D'Arcy Developments

We're moving!

2007-03-18T21:42:00.000+11:00

Due to hassles created by New Version Blogger, we're moving. In fact we've already moved and started to settle in here. Kindly change your links and bookmarks accordingly. I know, it's a pain in the arse, but there was no going back, which is something they don't tell you until after you've upgraded to New Blogger, which is dubious anyway. So I'll leave you with this photo. It is a companion to the one in the first post at the new place...

It Fell Down

2007-03-16T18:11:00.000+11:00

What more can I say?

Work in Progress

2007-03-15T19:10:00.000+11:00

Not much action on the wobbly tooth front. It actually seemed to firm up for a couple of days, and D'Arcy keeps forgetting to wobble it.

He got these model dragons from 'book club' which like lots of non-mail-order bookshops these days seems to have moved to selling crap rather than books. In my youth, they sold crappy books, but they were still books. Anyway, the most recent demand was for model dragons that you paint yourself. I sent the order to school with a resigned sigh, and they arrived yesterday. They are pretty crappy, but they have kept D quite busy for two afternoons running, with promise of more time tomorrow. So here's hoping. The dragons have been named Smaug (red) and Calippo (black), and as you can probably see, Calippo's wings are not quite dry yet.

Due to a technical hitch, wherein I upgraded myself to new blogger, but Peter who actually set up this blog, has not yet done so, the image here is coming from Blogger, rather than Flickr. Hi Pete.

Interesting conversations of the early morning pt1

2007-03-08T09:56:00.000+11:00

"Mum! When I put my lip over my bottom teeth, it feels funny."
"How so?"
"Here" pointing to bottom left tooth
Looking in mouth "that's because your TOOTH IS WOBBLY!!!"

Bathwater

2007-03-03T11:10:00.000+11:00

throw the baby out
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

When I ran a bath for D this morning, the water came out brown. Like old-school Adelaide water. We've been having a lot of weather lately, so I expect that is the cause, silt running off into the big dams and the filters unable to cope. To counter it, make it a more attractive prospect, I put in some blue food colouring, and sat back to watch the patterns it made. This is my favourite, with a drip from the tap making interesting ripples.

Now I have to go, 'cos we're in "hey mum! can you get me more lego to play with in the bath" mode...

Science Project pt X

2007-02-28T19:49:00.000+11:00

Avocado seed
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Here is the avocado seed, as it is now. I repotted it in Jan, before we went to the US. You can see that the leader has become two leaders. The bloody possum ate the top off the main stem, causing it to branch. This bit of the garden is the "cool mossy bit" where I have everything that is in pots in the summer, and everything that is frost tender in winter.

"And after the rain..."

2007-02-24T11:07:00.000+11:00

"And after the rain..."
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Ampersand Duck suggests "Remember to Breathe" posts. Here is my effort. I saw this yesterday afternoon, and if you look carefully, you can see the double rainbow in the top left corner...

The Pelican of Love

2007-02-18T20:34:00.000+11:00

Some recent art work, in two phases - as in "here mum, take a photo of this pelican" {later} "here take another photo, I've put more on"

Bloody hell, I can't figure out how to get the formatting right here, without deleting and starting again. Any advice anyone? I uploaded the photos through Blogger directly so that I could get more than one in the same post, unlike with Flickr...and I chose the 'left' margin option. Bugger. Actually, I've fixed it in a dodgy kind of way, but only by putting in lots of space, rather than fixing the code. I gotta get me some html smarts. The problem was that I had the first part of the text bleeding down the side of the right hand photo.

And while we're on non-D'Arcy matters, why is it that my feminine hygiene products exhort me to "have a happy period"? I suppose it's 'cos I bought them in the US. On the upside, they are not scented, which is a good thing. Here, even the ones that claim not to be scented are, and that is no fun at all. If I wanted to smell all weird and flowery, I'd much rather do it my own way.

scary

2007-02-16T21:28:00.000+11:00

scary
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

So D'Arcy got a haircut yesterday. He asked his stylist to give him a mohawk. "Sure" she said. The beloved pointed out that it is more of a fauxhawk, but D was happy. Somehow he's made the tendons in his neck stick out in this photo, so it makes him look really skinny, even more than usual. Just one in a series of silly facial expressions for photos.

In other news, he's back at school. This year is grade 1. He's not thrilled with the whole idea, and we've had a lot of "I don't want to go to school today" or "I'm sick, and I need a day off". Admittedly, he has had a cold this week - we had a cold snap last weekend and lots of people around us now have colds - but I'm a mean mummy and made him go to school. Actually I got "you're the meanest person I know" today, which was a first.

The Dash T-shirt came from the US - I stumbled across the Disney store in Chicago when I was trying not to get my eyeballs frozen, and they had Pixar T-shirts on special, so he got Buzz and Woody as well. Before the haircut he and his dad found that they could plaster his hair with product and he looked just like Dash, which was good. All we need now is the stick on mask.

And here is the baby

2007-02-09T20:36:00.000+11:00

And here is the baby
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Baby Mukluk, the beanie husky.

Bugger. I've been messing with things in Flickr which included deleting the copies of the two photos that I originally used for these posts (I'd mistakenly uploaded multiples, and when deleting, got them mixed up. So the upshot is that the posts are now in the wrong order, and I can't figure out how to swap them in Blogger. Annoying.

Shh, you'll wake the baby

2007-02-08T10:04:00.000+11:00

Shh, you'll wake the baby
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

A couple of older photos here that I didn't get to blog before I went away. The beloved had given D'Arcy a 'do not disturb' sign from a hotel room to hang on his door knob. D had often commented that he thought it should say "Shh, you'll wake the baby" so he modified it himself. Then of course, he needed a baby. See post below.

In the summer I went swimming...

2007-01-23T04:20:00.000+11:00

In the summer I went swimming...
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

"...in the summer I might've drowned,
But I held my breath, I kicked my feet, and I moved my arms around. I moved my arms around." (Louden Wainwright III, for those of you interested)

There has been major action on the swimming front here as it's been so hot. I say here, but I really mean there. The beloved and I are in the US, D'Arcy is with his dad. So, in fact, it's really cold here. I'm currently having my knees sniffed by my friend's Bulldog, and trying to figure out what I'll do today. Eugene is a nice place I reckon.

So, more about the swimming. He's been having a go for a while, but couldn't get the hang of floating, and didn't like having his face/ears in the water. So just wasn't into it. We'd bought him a snorkel and mask when we went to QLD in July, but even that didn't excite him. So last week we went to the sporting goods shop and bought him the floaty vest (there's a better pic in Flickr) which was an enormous confidence booster. He got into the water, and the look on his face as he discovered, and annouced "Mum! I can FLOAT!!!" was priceless. He was using his snorkelling mask, so it covered his nose, and that was great.

He was so happy and confident that he set off to swim the length of the pool - 50m and, with a few rests, achieved this easily. His next challenge was to go to the 'medium pool' where the water is only .5 to .9m deep. He abandoned the floaty vest and started swimming around underwater - putting his whole head under! It was fantastic. In 2 days he'd gone from being a kid who wouldn't even put his face in the water, let alone his whole head, to one who could dog paddle under water and come up to breathe. Of course it is just the beginning, and I wouldn't dream of letting him do stuff on his own, but he's now happy to jump in, and with his vest on, in control in water of any depth. He's so much more confident, it is fantastic!

I never learned to swim properly as a child, and only took it on as a goal as an adult, so I'm happy he's making such good progress. Conquering the fear is a big thing! The beloved, who really likes to swim and is good at it, has been really helpful in this project.

New Developments in Bike Riding

2007-01-16T22:02:00.000+11:00

Check it out folks!

Since Christmas when he got the new bike he's been powering along. He can't start himself off yet, but he's almost there. The other performer in this vid is Jan (my mum). Cinematography by Pete. I'd like to thank all involved.

Dinosaur excitement

2007-01-07T09:45:00.000+11:00

Dinosaur pic
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

OK, so D'Arcy is a member of The Double Helix Science Club with the CSIRO courtesy of Auntie Laura. He gets a magazine every second month or so, and there are competitions. This issue has lots about Dinosaurs in it, including various competitions. The one that caught his eye was to win a DVD of The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs (Narrated by Bill Oddie!) you need to draew a pic of your favourite dinosaur. So he set to work, and what we have here is a pterosaur flying along, having eaten some prehistoric fish (you can see them in its tummy) and another fish jumping to get away. He drew the pterosaur in biro, and the rest in texta, so it's a bit hard to see in the photo. I gotta get me a scanner. I've pointed out to him that he might not win, but also I'm aware that he's forgotten about it anyway, now that it's in the envelope, if not posted yet.

Cornucopia

2007-01-03T09:31:00.000+11:00

Cornucopia
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

D'Arcy folded some paper into a cone shape, and started talking about all the things he could use it for: drinking; hat; poking mummy's tummy... I pointed out that he could use it for a cornucopia and then had to explain what one of those is. He then got the plastic grapes and filled it up. So here's a photo of the cornucopia with a silly photo face. Notice the Anubis necklace - we're on an Egyptian kick lately. Also at Flickr there are Christmas photos, just click on the photo here.

Finally, one last boast - this photo is one where I wasn't worried about where to take it. The house is tidy! The holidays are a good thing!

Stocking Making

2006-12-21T19:24:00.000+11:00

christmas cheer
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

OK, so I took an easy route this year, though a slightly harder route than last year. D'Arcy has a Christmas stocking at his Dad's place - they call it a Santa Sack - so last year we used a pillowcase at my place. This year I bought a plain white pillowcase from Target and today D'Arcy drew on it. Here we have the proud artist and the finished product. So, in the centre we have Wil E Coyote as Mr Hyde trying to kill Bugs Bunny (D's current fave from Warner Bros). Around the outside we have some Christmas trees, "jingle bells" and Holly.

