Raising a psychopath

It's a lazy day today. I'm letting Henry and Milly watch a movie. It's the first time they have ever seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Not surprisingly, Henry ran to my side when the evil Queen starting making her potion to turn into the old woman. He's easily scared by most villians in children's films.

Henry: What's she doing?

Me: She's a nasty Queen and she's making a magic drink to change herself so she can trick Snow White. That's not very nice, is it?

Henry: I'm going to punch her in the face.

Milly: And I'm going to fart in her face, cut her hair and cut her eyeballs out.

Dreams

This morning at 6.00am Milly came into the bedroom with a big smile on her face.

Milly: Mama, I just had a really good dream.
Me: Did you poppet?
Milly: Yeah, it had boys in it. Lots and lots and lots and lots of boys.

An update on Lamby

I never thought I would see the day that Milly would let Lamby leave her side. Suddenly in her new role as mother she has moved Lamby's cot into Henry and Buster's room and Lamby has his naps and bedtime when Buster does. Side by side. Lamby has his own mobile, his own bedtime toys, his own blanket. He gets kissed goodnight and loving tucked in and settled by Milly. Coincidently he also wakes up at the same time as Buster.



Milly has already starting talking about Christmas and what Lamby wants. Apparently, Lamby wants Buster to share his Christmas presents with him. I've mentioned to Nanoo that she might want to make Lamby his own Christmas stocking.

So whatever Buster is doing, Lamby is generally along side him doing it as well. When Buster has tummy time, so does Lamby. When Buster is in his rocking car, Lamby joins him.

It's nice to see this nurturing side in Milly. It's quite a nice change from the bossy boots she normally is.

Brad and the super fish

Milly has been sitting on the sidelines watching Henry's swimming lessons for almost two years. We've always intended for her to start as well, it's just been a matter of when. With all things Milly there is no point starting her with anything until she wants to do it. The more you push, the more she pushes back.

She had been happily having swimming playdates with Nanoo for a while, but they had been infrequent and Nanoo had been away having overseas adventures for three and a half months. Finally a few weeks ago when I asked her if she would like to starting swimming lessons she said "yes".

As luck would have it one of my favourite swim teachers had a spot and at the same time as Henry's lesson. It was also a male teacher which was perfect for Milly as she likes to flirt and bat her eyes at the boys.

So it was with much enthusiasm that Milly had her first official swimming lesson today with Brad.

When she jumped into the pool it was clear the time she had spent with Nanoo in the pool had paid off. She was confident and more than capable of doing everything Brad asked her to do. For her very first lesson I was so proud and couldn't help but be excited for her. There were no tantrums and plenty of smiles, thumbs up and high fives. I think even Brad was surprised when he got her to float on her back unaided that she could do it for more than 10 seconds.

It has been Milly's determination that has sometimes led to her tantrums. But because she is so determined it has also seen her excel. I've no doubt she will be a super fish and within six months have reached the same level of swimming as Henry.

So this afternoon as Milly was reflecting on her day she said "Mama, I don't want to go to preschool anymore. I want to do swimming all day with Brad."

Camel ride

One of the great things about living in Newcastle is how family friendly it is. There is always a free family activity to do on the weekend and last weekend it happened to be camel rides. The kids were excited about the possibility of riding a camel, the weather was less wintery and it was a lovely sunny day, so we headed on down.

It turned out a few other families had the same idea. The queue was quite long and there were only three camels, so the wait was just over an hour. All the kids waiting were very patient and were kept amused when the camels did a wee or a poo.

Finally Henry and Milly were fitted with helmuts and placed on a camel. The camels were led by a handler and slowly plodded up and back, with the whole ride lasting a little less than five minutes. Was it worth the wait? The kids said it was and it's always nice to be able to give them new experiences - especially when they are free.

Our little morning out turned into a big day out when our car broke down on the way home. Thankfully Nanoo was able to rescue us in her car and ran a shuttle service back to our house while Michael waited for a tow truck.

The weekend turned into a little adventure and now that the car has been fixed we'll be looking for more free activities to do for quite some time.

My new favourite day

Milly started daycare this week. She now goes one day a week with Henry.

Leading up to "the big day" we needed to go shopping and get a backpack, which she picked out herself, and we talked about what should could expect.



On the morning I took her she ran in with so much enthusiasm and didn't know which table of activities to start on first. Needless to say when I picked them up in the afternoon and asked Milly what her favourite bit of daycare was her response was "all the bits". The staff also said she settled in really well and one of the older girls had taken Milly under her wing to look after and play with her.

Dressed and excited.

The proud big brother.

Henry's new haircut. Gotta admit I miss his long haired look but I'm sure Henry doesn't miss being mistaken for a girl anymore.

So with H&M together at daycare I now have one day devoted to Buster, and when he's asleep devoted to myself. The house was very quiet and I loved every minute of it. Being able to do things uninterrupted was bliss, like having lunch and being able to sit down and enjoy it, grocery shopping without the nagging for a "special treat", reading for myself, even going to the toilet. It was a good taste of what next year will be like when Henry starts school and Milly is in preschool. So it is now official - in 2010, Wednesday is my favourite day.