I found this YouTube clip posted on my sister-in-law’s (Nicole) Facebook wall, and then my mom noticed that one of my images had been included, so I had to share it.

My image was taken at Connor’s birthday party (link to the party), not sure if you remember… Fiona’s son Ethan had got injured in the pool, and thankfully Carl and Nicole were there and called ER24 or else we would have really damaged him. Wow that video brought back lots of memories from that eventful day.

ER24 asked me a few days later if they could use images from the day, which is why they had it (and Fiona agreed).

It’s quite a video actually… the guys in emergency services in South Africa all deserve medals

Last night, Connor went into the kitchen and said to Lance “Dad, I found the scissors, I’ll just put them away”

Lance thanked him and carried on doing whatever he was doing.

Then it was bathtime.

And we noticed his new hairdo

Connor vehemently denied cutting his hair, but once he realized we thought it was funny and he wasn’t in trouble, he answered our questions

He not only cut his hair, but he hid the evidence completely!! He picked up every single hair from the floor and put them in the dustbin before taking the scissors back to the kitchen.

Oh well at least his hair grows back quickly. Although I do think I’ll have to see if a barber can make it look slightly better

The only thing I’m really worried about him with scissors is his eyes.  So after a quick giggle, I told him that he needs to be careful with scissors because he could poke his eyes out.  ”That’s not a problem, Mommy”, he responded “I’ll just get a glass eye instead”.

I arrived home after Saturday’s photoshoot to be greeted by the kids all dressed up and ready to go to Madelein’s house for a halloween evening. I was seriously impressed with their attempts which were completely their own ideas because I forgot (bad mom) to buy extra dressup things like I’d promised, and because I wasn’t at home they didn’t have any help sourcing their outfits from their cupboards and toy boxes.

Connor went at the Ultimate Darth Vader.  Ultimate because he was carrying guns as well as swords.  And how clever is this outfit?  He wore a batman cape (from an old batman dressup outfit), skateboarding knee and elbow pads, 2 Star Wars swords and 2 water pistols

Bradley dressed up as a Were-warrior.  He wore an old knights outfit (which is actually too small for him, hence the need for me to go find new dressup stuff), and a werewolf mask with 2 swords!

And if you’re reading this from the US and thinking that my kids are deprived because they don’t have proper costumes… bear in mind that Halloween hasn’t really caught on in South Africa

I LOVE that they used their imaginations for this!

I took the day off today, the main reason was so that I could go and watch Connor’s school concert.  It was so very sweet! And we are so very proud of him!! His little skit was Jack and Jill, and he sang and did all the moves beautifully!

I really liked how the whole concert was done actually.  It was so nice that the kids were all in small skits with about 6 of them in each… so they all got their moment in the spotlight.  And the rest of the time they sat on the stands and sang along to the music.

Bradley and his best friend Angelique managed to sneak in the beginning, and were watching from the entrance until their break was over and they had to go back to class.

If you’re wondering how I did the photos, I didn’t use a flash and my ISO was 1600… so had to adjust the colours quite a bit because the spotlights on their faces were red and purple.

I did a list with Connor’s favourite things a few days ago, and here are Bradley’s current favourite things…

TV programme:  Star Wars
iPhone App:  Words with Friends… yip, that’s right… if you’re playing against me, you actually can’t be sure whether Bradley has made the last move or me.  As soon as he notices that it’s my turn, he makes a beeline for the app.
Meal:  homemade hamburgers
Fruit:  the only fruit he eats is watermelon and naartjies… and if we’re lucky an apple every now and then
Vegetable:  potatoes and carrots and broccoli
Breakfast:  chocolate pronutro with warm milk which he now makes himself
Drink:  vanilla flavoured milk
Drinking yogurt flavour:  strawberry
Sweets:  This week it’s an Aero chocolate

Chips/crisps:  plain salted Lays or salt and vinegar chips
Toy:  Lego and action men
Colour:  blue
Something that happened yesterday: He’s starting to read Afrikaans books, and now gets one Afrikaans book a week to read as homework.  It’s quite funny to hear him try and pronounce the words, and I’m sure that Lance now regrets the decision to not let them be bilingual at home.  Bradley is so keen though, but it’s not easy to relearn the way that letters sound in a word… especially when he’s only recently learnt how to spell comfortably in English.

I saw this on Cat’s blog, and decided to do it too.  It’s always a good idea to remember what the boys like at various points in time.

