My Favourite Things

The best book, toy & show (at the moment anyway)

Coming up with a list of my favourite things to read, play with and watch is hard. Especially when Dad said that I could only say one for each.

My bookcase is crammed full of books (even with some of them being passed on to William for his little bookshelf), plus we're always getting new books out to read from the library. My toy box is also really full, so the toys have started spilling out across the floor of my bedroom. And my Netflix list of programmes I've watched is getting longer and longer...

So you understand just how hard it was coming up with only one favourite thing to read, play with and watch. But I've made up my mind. Want to know what I came up with? Then just watch this video of me and I'll tell you.

Now what could I do for my next list of favourite things? Maybe food, or games, or... Hmm, that's another hard question. I'll need time to think about it...

Where There's A Will

What's William been up to?

This year has been a big one for me. I've turned five, finished daycare and started school – and the year’s only just over half way through. But while I’ve been doing all this, what's that little William been up to?

Well, I’m not the only one to have had a birthday – he’s now a bigger boy of two. And it seems part of his growing up is wanting to copy me.

He likes having his teeth cleaned sitting on my bed in the evening, and in the mornings he sits at the coffee table eating his breakfast just like I do (except on the days I have brekkie at school).

He also puts his bowl away after dinner and his bottle after a drink of milk; the trouble is that he puts them away straight after eating, so that when someone next opens the cupboard they see a crusty, dirty bowl sitting there.

While I graduated from daycare to school, William moved to a new daycare. It doesn't seem to have made any difference to how dirty he gets though – sometimes he comes home looking like he's been painting on himself instead of on paper.

One thing he loves now are musical instruments, especially the guitar and xylophone he got for his birthday. This noisy guitar wasn’t a birthday present, but he sure loves making a racket with it.

William’s also started talking more. The words he’s using most are "more", "cacker" (cracker), “bittie” (bickie, or biscuit), "flower", "ball" and "shoe" (though for some reason he always says this one with internal muffling rather than speaking). Food-related words seem to be the ones he picks up fastest – I wonder why…?

His longest effort is “go away motorbike”, which is directed at the man who lives in a house near us and who has a noisy motorbike. At least, that’s what Mum and Dad tell me he’s saying – they must have a good imagination because he doesn’t say it as well as me.

Another thing about William is that he’s fixated with brooms and sweeping. Doesn’t matter whether it’s inside at home, outside on the deck or at daycare. Even walking through the shopping mall he’ll get all excited about a man sweeping the floor.

  

So, lots of things have been happening for William this year too. But some things are still the same though; he’s still playing with and losing my toys, or even just parts of toys (like my dinosaur with only one arm now).

He’s also still eating cat food from the cat's bowls on the deck. Maybe sometimes a cacker and a bittie just isn’t enough for a growing boy.

Watch and Learn

Starting School

Oh this school stuff is easy! I don't know what Mum and Dad were worried about. Mummy even took two whole days off work to drop me off, make sure I was okay, then pick me up later. She may as well have gone to work and got more money for me.

It's already been a whole month of school. A month ago I was still racing around at daycare, and now here I am at school. Well actually, I'm now in school holidays - two weeks holiday after only four weeks at school! Oh this school stuff is easy...

There's a lot of things school has different from daycare. Clothing for a start - I now have to wear a uniform every day, like on my very first day in the pic above.

Everything goes by the bell too - we only start class, go for breaks, eat snacks and finish class when the bell goes. Luckily going toilet isn't quite as strict or by the time the bell went they might have to send a cleaner in to mop the floor.

I guess we do have proper lessons now too; a little bit like at daycare, but with a lot more listening to the teacher and working in our workbooks. I've got a cool soundbook where we find photos, draw pictures and write words beginning with a different letter each week; it's also the homework I'm supposed to do, but which I often seem to forget when I'm racing to go on my iPad.

But there are a lot of things the same as daycare too - bringing books home to read every day, activities and art in class, even the long days since I go to before and after school care. That's actually helped my education too - on one of my first days I learned about Nutella on toast, my new favourite breakfast!

