Leaving his Mark

Even when Charlie is fast asleep in his cot, or at least pretending to be asleep, or whatever it is he gets up to in there, I find it hard to forget about him.

Not because of some mother instinct to always be aware of your child, or because I can't bear to be apart from him for a single second.

No. It's not that.

It just seems that everywhere I look around this house, I see little reminders of him.

Case in point. Our (marked & dirty) coffee table.



Let's have a closer look at the evidence, shall we?



Hmmm...... I think Charlie's been here.


And here. (Daddy's computer screen)


Happily leaving his mark wherever he goes.


On the oven.



On the hall mirror.



On the french doors.


On the bedroom mirror.



Boy, does that kid get around. You'd think I never clean around here.

But I do. Honestly.

I know, let's go to Grandma's house. She'll think your little fingerprints all over everything are adorable.

And that's just one of the vast differences between being a Mum and a Grandma.

A Demonstration of My Parenting Skills

Yesterday, Kaiden had the unfortunate experience of having both Del and I in the car when we dropped him off at school. It's an experience I think he would rather not repeat

We pulled up out the front of the high school, and as Kaiden walked away from the car and into the crowd, doing the usual teenage 'Even though I just got out that car, I really have nothing to do with the two people inside it' thing, Del opened the car window.

Del and I looked at each other with an evil glint in our eyes, and simultaneously called out the window, loud and clear, "Bye Bye Kaiden. We love you. M-wah, m-wah. Bye Kaiden Bye. We love you."

To say Kaiden was embarrassed would be an understatement. Even one of his friends came up to him later and said sympathetically "Man, that must have been so embarrassing".

I'm sure that particular moment won't win me a Parent of the Year award, but I view it as character building. You know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and all that sort of thing.

Plus it was so satisfying.

And hilarious.

And I consider it payback for all the teenage moodiness that we've been through so far.

Now we're even.


(I thought I should add, that although initially embarrassed, Kaiden and I had a good laugh about it when he came home in the afternoon.
After thinking the incident and my reasons over for a few minutes, he stated "When I have kids, I'm going to have to do that to them"!).

Pride of Place

This is the Merit Certificate Corey received yesterday, taking pride of place on our fridge, above Charlie's letters of the week.

Awarded to Corey T for "His initiative and effort shown. Corey is always organised and thinking ahead".





Now he has no excuse not to demonstrate these qualities at home.


Today's post proudly brought to you by the letter E and the letter V.

A Morning at School

Today we went to Corey's school for the assembly. Corey was triply excited about this one.

He was receiving a Merit Award, as well as reading a speech he had received top marks for.




And his class were putting on a short skit in which he played a minor role as a policeman.

He did so well at everything and I'm so very proud my Angel (in disguise) Boy.




During the assembly Charlie busied himself playing with his Thomas train and charming everyone in the crowd. He clapped as each person received their certificate, clapping loudest of all for his big brother, shouting "Yay Corey" over and over, much to the amusement (or annoyance) of those around us.




After the assembly parents were invited to the staff room for tea and coffee, and not yet having had my morning coffee, I took them up on the offer. Plus there were chocolate biscuits.

It would of been rude not to, right?

Whilst I was drinking my coffee, Corey had to go back to class, and he asked if he could take Charlie with him.

Now Charlie has a long history with Corey's class. Corey loves to show off his little brother to the teachers and all his friends at any and every opportunity, and Charlie loves the attention and likes hanging out with the 'big kids'.

So off they went to class together without even a backward glance.

15 minutes later, after my coffee and a chat with the principal (who I found out calls Corey "Ice-Cool Corey" as nothing fazes him) I made my way to the classroom.

All the kids were hard at work when I arrived, busily writing in their books. And and guess who was sitting up the front of the class, with his own pen and paper?

Yep, there was Charlie, busily working just as hard as any of the 12 & 13 year olds around him.

Three chairs had been stacked together for him to sit on, so as to be high enough for him to reach the desk. He had not only drawn on the paper with a bright pink highlighter, but all over the desk and himself as well.

