D'Arcy Developments

D'Arcy's dad came to pick him up today, and as they were leaving they noticed this weird caterpillar in the front yard (I hesitate to refer to it as 'the lawn'). It was clearly digging a hole, it would go headfirst into the hole, and then bring a mouthful of dirt up and dump it out, then it was moving the dirt around to make more room for more dirt. Fascinating.

The move to the farm went fairly well, though D'Arcy initally didn't want to go, when I picked him up yesterday, of course, he didn't want to leave. Then today (it's been a weird weekend) he didn't want to go back to his dad's. So there's some level of anxiety there. The beloved said that they had had a conversation where D started crying about not wanting to leave his dad's old house (which is where he was born) but that it passed fairly fast. Hard to tell really. I guess as long as we give him lots of loving support he'll get through it all.

The reason it was a weird weekend is that it's my birthday soon, and we'd organised to celebrate it with my family last night, and then D's dad decided that this was the weekend to move, and Friday was the first night that the kids would spend at the farm. So we swapped Friday for Saturday night, which led to more changing than usual for the poor lad. Still I think he's up to it. He gave me 'uno' which we've been playing most of the day. D'Arcy is the (almost) undefeated 'uno' champion of the household. He won 5 of the 6 games we played, and I won 1. The beloved won none, though he neartly did, until I poked him and said "don't do that". He graciously took another card instead, which gave D a big confidence boost, and gave him something to boast about to his dad when he arrived to get him. He's a good sort really, my boy. We also got 'uno' to give to Mimi, whose party he's going to next weekend. Busy social scene.

So it's Book Week. One of the many school activities related to it was a 'whole school assembly' on Wednesday. The kids were encouraged to dress up as a favourite book character. D'Arcy decided to just dress up. As an astronaut. I guess there's lots of space related non-fiction out there. He's too young for 2001, and refused to be Curious George ("I am not a monkey"). There is another photo at Flickr of the rest of his costume.

The assembly was fun. I hadn't been to one yet, so it was an eye opener for me. All those kids sitting more or less quietly on mats on the floor for 45 mins. Wild. There was an invited speaker (an ex student, now in his 60s, who has written a book) who got heckled (by D'Arcy) and wasn't quite sure how to respond. As one of the other kindy teachers pointed out, it meant that at least he was listening to what the bloke was saying. I hid.

We spent the weekend sick in bed. D'Arcy came home on Friday night from a play date with a high temperature, and by Saturday the spewing was on. We read all of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in between sleeps and by the evening he was much better. I think it was one of those developmental sicknesses that he gets sometimes. His reading has improved again. He got moved up a level last week, but wasn't happy about it, as it meant reading harder books. In fact, it seems that the books aren't much harder, and his confidence has improved, so he's going quite well.

The other thing that is going on is that his dad is moving to the farm this week. Tomorrow will be his first night out there. he has very mixed feelings about it. He doesn't want to leave the house where he was born which has been his stable home base since our separation, but he is excited at the prospect of farm life, epecially all the animals that they will get. He's also looking forward to his dad getting him a 'supertool'. He's not 100% happy that his dad's girlfriend and her daughter will be there all the time (especially the daughter who is 6 months younger - there is lots of competition) but I think ultimately it will be good for him to have that sibling kind of relationship where he gets to figure out the whole sharing deal. They play well together a lot of the time.

I've been loving helping in class. I've started helping with writing some days too, and that is pretty fascinating. It's been a learning curve for me, as the writing bit wasn't very well covered in the 'parent classroom helpers' course I did. But I'm getting the hang of how it works. There was a fantastic breakthrough with one child today - he's a bit younger than his peers and his family isn't as well tuned as some, so he's been missing lots of school, but the last week or so, he's been gettting there on time most days, and today he did some writing that demonstrated just how consisitency can help. He wrote "I dressed up as a policeman" for his news book. Of course it was more "I drst up as u polismun" but that is the beginning of writing as they teach it. The teacher was so pleased with it, she got him to come and show it to me, and to show it to the other kindy teacher next door. I remember her making a similar fuss when D wrote his first intelligible sentence, and I think it makes a difference for them.

D'Arcy wrote "I dress up as a astronaut. I eevun had u helmut"

Here is the result, complete with new hoodie. We also planted up some tulips into pots (very late, but pots should work, as long as we can keep them wet enough) and a few other things. Then we headed off to school for the last hour of the day, after the stop work meeting. There were 7 kids from D's Class, 3 from one of the others and 6 from the third, so they all got together in the 'middle room' (common space in the Kindergarten building) and played...box construction, lego, dress ups, drawing, read stories. There were two of the three teachers, me and another mum hanging out and having a good time.

In other school news D'Arcy's reading is coming along - he's been 'moved up a box' in reading (graded boxes of readers, there are 5, he's now in the second - yay). He is both excited and annoyed about this, it means progress, but also harder books for a while. It is good that he has moved up, but his attitude needs work sometimes.

More birthday parties this weekend, a dress up party, but we haven't settled on a costume yet. We'll see. We also haven't formally RSVP'd yet either (oops).

It was time today. As you can see, the stem has grown very long and there are leaves. Seeing as D had the morning off school, thanks to the Australian Education Union, we took some time to re-pot the avo.

Well, here is the boy, all dressed up for Leeta's party last weekend, the theme of which was "Princesses, Princes & Pirates". Apparently it was fun (his dad took him to that one), though the wholemeal fairy bread was a bit of a challenge for them both. Leeta's mum had requested that the kids draw a picture for Leeta to make into a scrap-book, rather than giving her a present (bloody hippies:-) which D found a bit of a challenge, but did in the end. We also made her an angel out of fleece in the Steiner style, which I thought would be an acceptable non-present (hand made, thought out).

Miho's party the day before was fabulous, unfortunately I left the camera in the car when the beloved dropped us off there, so there are no photos from it, but it was my ideal party. Lots of kids of various ages, playing, dressing up, and having fun. There were no organised games, beyond the dress up box, and a bunch of cardboard boxes that her dad had taped together as an impromptu cubby house. And there was pizza. It rocked. Another one next weekend for Hannah, and then we're into twin season. Yikes!

Almost time to pot it up I guess. I had no idea it would grow so tall as just a shoot, but there you go.

Today would seem to be the start of the birthday party season. In D'Arcy's class there are 3 birthdays close together in August (and 3 in his family!), 4 in September and another 4 in October. Fortunately the two sets of twins are part of this springtime spawning (so it's only 3 parties in each month), and of course D'Arcys birthday is in there too. So this afternoon he is off to Miho's house for home-made wood-fired pizza in their newly completed oven. Tomorrow he's dressing up as a princess, prince or pirate for Leeta, and then in 2 weeks he'll be Harry Pottering with Hannah. I'm not looking forward to the days when you need a theme for your kids parties, I kinda like it where they just all get together and play stuff. I know that there will be some scarily 'organised' parties in September with the mothers that I just can't like, no matter how much I try...There's something not real about them. Aliens from another world, perhaps? Miho's mum is one that I'd seen and liked the look of, and so encouraged to D play with her. Very manipulative, I know, but I'm not sure I can stand to do it any other way.

D: Mum, can I keep this forever? Until I die?
M: Nah. That's too far away.

I found my Octons today while I was rummaging in the shipping container. I put them in the toy cupboard, D'Arcy found them this evening and got to work just before dinner, so we ended up with a nice centrepiece for the table. He's performing the Tarzan yodel and chest thumping here.