One of the activities I got to do was a cross-country run with all the other kids, around the edge of our sports field. Small snag though: I didn't quite understand what the deal was with the spare clothes I was supposed to get changed into for running, so put these on over the top of my uniform, then went running wearing everything! Lucky there weren't spare shoes to put on too, or that would have got uncomfortable.

Our school's been going through a lot of construction for ages now. But luckily not long after I started the new library opened - so I got to visit on the first day and take a book out. How cool having my very own library so handy.

The last day of term we had a special visitor at school: an air force helicopter. It flew in and landed on our field; it made so much noise I had to block my ears. We all got to crowd around and have a look inside; that's me on the bottom right just behind my teacher with the white puffer jacket.

I think school is starting to change me a little bit though, either from being in a new class, having a special teacher, or having bigger kids around. Mum and Dad say I'm becoming more authoritative, or exerting my authority more. Like when I use "no" when I'm explaining a difference of opinion, rather than just refusing to do something like I used to.

But that's only to be expected - I am a big boy of five now, after all. A big boy with two weeks of holidays stretching ahead. Yay, this school stuff is easy!

Gimme Five!

Superheroes and a super birthday

It’s birthday time again, and this time I’m famous five! As if that wasn’t special enough, this birthday even came with a party! A proper one with dressing up and all my friends.

I really must be super, because this birthday was filled with Superheroes – in presents, cake and the party theme.

Of all the superheroes, Spiderman was the one who appeared the most – in two toys, a mask and on the cake. But if you check out the big pile of presents in the photo, you can see I got lots of other cool things too.

I’m loving playing my new ‘Guess Who?’ board game – carefully studying the little pictures to check if they have red hair or glasses, then flipping them over (and sometimes flipping them back if I got too carried away) – even if I can’t read the people’s names yet. But then that’s what school will be for.

I’ll be getting creative over winter with all my new activity books – stickers, painting and puzzles. With plenty of dinosaurs too! These ought to help fill in those weekend afternoons if I can get Mummy and Daddy to help me with them.

I’d invited all my friends to my birthday party at a place called Party Kingdom. There were about 10 kids there altogether, though it could have been a lot more since I hadn’t quite understood that only friends who got a paper invitation were actually invited. I was busy telling other kids at daycare that they were invited too.

Luckily they (or their Mum and Dad) obviously didn’t believe it. The cake would never have been big enough for that many people.

Mummy had booked a special party room, which was covered with cool superhero decorations. When we weren’t all racing about in the play area, we sat around the big table in the middle, perfect for laying out all the food and cake. See if you can spot me in the photo - you'd have to be blind as a bat not to!

Another great birthday and another yummy cake from Mummy. But if I've just turned five, that means school must be starting tomorrow. Uh oh...

His-story in the Making

My Four-Year Daycare Journey

Now that I've only got a few days left at daycare before I graduate and start school, I've been starting to think about my time here. So much has happened in this four-year journey.

In the beginning... At first I really didn't want Mummy to leave me there. I'd cry and cry until she eventually left to go to work, then I'd immediately cheer up, eat something and play with toys.

It was at daycare that I first practiced walking - taking tiny steps around furniture while holding on with both hands. I also found some favourite things to play with, like a colourful keyboard that I could bash away on like one of the people in Daddy's noisy music videos.

Settling in... It didn't take long before I was making friends and feeling more comfortable. When I was three, one of my favourite teachers brought in some turtles and Eddie the blue tongue lizard for us to watch and pat.

They also unwisely let us all loose with water balloons to fill up from a hose and smash on the ground to explode with water everywhere. Except that I was much more keen on looking after my water balloon rather than breaking it.

Master of the universe... By four I was just about king of the castle. I was having a great time making cars, buildings and all sorts of things in the construction area.

And I'd play with my friend Damiyn in the big outdoor area - scooping out roads and building volcanoes in the sandpit. Before taking all the sand home with me to scatter over the carpet.

But what's next? When I turn five there's suddenly no more daycare, and it really is time to graduate into one of the big boys. Luckily through all my adventures in growing up at daycare, I'm certainly graduating from cool to school.

