Advent

It continues to be a week run at a frantic pace.  Tonight, I went out to Hogsbreath with Bear and Di and the kids for my birthday.  All the kids were completely trashed and at one point Alex dropped part of his hamburger because we think he fell asleep for a second.  A glass was broken as well but Hogsbreath must be used to that as kids are free on Tuesday night!

I finally was able to construct the Playmobil Advent calendar.  Levi has been bugging me to complete it, not because he can start it any earlier than Dec 1st but I think because it was there and it was another tangible connection to Christmas! 

Today was Levi's swimming carnival but I couldn't get any time off.  He swam the 25m several times and in both freestyle and backstroke.  He was very proud of himself and again reinforces my happiness that he is now a safe swimmer.  The next permutation left, is the one where he becomes a stronger swimmer than I am and I think that can't be too far off anymore. 

Levi and I are really hanging out for holidays.  We have three weeks and I so can't wait to just hang out with Levi and do what we want.  He is sleeping in every morning and I have had to wake him for school the last two days!  I hope when we are off, he continues to sleep in, but I doubt that will happen.  Don't stop me thinking about it though.  Even the idea of sleeping in is making me happy!

Cleaning

This weekend, we cleaned up the South Stradbroke Island.  It meant that a bunch of us went over there and cleaned up and threw out a bunch of stuff.  Levi, however, spent a much more fun day.  He went to a friend's house and played and swam all day.  On the way in to see Ty, I found this little Willy Wag Tail sitting on it's nest.  I am absolutely amazed by the intricacy of the nest, woven out of mud and grass and spit, balanced on a chain link fence.  I hope those three babies when they are born, aren't very boisterous, because it all looks very precarious to me!

Late nights, Busy Days

 It has been a really busy weekend!  Starting on Friday after work/school the weekend has just been one fun activity after another.  It is likely why, at just after 7am, I am doing this while Levi is still sound asleep. 

Friday night was Thanksgiving.  Most of Australia doesn't celebrate anything like Thanksgiving, but there are enough US ties in our family that we at least try each year to get together, normally on the Friday night.  As Friday here is Thursday in USA it is very apt anyway.  With Thankgiving so close to my birthday, we celebrated that as well.  It was very fun!  Lots of good food and Levi just loves being with Robbie and he was there.  My family bought me a Kindle for my birthday.  It is fantastic.  I can put my books on there and then take them with me easily and read whenever I want!  Of course, I now have to buy that but they are cheaper and in the long run will be much much cheaper.

Then last night (Saturday), some friends took me out for dinner.  It was great, as we just went out for Indian and chatted all night.  Levi was at Jac's house and her older boys looked after Levi but it did mean he went to bed at 11pm again.  I was feeling very happy about that two hour nap he took!  Levi will go to Ty's to play today, while I go down and help clean out the South Stradbroke island.

Levi has started to play chess at school.  It is still a fairly modified game and the rules change at times (randomly) but it will be a good game for him in time I think.  He and Robbie played at Thanksgiving!

Aerial Spraying

In two weeks, it will be the last day of school.  I can't wait and Levi can't either.  Then we have three weeks of vacation before I have to go back to work.  It will be so fun.  Just day after day of waking slowly and doing only what we want!  Ah the luxury!

Tonight I walked past the bathroom while Levi was peeing.  Now this is not something that I would normally report but he has a new technique.  He climbs up the wall, with one leg on either side and goes up until he hits the roof, then he aims for the toilet from there.  Now if I was a lot less vigilant about his security online, I would take a photo from behind because it is the funniest thing on earth.  All I can hope now is that his accuracy from that distance is better than his accuracy from close.  Either way .... I think I am cleaning again tonight!

Hero in Five Minutes

Yesterday, Levi woke at 4am.  Now I can be fairly tolerant of 5am, and I am really tolerant at 6am, but 4am is asking a bit much of me.  He woke up and I growled at him, so next thing I knew I was waking up to get ready for work and Levi was still sleeping soundly beside me.  I got up and did all the regular morning things.  I kept going, until I really needed him to be awake and at 7am I finally had to go and wake him!  He got up and started his breakfast and about five minutes before I had to leave, he pipes up;

"Mum, I need to be a hero today at school for free dress day!  Can you make me into Leif?"

