Happy Fathers Day

I think G received the best Fathers Day present every – Alex has just started saying Papa. I was away for a few days and when I got home G said that Alex had stopped calling for “Mum mum” when he wakes in the morning and had progressed to “Papa”. It’s just gorgeous.

Alex’s independent streak is showing itself daily. He’s so determined that he can do things – like put his own socks on – that he gets quite cranky when he can’t. Sometimes we have to insist he lets us help – time pressures, dangerous situations etc.

His language skills are progressing rapidly and he also has a word for Luke “Du”. It’s very clear who he’s talking about as he loves his big brother so much.

I have started buying two of the same things as there have been some ferocious fights in the house recently. The first was over a little ride on car thing although the fights are now over the red one which is Luke’s preferred car and therefore Alex’s. After my few days away I felt sufficiently guilty to buy them small, noisy toy planes at the airport – two exactly the same. They have been a huge hit and Luke spent the first few days having a race each time he wanted to decide which was his plane (the fastest of course…) and has now agreed to put a sticker on his.

Luke and I are having ongoing discussions about the difference between being tricky and telling a lie. His imagination means he has some pretty tall tales to share. We must get some on film to embarrass him with in later years.

Planning is in full swing for Luke’s 4 year old birthday party (yes I know its 4 months away) as we’ve been to a couple of parties lately. An entertainer is all the rage – and amuses the kids because they’re a little young still for party games. Luke particularly like the “funny man” (also known as Elf Cheeky Bottom) and is keen for him and his sword balloon skills to make an appearance at his own birthday party. Poor Luke, I haven’t told him yet that he’ll probably have a shared party with Alex this year.

Luke had been doing swimming lessons until late last year when he refused to get in the pool with the swim teacher (by G’s description they weren’t that flash) and so lessons stopped. Now most weekends he asks us to take him to the pool so that should be a sign he’s ready to start again.

Being Fathers Day weekend we took the boys to the Melbourne Aquarium. We raced through everything including the newly arrived penguins in their snow exhibit to get to the sharks and then after 2 mins of that Luke was ready to go. Somehow we convinced him to stay a little longer and went back around through different areas taking just enough time to see the odd fish. Then we arrived back at the shark area and this time there were some divers (you can pay a lot of money to dive with the sharks) in the tank as well. The boys were transfixed – loved every minute and we eventually had to drag them away. There’s a new idea for a kids thing – fill aquariums full of divers and let the kids watch!