Benjamin Dare

Nathan is currently in Ben's room helping him pack his bags so he can move in with Treb...... Tonight at dinner Ben was telling us that Treb has no hair (he doesn't!) It then moved on to "Treb is my best Dad!" (the logic is Eli is his best friend, Eli's Dad is Treb that makes Treb his best Dad!) I made all the appropriate noises about his Daddy being the best, all of which were rejected so I moved onto "Well Daddy has to be the best husband then".
Reply : "No its Treb!"
Daddy then left the room so I cued Ben up to tell his Dad that HE was the best. Upon Nathan's return Ben said "It's still Treb!"
So that is why Daddy is currently helping Ben pack his bags. I'm not going to tell Ben the Dares don't want him until he can sleep past 7am!

My little helper

Benny is apparently a great little helper at playschool. On Tuesday he helped the assistants sweep up. He helped pack up and then he followed the assistant into the kitchen and asked if he could help there. As the assistant was wiping up the dishes he said to her "I can help do that. I help my Mummy do that ALL the time!"
I have a dishwasher! No need to dry anything! And certainly never had anyone offer to help!

Mother of the year!

This morning I sent both of my school going children to school with no lunch! I packed their morning tea however there wasn't enough bread for both of their sandwiches so i had planned (at 7am this morning) to go via the bakery. At 9am however i had forgot. It wasn't until I went to make Ben lunch at 12 i realised i had forgotten!
I did make it to the bakery and then school in time for lunch. Thank Goodness. Imagine them saying "Excuse me Miss my Mummy has forgotten to feed me!"

Things

My friend Cid has lots of "things", so many that she has started a blog dedicated solely to her things. However she is not the only one with things. Her whole family have things. Her youngest son is Ben's very bestest friend in the whole wide world. And he has been so blessed to have two neurotic parents (who I love dearly!) so he received the gene two times over with no recessive anything! Like all good OCD children he checks his things list on a checklist. It really is very cute! Lucky for him Benny is his bestset friend because as they travel along in life if anyone gives Eli a hard time Ben is going to go for them. Probably tackle them like the bull at a gate that he is and ask questions after!
But this family aren't the only ones to have things. I too have one that she finds weird. Which must make it really weird!
I have issues with the cleanliness of clothes. Once a clow (clothes is plural which must make one garment a clow. Right? Just like the boys have looming. A car does brooming right so a lawn mower does looming. I now know where they get their reasoning from!) However,I digress! Once a clow has touched something that is dirty like a body it needs to be washed! Even if it only touches that body for five minutes. Cid asked me the other day what would happen if just one dirty clow touched a whole load of clean washing and the answer is it would be rewashed! The one dirty clow has now infected the whole load!
So what are your things? Come on I know you have some!

Unplugged

Yesterday was our first tv and computer free day. Some time last week I decided the boys were far to reliant on the computer and tv for their entertainment and felt the solution would be to have one day free of those things. So over dinner we discussed what day they thought would be the best to do it. And they decided Mondays. (In my opinion a great choice as we have school, swimming lessons for Ben, lunch with Cid and Eli and Auskick after school!) We dint talk about it again until yesterday when Matthew woke he came straight into our room to tell us it was Monday and we weren't allowed the tv or computer! I was so please he remembered! Even more so he was excited by the idea! And it went so well. Instead of computer games while I showered they watched me shower! (Ok there were some negatives!) Instead of having the tv on they cut out toy catalogues to do their wish list to Santa. (Ryan did one list for himself, one for Ben and one for Matthew and wrote their names on it with no assistance! I think he's genius!) Instead of fighting over screen time they played dress ups. Instead of any making a mess of the computer table they trashed the house including their bedrooms! But what is two little negatives when they got so many more positives!
They liked it so much Monday unplugged is here to stay in the Rickard Roost!

Benny IS NOT scared of Santa......

any more! Apparently!

When we walked into the mall in mid October and the Christmas decorations were up Ben informed me that he was no longer afraid of Santa as he is a big boy. This statement of fact was made after he exclaimed "Christmas is here!" A week later when we returned to the mall he came up with "It's still here!" It was after the realisation that Christmas was in fact here to stay for the next few months that he decided to no longer be afraid of Santa!

Last year I thought I was clever. I became a Santa tart and I took Ben to every Santa in Canberra and chose the one he had the greatest rapport with to have the annual family photo done. So five days before Christmas (giving me just enough time to get it done and posted to the grandparents! And leaving me exhausted from all the Santa tarting around town) we went to the favourite one and Benny was absolutely sure he wanted his photo taken with Santa we arrived at the mall to have the above, precious photo taken.

Apparently if you have it taken you bought it baby!

Miles Franklin Fete

Saturday night we attended the school Fete. Matthew was bursting in anticipation! And we had a great night. I couldn't walk two steps without having to stop to chat to someone (This pleased Nathan immensely!!!) The boys played with their friends. We tried all the stalls. The boys had a hot dog made for them by the teachers. I had Indian donated by a local restaurant. We all had snow cones. It was just a really pleasant evening.

Matthew and Ryan on the swing ride

Ryan really enjoyed the ride!

Benny didn't have his ride because he was too overawed by the fire truck. He didn't want to wait in the line for the ride because he wanted to go over to the truck. But as we wouldn't take him because the other two were waiting for their turns Ben couldn't concentrate on anything else until........he actually had a ride on the fire truck and got to put out a pretend fire with the hose and then he really wanted his turn on the swing ride! (Can anyone say one pointed focus?!)

But well done to the fete organisers it was a really great night and I have already told Nathan I plan to volunteer him for the BBQ next year!

An oxymoron

This tickles my fancy! The school is having an extension done on the hall, which means the hall is closed. Which means the band has no where to rehearse. Where should we put them?...........In the library!!!!!! That's gold!

The invisible man strikes again!

Daddy: "Ben wheres your fork. Put it on your plate please!"
Ben: looking around for fork "I don't know where it is the invisible man must have got it!"
Tink! Said fork falls from the back of Benny's chair onto the floor
Ben : "He just gave it back!"

My new favourite blog

Surfing the net the other day I found an article about the inaugural blogging awards. First of all I wondered why I hadn't won anything and then I clicked on some of the winners blogs. And found myself a new favourite blog. It is an exceptional read for Mummy's!
Have a look Childhood 101

The Invisible Man

This morning when we got up there were three chocolate eclair wrappers on the lounge.
Mummy: "Ryan did you eat these lollies?"
Ryan: "No! I saw the invisible man eat them!"
Mummy: "Oh! Is that right! Is the invisible mans name Ryan?"
Ryan: shaking head, with soulful eyes "No he said his name was Flubberbubber!"
So far this morning the invisible man has been by far and way the naughtiest person in my house!