D'Arcy Developments

So I was on the phone yesterday with the beloved (as you do), and D'Arcy was amusing himself with an envelope and pen near by. I could hear him chatting to himself along the lines of "now, what else is on a human? ah, EARS!". When I looked up at him I caught him looking at me, and then furtively drawing what he had seen. When I asked him what he was up to, he said "making a hand puppet". I asked if it was a person "No, it's a monkey". "With a necklace? And ear-rings?" So the jury is out. I reckon it's a portrait of the artist's mother, the artist claims it's a picture of a monkey. All I know is it has a tummy, with a navel, and if you turn it over, it has a bottom (fortunately he decided not to put in the boobies). I'd also like to draw attention to the eyelashes, and the shoulders (and if this doesn't draw the beloved out of the woodwork for a comment, nothing will!)

Last week some time D'Arcy wanted to ride his bike so we got it out, got the helmet on, and then I looked out the front door..."blossie, it's about to rain". And then the sky opened up as it only can in summer here. Ten minutes later the sky was almost clear and I said "OK. Now we can go". So we went out to the oval near our house and D'Arcy rode all along the bike path, through all the puddles and loved it. He's gaining confidence on the bike and we had a little go with no training wheels, but it was a bit hard, so we put them back on again. We have visions of longer and more exciting bike rides - to the pool and the shops...finally some freedom from the car! Tomorrow I pick him up from his dad's and we go off to playgroup (not much longer there as school starts next year!) Then we're off looking at a house we might buy, if we like it enough and it looks like it won't fall down too soon....another week of snuggling and hanging out.

So, in this pic is a dragon (being worked on, wings added) and a frog. Not that you can easily tell, but that is how it is I guess.. While he was sick we got the clay out to play with, but it's always disappointing, 'cos it takes ages to dry, and then to make it really hard it needs firing. Today I (finally) went to the art supply shop and bought some air-dry clay that doesn't require firing... Needless to say the clay went absolutely everywhere, but we had fun.

Actually D'Arcy's been with his dad, so I was spared that excitement this time. He's been trying hard to learn to read, so of course he has got sick again. It sounds weird, but every time he gets to a major milestone he has got sick, and the sick usually happens the same way - he'll start by getting cranky and then go a bit floppy. Then his temperature goes up, and up, and up. Then he throws up (a few times) and the fever goes away. Sometimes he's left with a bit of a cold, but other times it seems less than that. It all happens over a couple of days (this one started 36 hours ago) .That is how it's been with him since the first time he got sick - I mean he still gets normal colds and flus and gastros, but he also gets this developmental sick. Weird. Any thoughts on that?

D'Arcy has been saving money all year. He decided early on that he wanted to buy " a real Buzz Lightyear". He doesn't get formal pocket money, but gets the occasional coin here and there. After his recent birthday he had enough money to go to the shop, so we did. We stood in the Buzz aisle (not quite as intimidating as the one in the movie, but still scary, and talked over the merits of all three models. I couselled against the one with the 'laser shooter' with real ammunition (which would get lost in a heatbeat), but for the 'classic' toy. The compromise was this one, in an unfamilliar colour, but with an LGM. D'arcy is pretty pleased with himslelf for seeing the projec through, as am I. ALready has his next plan at foot!

Edit: Forgot to point out that this photo was taken by D today....

It's been very sunny lately (in between the cloud and thunderstorms, typical SE Aus late spring weather), so yesterday I was driving along squinting, and rummaging in my handbag at the lights going "bugger" a lot. "What's wrong?" comes the voice from the back seat. "Can't find my sunnies. I know I had them on Monday 'cos I was wearing them on my head at work and Phil laughed at me, and now they're not in my handbag and they're not in this bag, and they're not on the seat of the car, and I can't even find the case for them". "Well you _must_ have left them at work then" he says. "Hmm" say I, ever sceptical, ever pessimistic. So today, drove to work, swearing at the brightness, run an errand for the boss, cursing all the more. Return to work and finish up my shift, collect together all my crap and shopping for the day. I'm finally ready to leave when I go to chat to a coworker. There on a shelf under some random stuff, I see something familiar. It's the clip on the outside of my sunnies case, and yes, somehow they were at work, in the case, and not actually lost at all. I sing praises to the 5 year old, and leave (to pick him up). He's kind of underwhelmed (next-to-whelmed?) at my excitement but humours me anyway. He's so sweet. The day finished with him lying in bed, having convinced me that he was just too tired to even contemplate cleaning his teeth, and saying "mummy, do you have a bucket?"and me saying "what, here in the bedroom?" "yes" "hang on, I'll have a look...(leaning over to look under the bed...why?" "because I feel like I need to have a vomit" Critical mother's eye suggests otherwise - his colour is fine...I'll let you know how it pans out, but sleep with one ear functioning, ready for the call of "mum! get the bucket"