January 9th

 

This morning Ted asked me for peanut butter and honey toast.  I thought that, considering he was dressed in his Luke Skywalker outfit, that it couldn't just be boring old normal toast.  So I cut out some astronauts and stars instead.  The fact that there is a photo at all is  small miracle - Ted was swooping the board away from me constantly, screaming out "NO PHOTOS!" because he wanted to eat it as soon as humanly possible.

 

But not long after breakfast, our neighbour sent me a link to something she thought Harriet would enjoy. She didn't even know that Harriet has been working on a powerpoint presentation about child poverty, so this link was perfectly timed.  Ted and Harriet sat enthralled.  Definitely a worthwhile TED talk to watch if you have a moment spare.  

I had a few things to do outside of the house, including picking up a few things to eat.  Ted, as usual, had to be cajoled out of the house.   When in doubt, one can usually find him on his crown of choice, reading away without a care in the world.  And definitely without a care for the *ahem* needs of others in the house. 

And check out those legs.  There is no way I could manage to snap a shot of them without picking up at least a few bruises.  At the moment he has one on his upper thigh whose origin we have no idea about - it is enormous.  I find it incredible that neither he nor I have any idea on how it came to be.

 

I love this photo. Harriet and Bear.   Calvin and Hobbes eat your heart out!

Ted and Harriet had $2 each - acquired from unknown sources let me add.  At any rate, Harriet made the request to spend hers at the "Japanese shop".  I had no idea what this was, so I agreed.  *insert wrong buzzer sound here* She meant the Asian food market and Ted, dizzy with the alluring lights and colours of food normally never seen, jumped at the opportunity to purchase something in a brightly coloured box.  They were little pretzel-style sticks with the top two-thirds dipped in chocolate.  Mmmm...appropriate.

We are holding a back-to-school BBQ and have decided to put out a paddling pool in order to trash the school uniforms we have encouraged attendees to wear. I found one for a whole $15, and of course it necessitated a trial run (despite the cool, overcast day).  Ted and Harriet perfected the running-jump-and-splash, roll-and-wet, and general-merriment-with-water tricks that I have no doubt they will demonstrate on the day in question as well.

 

And during the entire day, the moment where I found absolute quiet - and I mean dead silence from these two - was when I placed some red bean buns out for a post-splash feast.  The holiday equation seems to read something akin to: 1 paddling pool + 2 wild children + 3 red bean buns = 15 minutes of silence.  Now this is the sort of word equation they would do well to teach future parents in a class I imagine would be called 'Real Life Maths'.

I had spoken to Ted's drum tutor for this upcoming term, and he gave us the name and type of drumsticks to purchase.  Today, James found them.  Ted went wild...then contemplative...then listened to beats...then played them back to us.  Fingers crossed that this may be his instrument of choice.  Mind you I doubt there are many five year olds around who wouldn't enjoy smashing the living hell out of anything with drumsticks.

Tomorrow Harriet is very excited about having a friend over who we haven't had visit us before.  I'm thinking about making our first set of homemade sushi.  Tomorrow the post about our firsts!