General update

Apparently one of the first things to drop off when life gets busy is this blog... the last post was well over a month ago. So here's a bit of a summary of what's been happening...:

Mrs Edwards sitting next to her 'board of power'... it shows points the students have earned (and lost!) through doing good things; Linc was doing exceptionally badly, prompting us to make an appointment with the teacher; the day after we spoke to the teacher he had almost doubled his points...! Turns out he was mostly losing points for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Linc is loving school; he is doing very well, and developing at a greater rate than ever before. We read his school books every single night and he absolutely loves reading; he reads just about every word he sees throughout his day, and is picking up his 'sight words' (words that can't be described with a picture) really well.

We have signed up both kids to swimming once a week (thanks to Nan and Grandad!) and they have taken to it like a fish to water (!); they are both doing so much better than we thought they might (i.e. we thought they would be quite apprehensive). In fact, Lincoln has already moved up a class!

Unfortunately the whole family has had a bout of illness over the last two weeks; Carter had tonsillitis and an ear infection at the same time which was treated by antibiotics; then Linc got sick (which was to be expected) so he went on antibiotics, but also got prescribed an asthma preventer and was 'officially' diagnosed with asthma. Anyway, then just as Carter seemed to be getting better he got sick again, back to the doctor with a chest infection... back on antibiotics. Then Dad got sick - the day before we were due to go to see Dave Matthews Band in Sydney! And as Mum's parents were away, Chook offered to look after the boys and ended up staying at our house so our kids didn't infect hers! (Thankyou so much Chook!)... We went anyway, and it was a fantastic concert; although the whole trip was a bit rushed. Now Mum is sick, but both boys are doing much better having just finished their rounds of antibiotics!

We have signed Lincoln up to start Soccer; his team will be called the Strikers and will play each Saturday starting in May - exciting stuff as Dad played soccer for many many years (and Grandad coached for a number of those years!).

Easter long weekend has come and gone; Mum worked three of the four days off, so we made the most of today, starting off with an easter egg hunt at the AFP K9 facility. Then Dad took Linc to Georgina's birthday party where he got to catch up with his best mate Jeremy and he had a ball.

General update

As Linc completes his fifth week of Kindergarten, we are thanking our lucky stars that he is now quite happy to go to school, and has made a number of friends. He started off with just one friend (Cooper) but now talks about Javier, Jasper, Ava etc. which is nice to hear. Mum has been making an effort to meet parents at school, and also volunteers twice a week to read books to kids in Linc's class. This appears to have helped Linc fit in, as the other kids are happy to see 'Linc's Mum' when she goes to the school to read. His interim report arrived today, and everything is apparently progressing well.

Carter appears to be coping well without Linc. And Mum appears to be coping well without Linc! The boys continue to have their disagreements, although they generally play well. The below photo is an obvious exception!

Linc picked up a stomach flu which resulted in him vomiting every day for almost five days. Mostly he got it in a bucket or toilet...mostly. He also didn't eat very much, which wasn't great as he doesn't have a lot of excess fat to burn!

Linc sleeping in our bedroom (it was closer to the toilet)...

We've finally had a decent amount of rainfall over the last few weeks, although having it spaced out a bit would have been nice. On one occasion it was raining at 149 mm per hour! But the 4000l tank is full, and I've worked out it saves us between $10.20 and $20.40 in water per tank (depending on the water rate).

Mum has tendonitis in her wrist and is understandably quite grumpy because of it. It certainly makes everyday tasks a bit more painful (for everybody).

Linc's first day at Kindergarten

We knew that Linc might get a bit overwhelmed with starting at a new school, compounded by all of the hype surrounding starting KINDERGARTEN, and so Mum and Dad both took Linc to school for his first day. He lined up with his class on the concrete quadrangle, with Mum and Dad at each end of the line; next thing all lines of classes of all ages stood up and started to disperse - and we lost Linc. We eventually located him (another Mother had found him), but the damage was already done... in his eyes we had abandoned him to the big wide world of uncertainty and confusion and he did not want us to leave him!

The time came, however, when all parents had to leave and, with both Linc and Mum in tears, we left him with one of the teacher's assistants to distract him long enough to make our getaway.

Dad took this afternoon off work and we both were there waiting for Linc when he finished at 1510hrs; he looked like he had had a great day, but he also looked a little exhausted... can't imagine what he will be like at the end of this week (a full week in the first week back is probably a bit much IMHO)...

now Linc... if anyone gives you any bother, I'll knuckle 'em...

Huskisson / Happy 5th birthday Linc!

We have only just recovered from five nights at Huskisson for our annual three-families holiday. The weather wasn't the best (a little on the cold/windy side) with a very close lightning strike (see below) and a huge storm (that only lasted 10 minutes) giving us all sorts of weather to contend with. Regardless, we spent heaps of time at the beach and a nearby inlet and both kids had a great time. They also rode their bikes hundreds of kilometres around the park, dodging cars (and each other) which was all the more crucial as our cabin was on the main entrance to the van park.

Too close for comfort...

The cabins...

Linc's birthday party

Five years old. Time flies, it seems like yesterday he was just a baby, how fast he's grown etc. etc. are all phrases that have been thrown around over the last few days. But they perfectly convey the amazement at how five years has gone by in the blink of an eye and Linc is now a little boy, about to head to Kindergarten.

