I GOT A FOUR MILLION DOLLAR PHONE BILL!!

I found this in my room on Monday night, and I only have until... er.. yesterday to pay it! Must be what happens when you call looooooooong distance! What will I dooooooo?

In Memory of Bunny

Faeries, Monsters and Dragons

The Tooth Fairy remembered to come to Liam for his second dollar last night. He was so impressed that it was a shiny new commemorative dollar!

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Last night EJ couldn't sleep. There was a monster in his room. He showed me, it was standing in the middle of the room so it wasn't a shadow. EJ had his hands over his mouth, his eyes were bulging and his legs were shaking.

"It's green and it's tongue is out and it's holding a cup with a sad face and it's other hand is on the ground and it's FAT!" he said.

Ooooooooooh.... you mean this monster??
"YES!"

When I realised I saved it to my desktop so he could delete it. But he was still scared... "It's on the other computer!" That's where he had seen it. So I asked him to delete that one too but he hid in the corner of the kitchen while I did it. Understandable... we're all scary when we haven't had our coffee yet.

BUT

Now there's a new monster in EJ's room and it's not him. He's scared again.

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This afternoon I saw a cloud that looked to me like a dragon. I called Liam out to see it and he could see a dragon too - "Coooooooooooooool!"

It wasn't until I started editing the photo for y'all to see that we realised we had completely different interpretations of the cloud dragon. The first pic is the cloud for you to interpret how you like (maybe even as a cloud!). The second pic has parts added so you can see what I was thinking. The third pic is Liam's version but he wanted to use tags as well as adding bits. And then of course, EJ had to do what everyone else was doing (there'll probably be a dragon in his room next). After all the studying and editing, I think Liam's interpretation is actually better than the dragon I originally saw.

Cloud Dragon:

My Dragon:

Liam's Dragon:

EJ's Dragon:

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Update:
Erin's Dragon:

Erin has read this page and said "This is the dragon i saw b4 i scrolled":



Dad's Dragons:

Bandages and Blimps

The swimming lessons were early this morning because EJ had a party to go to afterwards. I was bathing the boys after swimming when I suddenly got an excruciating pain in my wrist. The vein was huge and swollen and the area around it was red, and the pain was getting worse by the second! But soon enough it started to feel better and we took EJ to his friend's party.

Lucky I had Liam to look after me, because he thought I should go to the doctor even though I thought it was ok now. He even told the doctor "She has a big lump on her arm". While he was doing the 3P test* I said "It's probably nothing - I just want you to tell me it's not a clot". He said "That's what I'm looking for ... was it acute pain?" I refrained from saying "No, it wasn't cute, it was a freakin' ugly red and purple pain". Anyhoo it's just a burst blood vessel for now; there might be a clot but he can't tell for sure until the swelling goes down. I've had burst blood vessels before but not big painful ones! I'm not supposed to strain that arm, so I certainly didn't go straight home and lug a full basket of wet washing up to the clothesline, or move any bricks. I dare say the bandage will come off when I need to wash dishes.

Liam took this photo:


Then we went back to get EJ and he was having a great time. Batman had been to the party and made balloon animals for the kids. This is what all superheroes do on weekends.

We drove straight down to Parafield Airport, through the hot and windy dust storms, to check out this blimp which has been floating around the area for a while. It was parked miiiiiiiiiiiles away and behind a fence so I couldn't get a very good angle but here it is.


Now I'm doing more washing which I certainly won't carry out to the clothesline.....

PS: Liam got $1 from the Tooth Fairy!

*3P test: Poke, Prod, Peer.

UPDATE: Liam just lost another tooth! (That $1 was for tooth #1, now he's lost #2).

The Tooth Fairy is finally on her way!

Liam lost his first tooth today. He has written a letter to the Tooth Fairy with all the details:

15.2.07 thursday, february
Dear tooth thiry, today I lost
a tooth:
I lost it at: swiming
time i lost it: morning
how I lost it: I was pulling
it aftar swiming and It came out
___________________________
p.s
it is in a speichle
shaped box on my
Desk.

The Tooth Fairy will be able to keep the tooth and letter together for future reference. The letter is on his bed as he expects the fairy to look there first, then she will read that the box is on his desk.

Here is the "speichle shaped box". Uncle Paul gave it to Liam when he was born. The ark opens up and the tooth is inside it.