Today, also was the last day of kindergarten. We said goodbye to the fabulous Miss J, who is leaving ther school on her 4 year rotation. We don't know where she's going, but we were all joking this afternoon that when we found out we'd all be moving to get into the feeder area for her new school. There was a reasonably big party in the classroom this afternoon with all the kids and all the parents. I tried to get phone numbers for a reasonable number of them that I didn't already have so we can play in the holidays, but although the hols are 6 weeks, it's actually not that long. It will be the beginning of Feb before we know it. D goes to his Dad for the first half of each week and then when he's with me on Wednesday Thursday and Friday we can play on Wed and Thurs, but I have to work on Fridays. So that's only 6 weeks worth of 2 days - 12 days in all (plus weekends) not very long at all.

My big challenge over the holidays will be to find enough time to do some basic housework - I've been using some of Wednesday when D is at school for that, and that is not going to be possible for the duration!

Class play

2006-12-16T10:43:00.000+11:00

the king the mice and the cheese
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

All the kindergarten classes put on little plays for their families yesterday. D'Arcy's class performed The King, The Mice and The Cheese , which is a cute little story about a king who likes cheese, but has a mouse problem. He calls in his wise men who suggest some cats, which is fine until the king decides he has a cat problem. The solutions the wise men offer escalate, until the king brings in the elephants. You can see an elephant in the middle of the stage here, with his paper ears and stocking trunk. The teacher organised the making of the costumes at school so we didn't have to worry, although D'Arcy was a volcano on the day of costume making, so his buddy Mimi kindly helped the teacher make his. The elephant is being chased away by a mouse, which was the final solution that the wise men could suggest. Sorry it's a bit blurry, I was taking the photos without a flash, and the fabulously cheap Kodak doesn't do good low light shots. Not to worry.

a silly quiz

2006-12-15T22:51:00.000+11:00

Uninspired to write anything, I thought I'd share this.

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

I ought to do OK, after all I do work in a fruit&veg shop...

Goodness me, is it that time already?

2006-12-10T12:10:00.000+11:00

christmas
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Yesterday we moved the furniture around so that we would have room for the seasonal decoration. D'Arcy put on almost all the things himself, so it is a bit uneven in spots, but very good really. I did the angel. The beloved is freaked out 'cos it's so hot - he's never done Southern Hemisphere Christmas before - and he was wondering if we'd get wandering carol singers in stubbies, singlets and thongs, asking for a coldie. I told him probably not.

Edit I just noticed that the Weather Pixie has put her Christmas tree up too, and that reminds me to move her up higher in the template...

spaceman

2006-12-09T09:45:00.000+11:00

Fwd: spaceman
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

There was a spate of slightly bored dressing up yesterday afternoon, and this was the result. On the left of the photo you can see the corner of a book on the table. The book has a picture of Yuri Gagarin, on which this costume was modelled, and you can see a close-up of the book in the nexxt photo in the Flickr stream. The Beloved is returned from the US, so there's a game of checkers in progress, and D'Arcy is thrashing him. We're planning on moving furniture around today and setting up the Christmas tree, so a weekend of painful domesticity all round really.

On another note, we've instituted a 'swear jar' in the house, to which D is the main contributor so far, but only in the form of IOUs. D'Arcy announced that when the jar is full "and we've all learned our lesson, then Mummy can keep the money". Cool.

sticky tape mouth

2006-12-02T16:41:00.000+11:00

need I say more?

and I think I've finally ironed out the layout problems.

random requests

2006-12-01T16:20:00.000+11:00

"mum!"
"yeah?"
"can we go to france & disco?"
"???"
"can we go to france & disco sometime"
"what on earth are you talking about?"
"you know, france & disco, where jay is going next week"
"OH! San Francisco?"
"yeah. can we go there?"

Someone loves me

2006-11-30T19:51:00.000+11:00

paper ring
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

About a week ago I received this paper ring decorated with flourescent pen. There was a proviso that I wear it to work, which I agreed to, and then forgot. Oh well.

Other developments - D'Arcy now has favourite websites 20 Questions, and of course, YouTube, where we watch classic Sesame Street vids.

On the downside, he is still doing the dreadful baby voice, as influenced by the terrible twins, and it makes me want to scream. The other bad thing is that his dad's girlfriend got him some terrible piece of crap from the Scottish restaurant which is shaped like an MP3 player, and plays the 'crazy frog' song endlessly, much to the distress of his mother and teacher. He has also now revealed his goal to go back to the place and get all the other 15 pieces of plastic crap in the set so that he can win a real MP3 player. Is this an urban legend?

fussy

2006-11-24T19:00:00.000+11:00

"mum, can I tell you something?"
"yes..."
"it's that I don't like that kind of pasta"
"why not?"
"it gives me a headache"
"no it doesn't"
"yes it does"
"no, there's no way it could give you a headache"
"it does. it's giving me one right now. i just looked at it and got a headache"...

Later
"if you feed me that kind of pasta I'll throw it in the bin"
"no"
"how about you have that kind of pasta and I'll have different pasta that I like"

*sigh*

0640 hours

2006-11-24T07:05:00.000+11:00

Poke.
"mum"
Poke.
"mum!"
"mmm?"
"can we hop up?"
"mm mm"
"Oh! I'm fucken hot and fucken hungry and fucken bored"

Later

"now I'm bloody freezing"

Visitor

2006-11-23T14:08:00.000+11:00

possum in the window
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

On Tuesday morning we woke up to this. The window is hinged at the top, and swings outwards. It's been hot, so we've been leaving it open. The Beloved got a surprise when he went into the bathroom for a shower, and felt he was being watched, so he ran to get the camera. Later in the day he rang me at work and said "I know what sex our possum is" revealing that he'd seen a baby crawling around on the mother's back. She left that night, so D'Arcy didn't get to see it, but I'm kind of glad. They're such a pest, we've been cursing the one that already lives in/on our roof, and I'm sick of possum poo.

Feeling spewy

2006-11-18T12:50:00.000+11:00

architect?
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Yesterday at lunch time I was at work, looking forward to the last hour in which I usually do random stuff rather than 'shop stuff'. My moblie phone rings and comes up as a local number I don't know. "Hello?" "Hello. Are you D'arcy's mum?" "Yes" "this is Polly, from D'Arcy's school. D'Arcy's just been sick, as they were about to go to swimming. Can you come and pick him up?" "Sure, I'm on my way"

He was a miserable boy. Fortunately he's an accomplished spewer, so had taken off all his clothes (to go to the pool) and then gone outside to throw up. Unlike his classmate earlier in the week who had announced his intentions and then let it all out on the carpet in the middle of the room. This particular bout has hit most of his class (there were only 13 kids there on Friday), and fortunately for us has mostly passed now, but I'm waiting my turn.

He's spent this morning watching Warner Brothers cartoons with The Beloved, while I got lost on YouTube, and he's spent this afternoon playing with the Cuisinaire rods he got for his birthday. Now playing 'Uno' with much cursing..."oh fuck" whispered D when the Beloved put down a 'reverse'.

Late breaking birthday photo

2006-11-12T10:33:00.000+11:00

birthday
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

I couldn't resist posting this, as I know some of you don't have the time/inclination to look at all the photos I post to Flickr. Grandpa Pete took this photo of someone in cognito.

I think the wig went to his dad's house, but I have the beard and moustache stuck on some plastic here. Perhaps he ought to be wearing it for Movember?

new look

2006-11-10T19:03:00.000+11:00

new look
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

So the lad has headed off to a small folk festival with his dad for the weekend. He chose this outfit himself. (no, really) His dad was none too thrilled to see the results. Oh well. So I'm off for an evening of grown-up entertainment (read alcohol and spicy food) with the Beloved and a friend. Not much going down since the party. D's normal teacher was away yesterday and today, and the whole class gave the relief teacher hell. D'Arcy was heavily involved in the silliness, prompting the teacher to ask me "are they always like this?" (i'd stayed to listen to the kids read). She seemed to think it was because I was there that D was buggering around, but in fact it was more that she was there. He does some stuff for my benefit, but not like that. I think they got sorted out today, but it really brought home to me how amazing his normal teacher is, and how responsive he is to her. Such a shame she's leaving at the end of the year...

birthday

2006-10-29T21:59:00.000+11:00

birthday
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Somebody had his party today in a local park. Check out Flickr for action photos (click on the photo at left). He had wanted to have it at my house, but the sheer volume of numbers involved meant that we had to go elsewhere. In the end there were 30+ children there and their parents. It all went swimmingly: the weather was great; all the kids got on and had a good time; the parents hung around and talked to each other (our main aim); and there was more than enough food. D'Arcy got way too many presents, but we will figure out how to cope with that. His cake rocked (and there was hardly any left at the end - yaaay!) When he was leaving for his dad's house, he said to me (after encouragement from his dad's girlfriend) "thank you for my party" and I said to him "thank you for being born so we could have this party". He liked that.

random artwork

2006-10-29T21:53:00.000+11:00

random artwork
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Seen in the playground on Wednesday. When I showed interest in it, D'Arcy claimed authorship, but I totally don't believe it. I think this is a photo that he took of it though. it is an arrangement of sticks and blue metal at the base of a tree in D's school playground. The installation remained for several days.

Good God! It's raining!

2006-10-18T08:42:00.000+10:00

Not real rain, mind you, more like that yucky feeling you get when someone sneezes on you. But who am I to complain?

vampires, pirates & climbers

2006-10-15T12:16:00.000+10:00

vampires, pirates & climbers
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Someone, a long time ago, bought D'Arcy some 'bath crayons' - which are washable non-toxic things for bathtime fun. He goes through phases of playing with them, and has discovered that they make shower time more fun too. Here are some vampires that adorned the wall of our shower for a few days. The one on the left is the 'vampire D'Arcy', but the one on the right is my favourite.

Holiday Idyll

2006-10-15T12:09:00.000+10:00

vampires, pirates & climbers
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

It's been the school holidays here, and it's also been unseaonably warm. the October daytime average temperature is 19C. Last week it was in the 30s. More than once. One of the things we did this week was to play around in the garden a lot. While I was dong that, D'Arcy was making himself a new swing. He even tied the knots for it. They held.