Birthday kiss for Carter's big brother!

Linc's fifth birthday party was a huge success; we had about 30 people turn up and, despite the 37 degree heat, everyone had a good time. I have to say it was extremely super-cool to have so many people in our new house (including Nan and Grandad from Adelaide!) without it feeling like we were all squashed in like sardines!

Super-awesome Transformers cake

Carter critiquing Linc's birthday candle blowing performance

More Transformers!

SMASH CAKE!

Christmas wrap-up

Christmas is done for another year; I'm pretty sure the kids have no idea how lucky they are to get so MANY toys! 

This year's bounty mostly consisted of Transformer related products (toys, t-shirts, shorts etc.) but Carter also got a big boy bike (same as Linc's except blue). They also got a ukulele each, heaps of lego and assorted clothes.

We spent most of the day at Aunty Christine's house where the food was plentiful and everybody had a great time. Unfortunately 100 year old Ma (the boy's great grandmother) got a bit ill while she was here and had to spend a bit of time in hospital; this made everybody quite sad and distressed which, piled on top of the emotions Christmas tends to bring out, made everything a bit tense for a while... but after having a pacemaker installed, she is doing much better.

We are off to Sydney tomorrow (minus the kids) for Mum's Christmas present - a shopping trip and overnight stay in a five star hotel... can't wait.

The kids are having fun playing dress-ups today; they always tend to put on an American accent while role-playing... it's pretty funny.

A Christmas skype call to Nan and Grandad...

And Carter, looking very grown up...

Merry Christmas from Lincoln and Carter

Linc's end of year school celedebacle

Not quite a celebration, more of a debacle... we just weren't prepared for what happened when we went to see Linc perform with his pre-school friends on stage at the end of year celebration.

In the days leading up to the celebration he seemed quite excited about it, even telling Carter he wasn't allowed to come up on stage with him. He appeared happy that Mum and Dad and Carter would see him perform.  On the day we dropped him off with his class (late, due to some bad parenting) and still all seemed fine.

They announced his class, and out he came in a line-up (although he wasn't wearing the flower necklace to match his classmates - first indicator something was awry) and even ran in front of the stage for a short time before going to the back and then deciding he was definitely not going to join in (it all happened very quickly). The performance started and, as he had apparently told the teachers he 'didn't want to join in' they sat him on the side of the stage (as he was still technically under their supervision). The performance kicked off with 'most' of his classmates singing and dancing while Linc sat there with a heart-breaking expression on his face. I say 'most' as apparently one or two of his classmates didn't even bother going to the celebration as the parents/teacher knew there was no way they would get up on stage. But we had no idea that Linc wouldn't participate. Finally Linc decided he wasn't going to sit there anymore, and he looked up to try to find Mum and Dad; well I was already at the side waiting for him (considering I almost went to the stage to grab him myself!)... so grabbed him and we went and sat with Carter and Mum to watch his class.

Put it down to Linc having a really bad (sleepless) night (constant nose-bleeds) + personality inherited from his parents + the first time getting up on stage in front of a crowd and it shouldn't really have been the enormous shock that it was.

Firstly we wanted someone to blame; what did the teachers say to you...? why didn't you have a flower necklace...? was it because we were late getting him to the school? Why didn't the teacher help you onto the stage and encourage you to dance? How could they leave you sitting there like that with tears in your eyes and no-one to take you away from that horrible situation. Look at the picture, and judge for yourself.

No celebrating going on in Linc's world...

But on reflection, the teachers had a class full of pre-schoolers that they had to focus on getting to sing/dance and Linc was quite adamant he wasn't going to join in (at the last minute too), so considering they couldn't let him wander from their supervision, they had no choice but to sit him there. We have obviously spoken to Linc's teacher about it; they were extremely apologetic as they agree they should have warned us that there were signs that Linc might not participate.

Anyway, we have pulled Linc out of Fraser Primary School for Kindergarten next year; I know it sounds like it's directly linked to what happened, but it's really not... although the timing of the decision may have been influenced by what happened! We are more concerned that, as we are now 'out of area' for Fraser PS, Carter is not guaranteed a place there when he starts school; plus Linc's new school is literally down the road from our new house. And of course, upon informing Fraser PS of this decision, the Principal promptly called Mum (oh yeah, Mum made Dad ring the school to inform them we were pulling them out... but they rang her about it - LOL) and asked about our decision to remove him (as the Principal had been informed about what had happened at the end of year celebration, and thought that was the overriding reason)...

While we have been throwing some ideas around over Linc's schooling for some time, the chosen school is not something we had put much thought into; it was always going to be Radford (provided he got an offer!). But at $9200/yr for Kindergarten, and around $15,000/yr for high school, that was always going to be hard to digest/afford(!)... His new school will still be a private school, and is still quite expensive, but the values that are emphasised - and underpinned by the catholic religion (rather than the other way around) - sound like a perfect fit for our expectations and the way we are bringing up the boys at home (minus the religious angle).

Oh, and I bought my dream motorcycle. The kids and the cat think it's awesome. Am I right? Say whaaaaat?.

Honda VFR800