 So now I had five minutes to turn Levi into Leif of Deltora.  It was one of those moments that you laugh about afterwards but at the time is a little less than funny.  Anyway, I grabbed a pool toy.  It was a diving ring that you could snap open and closed and fit around Levi's waist.  Then with aluminum foil created a silver belt over the top of the dive ring.  Now I had to find seven gems.  I struggled.  I found five but soon realized that seven might be stretching it.  I told Levi that he was going to be Leif part way through his quest for the seven gems.  He would be Leif with five gems.  Then with clear packing tape, I sealed it all. 

So here he is.  He was very excited and the belt has made it's way to the dress up box.  He wore his new special shirt from his Dad as well.  So his day was complete.  Mine?  Well, it started late!

Kookaburra bites!

Today my finger got totally nailed by a kookaburra.  We feed them ground meat in the mornings, a tradition started by my Dad.  The kookaburra managed to latch onto my finger this time instead of the meat.  Now I sat there for a bit thinking that the bird would eventually work out that my finger was attached and to take the meat instead.  Unfortunately, that wasn't how it worked.  The kookaburra did that very characteristic head shake and it ripped apart the top of my finger.  So now, this  one handed typist is down about 20% of my effective typing ability!

Levi played on the trampoline for hours on Sunday afternoon.  I know that there are arguments for and against trampolines all over the Internet.  I know they are dangerous.  I know that all those good mothers out there are banning their use, but I think that there is some acceptable risk.  The acceptable risk of childhood, at a time when you are most flexible and most able to absorb that risk.  My Dad has built a fairly safe trampoline.  It isn't completely safe but then again, nothing really is.  The trampoline has a net and was built into a hillside, so you can walk onto it from the grass on one side.  You can sit on the grass too and 'Watch me again".

 

 Levi has just got to where he is starting to really be strong enough to play and experiment with his jumping.  He and Ty have developed a very complicated game of Poison ball that involves two balls and no one 'it'.  They play them against the balls where the trampoline makes the balls random and difficult to predict.

If there is ever a reason for letting him hone his skills on the trampoline, it is the unadulterated joy on his face in this third photo.  I don't remember the last time that I felt that unrestrained in my joy.  Don't get me wrong, I am regularly happy and often joyful, but not like that.  It makes me so happy to watch it on his face.  It makes me so happy to see him come in after jumping, bright red in the face, exhausted but happy!

 

He gets quite a lot of air too doesn't he!

  

Christmas Tree

 Today we put up the Christmas tree.  I thought that we might as well, because we can and because you can't leave up the tree very long after Christmas, so you have to get your money's worth before the day!  Levi loved it and the final toll was only down one priceless ornament.  Actually the one he broke wasn't to bad, as it was the porcelain one for him last year.  At least when I order the ones for this year, I can just order the same as last year again.  So instead of being down one priceless ornament, we are down one $14 ornament!  Too easy!

Here in Australia you can't really have a real tree.  In the middle of summer and fire season, placing kindling in the house is way too much of a risk and I think it would be nuts to have a real tree.  I have no idea how you would even go about buying a real tree, because I have not seen them.  Actually if you look in the top left of the picture, you will see the other traditional (for me) decoration; the Christmas fire extinguisher!

It is always a little bittersweet for me to decorate the tree.  There are all the ornaments that celebrate Frankie's life and I love that they are there but I am always just a little sad that there is not another little boy (or not so little now) helping with the tree.  There are ornaments as well that Evan and Ross made for me when they were little and I miss them too during these times.  I have no luck with lights but have a theory that you just have a long string and inevitably there will be enough that actually work that it looks like the tree is lit.  The star was very important to Levi today and he kept saying;

"Won't Santa be impressed!" 

 

All told we had a fun afternoon, placing the decorations and dreaming of Christmas!

Levi in Mum's glasses

Levi was playing with my glasses today and I thought that he looked so adorable in them I took some photos of him.  So this is what Levi is going to look like if he ever has to wear glasses.  I almost hope that he will have to.  That is one cute boy!

It has been a long week but there is no good reason for it to have felt so long.  It is now only three weeks until vacation and I am sooooo looking forward to it.  We aren't going to do anything dramatic for vacation.  Days to the beach.  Days to the public pool.  Time with friends!  Oh boy, I can't wait.

Quiet but Busy

This week has been a quiet one.  Busy at work but fairly quiet at home, just the routine of the week that chews through days until suddenly you are at the weekend again.  It can't come fast enough at the moment.  Three and a bit more weeks and the mancub is on holidays.  He will just make it I think.  His school shirts wore twice a week for a year are getting very tired.  He will last with shoes but his shorts are starting to leave marks by the afternoon around his waist.  Yes he has grown a heap this year and must be in a spurt of growth at the moment.  He is now 126.5 cms (95%) tall and 21kgs (25%), so he does still look tall and thin.  It is just his body type.  I will get a photo of him with his Uncle Ben when he comes out from London next week.  They are the same.