And to top it off, the teacher was sitting next to him, 'teaching' him things and Charlie was loving every minute of it. He had the biggest grin on his face.

Deciding it was time to minimise the disruption to the class, we packed up his 'school work' and made our way to the door saying goodbye to the teacher and all the children, Charlie giving lots of high 5's as we went.

But Charlie didn't want to leave. And the students didn't want him to go either. Even the teacher seemed a little sad to see him go.

Maybe I'll start to use this school babysitting service more often. I'm sure they won't mind.

A Day at Home.........

Today was an absolutely lovely day. I made myself relax. Not easy to achieve at first, but once I got into the swing of it........ well I could get mighty used to it!

My good day actually started last night, as Del took over baby duty through out the night and I got to stay in bed all night.

As long as you don't count 5am as night. Which was when Charlie got us both up for the day.

The rest of my Sunday went something like this :

Drink lots of coffee to handle waking at 5am. Check

Take Corey to soccer training. Check

Do nothing for the rest of the day. Check

We took Del's remote control helicopter to the park this morning and Charlie was so very excited after having looked at it at home and sneakily touched it a few times when he thought we weren't looking.

He loved watching it fly. "Up, high, sky".

As long as it didn't get too close that is.





Once Daddy crashed the chopper, he was also more than happy to run to rescue it, shouting "chopper, chopper" gleefully as he ran on his chubby legs, arms flailing wildly in his enthusiasm.





And we discovered a new Charlie fact while at the park today.

He can climb the ladder up to the slide.

Damn. I was dreading this. An 18 month old who can climb dangerously high, but has no sense of danger? Potentially a bad outcome.

Especially as it seems he's as accident prone as his big brother Corey.





I think I'll take the medical kit to the park with us next time. Best to be prepared.

Vignettes of Charlie

In an effort to not rely on my faulty memory in the years to come, I want to record for posterity all the cute little incidents with Charlie. All those little things that make us laugh with delight and sigh with happiness. And occasionally groan in frustration.

All the little things of no real interest to anyone else but us.

And maybe to some of the family. (Hi, Mum & Dad!)

I apologise in advance to other readers if the antics of an 18 mth they don't even know aren't too riveting, but here goes.........
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Being the proud Mama that I am, and thinking my kids are the best and smartest kids in the whole entire universe (no lack of perspective here), I have to say that it is such a parenting thrill when you ask your 18 mth old what music he would like to listen to, and he replies "Mozart".

Yep, Mozart.

Charlie loves all music but his current favourite is Mozart. It's even rivaling his long time love of Ska music and the song "Monkey Man" in particular.

Can you guess which music genre was introduced by Mama, and which by Daddy?

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The other day we were in the bathroom running his evening bath, and I said to him "Shut the door, Charlie. Shut the door". Instead, he threw a cheeky look over his shoulder and took off into the living room laughing like a maniac.

I came after him, leaving the hallway safety gate open. Charlie stopped, looked at me then ran back to the gate. Pointing at it, he turned to me and told me quite deliberately, "Shut the door Mummy. Shut the door".

Cheeky little monkey.

___________________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________

Charlie was happily eating his lunch of fried rice by himself, having recently gotten the hang of eating tricky foods with a spoon. I had used one of the bowls with a suction on the bottom to adhere it to his tray. Thinking to myself what a great idea that was, I turned my back for a moment to clear up, only to hear him saying "Oh no. Rice" over and over.

Turning around I saw Charlie with fried rice all over him, from the top of his little head down, including a large portion on the floor. And being sticky rice it clung to him in a most comical way. How I wish I'd had the camera handy for that one.

I surmise he had tugged at the bowl a few times trying to move it, with stronger pulls each time, until it came loose all of a sudden. I imagine he got quite a surprise as his lunch landed all over him.

Now he's mastered a new skill. Picking fried rice out of his hair.