What have I done?!?!?!?!

2006-10-07T21:33:00.000+10:00

Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

This item is what we call here a 'chatterbox' or 'fortune teller'. Some of you may know it by the name 'cootie catcher' though just what cooties are, is a matter of translation. (Actually some in depth research has enlightened me as to the true nature of 'cooties' so I feel less obfuscated than previously).

I digress. A friend of mine (known only as Gyfforrrd) moved house today. When we were in the stupid market I got a phone call from him, saying "come and see the new house". We obliged, with a 6 pack of the amazing "original VB", a bottle of Tanqueray and some warm tonic. While the gin and tonics were chilling in the fridge we had the tour and consumed the beer, and a bottle of champagne. D'Arcy had ginger beer and played with the Lego.

Actually, I still digress. Later another friend (Salim- can you see where this is heading?) came round and we continued on the beer and moved towards the gin. As we were doing this, D'Arcy requested some paper so he could make some planes. Gyff was reminded of the making of water bombs in our youth. D'Arcy was reminded by this of making the aforementioned 'chatterboxes' which he apparently learned at 'afters' (After School Care).

So, the meat of this post. D'Arcy's chatterbox contains the commands: west "Kiss Gifford" north "kiss S(a)lim south "kiss J(ay)" and, most dubiously east "drink win(e)." How did he learn the fundamentals of a drinking game already?!?!

Gardens with Magpies

2006-10-02T20:45:00.000+10:00

Gardens with Magpies
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

So we've been doing a lot of gardening lately, getting ready for putting vegies in. Here is one of the three beds, now full of what I hope will be good dirt. Those of you who are from round here will know how much magpies love to help in the garden, and here are three of our locals. They've been scaring the crap out of the beloved - he knows they swoop - with their antics, bombing each other in our huge tree, and then coming down to see what there is to be had in the new garden beds. I did get cranky with one when he tried to eat a small brown skink that I'd disturbed with my digging around, and I had to reprimand him for that.The skink dropped its tail (as they do) and the magpie had to be content with it. They have been a high point of my life the last few days (I'm easily amused), and very good gardening companions in general.

* I edited this for truth, clarity and to add the Wiki magpie link that I thought some of you might fine interesting. I recommend listening to the audio of the magpie song at the bottom of the Wiki page.

Thursday Night Fever

2006-09-30T09:37:00.000+10:00

Disco
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

There was a disco at school on Thursday night to raise money for...er...Oxfam, I think...as organised by the SRC. D'Arcy was not very enthusiastic about attending, until Thursday when all his buddies announced they would go. I had bought him some of the purple hair spray he loves so much, and a new lavender shirt and he was on his way. It is hard getting boys all scrubbed up, especially when (as at the moment) fashion decrees that for boys, casual wear is very grunge/ripped/ugly casual, and then there is nothing until you get to very formal wear. The lavender shirt was the best I could find, and not too bad, really. However, when he arrived, all he wanted to do was hang out in the canteen with his mates and eat chips and drink milk (see Flickr). I did manage to drag him out for a few dances at the end, including a game of 'musical statues', but he really wasn't into it. he said later that 'everyone dances better than me' which surprised me. Actually, most of the boys could be found hanging in the canteen, while most of the girls were in the hall getting down. I think it was the unfamiliarity of the situation, as much as anything. It was dark. It was loud, There were flashing lights. Why the hell would anyone want to be in there? But it was fun for me, in a weird kind of way.

Jolly Rogers

2006-09-16T09:07:00.000+10:00

Jolly Rogers
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

There has been a spate of piracy recently.

New science project

2006-09-16T08:44:00.000+10:00

New science project
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Auntie Laura joined D'Arcy up for the Double Helix club and his second magazine arrived this week. In it is an experiment about salinity where you plant triticale seeds in 5 pots and water them with progressively more salty solutions and measure what happens. Wednesday was a sick day for D, but he wasn't that sick, so we started up the experiment. We'll keep you posted.

drawing after school

2006-09-08T20:02:00.000+10:00

drawing after school
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

On the left we have an Eastern Rosella seen in the school yard, and on the right a common pigeon (I don't think you need a wiki link to one of those - we call them flying rats) also seen in the school yard. D'Arcy drew them while he was waiting for me to finish talking to the teacher and the other mums. Then when we got home, he coloured them in. I told him that he was drawing from life - life drawing - and his take on that is "live drawing". After he'd done the colouring he insisted that we go to a nature reserve nearby so he could see more birds and draw them.

He got ready to go, which involved packing his bag with his notebook, pencil, water bottle, snack and hat. And then we were off. There are a couple of photos from the adventure on Flickr. We didn't get far before it was time to stop for a snack, and then time to stop to draw. He drew a dog we saw, and started to draw another - a border collie puppy who wouldn't stand still, when disaster struck! Yes, a broken pencil. So after a short tantrum it was deemed to be the end of the drawing excursion. The puppy's minder (it wasn't her puppy, she was looking after it) had another dog - an elderly Airdale called Bexley, who was pretty keen on D'Arcy. She told of being an art school student - studying life drawing and printmaking, and D was impressed that grownups could go to school. A short walk and we were home again. He coloured in the dog picture, which at this stage still involves heavy handed texta-work. While we were wout he also did a few studies of birds legs and feet.

I wonder if it's the left-handedness, or the boy-ness, or just the D'Arcy-ness that has him at the bottom of the artistic continuum in his class. Most of the girls at age 5/6 are doing amazing scenes with people and sky and flowers and colouring inside the lines. The boys are mostly into drawing aeroplanes and boats and stuff. Not my boy, though he drew a recognisable skull and crosbones on a pirate ship he'd made out of cardboard boxes the other day. I'm thrilled that he's interested in drawing at last, and I've been suitably impressed with his pics. I'm sure he'll get there in the end, just worrying like a mother I s'pose.

Book Meme

2006-09-08T17:35:00.000+10:00

Ampersand Duck put forth a book meme challenge, thus:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Nearest book is D'Arcy's, so it doesn't have 123 pages. So, from pages 1...the 4 sentences are:

From Heaven, the Yellow Emperor's kind grandson Kun looked down upon Earth and saw that all the people worked in harmony to save their world from the great flood. Kun called the horned Owl and the wise Tortoise to his side.They whispered into his ear, "The Yellow Emperor possesses Magic Soil that can rebuild the land." Kind Kun watched the people of Earth suffer as they crowded into boats, climbed trees and scaled roofs.

I don't know the title of this book, but it says "Copyright 1995 by Hilary Arnold and Sue Clarke. Published by Hyperion". The really interesting thing is that the book is bound as a Jacob's Ladder, making it a tad hard to read, but interesting all the same. it is a retelling of a flood/creation myth from China from what I can tell, but information is scarce. Google to the rescue again?

*GOOGLE to the rescue* says this. Apparently the title of the book is Heaven & Earth and the cover shown is not the same as the copy we have. Ours has a dragon on one cover and a lion on the other (which perhaps represent Heaven and Earth) but it is a good book.

Science project Pt IX

2006-09-06T21:51:00.000+10:00

Science project Pts VIII & IX
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Taken today, complete with chewing gum sticking out of his mouth ('Extra' kids weird flavour) and his new fashion statement - the topknot. He came from his dad's, brandishing photos of Sumo wrestlers, and his teacher said today that Miho's dad Shuji was giving D sumo lessons before school yesterday (which didn't help his concentration much, but she thought it was funny anyway).

Chewing gum is his new favourite thing. I've realised that he can be trusted not to swallow it, and mostly trusted enough not to take it out of his mouth and bugger around with it. HIs dad hates it (heh heh) and won't let him have it in the house, so it is something special that happens here.

Ooh, The Glasshouse is on TV and one of the guests is a comedian who was in a series on SBS, a fake lifestyle show, as Todd, the DIY guy a few years ago. His name is Brendan Cowell, and the name of the show was....? Anyone?

*LATE BREAKING NEWS* it was Life Support. Thanks to Google and a sudden emergence from laziness.

IN other late news - D'Arcy wants to rename this blog "Mummy Developments". What do you think?

Science project Pt VIII

2006-09-06T21:38:00.000+10:00

Science project Pt VIII
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Taken last week...

caterpillar studies 101

2006-08-27T19:05:00.000+10:00

caterpillar studies 101
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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.

Even astronauts have to eat lunch

2006-08-24T19:15:00.000+10:00

dressing up at school
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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"

science project pt VIIa (after)

2006-08-17T20:33:00.000+10:00

avocado seed
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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).

Science project pt VIIa (before)

2006-08-17T20:22:00.000+10:00

avocado seed
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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.

Pirate Party

2006-08-13T19:45:00.000+10:00

2 great iPhotos
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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!

Science project pt VI

2006-08-05T10:29:00.000+10:00

science project pt VI
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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.

Octon construction

2006-08-04T21:35:00.000+10:00

construction
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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.

Science Project Pt V

2006-07-27T14:44:00.000+10:00

Science Project Pt V
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

We have a leaf emerging. I thought it'd died while we were away, but it must have just slowed down. (The house was cold when we got home, so I assume it was about 12 degrees the whole time:) So now the leaf is fully coming out, though it's hard to see in the photo - I might try to get a better one, but that's it sticking up above D's head, and as you can see - roots galore! Ooh, bad punctuation, but I'm too lazy to change it now, and I have to go and get D'Arcy from school.

Well, here it is...

2006-07-26T17:42:00.000+10:00

Asleep on the train from Kuranda
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Saturday - plane trip great with D, despite getting him up at 5 to get the plane Lots of things to play with. Not much trouble. Arrived in Townsville. Hated it from that moment almost, something unpleasant about it. Arid, dry hot. Went up Castle Hill to see the view. Lots of little yellow butterflies. Went down the hill to the water playground with the big bucket, and the Strand playground with the spiderweb where D had a good time, Played on the beach, rough sand, but sunny. Palmetum was our next destination, but D fell asleep on the way. Disastrous dinner in the noodle place, unfriendly staff and D wouldn't eat.