Today after school we went to see the doctor (hence the accurate stats above) because he is getting loud and having trouble hearing some of the time.  It isn't age appropriate selective hearing because he is as likely to not hear "Levi, do you want an ice cream" as "Levi, time for a shower before bed".  The doctor said that he has some fluid in both ears but it is resolving.  He said that I could ask the teacher if there are problems and then we could work out what to do.  He said that it would likely resolve in a month or so.  So instead of polishing my 'Mother of the Year' award, I elected to do exactly - nothing.  Checking him and getting things organized for school will take more than the few weeks left.  Likely it will be resolved before school starts again at the end of January and we will have time to decide if it isn't resolving.  So, nothing!  

We are just warming up to the frantic season, but I am mostly done with Christmas shopping.  I am planning to stay a long way away from the stores in the next month or so, but still there is a lot going on.  There is a lot at work and a lot at home.  There is a lot here and a lot in USA, but it will keep things interesting!    

Lazy Sunday

 Today was pretty quiet.  We got up and started slowly.  Levi wanted to do the Gingerbread house, so we spent some time doing that.  Actually, Levi has been bugging me to do the Gingerbread house since Jo bought it for him a few days ago.  So finally I acquiesced and we built the house.  Levi had a blast and it was right up his alley.  I had to do the eaves on the roof but other than that, pretty much he did it on his own.  It came with everything that you needed and about twice as many lollies (candy) as you see.  He ate as many as he put on the house, but it was much more about the task than about the end product.  He happily played for at least an hour though and that is a bonus as well.

Then we did our Sunday tasks of grocery shopping, filling up the car with petrol and getting organized for the upcoming week.  I am grateful that there are only four weeks of term left and even more grateful that at the end there I have three full weeks of holiday as well.  I am looking forward to just time.  Time to feel like I am not spending every waking hour working either at work or in the yard.  I am looking forward to having time with Levi without feeling like I am torn between conflicting tasks. 

Levi and I then 'fought' for about an hour.  He loves this Fighting Game and involves me lying on the couch and just with my legs trying to 'pin him' to the couch.  He begs to play this game all the time and I have to be careful because if he (or I) are too tired, it always ends in tears!  I am hoping to get him into Judo or Karate after our term off to let him get out some of that Testosterone without feeling like I am going to get hurt or accidentally hurt him.    

Then Levi drew pictures while we watched the new Transformers movie. Levi has really got into drawing and every now and then surprises me.  Mostly he draws Rocket cars.  Well of course!  But today as he sat drawing beside me he said;

"Can you see my feeling in this picture?"  (Top one)

I said;  "You are feeling that you want to go grocery shopping with your Mum today"

He said; "No Mum, It's a feeling of hope"

It is amazing sometimes how he can suddenly come up with something that will just sit you back in your chair.  He said that they are 'hope colours'.  Then he drew me a Hope Star (Middle picture).  He was in a very hopeful mood.  I wish I shared his surety.  I am glad that he is that sure of hope.  I am proud that he is that hopeful and just that fact gives me hope for the future, when the future all in their hands!

Miracle

 Today I got up to a miracle.  I came around the corner of the sofa and Levi was reading, by himself, by choice.  He was sitting on the sofa, playing with his lip and reading quietly by himself.  In a blog post only a few months ago, I despaired that he would ever learn to read.  Now he is reading without saying out loud.  Six months ago, I thought that he might have even been going backward in his reading and today he is a reader.  Not just a reader but he is choosing to read, for fun.  It does my heart good to watch him this morning. 

Actually I had inklings that this was coming.  Suddenly the notes he writes are more accurate and he is writing 'books' complete with 'chapter pages'.  I don't know what was the switch but it has definitely been turned on.  I suspect that some of it was just the way his brain works.  He needs to find the pattern in something, but when that pattern emerges, he is insatiable.  Some of it may have been, that I relaxed.  I didn't 'give up' but I definitely relaxed.  I read to him at night when he was tired, rather than being frustrated that he was struggling to read to me.  We got through all eight books of 'Deltora Quest' and have started on the 'Stories of the Shadowlands'.  I just read two chapters and we go to bed.  I don't qualify it anymore, making him read his book to me first.  Now I just chilled out.  Maybe I should have thought to do that months ago! 

