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!