Sunday - Markets in the am, not as much good stuff as we wanted, but we got there late. D got a coconut leaf fish from an aboriginal dude. Magnetic Island in pm - annoying in some ways, good in others. The Island is big, there is a bus service, but it is poorly signposted. Admittedly we did go into the expedition with little planning, and it all worked out fine in the end. Sea Eagles, one flying around, and one in a tree on the beach. Lots of beach play. 6.30 ferry from Maggie back to Townsville.

Monday - up early to the aquarium. Had a good time seeing all the reef exhibits, sharks are always popular, as was the sawfish, and the turtle. Talked to one of the dudes who works in the tanks doing cleaning and stuff as part of a show. he had noticed D watching him while he cleaned the tank and answered his questions about scuba diving. Hopped in the car around 1 to drive to BB. Lunch in Ingham - into the rainforest felt better than being in Townsville. We got the keys to our apt, and met up with Pete at the campgound and brought him back to our place for dinner. D stayed up late and got cranky (as you do).

Tuesday - D'Arcy and The Beloved played in the pool. Lots of damage from Larry visible, especially around Tully, where I know the terrain and the vegetation a bit better. It is pretty badly broken up around there. Most of the rainforest is gone, in the sense of it being rainforest. Scrubby now. Some tall trees remain, but with not many leaves. lots of epicormic shoots, like after a fire, so the trees are all fuzzy. With the canopy gone, lots of the undergrowth is also gone, and all the vines that make it look really lush. So a scene of devastation all round. Pete went into the tablelands and said that it is the same there. Larry moved really fast , but stayed really intense for a long time. The ageing hippies said that it was all over in about an hour, unlike Winifred in '86 which lasted for 12 hours. We went to see them with Pete and had a cup of tea. Annoyingly the weather was crap, really overcast and rainy. We got wet. So we got in the car and went to Innisfail for lunch with Pete, who had decided to pull up stumps and head north where the weather would be better. We did some shopping for food, and bought D some more thongs, which he doesn't like. Lots of birds around BB, which is a bit of a surprise seeing as there is nothing for them to eat. Chris (ageing Hippy) says she is feeding about 25 at the moment, and they eat about a kilo of honey a week, as well as peanut butter and oats. Before Larry they had a resident cassowary eating their bumper mango crop. they also said that it's been really wet since the cyclone, which has made everything grow like buggery. They have a pawpaw thicket. I got a tick.

Wednesday - still overcast, but the cloud not as low to start with. Lots of rain later in the morning. We went to Mission Beach for a bit, but got rained on, so we went to Tully where we saw the Golden Gumboot in its natural environment (rain), and then went back to the Wet Tropics Information centre where we found out more about cassowaries. The QPWS has been feeding them since the cyclone, at a number of sites away from view. This is a good thing, as it means they get food, but not the stress, or habituation of human beings around. They really are very large and dangerous creatures. I remembered the warning signs at Licuala today, that give detailed instructions of what to do if you are confronted with a cassowary, and at the wet tropics centre, they extend this warning to 'particularly persistent' cassowaries. I picked up the local newsletter, and read about all the volunteer efforts to clean up and give the animals a hand in the area. We wanted to get to the El Arish pub, but we didn't make it. D and Jay played in the pool again, and D got cold, but still didn't really get in the water. The rain is a bit of a bummer, but we always know that you take your chances with any holiday, and especially with a tropical holiday. Article in the newsletter mentions that one of the heartening sights right after the cyclone was all the Ulysses and Cairns Birdwings fluttering around in the wreckage.

Thursday - up and out (in theory) the beloved dropped me and D'Arcy at Bingiil Bay beach in the rain. I found a kite in the pocket of my raincoat (it folds up into a key-ring) so we flew the kite on the beach in the rain. It was great. We got in the car and headed for Cairns. Stopping on the way at our new favourite location in Innisfail - a cafe called JaGaDs (don't know why) where D has discovered the hot chocolate tastes better in a takeaway cup. We also checked out the Innisfail show, in the pouring rain. It wasn't really up and running yet, but we wandered around a bit. Saw the poultry and all the craft displays. Lots of the local schools had made displays, and lots of them were cyclone related ("Larry was strong, but we are stronger") Got back in the car and headed for Cairns. It rained all the way there, and when we arrived we found that the place we'd booked was both a dump and not a suite, so some fast footwork and we found a new hotel/appartment. it was a bit further out of town, and on the main road, but much more sensible - two bedrooms and a proper kitchenette thing. We went out to the Esplanade and hung out, got some dinner, wandered around a bit, then went home for some sleep.

Friday - Fruit and veg market time. We'd seen the market on our travels last night, and got there finally. We found the organic stall and got some veg for dinner that night. We tried to cook dinner at least one night in three, and succeeded pretty well, and we did our own breakfast thing too. D discovered that he really likes Mountain Bread with hummous on it, so he ate a lot of that, usually for breakfast. After the markets and lunch and a lot of vague buggering around we got to our adventure location for the day - we did a DUCK tour of Cairns. Yes, amphibious truck. It was good fun, and D got to drive it on the water, along with the other kids on board. Very touristy thing to do, but I've discovered that travel expectations change with children around so we did some kiddy tourism. The tour was well pitched, the guide told the adults boring facts about Cairns and its buildings and got the kids to play spotto, and in between, told dreadful duck jokes. Apres-duck we wrote some postcards (finally, and apologies to anyone who hoped for one and missed out) and then headed home to cook our dinner. We actually saw the sun on the tour!

Saturday - we got up and went to Kuranda (another tourist thing I'd not thought of doing). We took the cable car up over the rainforest (in the rain, which was absolutely beautiful, but not the postcard pics that you see) and then came down on the train. While we were there we looked around a bit, had some lunch and went into the three wildlife park things that they have up there. We saw koalas at the koala house (and some crocs and wallabies, but D wasn't too into that - he'd seen most of that before) so we went on into the bird house. Lots of birds in the big aviary that you walk into, lots of them are really tame and come and sit on you to be fed. They sell a limited amount of bird food at the door, but we didn't buy any, and by the time we went back for some, they'd sold their allowance for the day, so somebody was _very_ disappointed. Still he found some seed that had dropped on the ground and managed to feed a parrot. Another parrot decided that it wanted to get into my bag, and worked really hard at getting into it. There were a couple of palm cockatoos that flapped around the aviary screeching and scaring everyone. The cassowaries had a separate enclosure inside the main aviary so that they didn't disembowel Japanese tourists - I think they have a reasonable breeding program there. The bird house was D'Arcy's favourite 'cos he could get so close to the birds, and feeding the parrot was one of the highlights of his day. I liked the butterfly house best, which was our final destination in the 'wildlife experience' we were having. A huge aviary full of flapping colour, but surprisingly few varieties. Lots of Ulysses and birdwings, which is what the people come to see, as well as Cruisers from Cape York, which took my fancy. They had Hercules moth caterpillars, but no adults, as they have such a short lifespan (48 hours) so that means that Mum and Pete were really lucky to see the one they saw last year.. I finally managed to get a copy of the butterfly alphabet poster that I've been looking for for about 15 years . They are available online Butterfly Alphabet , but I'd never managed it, so it was great to see it, and buy it! So then it was time to hop on the train. After not very long D fell asleep, which was very sweet. I had to wake him up to get off at Cairns. We met the beloved (who had got off earlier to get the car) and wandered around the downtown area of Cairns, stopping off for dinner at one of the massive restaurants on the Esplanade. Good food (I had barramundi - I'd been hanging out for a big fish feed all week, the beloved won't eat it, so I can't cook it at home) and D managed to behave himself quite well, with the help of a virgin mango/pineapple daquiri. He learned how to pan for gold at the night markets, and we bought some weird tropical fruit wines that took our fancy - we'll see if we still like them when it is summer here!

Sunday - we checked out of the place where we were staying and headed out of town. We were driving up to the tablelands (still in the misty rain) up the Gilles highway, which we soon realised was a mistake when D'Arcy got his first case of car sickness. The road is very windy and rises very quickly, so it was no surprise really. There were, fortunately, lots of places to pull over for a vomit, and when we finally got to Millaa Millaa it was revealed that the best way to get there was via Kuranda - the road it longer but much kinder on small tummies. We put D in the front seat to see if that made things easier, and it seemed to, but he had strict instructions not to interfere with the driver, which he managed to do pretty well. We played a lot of 'I spy' and 'infinite questions' (which is like 20 questions, but with no question limit, and usually restricted to animals). We went to some of the volcanic lakes, where we got to see the saw shell turtle that breathes through its bum. Our goal at Millaa Millaa was Australia's best dairy - Mungalli Creek, where they have a cafe and we wanted lunch. We were not disappointed, it was great, though we didn't get to see any of the dairy stuff at work (Sunday, I guess). The women in the shop said that the production of some of the fruit yoghurts, and jams was affected by Larry, so not sure what the future will bring there. I guess it will take a while for the Davidson plums and the Mangoes to recover. The problem will probably be most evident after this next wet season. After Millaa Millaa we drove down to Innisfail, and D composed a song, based on a comment made by me on some road kill. The Larry destruction was almost as intense up on the tablelands as it had been down on the coast. Innisfail was still good, still wet, and JaGaDs still made good coffee. From Innisfail we continued south to Cardwell, Ingham and Townsville. saw some good signs on the way, warning of the danger of crocodiles on the beach at Cardwell. Lots of rain, most of the way. We pulled up outside The Frosty Mango just before closing and got some wonderful tropical ice creams. It's one of those ironies about Townsville that there is so little good about it. So little, in fact that the locals will drive 70k for a good ice cream. It is very good ice cream, but 70k? We got dragonfruit, mango, passionfruit, and lime&basil. We didn't notice all the other flavours (black sapote, jackfruit etc) until after we'd made our choices, and as the dudes were obviously keen to close up we didn't dawdle. We headed back into Townsville for the night and got some dinner and sleep.