Today was busy and all over the place.  I had to take a baby goat down to the vet, which took forever and tried to get at least a little yard work down.  Today was mowing, tomorrow is whacking weeds.  It is getting hotter and hotter and I am starting to think that the weeds are going to win this summer.  I keep thinking that if I can just stay on top of them I should be fine, but as the days get hotter earlier and summer really takes hold, there is a panicky feeling that I will lose control.  Ah well, some things just can't be done.  And weeds can be pretty too!

 Di came over with her boys and we were going to the pool but this was delayed due to the excursion taking the kid to the vet.  Di was lovely and looked after all the human kids, so I could take the four legged kid in.  Then we went to play in the pool.  Levi just loved it and both Di and I commented how much easier it is to go to the public pool when the kids (human) are completely confident swimmers.  Di and I sat in the shade and planned the trip to the coast, glancing up to check on them.  One year ago we had to stand on the side, or knee deep in the water watching them.  Two years ago we were in the water with them and they had life jackets on!  My, it is incredible how fast and strong and independent they grow without noticing it.

Signs that you live in the country

This sign was not not a fence post on a way road corner and it wasn't fake.  The sign was attached to the entrance to the school.  yes, signs that you live in the country, are signs that find ducks and cows and not the standard dogs and cats.  I just find it exceptionally funny that the people who found them took them in and loved them enough to advertise for their owners. 

It has been a busy week and shouldn't really have been.  If you look at my Outlook calendar at work, it looked pretty clear.  It was the week that I was supposed to catch up on paperwork, but unfortunately with the computers systems failing at work there have been times when I have just given up and worked from the computers at home.  Today was one of those days.  I had about two hours to work and was at home where it was quiet.  I am grateful that my work allows that kind of flexibility, but I guess as it is their computers that are the problem to begin with, it is with a tempered gratitude.

We did our standard Wednesday play at the park with friends after school.  Levi loves it and we have about two and a half hours of just playing and chatting.  OK, Levi plays.  I chat!

The God less travelled

I would love to believe in the God that other people believe in. As Tom Jones sings in his song to his child ‘Counting on You’ saying, “So may there be millions who feel like you do, oh my love.” It would just be easier to have a big group of people around you who continuously affirm and confirm your views. I think that it is harder to constantly have people challenge your view, but perhaps by the end of it all your own faith is stronger. I am not sure. What I am sure about is that I have most often, by fate or by choice ‘taken the road less travelled.’ As to whether it has ‘made all the difference’, I think the jury is still out. Still there are times I look at that other road, the one that everyone takes and wish that I was walking with everyone else. So this is my God less travelled.

I struggle with people feeling they have the right to tell others how to live their lives. No one knows the background of the other. What right have I got to tell someone else how they should live their lives. Now I am happy with laws and athough I break than my fair share of speeding laws, I think that laws as a whole help society work more seamlessly. But if someone chooses to break the law, then they suffer society’s consequences. But I can still understand why that law and any law really was broken and I can feel compassion for both the victim and the criminal.

There are a few things that I refuse to believe. I refuse to believe that God loves some people more than others (which I will address in another ranting post) and I also refuse to believe that God is cruel. If I have a God, it is a loving forgiving one. I mean that truly. I don’t think that you can apply the reasoning of free will and the reasoning that ‘God knows what you are going to do before you do it’. How is that free will? If God knew that I was going to choose and fail or choose incorrectly, then it is just cruel to continue the scenario. A loving God could not be so cruel. Seriously, if you knew that your child was going to choose the wrong path, would you close your eyes and let them take the path that will ruin them?

I feel that I don’t know enough to judge, well, ever. Do I know what is in that person’s past? Do I know what tools they bought with them to the table? Just because they look like they are coping, are they? I can only believe that if there is a God then that God does in fact know, not just what they bring to the table but also Why they have chosen such a path. I think that Thomas Mores’ Utopia should be required reading along with bible studies. Thomas More, or more correctly Saint Thomas More was a man who wrote controversially in Henry VIII’s time. Now that takes a brave man, sainted for taking the Catholic Church’s side against the formation of the Church of England, an act for which he also (fairly typically for HenryVIII), lost his head. But if you read into it, it wasn’t the Church of England he had a problem with; it was the acceptance of the king as Supreme Head of the Church of England.

