About time I put up some photos, ya reckon?

These first pics were taken Brae's last day at his old kindy. Here he is playing with some beads His bestest bud is on the other side of the frame, but sadly I can't show that part of the pic because her sweet face is clearly visible. Not my kid, not my call. Her grin matched his, however

There's a funny story about this picture. Brae was under constant instruction from P, go here, go there, stop here.. faster, slower.. you get the idea :-) Then it was "stop by the sandpit, come here Braeden, carry this bucket Braeden, put it over there Braeden." (and so on, and so forth)

And he was happy to comply! Of course it meant getting off the bike, and another child raced over & claimed it.

P looked up at the child riding away and loudly exclaimed "Braeden! YOU LOST OUR BIKE!"

The amused/exasperated look he gave her was worthy of someone ten times his age.

Back when we were having problems with the old kindy (because they had an entrenched attitude that our kid was a serial killer in the making), I instigated a reward chart involving cars. "Five stars, get a car", ie for each day that Brae didn't get cause his teachers to complain about him, he got a star. A former teacher of this kindy laughed when she heard it, and said "You'd better buy a garage then, Braeden is a good kid".

She was absolutely right :-) And I was delighted to buy every one of those cars, because it was BRILLIANT ammunition when the old half-sighs, almost-comments started up again. "Well funny you should feel that, because we journalled Brae's behaviour for the last eight months..."

So when you have an extra 35 cars. you need a new mat to drive them on.

Brae's first time hosting an all day play date.

I adore P, she's a bundle of fun to have around. Never short of questions or ideas, and certainly never short of instructions for Braeden. When he's had enough of doing what she wants, he just goes profoundly deaf & does his own thing. Then when he's made his point, he comes back & they start all over again.

It's a running joke between the parents of these two that they can pay for their own damn wedding when they grow up.

I hope it's a good 20+ years away yet before even an engagement, but you know what?

I would love to one day have P as my daughter in law. Brae could do a lot worse.

Beware the giant kid-eating worms!

Brae's back doing puzzles, hounding us to play with flash cards, and Gods-help us if we forget the three-book-minimum each night.

We watched Nigel Latta's "The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show" and howled with agreement & laughter throughout.

Except when he had a good dig at parents with gifted kids. We fell a bit silent at that, then agreed that he had a point, and that we'd seen "that" look from the odd teacher & friend. (Actually I save my boasting for here.. in real life, I'm the one kicking Wayne under the table to shut the hell up already, & pointing out that yes, our kid was a truly talented spewer & poo-er.)

The thing is, he's a smart little bugger. Smarter by far than his parents at that age (and sometimes even now, haha). But it's only on his terms, ie if you WANT him to learn something, good bloody luck to you because if it's not his idea you can forget it.

Like toilet training.

We've only recently managed to get rid of that fecking dummy, and he said bye-bye to day sleeps last month. He's had a major growth spurt & suddenly few trackies fit him any more. The jeans jacket you'll see in the photos below was an instant fave, but jeans themselves? No bloody way, Jose. Someone has decided to suddenly become a fashion critic.

Which means there will be the usual "No I won't wear new shoes" battle coming up. Oh dear..

...oo0oo...

Earlier this month, Brae's new kindy took their pupils to the zoo (Orana Park Wildlife Reserve). Despite being in the depths of winter, we got a warm(ish!) sunny day without much wind. Of course, there was no way Wayne & I were going to miss out on such an opportunity, so we went too. We had so much fun we bought a year's pass, so we can go back any time.

Brae liked the giraffes, but got spooked when they reached up to the platform to take the branches Dad was holding out to them. Honestly kidlet, they gave up eating little boys a loooooooong time ago (sorry, neck joke, couldn't help myself).

If you go to www.oranapark.co.nz you can read all about the four cheetah cubs that they raised from birth because the mother rejected them. I've raised six kittens from day 3 (when Gremlin chucked motherhood in as being a bad idea). I am seriously impressed that the staff were able to get all four this big and healthy. Brae saw these two cuddled up with their BIG teddy bear (it's about Brae's height) and said "Oh! How CUTE!".

Kid's got a point ;-)

Did you believe me about his unsweet tooth? The teachers kindly gave the kids ice-blocks.

Brae didn't like the taste of it, but not for anything would he relinquish it to either parent.

So he clung, it dripped. I hear it's against the kid union not to have sticky fingers.

Four hours in & Brae had just about walked his feet off. He was getting scratchy, Mum had a blister from her new sneakers, and Dad was overdue for a coffee so we called it an early day. The kindy had left an hour earlier, and it was surprisingly difficult to disengage Brae from his class. For the first time ever he displayed a strong group identity, and got very upset when we tried to walk the other way. So we had to enlist the teachers' help in a little bit of subterfuge so that we could remain behind.

Bye bye animals, see you next time!