Monday - we got ready to go home, packed, emptied out the hire car, did our last minute shopping in town, though it turned out that the main thing we wanted to get from Plant Essentials still wasn't there, but I can order online (yay!) and headed to the airport. Flight home was good, D didn't get too bored, but it's such a shame that you can't go and visit the pilot these days. D fell asleep just as we landed, which was pretty funny.

Coming soon to a blog near you...

2006-07-26T13:44:00.000+10:00

gecko on the arm
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

...a long, and possibly boring account of our holiday in FNQ.

Glowing

2006-07-02T21:21:00.000+10:00

glowing
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

The beloved's cousin Anne works in publicity, so she gets lots of weird little freebies. The beloved broght this one when he moved here. It's a quartz crystal with a bit hollowed out at the back and plugged again, after an LED has been inserted. Then the wire forms a circuit when you clip it around your neck. Powered by 6V of battery in the clasp. It actually changes from blue to green in an eerie way, but all the photos ended up blue. It only works sporadically as the connection is a bit dodgy, so I can't even get a non-D'Arcy photo of it being green 'cos I can't get it to work at all now :-(

I put the beloved on a plane to Townsville this morning, D and I join him in less than a week for a holiday. I can't wait, but I do need to do lots more house cleaning before I go, and buy some new sunnies, and a new raincoat for D'Arcy, and work 3 days, and be at home for a tradesman, and help at school, and, and, and.....

Science project Part IV

2006-06-25T17:37:00.000+10:00

avocado seed
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

A silly face to boot! As you can see the root of the avocado has grown all the way to the bottom of the jar. The seed is split almost all the way around, and if you look into the split, you can see where the first leaflets are forming. I reckon that when they emerge it will be time to pot it up.

In other science news, there is an annual science competition here, and D'Arcy's class entered it with an exploration of 'sinking and floating' - what sinks? stones, clay - what floats? duplo car, pine cone, malteasers. They had a great time with their experiments and writing it up. Their works was rewarded with a 2nd place. The ceremony was on Friday night, and D'Arcy was one of the 4 students chosen to attend to receive the certificate. He's pretty proud of that.

This last week at school was also reports and portfolios. It was great to see more of his work than usual - especially for his dad, who doesn't get to see as much of it as I do - he only takes D'Arcy to school two days a week, and he doesn't get to stay and help in the class. No surprises in his report. This is the first year that the teachers have had to grade the kids formally, and D'Arcy's teacher is not happy with the system "how do you grade kindies on PE?" but she did well. I've been staying in touch with her about D's progress anyway, so we already know where he struggles (motor skills in general, reading/writing) and what his strengths are (caring, interested in the world and numbers in particular) so we're happy with the first half of his first year. Parent/teacher interviews this week coming, so more opportunity to hang out with the lovely teacher!

Letter to Aunty Laura

2006-06-21T16:36:00.000+10:00

Letter to Aunty Laura
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

This bit is on the photo's page at Flickr, but it didn't come with the photo like I expected it to , so here it is again.
"The text reads: 2006-16-6 at the top, then there is the top half of the pic, which was kind of a practice run. Underneath the squiggly line is another "greehouse" (yes, it's a pun) surrounded by tree ferns and love hearts and next to a pond, containing a cat-fish. Below that is more text: To Laura, luv fom D'Arcy. The R and A from Laura had to be shifted on to the next line, and so got tangled up with the D'Arcy. 'Luv' and 'fom' are his own doing, I had to tell him how to spell Laura. Let's see how it goes down."

Well, I think she liked it,. I haven't heard definitively on that yet. Oh great, as soon as it looks like D is occupied with the Lego and I sit down to update we get "Mum! I'm bored" followed by "what can I do?"
So this will be short then.

Sorry the pic is sideways, I decided not to flip it, so that it would be bigger, and then realised that it's a bit hard to read.

The writing on the fridge

2006-06-17T08:17:00.000+10:00

The writing on the fridge
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

I finally found the 'magnetic poetry for kids' set that I bought many years ago, just in time. D'Arcy created this sentence himself, though he needed help to read some ofhe words. I went through a few generations "I jumped down into the lava" was his first idea, but the word "lava" is mysteriously not included in the set. The next attempt replaced "lava" with "love". That stayed for about half an hour, until he realised that there was "water". I explained to him that I'd roughly sorted the words into categories "things" "doing words" "describing words" "question words" "people words" "little words" (which are conjunctions, prepositions, and endings - like the 'ed' on "jumped").
It is a fairly hard way of writing stuff 'cos of the constraint element (not all the words you want are in the set) but it's hard to know how to modify it so that it is still relatively easy to use, but also flexible.

We've been playing a lot of checkers lately, mostly D'Arcy and the beloved, and suddenly we've been playing cards "snap" and "go fish" and I'm currently being hassled to play again, so I'll see you all in blogland later!

Science project Part III

2006-06-12T17:06:00.000+10:00

Science project Part III
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

The avocado root is still growing strongly (you'll be able to see it better it you click on it and go to Flickr) but no sign of leaves yet. I plan to put it in a pot when the leaves finally appear. D'Arcy is still interested in it all, and we check out its progress most days when he is here.

Not lungs - a butterfly

2006-06-12T16:58:00.000+10:00

Not lungs - a butterfly
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Yay for a long weekend. We haven't achieved much, but it has been nice to have a day off and get some boring housework done. D'Arcy enjoyed fireworks in the rain on Friday night, and he did a few more with his dad on Sunday night. The beloved and I plan to set some more off tonight and frighten the neighbours.

Text of a relevant letter D'Arcy is going to write when he gets back to my place on Wednesday...

"Dear Queen,
I hope you had a lovely birthday. We had fireworks.
Love from D'Arcy"

We all live in a Lego submarine

2006-06-12T16:56:00.000+10:00

We all live in a Lego submarine
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

It started out looking like a space station ("what's that mummy?") but he decided in the end that it was a submarine. There were some Lego Vikings piloting it too, but they didn't make it into this shot. There is a plank to make your enemies walk, and LOTS of guns.

Catapault

2006-06-08T11:45:00.000+10:00

Catapault
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

D'Arcy and the bleoved were talking about catapaults last night, and D was trying to explain something to the beloved. He finally said to me, "can you get me some paper please? I need to draw him a picture". He drew the two catapaults pictured. The tiny one on the right was first, and then to elaborate, he drew the massive one, which seems to've ended up with only 3 wheels, but we get the idea. I like the cognitive leap to using a diagram to explain something to someone else, which is very new.

I also managed to fool him into eating a whole heap of vegies last night (but I don't think he'll be fooled for much longer) by making his favourite 'farty soup' ...

Method:
Fry up some alliums (onions, garlic, leeks) and some zingers (ginger and turmeric). Toss in as much chopped up brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts) as will fit in the pot. Cook 'em down a bit, then add some good stock, and some salt and some garam masala (clove, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cumin , coriander, pepper) and cook until the brassicas are all soft. Blend until it's an unidentifiable mush (try to ignore the unappetising colour) and add some milk (or coconut milk) to thicken it up a bit. Serve it with yoghurt, fresh coriander, lime pickle, and sit back and wait for the results. Hell, if you were really sick you could add some Jerusalem Artichokes too.

Actually, it's not that farty, the name appeals to D'Arcy and if I told him what was in it, he'd never touch it.

Parrots

2006-06-07T14:44:00.000+10:00

Parrots
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

It's that time of year and the King Parrots have been visiting our Chinese Elm to eat the seeds. They come in family groups and hang all over the tree: sideways; upside down; inside out (well, not really). The photo doesn't really do this guy justice. He is almost orange on his head and front, and fantastically emerald green on ihs back and wings, with blue under his wings. And he is huge. They have a single note whistle and they chat to each other in parrot all the time. I love watching them feeding, there's something relaxing watching groups of birds hanging out.

Yay for Public Education

2006-06-01T15:52:00.000+10:00

Alphabet Song
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

D'Arcy is coming along very well at school. Reading and writing is going well, as is social stuff. This is the first time he's shown interest in arranging the fridge letters into the alphabet, and he did it by singing the song. He can recognise all the letters (with still some confusion between p/b/d u/n w/m - which shows that he's still reflecting things in his head) and knows what sounds they make. I was chatting with his teacher yesterday morning, after I'd done one-to-one reading with the kids, and we were talking about the difference in reading levels between all the children. There is a very wide spectrum, from some who are a bit below D on the recognition scale all the way up to totally independant readers (can read and understand newspaper articles). There is one child who has improved out of sight in the last few weeks, and the teacher and I were talking about how exciting it is to witness that kind of transformation. It's an interesting picture of what "reading-readiness" is. Suddenly this child is ready to read - no longer are they doing that "I can't read. You read it to me. I don't want to read it. I don't like it" and it is fascinating. I love it.

Science experiment II

2006-05-27T09:08:00.000+10:00

Science experiment II
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

The avocado finally sprouted a root about a week ago. When I got back last weekend I noticed it, and it's around about doubled in length since then. Again I got a good photo of the boy . Background art by the beloved's uncle Bob.

Autumn

2006-05-25T13:12:00.000+10:00

Maple
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

I love Autumn. One of the reasons I bought this house was the trees, this Japanese maple in the front, and the big Chinese elm in the back. The elm doesn't do much in the autumn, except drop its leaves and seeds, but the maple is great. Bright yellow leaves. They're both good climbing trees, but the maple is easier to get into. While I was away on the weekend all the leaves fell off it so it looks very different now. It also makes lovely little helicopters to throw around. Today's after-school activity will be raking I think. I have to go to the hardware store and buy some of the funky 'leaf hands' that enable you to get the leaves from the pile on the ground into the wheelbarrow or bag to move them. We got our first cold weather gas bill the other day. Not quite as much as I'd expected, which is a relief. Especially as we're thinking of doing another QLD trip this year.