I will try to update tomorrow when Liam finds out what the fairy has left him.

Happy Birthday to Grandpaaaaaaaaa!

Today is Dad's/Grandpa's birthday. Liam established that Grandpa is now 16 and a big bit. We went out for tea and showered Grandpa with presents and a card which seems vaguely familiar....

Makin' Memories :o)

On our one weekend a month we like to do stuff.

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Both boys wandered in to my room early this morning so I asked if they'd like a snuggle.
EJ: Yes, because I'm sick.
Me: Why, what's wrong?
EJ: My heart is broken [physically, not a large disruption to his love life!].
Me: I don't think it is.
EJ: Yes it is.
Me: I think you're exaggerating, you only have a blocked nose.
EJ: Well.... my blood vessels are getting smaller and smaller.

Very funny (assuming he's wrong)!

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Then the three of us were laying in bed.
EJ: Do you know what baby mouses are called?
Liam and I: *thinking* Ummmmmmm......
{Pause!}
EJ: Mice!!

DUH!

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I went to get EJ's clothes out of his drawer, and lo and behold - a huntsman spider! Not a very large one, maybe 10cm, but I had to pull the drawer out to catch it. Liam looked and said "Oh! That's the one who left it's leg in my room!" and went to get the hairy spider leg he's been studying for a week! The poor spider had all 4 left legs but only one leg on the right, with three clearly visible empty leg sockets in front of it. Unfortunately I didn't think of taking a photo until I'd put it outside. I wonder if a family of 5 birds had a feast with one drumstick each. Liam looked at drumstick #6 under his microscope and says he saw cells moving.

¨*:·..·:*¨

Last week I had the boys on Saturday morning so we carefully chose a table at Billy Baxter's (with Grandpa B) so we could use our Foxtel remote to change channels on the Foxtel display! They had the movie channel on and we of course wanted cartoons, and more volume. The Foxtel man looked a bit confused that the channel kept changing itself. I didn't blog this top secret operation last week because it was... umm... secret.

But today it became less secret. A Foxtel man noticed the channel kept changing. We were probably not very subtle, particularly when Liam went to sit at the next table so he could change channels more easily! Mr Foxtel looked from the TV to Liam's table and grinned. "Did the other guy change the channel for you?".


A bit later Mr Foxtel went to change it back and the man (who we do know!) next to Liam called out "OI! We're watching that!", and Mr Foxtel kindly put the cartoons back on!

We also did some bargain hunting, birthday shopping, and lunch with Granny J.

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The boys also had a ride, which I never waste my money on, so it was pretty special. I thought Liam might think himself too mature for such frivolities, but here he is riding a baby bumble bee with EJ!

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Liam had three of his new friends from his new school come over this afternoon. He was feeling a bit lonely at school so I said find a couple of nice boys in your class, learn their names, and they can come over. They were all very well behaved and it was nice and warm and fuzzy to see them all playing so nicely for a few hours. Hopefully on Monday he will find them easier to approach and have someone to play with. It's going to be hard though, to keep up with new friends and old friends with only one Saturday a month.

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After the friends left we ate chocolate (another special thing I rarely let them do, as I don't like the Tiggery side effects), then went to the playground to wear it off. The park used to have grass but the council doesn't water parks any more due to the drought. As a result, the grass has got up and left and the dirt is now doing the same. The frisbee stirred up a cloud of dust every time it landed. EJ tripped on a crack in the dirt about 2 inches wide and nearly fell in. But apart from that, we had a good time frisbeeing and playgrounding. And the boys have now gone to bed no probs at all, so I think we must have had a good day.

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Swimming Carnival

Today was the annual swimming carnival for Liam's school. (Annual, but his first as he has just started at this school). Liam must have been excited because he was very organised - the first of all the year ones and twos (he's a 2) to be changed and ready to start!

Liam was lucky enough to be the leader for his first event, which was a relay - ride the noodle to the other side and give it to the next person. I was immediately impressed by the way this school was running the event. Class teachers and the sport teacher and a few parents (not swimming instructors who are strangers as far as the kids are concerned) were in the pool as helpers. And the adults were helping. They didn't embarrass kids who were nervous. Those kids were allowed to miss a turn and then were helped all the way across on their next turn, with an adult holding their hand. The second photo shows Liam's class teacher helping him across the pool. It was all fun and like a big, caring family. Despite being a casual day, it was well organised and there were no behavioural problems from bored/attention seeking/naughty kids.


