Time for another Christmas Elf Video starring our family...

Yeah, I know it's a little early for Christmas but I thought I'd try to be prepared.

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A Great Tristan-ism

We spent quite a few hours today in the pool. It's the first weekend where it's really been warm enough to swim. The boys had a great time and I got a great quote out of Tristan.

[Talking about having water in his ears]

My ears are still blind.

Scaring the living daylights out of the children

It's not quite Halloween yet (and anyway we don't celebrate it in Australia) but this is a rather cool story for the season.

Yesterday, Tristan lost his first tooth. It's weird because I seem to remember Kaelan having lost a lot of teeth before he even started school and Tristan is just losing his first one as the school year draws to a close.

He was pretty excited about it having fallen out and about the tooth fairy. Of course, he managed to lose the tooth before bedtime. It was scout night, (Tristan had been inducted as a Joey) and he and Joanne had gone home. Kaelan and I arrived home later after Cubs.

Tristan was already asleep by the time we got home but Kaelan was all set to wake him up and wait for the fairy. I could see that if I didn't intervene, it was going to be a long night.

Kaelan was saying to me "hey dad, do you want to catch the fairy?", as he was running into Tristan's room. I said to him very seriously, "I don't think you want to do that". He noted my serious tone and looked at me, "why not?". I told him that it might not be safe to disturb the fairy at its work. He looked at me strangely, "are fairies bad?", he said.

"Well", I replied," let's think about what fairies do". I reminded him that they only come in the darkness at night. I reminded him that they like to collect teeth which are something like bones. I asked him if he knew what the fairies did with the teeth but he didn't seem to know. I told him what all the stories say, that they make necklaces out of them.

Then I said to him, "What do you think?", and lowered my voice to my Edgar Allan Poe reading voice, "something that comes in the dark and collects things that are like bones from children... ...it wears teeth for a necklace and it doesn't like to be seen by people. Does that sound like a good thing or a bad thing to you?"

I could see him thinking about it for a few seconds and then I reminded him, "look, Mommy has left all of the windows open to invite it in. I don't think you standing in Tristan's room when it comes". (In reality, it was a very hot night and Joanne had opened the windows to let a breeze in).

His eyes widened...

He wasn't quite scared to go to bed. I didn't want him to be that scared but I could see that he was thinking about it now. Maybe that isn't such a bad thing, maybe he might take less for granted in future.

He seemed calm down when I told him that there was a truce and that the fairy would only take that which was left for it under the pillows or in a glass by the bed. Of course, I couldn't resist the temptation to remind him not to sleep with his head under the pillow as he went upstairs to bed.

Third Term Holidays 2009 Update

Well, the third term school holidays have just ended and the boys are back to school until December. There are sighs of relief all round.

Smurf

Tristan, or "smurf" as he's sometimes referred to now, was responsible for the biggest mess of the holidays. He got hungry one morning and decided to sample the blue food coloring. Not liking the taste, he spat it out and then dropped the bottle - on our NEW kitchen tiles.

Being a quick thinker, he grabbed the bottle and put the lid on it, then washed his hands at the sink, went upstairs and washed them again at the bathroom and finally went and hid in his bedroom. How do we know this.. the teltale signs of blue around the taps. Luckily although his feet were blue, it didn't come off on the carpet.

The sinks were easy but getting the blue off the floor took a lot of bleach.

Computing

The boys have always been a bit into computers although they're not generally interested enough to let me teach them anything. Lately though, Kaelan has been teaching himself to use Google Chat and his messages are popping up at work, on Nanny and Pa's computer and on the computer downstairs. He's now moving onto bigger things, like email to extend his reach.

Yesterday, I discovered that he was checking out his favourite sites on the computer downstairs and was writing the URLs down to use upstairs. Pretty impressive since he hasn't been taught about such things.

Blood Pressure

I was feeling pretty bad over the last few weeks - and not just because the boys were at home doing interesting damage - It turns out that my previous readings of high blood pressure weren't one-off. It looks like I now have a permanent problem. After a few false starts and some nasty side-effects, I'm now on a medication that works. Hopefully, things will calm down from here.

