouldn't she be paid for it?!
• We are supporting our local community. We are after all from the Community Centre! The bath product lady is not the only local person we support either. To the stupid people from playgroup when you go to the hairdresser in our playgroup the money goes into her pocket too! And the handyman Dad, well we have put money in his pocket too! These people are part of our community. We have chosen to support them because of this fact.
• The final and most infuriating point is it is always the same bitchy people making the same bitchy comments. If you don't like the way things are run at the Community Centre LEAVE!!!!!!!!!!

To all of the expecting Mums at playgroup (and there are many) I am really sorry that you wont be receiving a gift basket from you friends. The person who made all of the gift baskets is too hurt and upset and feels that she shouldn't do it anymore. Even though she REALLY would like to.

Compassion and Kindness

Sometimes I feel that Matthew possesses neither of these qualities. Ryan has it by the bucket full. He would give you the world and he offers you the world. Benny too is kind and compassionate. Matthew not so much. It is a continual process trying to teach him to be more thoughtful and caring and compassionate to his fellow man (and brothers!) He is just made differently to his brothers. And that is fine and we know and embrace that. But kindness and compassion are essential (as far as I am concerned) to be a successful human being. So we are trying desperately to teach him to be these things. Recently I had asked the boys to get a bowl out for their afternoon tea. They all raced to the kitchen and Matthew who arrived first reefed open the door. In the process he had caught Ben's fingers in the door. Matthew continued to try and open the door all the while yelling at Ben to move as he needed to get a bowl. Poor Ben couldn't as he was attached to the cupboard. Matthew was so focused on the task that I had given him and he didn't want to be distracted from that. Which is a great quality when used appropriately. Anyway, Matthew really couldn't understand why we were sad cross with him. We had to take him to his room and give him step by step directions on how he should or could have handled the situation. We advised that his first move should have been to say sorry to Ben, his second move should have been to try and make Ben feel better, either by kissing him better or rubbing it better. We explained to him that had he taken those simple steps we wouldn't have been cross with him. And that we realise accidents happen all the time and that is ok. But how you handle those mistakes is what is really important. The lecture finally ended and Nathan and I have continued to wonder how we can help Matthew become a more compassionate and caring person.
Fast forward two weeks later and I think we are getting there! Nathan took Matthew to the Dinosaur Museum yesterday, as per his request for "special Matthew time." And he had a lovely time. However, at the end of the excursion Matthew turned to his Daddy and said "I miss Ryan and Ben. We should have brought them, they really would have liked this!" So yeah my son doesn't have a heart of stone. He does have a warm, compassionate side. It just appears in a slightly different way!

I've been banned!

From Wii! Apparently there is something called a sore winner! I've been told it's not nice to thrash your three young children at tennis and then jump around the lounge room going "I won! I won! I'm the winner! And your not!" Ive been told when your little children then bursts into tears "Toughen up Princess" is not an appropriate response!

Birthday's everywhere!

Today was our neighbour Cleon's birthday! So she came over to share it with the boys!
Happy Birthday Cleon!

Happy Birthday Nanna Rickard

Happy Birthday Nanna! We all hope you have had a really great day! And as per your request here is your birthday present!