Pirate

2006-05-25T13:05:00.000+10:00

Pirate
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

End of April, D went to his buddy Ted's birthday party. It was a pirate party, so he dressed up. It was great. I cut the pants from an old pair of tracky daks and the shirt is an old one of mine that has been in his dress-up box for ages. The hat and cutlass came from the local joke shop, along with an eye-patch (and the bow and arrows) and he ended up having a great time. We got Ted some Viking Lego (couldn't find any of the pirate series) and they played Pirate-y games, a ripper treasure hunt, and I got to catch up with some mums I hadn't seen for ages. D'Arcy almost didn't make it though, as it was at the beginning of the barking cough illness, where one of the symptoms is sudden debilitating nausea (which passes) so we thought he might spew, and went home, but he was fine.

Internet update - after I'd been on hold about 25 mins the bastards hung up on me! I'm trying again.

Bang!

2006-05-25T12:57:00.000+10:00

Bang
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

I have, tragically, forgotten the exact content of this drawing, suffice to say that it is something that goes 'bang' (a rocket, or a firework?) and that D'Arcy drew himslef twice 'cos the first time he was too big (or small.) I know, I should blog these things closer to the time that they occur, but I've been sick, and then I was away on the weekend.

I'm currently on hold with my soon to be ex-internet provider to get my account closed. They were good when all I wanted was dial-up, but now that I have broadband with another bunch they are redundant. They're not particularly attentive to this kind of enquiry it seems. I"ve been on hold for 15 mins now, interrupted by a bloke with an Indian accent saying "Hello, can I help you?" and then saying, after I told him what I wanted "I'll just transfer you straight to cancellations."

Long overdue

2006-05-14T20:54:00.000+10:00

sitting
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

I found this photo in my archives. It's from November last year. D'Arcy is sitting on his buddy from the playgroup we went to. The activity of the day was to make garlands and do some maypole dancing. D got bored early on in the process. Jenara is looking a LOT like her uncle Alex who I used to play with when I was their age.

In more recent news, we're still sick. I have the barking cough now. It rocks. Or not, as the case may be.

Yesterday D wnted a kebab for dinner. He had been to a friends birthday party earlier in the day, and reportedly eaten not much, but had a lot to drink (not THAT kind of drink), and run around like a maniac, So it was not at all surprising when, as we walked to the kebab shop that he announced he had a sore tummy. "What kind of sore?" I asked. "Like I'm going to have a vomit" "Right. Well, let's stop here a minute. If you need to vomit, do it on this tree" Fifteen seconds later, out it all came, very red. We were almost outside the kebab shop, and I suggested that we go home. "NO, I want a kebab. I'm hungry". After few minutes of arguing, I relented (after all, the worst thing that could happen was that he'd spew again) and he wolfed it down, followed (at home) by a fromage frais, a mandarin, some pomegranate, a lot of water, and an episode of Iron Chef. Just as he was going to sleep he said "My tummy hurts" again, so I got the bucket and prepared for a night of purging. Not to be, however. He slept like a log (not a baby - we all know they wake up every two hours and need a lot of attention).

Mother's day was good, apart from feeling sick. We went to church this morning, which was fun. The beloved had organised a present for D to give to me (and got me some flowers). Then we watched an episode of said present (which D'Arcy loves) and headed off to my mum's for afternoon tea. Four generations in attendance, with my stepfather's mum putting in an appearance.

Now I'm on the sofa waiting for my dinner, haing successfully dropped D'Arcy off at his dad's. Don't think I can last much longer though - my head hurts like anything.

Woof

2006-05-10T11:47:00.000+10:00

D'Arcy has had this spectacular barking cough for about three weeks now, and I'm beginning to feel the effects of sleepless nights. Also I'm beginning to feel the tickly throat and sore back that means the beginning of it for me. But I had to laugh when I was watching the budget coverage last night and someone off camera in the house of reps had a cough just like D's. "It must be doing the rounds then" I thought.

If wishes were fishes...

2006-04-28T18:50:00.000+10:00

D: Do dandelions really make wishes come true?
C: Sure, but it depends on what you wish for.
D: Like how? All the things I've ever wished for haven't worked. Have you had wishes come true?
C: Yeah, some...So what kind of things have you wished for that haven't come true? (thinks: do i want to know the answer to this question? His dad and I are never going to reconcile, the cat is dead...)
D: Well... um....(quietly) a toy air rifle with real bullets.
C: Ah (sighs). The problem you have here is that the wishing fairy isn't going to give you anything that your mum and dad don't want you to have.
D: So, what can I have?

I made a moon

2006-04-28T18:46:00.000+10:00

I made a moon
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

This is a moon model made out of plasticine and paper. It went to school to be admired by the multitudes, and got the sign written there.

Science project

2006-04-24T21:16:00.000+10:00

Science project
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

D'Arcy:"Can i grow an avocado seed?"
Me: "Sure"
D'Arcy: "How?"
Me: "Well, how about in a pot with some soil?"
Beloved: "How about we stick some toothpicks in it and suspend it in a jar of water?"
D'Arcy; "Cool"

So we did. No real action yet, beyond the splitting of the bottom of the seed - we keep expecting to see a root pushing out into the water, but not at this stage. We wait. And top up the water every now and then.

Stencil Art

2006-04-24T21:05:00.000+10:00

100_0682.jpg
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Dean and Ampersand Duck have both posted graffiti recently. I saw these a week or so ago on the way to a friend's exhibition opening, and took a photo. Late at night, with a flash. Not bad.

Nippy

2006-04-23T11:03:00.000+10:00

Nippy
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Well, it finally happened. Despite her great improvement the week after the first visit to the vet, Nippy went downhill again. So on Wednesday it became obvious that we needed to go back to the vet. I explained to D'Arcy that there probably wasn't anything that Mary-Anne (the vet) could do for Nippy now, and that she was going to die soon. I went on to talk about the injection that the vet could give her to help her to die more quickly and easily, rather than the slow and painful version she was currently experiencing. D'Arcy was not happy with this as an idea. He's generally very frightened and worried about death, so to him. something that might make you die faster, is a bad thing. Now in some ways, that is an attitude that I can understand, and I know I have to support him - aren't all 5 year olds afraid of death and dying? that doesn't change the fact though, that we had a terminally ill cat with end stage renal failure. She had stopped eating and was having great difficulty drinking, could get around a bit ("look mum, she can still ski herself") and walk a few steps.

So by Wednesday afternoon I couldn't really take it any more. I pretty much knew what was going to happen. We took her to the vet, who said "it's time. there's really nothing more we can do for her". We cried D'Arcy and I, and went out into the waiting room (I wanted to stay, but D'Arcy did not) and then they brought her back out, wrapped in a towel in her carrying box.

We brought her home and buried her in the garden, in a nice place, dappled sun. We cried as we dug her grave, and cried as we put her in. We noticed how strange her body felt, now that she wasn't in it anymore. We talked about what a great cat she was, what we love about her, what we missed, and we stroked her fur a lot. He made a lovely cross out of sticks from our big chinese elm, and put it on her grave.

Immediately afterwards, D'Arcy wanted to dig her up and see how she was going, but I reminded him that she would be all covered in dirt. "We could brush it off" was his solution. Then he wanted to swing on his rope, and after that he wanted to dig her up again.

We went through this a few tims in the next few days, with the interest gradually waning until yesterday we didn't go out to see her at all, and when his dad came to pick him up and asked "Do you want to show me where you buried Nippy?" the answer was an uninterested "Nah".

The amusing post script to all of this (because with a 5 year old there is always one) is that on Friday when we went to K-Mart D'Arcy said to the check-out chick "My cat died". She made sympathetic noises, upon which he said "Yes, the vet killed her".

Feeling better

2006-04-04T21:06:00.000+10:00

Nippy
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

I thought I'd write a post about the cat, but I'm aware that that is not a new concept.

She is feeling better, is up to pissing on the floor, but is also eating more now. When I took her back to the vet after a week of being at my house the vet asked "is this the same cat you brought me a week ago" on that visit we didn't think she'd last the week. This time she said "you could get another 12 good months out of her". Of course D'Arcy is happy about this. He's also thrilled that she is here at my place. She stays inside all the time, on the grounds that she's so old she'd be unable to defend any kind of territory, but she could still catch and eat things. She also gets freaked out by going outside, and tends to piss inside more.

School is getting better for D'Arcy. His reading is improving, he now sounds out words (and often works them out) before he says "I don't know" and uses some little mnemonics to remember the everyday words you see a lot (t-h-e spells the and the) which is good.

He's making friends better now the cliques are relaxing a bit. Most of the kids in his class went to either one of two govt preschools, I think D is the only one who didn't go. So the first few weeks the kids who went to preschool A only hung with each other and the same with the kids from preschool B. Fortunately some of the kids fromm preschool A also went to D'Arcy's child care, so he knew them, and could kind of hang on the outside of the clique. Well, now the kids from preschools A and B are playing with each other, and including D'Arcy. He's had lots of invitations to go around and play at other kids' houses, and we've invited some around too. It's still that thing where I'm trying to figure out whether I want to be friends with the mums of the kids he wants to be friends with. So far the one he's played with most, I'm not really drawn to but I sould give it time really. I tend to be a bit harsh a lot of the time when I meet new people (worried that they don't like me mostly) so I fail to act in a friendly and welcoming manner for a long time. Gotta change that I s'pose.

Tropical paradise? Where the bloody hell are you?

2006-03-21T23:16:00.000+11:00

lookingup
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Licuala, where this photo was taken in July last year is only a few ks from Innisfail where cyclone Larry and his 290k/hr winds made landfall. I hate to think what it looks like now. Innisfail is totally busted - there are some photos and news stories here . I can't help but cry when I look at them. I wonder how Chris and Gary (the ageing hippies) fared in their house with only one wall. They did OK 20 years ago when cyclone Winifried hit....The other thing is the devastating impact on the tropical fruit. Something like 95% of the nation's bananas are grown in that area, and 80% of them have been destroyed.

In other news, D'Arcy went to Adelaide with his dad to visit his grandma and had a great time - especially shooting with his uncle Barney and hanging out with his cousin baby Gemma.