Pool and Yard

The pool has become a really high maintenance problem at the moment because we've got limited grass (and we've been pulling that up so we can level the ground a bit). We've been having some very high winds which result in the topsoil, grass cuttings, leaves and even clothes being dried blowing into the pool. We managed to have a couple of swims in it about a month ago but the weather has turned cold again.

In fact, the pool is getting so dirty that cleaning it once per week still isn't sufficient. The filter is also getting so clogged that I need to empty it as soon as I come home - since nobody else seems to notice the "funny noises" that the filter makes when there's no water getting through (sigh). Anyway, since the filter is so deep, I have to roll my sleeves right up before putting my arm in the cold water.

So, picture this, I'm reaching for the filter and my sleeve starts to fall down. I reach for it and grab it but then my tie starts heading for the water. I use my elbow to push it back (can't use the other hand which is in the water grabbing the filter basket - when suddenly plop... yep, it's the blackberry going for a swim. (and in salt water too). I managed to get the blackberry out quickly and removed the battery. I've let it dry in the sun for two days and it mostly seems to work - except that there's an interesting 3D water feature permanently on the screen.

Visits

The kids have each spent a few days with Nanny and Pa this holidays and got to go to the reptile park, a fish place and out in the boat fishing. They had a great time. Kaelan learned how to use the phone when he was up there and because he was told that he could use the phone to call mum whenever he wanted, he took it literally - and called her as soon as he woke up one morning. Jo was not impressed.

A Super-Dusty Day

I woke up this morning to a red day. Literally, Red. I though we might have had a bushfire sunrise but it turned out to be dust from strong winds inland in South Australia and NSW. You can read the report and see lots more pictures on the Sydney Morning Herald Article.

The kids aren't going to school today because Joanne has asthma concerns for them. I took a few pictures on the way to work today, they're on my facebook page but I guess my father-in-law got the best picture from his workplace this morning.

The Sydney Opera House at 6am this morning. (Used without permission from my father-in-law. I hope he won't mind).

Swimming

The weather has warmed up a bit and we've had two weekends in a row where temperatures were in excess of 30 degrees Celsius. We've managed to use the pool - well, Kaelan and I have anyway. Tristan still claims that it's too cold.

Another Badge

Kaelan got a new badge at Scouts last week. Cooking: Level 2. It's the first level 2 badge that he's achieved. He managed to lose the badge before we left the scout hall though. (sigh).

Birthdays

The kids have both had their birthdays, with Kaelan turning 9 and Tristan turning 6. They got pool toys and lego. We also took a few of their friends out to see Up in 3D. It was a good film.

Another Quick Update and Another Video

A lot has been happening but I'm still so run off my feet that I can't write about it.

Tristan turned six last weekend and Kaelan will be turning nine on Sunday. We had a nice father's day picnic at crosslands last weekend but I can't show you any pictures since we can't find the camera. (It will turn up when it's ready).

Codes and Signals.

Driving back from a scout activity, we discovered that our cub master was following us. The kids were very excited and were waving etc.. Then I realised that Kaelan was making hand signals at him. I told him off saying that it's rude to make hand signals but he said "it's ok Dad, I was giving him the scout sign". He wasn't flipping the bird, he was flipping the three fingered salute.

Father's Day Book Reading

Last week I did the father's day book reading at the school. This year, the books were a bit sad - and it was difficult to do with two kids to look after. I read Tristan's book first and all the kids (except Tristan) were interested. Then I went to Kaelan's class and read a book about an Aboriginal father. About halfway through the book, Kaelan yelled out, "Do it in Cartman's voice dad!". I do a passable impression of Eric Cartman but I wasn't going to do it at the school. I told him that I couldn't do it because it was an Aboriginal story. Luckily he didn't suggest I try an aboriginal accent.

Another JibJab Video

I know how much my family enjoys these Jib Jab videos, so here's another one;

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I was tempted to darken the kids faces but I thought it might not be politically correct.

Kiddie Quotes: Celine Dion

Last weekend, Celine Dion's "My Heart will go on" was playing and Tristan came up to me saying; "Daddy, I know where that music comes from".

I waited expecting him to tell me about the boat sinking etc... but he surprised me.

"That's Coles music".

"They play that when we're doing our shopping".