This is what happened next!
This is the "Can I have an icecream please" face			After 4 years of torment and neglect Itchy is finally reaping the benefits	Who says males can't multi-task?
	With Uncle Amos	Swinging on the swing		Her new best friend

Wednesday August 31st 2005

The kids have well and truly started Kindy and they are loving it. Aiden happily goes to Kindy with no separation anxiety.
 

Aiden has started learning to read. It was a matter of me waving the white flag in surrender as his constant "Mummy what does that say?" everywhere we went was driving me crazy. He is doing very well. In the 3 weeks we have been doing it he can read about 25 words by sight and can read 2 complete beginning readers. Aiden loves the methodical nature of reading and he stays true to task, "A cat....A rat....A cat sat on the mat....etc". Kate declares, "I want to learn to read!" So she sits down with determination, "A cat .....a rat....why is the cat sitting on the mat? What is the rat's name? Why is the rat sitting next to the rat? I'm going to get my toy cat!" and that ends her session. When Kate is ready she will learn to read overnight, there's too much else that interests her, life is one big narrative and relating session!

 

We have also been learning how to write our names, with not a whole lot of success. Aiden struggles with holding the pencil and Kate insists on doing hers in capitals. She will not be swayed. It's reminiscent of when she insisted that a 3 was really a 7.

To help them with their fine motor skills (and generally keep them amused and out of trouble) I have made a "Homework Box". In it are activities such as beads to thread, corkboard and small tacks for hammering, threading shapes, laminated letter and name templates for tracing, pom poms and tweezers and many others. They love doing this "homework" and the improvement in their fine motor skills is already apparent (not to mention the old "keeping out of trouble").

Kate and I are on a mission to get Aiden to eat fruit. We were all outside having a picnic and the conversation went like this:

M: "Aiden you are a big  boy now and you need to start eating fruit. You will grow up big and strong."
A: "But I don't like fruit."
M: "You haven't tried fruit so you can't say you don't like it."
K: "Yeah Aiden you can be healthy just like me
A: "But I don't want it."
K: "Aiden (sigh) don't you want to grow up big and strong and have hair on your feet?"

Aiden succumbed to pressure and had a micro-bite of an apple at Kindy during fruit time. Everyone was celebrating and Kate said to the teachers, "Well he can't say he hasn't tried it now!"

Kate's going through her next phase where she seeks to assert her (imagined) authority and debates about everything. You offer an apple, she wants a banana, you offer her a pink pair of shoes, she insists on blue. It's a fine line between allowing her to express herself and tying her in a straight jacket and sitting her in a corner! Throughout it all she maintains her sparkle and her wonderful spirit so it is more of a challenge than a problem.

Kate is the ugliest sleeper you have ever seen. She juts out her bottom jaw, sticks her tongue half out and sucks on it. This, coupled with the way she throws herself around her bed has started us saving for her wedding present - a king sized bed so her husband has to neither see her or be injured by her.

Speaking of husbands, Kate has been talking about marriage lately. A conversation that went like this:

K: "Mummy do girls change their name when they get married?
M: "Yes, Kate they usually do."
K: "When I get married Mummy, can I change my name to Kitty Cat?"
 

"No photos, talk to my agent!"

They baked cakes for Nanna and Pop's birthday (don't you just want some?)

* This site has grown and is split over 3 sites. For the first posts click here . For the next phase click here. Click on the pictures to enlarge.