__________________________________________________________________

Charlie is such a smarty pants. He knows his numbers, his letters, his colours, can count, talks in short sentences, sings bits of his favourite songs ("aye aye aye, monkey man") and can read half a dozen words so far.

But still it surprised me when he clearly said "I see two yellow suns" as we walked into the chemist.

And he was right. There, one on each of the two doors, was the logo of the chemist. A yellow sun.

Smarty pants.

Putting the World to Rights

Over a cup of morning coffee, as we sat on our back patio, admiring our autumn garden, Del and I put the world to rights.




The problem with society is blah blah blah.......

The remedy is blah de blah de blah......

If we ruled the world then things would be different. And better. And more organised.

It's remarkably easy to formulate a plan to take over the world with a healthy dose of caffeine racing through your system.

One of Those Days.....

Ever had one of those days where you wish you hadn't bothered?

Of course you have. Everyone has.

Well for us, last Sunday was one of those days.

It all started when I had to take Corey to soccer training. An annoying enough thing at 8.30am on a Sundday morning, when I should be sipping coffee in my pajamas.

Halfway to the location, as we approached the turn onto the freeway, uh oh..... accident ahead.

The turn onto the freeway was closed, and there was only one to go. And it was the wrong way.

Of course.

It was 20 minutes out of our way, and by this time, after thinking over my options to the background noise of Charlie working himself up into a tired tantrum, I had more than had enough already. And it was only 9am.

Making an executive decision, I gave Corey the day off training and we headed home to put Charlie down for his morning sleep.

After lunch I thought I'd surprise the two older boys with an excursion to the Go Kart track. To say they were excited would be an understatement.

After entering the address into the car GPS, off we went with two boys bursting with anticipation.

We easily found the road we needed, but halfway down it turned into a dirt track. Hmmm.... now what?

After checking the paper based road map that I keep for emergency use (thank goodness) we realised we were on the right road, but unfortunately at the wrong side of that dirt track. Do we turn around and take the long way or head on into the wilderness?

My memory is a little foggy, but err.... someone decided that we might as well try the dirt track as it didn't 'look too bad'.

You guessed it. Famous last words.

The track rapidly deteriorated, rocks littering the path, growing larger with every bend. Charlie took an instant dislike to the bumpiness and didn't hesitate to let us know. At the top of his voice.

Then the sand. Oh the sand.

The car was drifting all over the place with the chance of getting bogged a real possibility. Thank goodness for Del's past army driver training.

Time for another executive decision. TURN AROUND. NOW!

Eventually after taking the long route, we arrive at the Go Kart track. Kids bristling with excitement, they found helmets and waited for their session.

The start of the session went fine, but at the first corner it all went downhill fast. Literally. One of the go karts would not turn left, resulting in multiple crashes off the side of the track over the next 15 mins.

Damage to body = bumps and bruises.

Damage to teenage pride = immense.

We were implored to head home. Which we did. Immediately.

After much discussion we decided that given all that had happened perhaps we should of all just spent the day at home.

Next time we plan to go Ten Pin Bowling. Nothing can go wrong witht that, can it?

I'll keep you posted.

Black is the New Black

This is what happens to washing day when you have teenage boys.




It becomes a repetitive cycle of black, black and more black. Oh, for a little colour.


But wait...... there in the corner, what do I spy? A little bit of blue?




It's Kaiden's much cherished Top Gear shirt, hiding in a sea of dullness.

This shows how much he loves cars and the show Top Gear. He's willing to forgo black for a change, step beyond his fashion boundaries and wear a little blue.

Thank goodness Charlie is still young enough to not care what colour I dress him in.

Yet.

My Motown Experience - Part Two

For part one of this story click here.

Amazingly I was still awake as the taxi pulled up to the hotel. I hurriedly zipped my fabulous but totally impractical boots back on, and jumped out the taxi as if I did this all the time.

Get dressed up, go to a concert, catch a taxi to a hotel at 11 at night to hang out with famous people. Umm, yeah, I do this all the time.

