Connor saunters into the kitchen with his train “Look what I can do Mom!”

I look a little closer to see that he’s wrapped the cord from a pull-along train around his neck and the train is dangling down his back!

FREAK OUT!!

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On the way to the shops to get toys for them because they finished their star charts successfully, Connor and Bradley were chatting about the star charts and when they’re naughty etc.

Bradley says “I’ve learnt to accept my punishment now.  That’s why I don’t cry when I get time out, I’m just quiet. ”

Talk about digging a knife into my heart and twisting it!! That hurt!!

A conversation overheard between Bradley and Connor this evening:

Connor chanting in a sing-song voice in the bathroom as they’re getting into the bath “boys are special, boys are special, boys are special”

Bradley “Girls are special too”

Connor “No, they’re not”

Bradley “But then, is Mommy special, because she’s a girl”

Connor “No she’s not…. “  silence then “but she is special”

Connor again “I don’t like girls”

Bradley “I don’t like some girls too… but they’re all still special”

Awww, isn’t he the best?

Connor out of the blue this evening says “Mommy, why is my brain hiding?”

It took me quite a while to figure out what he meant .  He really can’t work out why his brain isn’t on the outside of his head!

Remember the post on my photoblog the other day about Bradley getting the term merit?  Well, Lance was cornered by the teacher this morning about it.

Apparently it wasn’t just term merit – it was the year’s merit! She said he’s streaks ahead of the other kids in the class academically.  And the cherry on top for her, was the way that he handled the bullying saga a few weeks ago… she’s very impressed with him apologising the next day and making sure that him and the child in question are now OK about it.

I’m so proud of him

Then, I have to tell you about this conversation I had with him in the car yesterday morning.  We’d been discussing the time because we were late for their hair appointments, and I said that the time was the next thing I had to teach him… well, that and tying his shoe laces.

To which he responds “Mom, you know the plastic bits on the ends of shoe laces?  That’s called an aglet”

LOL! He stores the most amazing arb facts in his head!

Overheard just now as I’m drinking my tea…

Bradley: Dad, did you go to Grade 12?

Lance: Yes, my boy

Connor:  And did you come back?

LOL!! Too cute!

We had such a lovely afternoon today.  I took the boys to my mom’s house for tea the fun way… Bradley rode his bike, Connor rode on his little bike scooter and I walked-ran the whole way and Lance went in the car.  My mom lives just down the road from us, so it wasn’t too difficult to do.

I was quite impressed that Connor almost made it all the way there.  He only gave up 3 houses away from my mom’s house and asked me to carry his bike.

Then, after tea and cake and a bit of playtime, we headed home.  This time however, we loaded the bikes into the car, and went home the easy way… but not before a beaut of a conversation with Bradley.

Lance was busy opening the boot of the car, which was parked on the pavement.  My parents were outside, as well as Elaine.  All of a sudden, Bradley pipes up “Mommy says that Daddy has magic hands”

LOL! What?!!  And we all packed up laughing, I’m sure my face was the colour of beetroot!  I don’t think my parents knew quite what to say!

So I said “Why did I say that?”  because I sure as heck couldn’t remember ever saying that to Bradley!

Bradley: “Daddy has magic hands because he can always open his boot and you can’t”

Hehe!! Thankfully he had a good explanation

He’s finally starting to say a few more words.

Todays new words were milk (he wanted a cup of normal milk not a bottle) and cheese!!  Cool hey?  He’s not talking very clearly, and you do have to decipher quite a bit, but if you listen hard enough, he is actually saying proper words.

His sign language is improving too, which we’re not sure we’re happy about… the more he signs, the less he talks.  His latest sign is to pull his earlobe in the direction of a sound if he’s heard something, and then he copies the sound.

This is particularly apparent in the evenings when our resident frog makes it’s noisy appearance!

Oh and btw, the damn frog has laid eggs in our pool!! We found tadpoles last week which Lance cleared out, and then we found more frogs eggs today!  And if you’re wondering how they’ve survived so long… we have 2 pools that are joined… a normal adult pool, and a kiddies paddling pool.  The kiddies pool is too shallow for a pool cleaning system and gets manually cleaned on weekends… hence the safe haven for the frog!

Marlise and her 2 kids came over on Saturday for a braai (bbq) and a playdate (Tommie was playing paintball).  Now, they’re Afrikaans speaking at home, but their kids are biligual and speak English very well, so the communication between her kids and my kids have never been an issue.

Bradley is fascinated by languages at the moment, yet he can only speak English (even though Lance is Afrikaans speaking).  Even though he can’t understand when people talk in different languages, he always tries to decipher which language they’re speaking in, and what they’re saying.  He’s also picked up one or two phrases from Marlise and her kids over the last few months, which he’s very proud to blurt out.

We laughed so much on Saturday, because out of the blue, Bradley sauntered over to the table outside and said to Marlise… “I know some Afrikaans Marlise!”

… to which she replied “So, what can you say in Afrikaans?”

Bradley replies “Kom hierso!” (come here)

“… and Hoe Gaan Dit” (How are you?”)

“… and Wena!!” …. Ooops, that’s not Afrikaans, that’s Sotho!! LOL!! It means You!  And it’s normally accompanies by Hey, as in Hey Wena (ie Hey You)!!

LOL, at least he grouped languages from the same country together.