Mouse score: i think it was a draw in the end. I have enlisted the help of the geriatric cat (by default). hen I dropped D at his dad's to go away on Thursday the cat was looking really crook, so I took her to the vet, not expecting good news. l got the "Cat's gonna die" talk from the vet, but also bought some special diet cat food from her, and got her to give Nippy some fluid injections. Much to my surprise when I took her home to my place, Nippy started eating and behaving more sensibly, so the day of judgement has been delayed a while. This is good 'cos D'Arcy loves her so much. Every time I talked to him in Adelaide he asked "How is Nippy? Is she still alive?". She is, and she is a good mouse deterrent. I finally found some of the good mouse traps that work, but I don't need them, it would seem. We also found the HUGEST dead rat in the garden.

Long weekend just passed, was spent at home entertaining, boozing and gardening. We went to mum's house for drinks on Friday night to celebrate the centenary of the birth of my grandfather. We had a phone hook-up with the Melbourne crowd too. Saturday night had a friend round for dinner and the beloved made fajitas and margaritas. Yum. Sunday we did some gardening with the new wheelbarow and planted rocket and parsley. Monday, bought a mattock and some bulbs for more gardening plans.

As usual I'm too tired to think now and have to get D'Arcy up at a sensible time for school and I'm s'posed to be helping in the classroom tomorrow, and going to some Harmony Day celebration at school..so I ought to get some sleep!

Mouse:6 Mummy Crit:0

2006-03-09T20:42:00.000+11:00

It's true, the Safe'n'Sure mousetrap was flawed, so yet again, the mouse feeding program has done its bit. I want this mouse DEAD!

We had some buddies over for a play this afternoon - Karyn, and her daughters Jenara and Yilani. The kids got nudie and played in the inflatable pool for some hours, which was great. It reminded me that D does play well with others and so he must soon settle at school.

His teacher is a bit concerned about his fine motor skills - writing and drawing, but we're not too fussed about it. We never really pushed him to learn to write, just followed his lead when he was interested, so again we assume thing will fall into place when the time is right.

Mouse:5 Mummy Crit:0

2006-03-08T22:27:00.000+11:00

Which sums it up. We have the world's smartest mouse, or the world's worst mousetraps. Bloody Shoprite. My mum has leant us one of those plastic ones like a big peg which she reckons do the trick. We'll see about that. I'm sick of running the mouse soup kitchen. I want it to be dead. We know that mice ar very fond of:peaches; pawpaw; peanut butter; and bacon fat (even tho it doesn't start with'p').

I did the second half of the school's 'volunteer training program' today. Very interesting, so now I can be one of the people who listens to the kids read. Scary, but exciting. Got into an argument with my stepfather this evening about phonics. He reckons it is great, and that the 'whole language' approach is flawed. I gotta say I reckon whole language is the way to go.I'm never in favour of teaching one thing in isolation, and more so in the area of phonics since today....anyway, it was interesting.

The artwork

2006-03-06T21:43:00.000+11:00

artwork
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

The Artist

2006-03-06T21:42:00.000+11:00

artwork
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Oh dear...

2006-03-05T22:16:00.000+11:00

I'm having one of those "I really should update the blog" weeks, or months, or whatever. Things are just getting out of control. Not enough sleep. Too many household infestations: started with ants when we moved in; then the possum made itself known coming in and out of the roof; now we have a mouse (as of the last few days) and I'm too lazy/disorganised a housekeeper to clean up properly. I did get the beloved to buy mousetraps at the stupid market on his way home the other day, but one busted when I was trying to set it, and the other is difficult to set, with the end result that the mouse came by, flogged the food from the trap, and went on its merry way. The night before it ate half a pawpaw. The night before that it ate half a peach - kind of like The Very Hungry Caterpillar I guess. Speaking of which, the lemon tree has not one, but two floppy orchard caterpillars on it (hi Davy). If the tree weren't so small I wouldn't worry so much, but they've eaten all the new growth. I need to get a Mexican orange blossom to feed them.

D'Arcy is making himself unpopular with me by being really obnoxious (telling me to shut up) and refusing to eat anything other than pasta with cheese, and fruit for dinner. Not helped by the fact that his dad bribes him with soft drinks and biscuits, and money to spend on chips at the school canteen. So now I'm the nasy one.

We did go to see Circus Oz eventually, minus the human cannonball, which was good fun. Realised that one of the performers is a local in the second half, a guy I've been watching doing tricks for about ten years. He's still great. There should be some photos with this, but I'm just too tired to get up and grab the cable for the camera (story of my life), and of course we wern't allowed to take them at the circus.

I should drag my exhausted body to bed. I'll try to be more upbeat next post...

Quotes from school

2006-02-23T12:16:00.000+11:00

Jumping Castle
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Dylan, do you want me to tell you what happens at school?

Sometimes you have to play on your own.

You don't get to see the teachers very much

The teachers don't have to tell you when it's inside time 'cos there's a bell that goes [klaxon]hoot[/klaxon]

MUMMY!!
I picked D'Arcy up at lunch time on Wednesday last week, and when he saw me he ran across the quadrangle and launched himself into my arms. *sigh*

I don't want to go to school, I'm too sick
Most days he says this. Most days I say "nonsense" and send him on his way. I'm so hard.

Campbell gave it to me
Except that Campbell didn't give it to him. Campbell gave to the teacher to mind, who put it on the edge of the whiteboard, where D'Arcy liberated it, and brought it home.

I'm going to be a teacher. It's more fun than being a kindy
Goes without saying really. He's still profoundly disturbed at the disappearance of the teachers at recess and lunch. His solution is to find whichever teacher is on playground duty and hang out with them, and help them. He may never get over this one, but I hope he starts hanging with a peer group soon. Actually, maybe I hope he doesn't. I don't know, It's all confusing.

We did go to play at a friend's house on the weekend, which was fun. The boys had fun, and so did the mums. It's a weird dynamic though, meeing new people and becoming friends with them, not because you've chosen them, but because your child has chosen their child. I guess it's a bit like being a child, where you don't alwys choose your own friends, but there are some friends you have 'cos your mums are already friends...

We're off to the circus tonight. We were supposed to go on Sunday, but there was a mishap with the human cannonball, requiring hospitalisation, so the Saturday and Sunday perfomances were cancelled. With any luck D'Arcy will have a disco nap and not fall asleep half way through.

Today's photo was taken by the beloved on his new (wanky) Palm treo, and i didn't have a chance to crop it, sorry, but I like the wierd cartoon figure on the right. The jumping castle was outside the massive new hardware store where we went on the weekend.

first day of school

2006-02-11T23:30:00.000+11:00

first day of school
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

So the first week has passed now. the first day was slightly traumatic, as you'd expect, but we all acquitted ourselves pretty well.

D'Arcy was with his dad on the first day, so I went there early in the morning, and we all walked together. We found which of the three kindergarten classes he was in - fortunately the one with the other two children from his child-care centre for the last 2 years - and got him settled. Interestingly, there were a lot of kids who had brought both parents along for the big day, and after we'd left our children we trooped up to the staff room for the morning tea that the P&C had put on for us. We met the father of a set of twins in D'Arcy's class, who I knoew when i was tiny - I went to school with his youngest brother, and my best friend's family was good friends with his family, so that was fun (re)introducing myself to him.

I had to go off to work, so didn't stay too long at the morning tea, but also met a woman who had worked in my workplace for a few weeks while I was away, but by mutual agreement didn't stay on. She is a bit odd. Amusingly, when i asked D who he'd played with on his first day, the person he named first was this woman's daughter.

D'Arcy likes his teacher, but isn't too into school. The days are a bit long, and going every day is a drag, he thinks. His current attitude seems to be"but I've been for a week, surely that is enough?"

They seem to do a lot of playing, especially at the beginning and end of the day, and D is enjoying filling us in on all the rules (where you line up to go into class). He's also liked going to the library and meeting the grade 6 buddies, who come and read to them, and generally be friends with them - a good thing for the littlies I reckon.

The picture here is a worksheet for "writing all the words and letters I know at the end of my first week". D'Arcy's is,of course, very much an abstract work, but things will change soon. We know he can write his name, and count up to 275, so it can't be all bad!

in other news, the beloved arrived today. This is good. he has gone to bed, exhausted by a hard evening of watching the winter olympics opening ceremony. I will be joining him there as soon as I get this post done. Some guy is singing "nessun dorma" prob'ly the Pav, i guess. Yep, just went to look at the telly, and there he was in all his glolry.

D'Arcy is at the coast with his dad this weekend, which is pretty good, and we have him next weekend. We'll ease into life a bit, but we're going to the massive Bunnings tomorrow, and then to a BBQ. What fun! Yep. I'm tired. I'm off to bed. the broadband isn't perfect - one of the sockets is buggered, and we can't seem to use the airport magic device, so stuck with cables at the moment. blech.

yay broadband

2006-02-09T17:12:00.000+11:00

Finally!!!! I have the internet at home at a sensible speed.

Expect more news soon, specifically a school update.

D'Arcy's tree

2006-02-05T22:46:00.000+11:00

more house
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

D'Arcy took this photo of his tree the same day we put the rope up for swinging. He's been having a ball with it, but refused an offer to help him get up into it for a climb, for fear of spiders.

On Thursday last week we went to the pool and ran into everyone we knew, including Ampersand Duck and Bumblebee, much to D'Arcy's excitement. They ran away together to paddle in the baby pool where they met up with a buddy of D's from pre-school.

I've now also bought a ridiculously cheap wading pool for the back yard so that we can get cool without paying vast sums of money, we sat in it on friday evening, and golly, did it make a difference!

We're counting down the days until the beloved arrives (6), and still fielding regular cranky moment of "i don't want to go to school on Monday" I'm fairly sure it will all pan out OK though.

Not much else to report, I tried to write an entry on Friday night when things were fresher, but Blogger had a spazz and so it didn't work.

We have a phone!!!!