Del and I walked into the hotel bar expectantly, looked around and saw........

NOBODY!

Except for a few guys having a quiet drink to one side. So what did we do?

Headed over to the bar of course!

(Turns out those 'few guys having a quiet drink' were actually a band called Shine Down, an American hard rock band in town for a few days . We got talking to them for a while, trading stories about escaping turtles and advising them of the best place to swim with sharks. Nice guys, even with the dreadlocks and facial jewelery. They had a laugh that Del actually knew who they were! Del had recently bought their latest album "The Sound of Madness" by mistake, thinking it was by one of his all time favourite UK groups Madness!).

So there we were, sipping our drinks, trying not to look out of place as we sat in a near empty bar, late in the evening, in a hotel weren't even staying at. Like I said earlier, we errr....do this sort of thing all the time.... yeah.

An hour or so later, after a few drinks and a few phone calls from my dad back at home, wondering what we were up to (Two not so young and carefree, sleep deprived parents out past midnight? What were we thinking?!), a bus pulls up out the front of the hotel.

BTW - we were the only people from the concert to actually go to the hotel. We couldn't believe we were the only ones with stalker potential out of the whole crowd!

So while Del headed for the door to get some autographs, I tried to look as cool and unstalker-like as possible, lounging casually in my chair sipping my alcohol free mocktail.

As Martha Reeves alights from the bus (OMG!) Del politely relieves her of the plate of food she was carrying and substitutes it with a piece of paper and charmingly asks for an autograph. How could she say no? Especially while he was holding her dinner to ransom.

She graciously signed it, asked if we were going to join them all for an 'after-glow' at the bar, and off she went to her room to freshen up.

Forgetting her plate of food in Del's hand.

After contemplating keeping it and selling it on Ebay to the highest bidder, he thought better of it and handed it to one of Martha's followers instead.

After that we retired to the bar area for another 'after-glow', and who should walk by but Charles Davis from the Contours, who was the MC for the night. Again Del introduced himself, and Charles happily gave us his autograph and invited us to join his group for a drink.

Umm, can we think about it? Oh, sure. Why not.

So that was how we found ourselves at way past midnight, having drinks and hanging out with our new best friends - a group of Motown legends.

They were all so friendly, musical and........ effortlessly cool.

One person would spontaneously break into song, any song, at any given moment, and then a few more would join in, giving us a personal medley of Motown hits. I could of happily sat with my eyes closed, listening to them all night.

Except for the danger that I might fall asleep, it being past my bedtime and all.

Everywhere we looked, there was another Motown legend. I had to pinch myself meeting Mary Wilson from The Supremes, and frantically try to think of something cool to say.

I think I failed.

I got hugs, kisses and compliments on my retro look dress and boots (made the pain worth it). At one point Theo Peoples from The Four Tops, asked me what I had thought of the concert.

I told him that I hadn't stopped dancing the whole time.

His reply : "And you would of looked good doing it too, baby." Said in a deep, smooth, musical voice that made me shiver in delight. Sigh.

We even received a private dance lesson from Lawrence Payton Jr of The Four Tops, as he tried to teach us how to 'catch the beat'. Unfortunately Del and I, having been born without any rythym, couldn't 'catch the beat'. AT ALL. But it was nice of him to try.

It was at this point, about 1.45am, that I received a phone call from Kaiden, our 14 year old.

"Mum, where are you? It's late. You should be home by now".

I hung my head, and mumbled "Yes Dad. I'm leaving now".

And we did.

Leaving our new best friends to continue the party without us.



(Sorry for the lack of photos in this post. You would of thought we would have lots of us posing with famous people, but we had such a great time talking to them, we forgot!)

Decision Making and the 14 year old

I need to say this.

I'm proud of my son.

Kaiden. The elder one. (By the way, Kaiden if you read this, I'm sorry if I'm embarrassing you in front of the whole internet).



Not that I'm not proud of my other boys.