New Adventures in Daycare

Dinosaurs, sand and sketching

Even though I still might not be one of the big people at home, at daycare I’m one of the biggest kids there. That’s because I’ve only got a month left until I graduate.

So much has happened since the last time I updated on my daycare adventures. What have I been up to since then? Lots of fun things.

I’ve been making lots of kites out of pieces of paper with string trailing off them, and running around holding them in the air for them to fly. As part of this I’ve also been able to practice my drawing and colouring-in. My favorite things to draw at the moment are people, the sun and paths through forests – the sort of thing you’d see on a cool map.

One of the best places in the Little Scholars room is the construction area. Sometimes I spend hours there working on my creations – cars, planes, boats, houses, even a car garage.

I can get pretty protective of my creations though, which means I get a bit upset if anyone else breaks something I’ve made. Tidying everything up at the end of the day is also something I’m not always keen about.

You’re never too old for playing with toys too. When I’m playing with toy animals or dinosaurs I like to pretend they're talking, like "Oh no, you got eaten by a dinosaur because the dinosaur was hungry".

Summertime has come to an end now and it’s getting all cold and dark. But back when the sun was shining and the days were hot, I loved playing outside. We got to do painting, building trucks out of blocks, and racing about on trikes. We’ve got a big water tank, and I used to like splashing in there and showing the teachers how I'm learning to swim.

Even bigger than the water tank is the sandpit, which is great for building roads and volcanoes in. It’s not so great for staying clean though, so most days I’d go home bringing piles of sand in my shoes. Taking my shoes off in my bedroom often created a mini sandpit on the carpet when all the sand fell out!

So that’s what I’ve been doing the last few months at daycare. Sounds so much more fun than what Mummy and Daddy get up to in their days. But what will school be like? How different will it be? In a month’s time I’ll be finding out!

A Class Act

Getting ready for school

Summer seems to have long gone now. It's dark early in the evenings, I'm being dressed in long clothes for daycare, and we haven't been to a beach on the weekend for ages. That means we're into Autumn now, and after that comes Winter - and school!

In just two short months I'll turn five, graduate from daycare and go to my first school. Even when I've seen other boys and girls graduating, it seemed like ages away that it would be my turn.

So it's a good thing I've been getting myself ready these last few months, by working on my reading, writing and maths.

 

As you can see, I've got pretty good with writing my name and drawing - still haven't quite got the hang of drawing hair yet though. You can tell I'm concentrating on my drawing by the tongue sticking out of the side of my mouth.

I've also been practicing my ABC, and can now read about half of the letters of the alphabet. Somewhat strangely, I could spell the letters of my friend Damiyn's name before I could spell my own. But I can ace spelling my name now too.

My numbers and counting are getting better. I can count up to about 30 before things start to get a bit fuzzy and I need to ask for help. There are even a few maths questions I know the answer to now as well...

So, that's words and numbers pretty much sorted; wonder what else I'll need to practice before starting school? I'll find out soon when I go for my first proper school visit.

Hop To It!

A bunny good time at Easter

The only thing better than a long weekend where we can get out to visit some fun places, is having all of that – but with chocolate as well! I’m not quite sure what Easter actually is, and what chocolate has to do with it. But I do clearly remember that bunnies are involved. This Easter weekend we’d be seeing both chocolate and real bunnies.

The Easter bunny delivered the chocs which I expected, somewhat unnecessarily hiding them in various places in the lounge, but William and me had fun hunting them down in their hiding places.

On one of the days we went out to Kiwi Valley to see all the animals, and feed the sheep and goats from littler bags of food. There was actually an Easter egg hunt there too, but we didn’t manage to find any. At least we got to cuddle some real bunnies instead though.

We also got to have a ride on a couple of cool things – first on a tractor, which drove us up to see some paddocks with horses, then on a horse. It was my first time riding a horse, which might explain why I look like I’m concentrating so hard on staying on.