2006-02-02T22:02:00.000+11:00

house
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Finally, the big day arrived - the guys came to install the phone, broadband and cable tv....after an hour and a half they had the phone functioning, but bugger all from the cable box. So still I wait for the internet access of my dreams.

Other news, this is a photo of D'Arcy swinging from his rope in the tree in the back yard. Since the swinging the rope has stretched and his back scrapes the ground, so we need to fine tune it all, but he seems to like it. Notice the asbestos/cement sheet roof on the house.

He starts school next week, and is not looking forward to it at all. He doesn't like the idea of all day every day, and says he will miss me, and his dad, and Nippy (the cat). I believe him too. I'll miss him. I reckon I'll do some volunteering at the school once life calms down a bit. The beloved arrives at the end of that first week (not the best timing, but that is how it is I guess.)

I've had a house guest a few nights a week - Phil from work who has a house in the mountains, but whose town house arrangements recently fell through, so I offered him a few weeks of 2 nights a week in the spare room in exchange for some work around the house. He has excelled himself by fixing the 'asbestos cupboard' as it is known (laundry cupboard with big holes in the asbestos sheeting). He's covered it with new cement sheet, sealed and painted, with help from D'Arcy who asked all day today "when is Phil coming back?" He loves a project, my boy. There are some photos of that at Flickr.

Bloody hot here 35+ for days on end, somebody make it stop!

D just wandered out of the bedroom down the hallway to find me. 10pm. First time he's ever done it at night, but usually I'm reading in bed with him. So I'd better get off to bed anyway.

AARRGGHH!!

2006-01-19T20:20:00.000+11:00

Disclaimer: Please excuse any lapses in G rated content within this post. Circumstances are currently very trying.

OK, so we moved house on 22/12. All good so far. Christmas went well, not too hot and D had a good time. I managed to get the old house cleaned up in time, even though I had D'Arcy full time while his dad had a holiday. On the 4th they both went down the coast for a week and I worked like a total bastard, as the boss was short staffed. Great, but the new house was still in boxes.

Then the bad news hit, I rang the phone company to find out how my installation was progressing in the queue, and was told that it wasn't. The idiot who processed it had 'saved' it (put it in limbo) instead of confirming it. So no phone. No broadband. The situtation went from bad to worse, and the projected installation time is 'first week of Feb'. Fuckwits. I'm in the middle of drafting a letter to their customer service manager to get them to pay me lots of money.

The good news. The beloved has had his visa application approved and should be arriving in the second week of Feb. Lets hope I get the phone on before then.

Still no house photos. Sorry. Lack of internet has got in the way there. I'm currently at my mum's house using her broadband. Thanks mum!

The new hosue is great, despite still being full of boxes, I occasionally get to fix that, but by bit, and when the beloved's furniture arrives we can really get things set up the way we want them.

Work is good, if chaotic. Christmas is full-on, and post christmas too. Things are almost back to normal now.

Missing blogger a lot, but reading more. I hope to be able to visit you all again soon.

Changes

2005-12-18T00:15:00.000+11:00

I have been somewhat in communicada and will continue to be so, because we're moving house! Pretty exciting. 4 bedrooms, nice big garden. I'll post some piccies when I have some. I've organised the phone/cableTV/internet blokes to come around and drill holes in the wall and feed cables through, but they can't do it until "after Christmas". This means no phone except mobile, and more importantly, no internet connection...sad but true. I'll have the phone on at my old place until the 28th, so can check email and surf a bit when I come back to clean (ha!) On the upside, my internet connection will be infinitely faster and better afterwards.

D'Arcy is a bit excited, but not thrilled. It means moving from having a friend right across the road, to moving somewhere new, but he starts school in Feb, and our new place is _really_ close to a friend from pre-school, so I guess it won't be all bad. There's a massive tree in the garden, good for climbing, setting up a swing, or a tree-house.

Hey mum!

2005-12-04T23:08:00.000+11:00

Hey mum!
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

So I was in the kitchen washing up the other day. D'Arcy was amusing himself in the lounge room, quietly. A little too quietly perhaps. As a mother I know that when it all goes very quiet, that is the time to go and check up on the current state of occupation. This time he wasn't poking holes in the flyscreen with the fork, or squeezing the toothpaste out of the tube on to the bench, or unrolling all the toilet paper on to the floor (or into the toilet). No. Just as I was taking off my gloves to investigate.... "hey mum. look at this". And a suitably deadpan mugshot ensued. Thank goodness he only put them in his hair.

hand puppet

2005-11-24T22:14:00.000+11:00

hand puppet
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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!)

Riding Through Puddles

2005-11-22T22:11:00.000+11:00

Riding Through Puddles
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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.

The Artist at Work

2005-11-20T23:25:00.000+11:00

The Artist at Work
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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.

Quick Mum, get the bucket!

2005-11-15T21:58:00.000+11:00

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?

Milestone

2005-11-06T00:27:00.000+11:00

Buzz
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

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....

Miracle (of a sort - actually a fairly dull story of loss and recovery)

2005-11-04T23:09:00.000+11:00

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"

birthday

2005-10-31T22:11:00.000+11:00

birthday
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

The birthday boy in all his glory. Jacket by Mancare (op shop, Salvation Army) Badge by birthday...

In the background you can see the NEW BIKE which has been a great success. Some other presents of note: A chess set from my dad; a music box from his friend Jenara; a pair of spring loaded 'guns' that shoot out little foam discs; some magnetic construction thingys; a watch; and a lot of books.

The party was huge - lots of kids, lots of parents - a bit too big really. Neither his dad nor I got to actually talk to people much, we were too busy in the kitchen, organising.

It didn't rain (much) so the multitudes could go outside and play - we didn't have any organised games much, though we were going to play "pin the tail on the Nippy"(cat) but time got away from us...

We had lots of food, put on a barbie, and ate 3 cakes: my batman one, and Nick made a pav, and Nick and D'Arcy made a sour cherry and coconut one too. All eaten.

I'm buggered. Been working way too much.

cake

2005-10-31T21:58:00.000+11:00

cake
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

D'Arcy has just turned 5 and had his party on Sunday. He wanted a Batman cake, so my task was set. Annoyingly I couldn't find any of the gel stuff to decorate cakes, especially I couldn't find any in black. So I turned to liquorice to make the logo. Looked good in the end, but made the cake hard to cut, I had to take the logo off. The other disaster was that when it came to ice it, I had to pay the hippy tax. I'd bought some unrefined icing sugar, which looked great, but when I added the liquid, it went dark, so when I then added the blue food colouring it went GREEN. Bugger. Of course it needed to be blue, D'Arcy is a devotee of the old camp 60s Batman, and blue would not do. It was too late to get more icing sugar (and butter) so I had to wait until the morning. All worked out well in the end, as you can see.

Ycrad

2005-10-31T21:51:00.000+11:00

Ycrad
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Sunday school a few weeks ago, this happened. One of the readings was about the commandments - the first one is love your god, the second one is like it, love your neighbour etc. So the topic for sunday school for the littlest ones was to make a furry toy to love and care for, and make a house for it.

D'Arcy has been talking about reading for a while and spelling things out with his fridge letters, including his name, One trick is to rearrange the letters and ask "What does it say now, mummy?" On one occasion he reversed his name completely, so I said 'it says Ycrad'. Ycrad has now become a sort of alter ego, so when he had to think of a name for his furry toy, Ycrad was an obvious choice. Interestingly, when he wrote it on the house, he reflected the C and the D, so it is really mirrored, and he put in the apostrophe. Getting ready for school.

Cowbell

2005-10-31T21:43:00.000+11:00

Cowbell
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

Yes. Hello. Back from a long busyness, still busy, but made some blog time...

So, the beloved went to Switzerland earlier this year. He sent us some cowbells as souveneirs. D'Arcy asked how the cows wear them, and when told they hung from collars, his only question was "where can we get one?". So when the cat needed a new collar, he purloined the old one and strung a bell on it. Then demanded that I take a photo. "Hold me back!!" I replied, and here we are.

Genealogy

2005-10-11T00:37:00.000+10:00

Princess
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.

OK, so my cousin has a daughter who is a few weeks older than D'Arcy (the daughter's name is Laura). I have a question for the genealogists out there....

Are D'Arcy and Laura second cousins? What do you call my relationship with Laura? (We refer to her as 'cousin Laura' to distinguish her from another relative called Laura).

Cousin Laura had a birthday party which was fancy dress. There was a general theme of 'star wars' but I didn't let on to D'Arcy about that - it wouldn't mean much. So I told him it was a dress-up party and asked him what he wanted to wear.

As a 4 year old, he has a range of cool dress ups: Bob The Builder costume purchased in the US last Halloween; a fairy costume - wings, skirt, wand; astronaut overalls from the NASA camp in Tennessee - same as the ones they wear on the shuttle; lots of pretty dresses...

D'Arcy decides, after some deliberation "I want to dress up as a princess".

Foundation garments for a 4 year old boy were a skivvy and tights. Top layer: royal blue velvet dress, pinned up at the front to stop him tripping on it, which created a 'train' effect at the back; lots of strings of beads; little blue satin handbag; purple plastic shoes (rejected in favour of elastic sided boots, as seen in photo); very spiffy plastic tiara.

I didn't get a photo of the whole ensemble before we left home (a dog would learn) and of course when we got there, the first thing D'Arcy saw was the trampoline in the back garden so he took off his dress and started jumping. I only managed to persuade him to put it back on for this photo briefly, and then he took it off again.

Interesting how much like a girl he looks when dressed as one, and how much like a boy he looks when dressed as one. His hair is pretty long at the moment, which adds to the girly effect. My aunt and I were comparing him with other children, and noticing how some of them would never be mistaken for the opposite. While some are still quite ambiguous. At that age I was always being mistaken for a boy, but I did have short hair, and mum dressed me in trousers a lot (much more sensible, as DArcy proved, you can't have as much fun in a dress) and it was the 70s...

Until we got his hair cut for the first time at 2 eveyone thought D'Arcy was a girl, and then he instantaneously turned into a a boy, I have photos of the transformation. it was weird.