What were their names again? Fred and Cecil? Peter and Paul? Tweedledum and Tweedledee?



But I digress. Back to being proud of Kaiden.

For the past 2 1/2 years Kaiden has played boy soldier at army cadets. Every Wednesday night and the occasional weekend or week on holiday, labour camp army exercise. Every boy's dream to get dirty, take part in testosterone filled activities and have a weekend away from parents.




And Kaiden has loved these things.

What he doesn't love is the fact that he was overlooked for promotion and the classes can be repetitive and BORING. (His emphasis, not mine).

Now I'm pleased to say that Kaiden has figured out what he wants to do when he leaves school (unlike me at that age!). He wants to be an Engineer Extraordinaire. Working with cars, planes or anything else that goes really fast.

I'm all for this. I often dream of him earning the big bucks and being ever so generous to his poor, tired mother who is so deserving of him showing his love in a monetary way. He can look after me into my ripe old age in a manner befitting the mother of the Engineer Extraordinaire.

Sorry, I digress. Again.

Now being the smart, money hungry kid that he is, he's figured that if he joins the Army, they will not only pay for his university degree, they will actually pay him to do it. See he has the brains for this.




And this is where things get tricky. He's not enjoying the army cadets these days and has considered quitting. But in a few years when he applies to the Army it won't look so good that he found army cadets BORING and gave them the flick.

As a sneaky little test of his maturity, I gave him the option to continue with the army cadets, or to hightail it out of there.

He chose to stay.

Long term gain, over immediate gratification. A means to an end. Not bad decision making skills there for a 14 year old.

Like I said - I'm proud.





(By the way, My Motown Experience - Part Two is coming soon. Stay tuned)

My Motown Experience - Part One

This is Del and I on Sunday. Being a young and carefree couple, out for a night of fun.


(Photo courtesy of friendly drunk guy dancing behind us)


Except we're not.

Carefree, that is.

Or that young really.

Which is why it's Tuesday and I'm still recovering.

We managed to escape on our own for the night and go to a Motown music event held at a nearby winery. And boy, what a night.

We danced like crazy under the full moon, listening to the greatest Motown songs, sung by a plethora of famous, no make that legendary, Motown performers.

Let me reel off this list of names with accompanying songs for your your listening pleasure :

The Temptations




Mary Wilson from the Supremes




The Four Tops



Martha Reeves and the Vandellas



The Miracles



Oh my, what a night! I would have said that even if our night had ended when the concert finished.

But it didn't end there. Oh, no it didn't.

We got a personal invitation to the after party. Well, along with every other person in the crowd.

You see, the MC, who just happened to be Charles Davis from the Contours, gave an open invite to go back to his hotel room after the show to continue the party.

AND OMG - HE GAVE THE NAME OF THE HOTEL!!!

Del and I looked at each other, and instantly there was no doubt in either of our minds. We had to get to that hotel.

Forget about my Dad and stepmother Mela sitting at our house, supervising Kaiden our 14 year old who was given babysitting duties for the evening.

Forget that Charlie wakes up at 5am every morning. Which means I have to get up at 5am every morning.

Forget that I'm a sleep deprived, 30-something mother, with extremely sore feet from dancing for the past 3 hours in totally unsuitable footwear (my high heel retro looking boots were the only ones that looked right with my blue and green retro mini dress - I was going for the 60's look alright).

The mere chance of being in the same hotel as these legends, let alone the chance of maybe even meeting some of them, was just too much to resist. As soon as the music ended for the night, we rushed it to the exit to wave down the first taxi we could find.

Except, if truth be told, Del rushed, I limped.

And eventually I had to take off my fabulous but totally impractical boots. I could then rush, barefoot through the dirt and grass. Very classy.

In the back of the taxi I was trying hard to ignore my body's desire to fall asleep (it was 10.30 pm after all), willing myself to stay awake long enough to see where this night would go. Once upon a time I could party all night, every night. Surely now I would be able to manage just one night. Surely.

(to be continued)