Belated and Brief Update

It seems I’ve been missing for a bit. Life has a tiresome habit of getting in the way of regular blogging! So here's a simplified update on what we've been up to - the very ordinary lives of, well, us.

We had an active time leading up to the end of term at school, with school Sports Day and Under Eights Day, and lots of other things besides. Phew. Sports Day was great fun - Little Man got 2nd place in a relay, having run strategically and come up from behind to surprise another team. We were still hearing about his brilliant tactic days later :) Despite lacking in confidence at the start of the day, I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Princess particularly enjoyed getting 1st place in the wheelchair race (between her and one other boy who'd recently had complex surgery on his foot) - it helped that her 'pusher' was a fit young student teacher, keen and raring to go!

She also had fun in the Prep Relay race, the Jumping Ball race (with the ball between her legs while one of her friends pushed her chair, jumping), the Egg and Spoon race (holding the spoon ever-so-tightly!), Throw the Bean-bag in the Bucket, and of course cheering on her team for other events. She took a keen interest in the tallying of house points and was keen to scorn the other houses at any opportunity - we will teach her about good sportsmanship for next year!

Princess also ended Term 2 of school by receiving a Student of the Week award at her mainstream school! She was awarded for speaking up and answering questions loudly and clearly without the pregnant pause we've come to expect from her. Or, as her teacher put it "Patient [Princess] perceived the perils of Prep, prudently, quelling a penchant for prattle and proceeding with precision" (apparently the preppers really dig alliteration). Yay for Princess!

We were present at the whole school assembly at which she received her award. We were worried how Little "everyone in the WHOLE school knows HER, and nobody even knows I'm her brother!" Man would feel about it. So it was really extra special when Mr C, the school principal, invited Little Man up to the front of assembly as Princess' Important Older Brother, to assist her in receiving her award. I couldn't really see what was going on for the tears in my eyes, but I could tell Little Man was happy and proud to receive the acknowledgement he's craved all year, and Princess was genuinely surprised and thrilled. Of course, it was right at that time that my camera battery failed, but thanks to my good friend Merc, we have a picture to show...

During the school holidays, Little Man finally got a haircut (never thought it would happen, thank goodness he's open to bribes!), but even better than that, we celebrated his eighth birthday! We took him and a bunch of his good friends to the movies, followed by a feast of sushi, chips, vegie sticks, cake and lollies (all his faves). I've never heard the "you look like a monkey" version of Happy Birthday sung in such spontaneous unison before, and with such gusto! Little Man couldn't have been prouder. Awww. Here he is opening presents...

He has a talent for hamming things up, among many other things. These pics deserve to see light of day somewhere, may as well be here...

Happy Birthday Little Man. Here's looking to a fantastic year of being 8!

And finally a mention for wee Chuckles. Well, not so wee any more. Chuckles is bounding along - he's a happy fellow who adores his older brother at all the worst possible times, reveres his older sister but not enough to not steal toys/food/mummy's cuddles from her, and has the audacity to yell back at her when she yells at him for these misdemeanors! He often gets shuttled around from one commitment to the next, and it turns out he is a great companion throughout the day. And he is soooo adorably cheeky, he just always puts a smile on my face.

So that's a very small bit about us for now. Will try and post more often - easy to say, harder to do...