EJ spent some time supervising and also had a book to read, a book to draw in, and a few snacks to keep him entertained.


The second event was also a relay: put on the plastic hat and swim to the next person on the other side. Here is a hat floating to the other side with a Liam under it:

Next there was a giant volleyball game. There is a lane divider across the pool, with half the kids on each side. There were at least five beach balls in there (correct me if I'm wrong!), and the explanation given to the kids was simply to keep the balls out of your side of the pool. See if you can spot Liam in the yellow.... good luck.... (clue: I think he's near a pink beach ball).


In the background of that photo you can see the aquadome on the left. The grade ones and twos were outside; the 3-5s were in the aquadome. Towards the end of the morning the 1-2s went in there too.

And look at this really cool obstacle course the bigger kids had!


The little kids, however, had several turns on this pair of giant water slides!


You can see them about halfway up, either lining up for the slide that starts there, or continuing up to the next one. The slides come out next to each other in the same pool.


Inside the aquadome was extremely loud! (Bearing in mind almost the whole junior campus was in there). I stayed almost until the end of the carnival but did end up leaving a little bit early, just after 12. Had to take EJ to kindy after all. And I am not exaggerating at all when I say my ears were still ringing at 2.30! Oh ... my skin was too ... oops!




(Don't worry, I put more sunscreen on the boys than I did on myself, and they are fine).

Einstein

Einstein said that "time and space are parallel dimensions" ... meaning you can't occupy one without the other. Even if you stand very still you are still occupying space and time is still passing.

Time and space are also EJ's favourite subjects.

Space:
He knows where all oceans and continents are on a map, and where many countries, deserts and other landmarks are. He knows that all continents start and end with the same letter, but only if you use "America" and not "North America" and "South America".

I don't know how many flags he can recognise but it's about twenty (so far!) ... I'd have trouble even naming twenty countries, let alone locating them and recognising their flags! He wants to know why Wales has a dragon on it's flag - it should, of course, have a whale. He knows where all the states in Australia and America are. One of his best smart-bottom comments was when Liam said he was marrying his friend Georgia - EJ said "Oh yeah?? Well I'm marrying Alabama!".

Time:
He will read calendars to see what day a particular date is, and how long until something happens. He went through all the days of the week this morning and renamed them, for example, "Swimming Sunday, Moaning Monday, Chopsticks Tuesday, Wheatgrass Wednesday...". (Yes, he does know the term "alliteration"). And his favourite questions are "How many seconds in a minute? How many minutes in an hour? How many minutes in a whole day??"

And this brings me to my point. When he came home from kindy today with this:



... I knew exactly why. He had asked the teacher. And I appreciate that she did take the time to show him her working out and answer the questions.

Keep-yer-cool

Not much to say except that it's hot! I'm writing this at 5.25pm, when it's 41C (105.8F).

The boys haven't been dressed since their swimming lesson this morning, and have stayed in with the airconditioner and fan on. The towels I washed dried in about 10 seconds. I leave the back door open so Buster can get some air conditioning too (he can't come in because he runs around looking for things to chew and pee on and can't just sit; even when he had his first seizure I had to put him back outside to get him to sleep and then bring him in for the night).



This is the bunny's air conditioning as suggested by dad. She always has that blue roof in very hot or wet weather, but today she also has a wet towel on the sides the very slight breeze is coming from, and it must make a difference because she has moved to that corner since I put it up. I have gone out to wet the towel several times. I would bring her in except she's feral and attacks my hands if they go near her.

Liam's Ambulance

Made this morning with K'Nex, from Granny for Christmas. He went through the instruction book and found a model with the hardest rating! I thought it would take hours but it took Liam maybe an hour to build, probably less.

Just some pics - remember you can click them to enlarge

I took these moon photos at the same time tonight. Guess which one I used the flash for?

Below are the originals:

... the darker one actually had the flash, which made the foreground (fence) lighter.
The lighter one is more like what the light really was at that time.

Another one from tonight, from a slightly different angle:

And pretty sky pictures reminded me of another of my favourite photos.

I took this photo of the sunrise over a layer of fog on July 3, 2006.