TV programme:  Star Wars
iPhone App:  Pet Zoo, he’s obsessed with checking to see whether he has to pick up rubbish in the animal enclosures and whether there’s enough money to buy more animals
Meal:  Spaghetti bolognese
Fruit:  grapes and strawberries.
Vegetable:  broccoli
Breakfast:  Squillos if I let him
Drink:  At the moment vanilla flavoured milk
Drinking yogurt flavour:  Granadilla
Sweets:  Anything with sugar
Chips/crisps:  Tomato fritos or those prawn chips from Woolies
Toy:  Anything that looks like the Star Wars weapons, and Lego men
Colour:  blue
Something that happened yesterday: Last night, he got hold of my phone to check on his zoo, and hid under the diningroom table to play. It was bath time and he wasn’t listening, so I shouted at him to get in the bath. I heard him run and assumed he had gone to the bathroom, but soon realised it was too quiet. So I went looking for him. Neither Lance nor I could find him anywhere. We checked in all the usual places, under the beds, in the cupboards, behind the curtains and in the other shower. Nothing. As I was walking back through my bedroom for the 3rd time, I noticed the laundry basket move ever so slightly. He was inside!! As quiet as a mouse! It’s amazing how long he’ll stay in a dark cramped space just to hide from everyone!  There was no way I could shout at him after that… I was too impressed.

There’s a car guard at the local Spar who knows me quite well now, and when I come out the shop with a trolley, he takes it from me and makes a beeline for my car without me having to direct him. Tonight, we struck up a bit of a conversation after I noticed him smiling at Connor and shaking his head.

As Connor got out the car when we first arrived, he did something he doesn’t normally do.  He waited for me to get my bag out the boot, and then just walked across the parking lot to the door.  He didn’t even look!! He knows he’s not allowed to walk across a road without me holding his hand. And there was a car coming out of a parking… thank God the car was going slowly and stopped.  I gave him a mouthful and he thankfully realised then what he did… and was sheepish for all of 30 seconds.  My oath it was close!!

Anyhoo, when we got back to the car, I had to shout speak to him again because he was standing in the middle of an empty bay instead of right next to the car, and he was trying to play fight with Bradley.  That’s when I noticed the car guard smiling at Connor.

So I said “He’s not listening. Did you see what he did earlier?”

He replied with words similar to this “Yes.  What you are doing cannot be paid for.  Being a mom is the most important thing to him, and he won’t be able to pay you.  But they will remember forever.”

That shut me up. And I wondered what the story was behind what he said.  I wonder where his mom is?

The first thing Bradley asked me when he saw me this evening, was whether I noticed anything about him.  It didn’t take me long to see the new gap in his mouth.. he’s been waiting for that tooth to come out.  And in fact, so have we, because he’s been pushing it completely backwards for the last few days… and that gives me the heebee-jeebees

The problem is, his tooth is missing… he thinks he swallowed it at lunchtime.

But the school secretary did the sweetest thing when he had to go to the office because his mouth was bleeding.  She typed up a note for the tooth mouse, explaining the situation.  If you can’t read the blurry photo (because Bradley was moving a LOT and the iPhone camera isn’t that fast) it says:

“Dear Tooth Mouse,

I am sorry but I swallowed my tooth so you can’t have it for your castle. I promise you can have my next tooth that falls out. Please could you consider still giving me money for my tooth.

Thanks

Bradley”

And therein lies the reason for many questions tonight, from both boys.  She wrote the letter to the tooth mouse, and we’ve always talked about the tooth fairy.

Now I’ve been hoping that his belief in the tooth fairy would keep going for some time… and thankfully this hiccup hasn’t stopped the magic at all. At bathtime the conversation was about the castle that the fairies are building, and eventually Bradley said that he didn’t believe that… he knows that the teeth are used for stars. And then at bedtime, there was another conversation about the tooth mouse, and Bradley told us about his friend who got a note from the tooth mouse once with mouse prints on the paper!! And he wondered whether he’d get proof like that this time.

But then in his next breath, he said wasn’t sure what would happen this time when the fairy arrived and the note was addressed to the mouse instead.  I told him that the fairy would just smile, and still leave the money.

This tooth fairy had better freaking remember to deposit a few Rand under his pillow tonight, or else there’ll be trouble!  I just wish the tooth fairy had some glitter in the house so she could sprinkle some fairy dust onto the note.

I don’t often blog about things that Bradley says anymore, mostly because he’s so big now and he doesn’t say “cute” things anymore. But sometimes the conversations around words and reading them just need to recorded.

He’s reading up a storm now, and my Kindle was his favourite pastime while we were on holiday… and he loved using the dictionary function to help him understand new words that he was reading. He’s also trying to understand acronyms and the reasons why words are what they are.

A few days ago, he had this conversation with Lance, and I was listening in.

Bradley: “Daddy, what does ATM mean?”

Lance: “It stands for automatic teller machine”

Bradley: “That’s what Mommy said, but the machine doesn’t tell me anything”

LOL!! He’s right, cannot argue with that!

A discussion in the car somewhere on the N2 between Mooi River and
Harrismith.

Connor: “Daddy, when will you be a policeman?”
Lance: “Never, I’m too old”
Connor: “But you were in the army”
Lance: “yes but that was a long time ago when I was young”
Connor: “Well, I’m going to be a police”
Lance: “But then you won’t be able to buy a Ferrari cos they don’t earn a lot of money”
Connor: “but I can get a gun”
Lance: “But when you’re big you can just buy a gun ”
Connor: “and can I still shoot baddies?”
Lance: “no”
Connor: “then who can I shoot?”

He wasn’t happy with any of the answers cos they didn’t involve shooting people.

Funny child.