Spawn – Page 24 – Disco Knitter

Rabbit Hole

Had a rough day today, watching Rabbit Hole (the movie).

Anyone seen it?

Am I going to regret this?

Thanks to Richard and Miriam for looking after him so well, and to Oscar for being a good friend, and inviting him to play under the Christmas tree. Two boys under a Christmas tree. And Two parents having a great time at a Christmas Party And some pretty fireworks!

On Saturday night, Inigo had his first sleepover with a friend. He’s had sleepovers with grandparents, but this was a leap of faith. Thanks to Richard and Miriam for looking after him so well, and to Oscar for being a good friend, and inviting him to play under the Christmas tree.

Two boys under a Christmas tree.

And Two parents having a great time at a Christmas Party

And some pretty fireworks!

Twinkle twinkle

Here is our $5 K-Mart tree, with a lot of bling, including two dragonflies for the two members of our family that wont be with us this year.

Squish is loving the lights, and the sparkles, and the advent envelopes every day. Today, we counted up the money he has put in his piggy bank over the year, and tomorrow we are going to the toy shop so he can choose his own toy, and buy it with his own money. Its a nod to a tradition from my maternal grandparents. They would save up small change all year, and before Christmas each year Nanna would take us in to the bank in Martin Place where dad worked. Dad would put the money through the counting machine, and then give my brother and I the money, that we would then spend on Christmas presents for family, and choose something for ourselves. We would have fish and chips in Hyde Park, and then lit a candle in St Marys Cathedral.

And I am starting to enjoy Inigo’s joy in everything Christmas.

Blog death

The blog keeps falling over, and unfortunately Mark can’t get to it to fix it through the firewall at his work, so it was down for rather a long time from Friday till late last night. I suppose that is an indication that life goes on even without the blog – but apologies anyway.

Yesterday Mark and I took Inigo to the movies for the first time. The candidates were “Puss in Boots”, which would have been our preference, and “Arthur Christmas”, which our darling boy had a strong preference for. At least it was an Aardman film, so it wasn’t a crass American extravaganza (no offence to the Septics, but the English do tend to have a touch more restraint).

He sat still through almost all of it, but sat on my lap eating popcorn for the last 20m or so, which I rather enjoyed. Apart from the whole adventure being way too expensive (around $70 including popcorn, water, and parking), it was gorgeous to see his excited little face, thrilled by the whole experience.

Breakfast for dinner

One of our advent calendar adventures was to have a special surprise dinner. I chose banana and pear pancakes, colored Christmas green, and made into Christmas shapes. On top you can see a tree with a star.

Advent calendar

Mark and I loathe all things Christmas (except seeing our families!), so its a real struggle to share Inigos new found joy in Santa, and Christmas trees, ornaments, etc. Weve told him that it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, and a bit about what he means to a lot of people. Ive also told him that Santa cant come to our house because we dont have a chimney, but he will leave something for Inigo at Nannas.

But I do love his excitement, so I have decided to do a countdown to Christmas, cheapskate handmade style. Hes going to love it!

Four

Inigo, today, you are four. Yesterday you were only three, and now you are FOUR. Four is big and bold and messy and monstrous, and I can’t believe how much I love you, and the gentle, boisterous, tender and wild thing that you are. I love that you challenge me, and that you care for me, you surprise me and amaze me.

I can’t wait to see what the next year brings. And even though I am terrified about pre-school, I know you are ready, I know you will love it, and I know that a whole new world is about to open up to you, and I am going to have to learn to share you more and more with the world.

Love,

Mama

Happy 4th Monster Birthday Party!

My little monster turns 4 tomorrow, and we had a little party for him on the weekend. You remember, the beautiful, sunny, hot weekend? The one that started with a downpour?

Yup. Guess which part of the weekend we picked for the party?

The downpour.

This is what the park looked like when we arrived at 9am. Those shiny bits of grass were actually little lakes forming, and you had to walk through inches of water to get to the play equipment.

There was no wet weather alternative.

So I decided to stay positive, and we put up tents. Mum and dad had a marquee, and Bonnie and Zenia had two, so we were set up in no time, and the adults and babies stayed (mostly) dry while the kids had the time of their lives!

Most of the pics are already up on Facebook, but I’ll stick a few here of non-stalkbookers 🙂

And here is the commemorative t-shirts I made for the kids (and one very special adult) instead of lolly bags. We also had monster branded water bottles instead of soft drinks, and all of the food was (reasonably) healthy to make up for the toxic birthday cake.