In Utopia, Thomas More says:

“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”

Is that not what we are saying God does? That he makes sinners and then punishes us for that. I refuse to believe that God would be so cruel. That he creates someone homosexual, but then punishes them for that. Can you really believe that God would hate his creations as much as you fear them? That he has someone born in the Ghettos and then punishes them for swearing. Can you really believe that God would punish his creations when, by virtue of their birthplace alone, they have not learned any other language? That he has someone born beautiful, but disrespected, so that she chooses to use sex as a way out. Would he really punish her for that, even when she has never been taught self respect and knows no other option? That he would have a child born in a place where life is worth nothing and then punish him for taking a life, that to him was worthless?

When did we get given the right to say that this person deserves compassion but not that one? I think the beginning of grace is the ability to forgive people their choices. The beginning is being able to see that there may be another side to the story, a belief that just because your life is completely blessed, that perhaps there are others out there who were not blessed enough to want to or be able to ‘walk the one more travelled”. Compassion is about knowing that though the path may be clear for you, that for another through no fault of their own the path may be hidden in vines and quicksand. God could not be cruel enough to hide the path, booby trap it and then punish them for not finding the path. I can only hope that your God is not as cruel and judgmental as his representatives on earth are.

Sunday

Today was a better day.  Levi is better and has been active .  we had Ty over for most of the day and they played complex Deltora Quest games.  Levi and I have read the first series at night.  I have been reading two chapters at a time and we got through the eight books fairly quickly.  They have captured his imagination and we have now started the Shadowlands books.  Shadowlands are the three books which together form the sequel.  I am getting Levi the DVD for Christmas but it will be a Santa present and so he won't know about it until then. 

They also rode their bikes round and round the house stopping only for lunch.  I took a photo of them eating outside with the carpet of Jacaranda flowers and then I realized that happily joining them was one of the bantams.  The nice one, the darker brown, is the one that comes up and wants to be petted and keeps you company when hanging out the laundry.  She wasn't scratching in there, she was just being with and she is the sweetest little thing!

After lunch Levi and Ty played poison ball on the trampoline.  It is a complex changed game that they play but fair and fun.  They put two soccer balls on the trampoline and then they start bouncing.  If you get hit by a ball on it's random bounce, you are out.  Then there is a level two and three, but I am afraid the rules at that level are so complex and so rapidly changing, that I am unable to understand them, let alone convey them!  I love watching them play and more than that I love watching them happily make up or change the rules of every game they play!

OK Maybe I Was wrong, Again

Today was a really quiet day and we did, well, nothing!  We rested and we watched TV and chatted on the computer.  Levi went back and forward to the bathroom several times in the day and I am forced to believe that perhaps he did in fact have a tummy ache the other day.  Oh well you live and learn!  I did a bit of yard work in the morning but really not a lot!  Here are some photos of the sweetest boy sleeping.  He still has 'Icy' his dog that has to go to bed with him.  This is close to 12 months now that he has had Icy. 

Where's My Tithe?

This post is alternately titled "Why doesn't your Church tithe to my Charity?"

I am just making a suggestion to the churches out there.  I find the number of million dollar churches out there kind of annoying.  I am not someone who needs a church.  I don't really understand the necessity to dress up in expensive clothes and go indoors on a Sunday morning.  I don't understand how you can stand inside a multi million dollar building and seriously study Matthew (esp 19:23-24).  I have looked up history of tithing and still don't really get the whole thing.

Tithing seems to be from many of the big religions.  I am sure it makes sense, someone has to pay for the church to look after spiritual well being, while you are dealing with the mundane existence implied by physical well being.  The Church in it's turn, built churches to glorify God, fed and looked after multitudes of homophobic priests and looked after the poor and the 'unfit'.  Now much of that has changed.  OK unfortunately not the middle thing.  I think that churches seem less tolerant of homosexuality these days than ever before and I have no idea what they are all so afraid of.  But that is fodder for another rambling post.

Churches still are built.  They still cost a fortune.  Unfortunately, instead of the beautiful, soaring architecture of the past, these buildings seem to just be designed to be one thing, huge.  Instead of a building that can create awe in an atheist and last for centuries, there are now square ugly buildings with expensive sound systems.  So how am I supposed to find God in there?  How is anyone? 

The churches no longer on any really useful scale, look after the poor and the unfit.  These days we have Centrelink to do that.  We have charities that look after disabled people from all walks of like.  We have Lifeline and Goodwill to help look after the poor.  Some of these originated in churches but none of them now are truly supported by a church. 

So all that money that is being given to the churches, where is that going?  It isn't being used for the reasons that it was needed in ancient and medieval times.  Most of the money is about supporting the church itself to become bigger.  I think that it isn't the churches that need to be bigger but the faith of the people inside the churches, but that is my (not very humble) opinion.  I think that the church needs to start reverting to what it used to do.  I think that it needs to start supporting the charities that post Global Financial Crisis are universally struggling.  These charities are picking up your slack! 