Holidays

Well the first week of the holidays are over! It has been an interesting week to say the least. Monday, the boys were feral! We went to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the Mall. (They hadn't changed the show or soundtrack since the last time the Ninja Turtles were cool! It had MC Hammer in it!) Anyway, the boys were running around the Mall, feral. When i commented to the Woolies checkout chick that there is a reason that children go to school. She replied "Oh it a good babysitter is it?" My response to that was. "Well No. I love my kids being at home but when they are unstimulated mentally they use their brains for evil rather than good." Which has been true of Matthew of any time that he has spent at home recently. (And sometimes at school too!)
I have come to realise in the last few weeks of school that Matthew has been sensing a loss of connection between his family. He spends the majority of his time with his class. With people that are not like his family and don't love him like his family. I think the gloss of school has worn off and whilst he is really happy to be at school and he loves learning. I think he is feeling a bit unloved. The school routine leaves us little time to spend one on one time with him. After school there is homework, dinner, afternoon teas, swimming lessons, sport lessons and social occasions. But very little time for us to be with Matthew in a way that he has had for the previous 5 years of his life. I think he has realised that something has been missing and not known what it has been. I picked up what was happening recently and Nathan and I have made efforts these holidays to do a few things. The first has been just to hang out together. We have had two Pyjama days these holidays, where we haven't bothered to get dressed we have just lounged around and played trouble and Uno and cars and watched telly. Nathan and I have really tried to spend one on one time with him. Doing non school related stuff. (During school term he reads to both of us individually but its work rather than play). I recently read a book called the 7 Love languages for kids. (Great book by the way). So i used one of the ideas from the book and gave Matthew several suggestions for what he could do with each of us, just for him. He chose acts of service from me (I took him shopping for school shoes, I added in a trip to Maccas as well) And Daddy is taking him to the dinosaur Museum (quality time) this week.
Anyway the aim of this is to reconnect with our growing and changing little boy. And hopefully this will result in him feeling better about himself, us and behaving a little better.
I will let you know how it goes!

Childs Play

Currently Matthew and I have a cold. (Well I'm convinced it is the swine flu but no one else is!) Anyway here am I on death's door, whinging and moaning and complaining, whereas Matthew who is just as ill still has the capacity to play! It is amazing to see the children's hospital, where there are play rooms. Kids have to be really, really sick to not want to play. Most of the time they can conjure up some energy t play at least a little. I really want to conjure up some energy tomorrow. I want to plaint the window sills. Wish me luck.

Questacon

For Christmas last year my Mum and Dad gave the kids a yearly pass to Questacon. The boys really love it there. It is an easy day out. It's indoors, parking is free and the boys have so much fun. It really is our favourite thing to do in Canberra. We take people visiting there. Brenton and Kata often take the boys. I really hope that Mum and Dad get the opportunity to take the boys seeing as they bought the ticket for them. Anyway today we made our regular school holiday visit. Currently they have a dinosaur exhibit which the boys just love! They are really into dinosaurs at the moment. We went to the dinosaur puppet show and the narrator asked the kids who their favourite dinosaur was. As usual Matthew offered the T-Rex as did most of the other kids. Benny raised his hand and offered the Pteranodon! How many not even 3 years old know what one is let alone say it! It gets better during the show the narrator say dinosaurs can't fly. Benny pops his hand up again and says "No they are called flying reptiles!"

It gets better we are wondering through the gift shop and Benny pipes up with "Look Mum there's Saturn. It's the one with the rings!" And there he is pointing to a poster of the solar system. He did however fail to correctly name most of the other planets, except Earth! (He knows there names just cant get the right planet to the right name). But one thing is for sure my education is outdated already! Did you knwo there are three dwarf planets in our solar system?

A Triceratops

They Love the gravatrom


Not sure if he is looking at the balls or himself!

A Muttaburrasaurus (an Aussie dinosaur)

A stegasaurus (I apologise for Matthew, I only just noticed what he was doing when I uploaded this photo!)

Wii-xhausted!

Nathan took the boys to the shops on Saturday and came home with a.......Wii!!!!!! He got a Wii with a Wii Fit and a game for $388. Which he thought was a bargain. However he did have to work around my "No Games Consoles in the House Rule". Here is how he has justified this purchase:

• We can take the remotes away and hide them so they aren't always accessible and therefore playable.
• In long cold winters when the boys cant play outside they can be active inside.
• There is alot of player interaction between players. We had a great family afternoon playing together.
• A wii fit costs alot less than a gym membership and it will hopefully be used a bit more than my last gym membership!'
• And we just wont buy games that promote long hours of mindless, zombie like playing.

So I am currently sitting here justifying Nathan's purchase with THE sorest muscles from my boxing match with Brenton last night. And yes I punch like a girl!