So I have a solution.  The churches start tithing to the charities.  You are more likely to make it to your heaven.  The charities are more likely to survive and to continue their good works.  Everybody wins! 

Home Sick Again

Today was a fairly normal day for a while.  It is turning into summer here and the days just get progressively hotter.  The paths are carpeted with Jacaranda flowers and I am only just managing to keep up with cleaning the paths, with the new blower.  I am waging war against cane toads at the moment as well.  They are gross and I am hoping that in my small way I can protect the native Australian fauna.  That and they are gross.  Have I said that before?  All my friends in USA are afraid of the spiders and snakes here but what they don't realise is that it is the cane toad that does my head in.

Today was a normal day until about 1pm.  Then the school rang.  Levi had been complaining about stomach pains all morning and had been in the sick room for the last hour.  Could I please come and pick him up?  So I went to get him.  When I got there he was in the sick room with a sick bag but he was happy to see me and we went and got his stuff from the classroom.  By the time we got to the car he was all perky and happy.  He skipped to the car.  Now I am starting to get cranky.  I assume the he is just mucking not just with my head but also with the school.  In his defense, when we got home, he spent a significant time in the bathroom.  But then he was bouncy and happy all afternoon.  I got crankier.  In his defense, he did say he had a headache and I gave him Motrin.  But he was wanting to play all afternoon.  I made him lie down and be 'sick'.  He wanted to bounce around and interact.  I made him lie down and be 'sick'.

I have no idea if he is sick.  I have no idea what to do now.  Maybe there is something happening at school that I am missing.  I think I need to talk to his teacher.

And now he is wheezing steadily in bed.  Maybe I am just a really bad mother after all.  Oh I wish parenting was more cut and dried sometimes!

Lunch on Wheels

 Levi has started to get a bit more independent with his morning routine.  I have to make his lunch every morning and I have to remember to 'not get too experimental' and stick with vegemite sandwiches.  That said in the last few days, Levi has taken an active interest in this routine.  I took a picture of his helping to make his lunch, not because I thought it was fabulous that he was helping (although I did think that).  I didn't take the photo because I thought that he was cute (although I did).  I took the photo because of what he was wearing on his feet!  Yes he was wearing roller blades as a fashion accessory!

 

The roller blades have become more of a regular choice for footwear in this house than a surprise.  Levi has become more of a wheels boy in the last few weeks.  I actually think it may be a direct result of the 'Term of Rest' that we are having.  with his (and my) life less scheduled it is giving him a chance to try out some new things.  I am so happy watching him.  Levi is now counting the months until we go back and see our friends in USA.  I am not counting the months.  I am counting the weeks!  Next year will be a less stressful one for me.  I have a chunk of time off December this year at the close of school.  I have five weeks off in June and July next year and am hoping to have another couple of weeks off in there as well.  I will have all that holiday.  I think that it may drive my holiday weeks to zero but that is fine by me!  It will be worth it for the time to relax and hang with friends during the year. 

Levi's hair is growing out but it is still quite spiky, which I love.  He is looking less like he has been on chemo and more like this hairstyle was a deliberate choice!  Here he is playing with Play Dough that we made on the weekend.  I had to make some for school, so Levi and I just chunked some off and coloured it purple and he played happily with it for half the day.

I am finding that he is getting more fragile if things don't go exactly his way, but I suspect that it is just that it is the end of the school year and midway through that term.  He is tired. 

Best Kid in the Universe

Last night in the take home pack from school was a letter from Levi's teacher saying that Levi was getting an award at assembly and that I could come if I wanted.  It is actually a good day for this.  As the Melbourne cup was being run today and our office was having a luncheon and then would watch the race, it meant that there was a few minutes in there that I could go and watch.  I met up with his class on the way over and Levi was excited to see me but had no idea at the time why I was there.  These photos are an epic fail but they are the best that an iphone can do over the distance that I was from him and the Principal.  

Levi's award was for 'ignoring distractions and getting his work done' and he was soooo excited. Then just to top off his day, I took him with me afterward, meaning that he didn't have to go to After School Care.  I took him back to work with me and he was wonderful.  He patiently played in the other room as we completed our work.  Of course, after having a whole office of child oriented people all laud his achievement, he was pretty chuffed about the whole event.  I am very proud of him. More importantly, he was proud of himself and I love to see that!