Another day we visited the Easter Show. There were more animals there – maybe this is all part of the Easter bunny theme somehow? We’ve been to the Easter Show before in other years, but this time I got to go on a couple of rides as well.

The first one was a bungie ride, where I was strapped in and could jump high up and down in the air. Like being on the horse, it took me a little bit of time to really get into it though.

Over the summer holidays I was watching a lot of PJ Masks on my iPad, so I was excited that there was going to be a live show of them on a stage. Daddy and I watched the show; I enjoyed the songs and wanted it to go all afternoon.

But then if it had done I wouldn’t have been able to go on the teacup ride with Mummy. This one wasn’t as bouncy as the bungie, but it was fun when the cups spun around while we were in them.

So, that was our Easter weekend – lots of chocolate and lots of animals. Hopefully next year I can go on some even bigger rides at the Easter Show. I know Daddy was keen to go on the ghost train, so maybe I’ll go on that with him and make sure he isn’t too scared.

Who's the April Fool?

William the trickster

If you ask Daddy for his opinion, he'll tell you that William is a rascal. He might sometimes even use other names to describe William. He'll almost certainly say that it would be more peaceful at home if William were in jail. Naturally Mummy would agree with none of this. But I think all of us would agree that little William is a proper trickster.

And since April Fool's Day is almost here, I thought I'd show some proof of just what sort of tricks that William gets up to.

One of his favourites is picking out toys from the toy box, carrying them across the lounge to the conservatory, pushing open one of the windows, and depositing the toys outside. Where they fall down to nestle beneath a rose bush, which has the added benefit of making retrieving the toys pretty tricky without getting pricked by the thorns.

Actually, it's not only toys. Quite often he'll wander down the rest of the house, find some item he likes the look of in one of our rooms (curiously it never seems to be from his), and drop that outside instead. For example, the bath fish toy and one of Mummy's slippers, as in the pictures above.

Dinnertime is another perfect opportunity for William the trickster to work his mischief. We'll all be sitting down, eating our food nicely, when out of the corner of their eye someone will spot some food dropping to the ground. Yes, it's William. It doesn't matter what the food is, or how much he likes or loathes it, all of it is fair game for dropping from the highchair onto the carpet.

And not just dropping either. Sometimes it looks more like throwing; I swear I've seen some bits of food far enough away from his highchair that he'd have to have thrown it. By the end of a meal, the lounge around him can look a bit like the picture above. For this dinner he's even thrown the plate onto the ground, which is a nice extra touch. Bet Daddy was pleased about that.

So who is the April Fool? William seems to keep on doing these tricks of his, and the growlings he gets doesn't seem to worry him. So maybe rather than a trickster, he's really William the Conqueror instead.

What's coming in 2018

Big things happening this year

It's only a month into the new year but already I can tell it's going to be a big one. And not just because I'm going to complete my Paw Patrol toy collection when I finally finish that reward chart Mummy made (still 20 stars left to earn - arggh!).

Mostly this year is going to be big because I'll be turning five. Woah, that really starts to feel like getting older. Only a couple of years ago Mummy was dropping me off at daycare for the first few times and I was howling like, well, like William when he wants food. Loudly and with lots of tears, I mean.

And of course, turning five means also starting school. It was exciting when Daddy said he was going to go back to school too to be a teacher (maybe we might go to the same school!). And then it was exciting when he said he wasn't (he can just be Daddy now, instead of teaching lots of other kids). So in a few short months I'll be putting on those scruffy secondhand uniforms which have hopefully been fully washed and de-cootied, and walking up to the nearby primary school.

I may not completely have the right idea of what school is going to be like yet though. Each time when I talk excitedly about going it's because they have cool playgrounds there that look fun to zoom around on. Apparently there are also long hours in classrooms in between. But learning to read will be awesome, because then I'll be able to start reading my books to myself! I even offered to help Mummy and Daddy with road signs while they're driving if they're not able to read them.

Something else which will make 2018 a big year is William starting talking. Finally. At the moment it seems like an equal chance between whether he or one of the cats will start speaking first. It'll be nice to know what he's been meaning all this time when he points at an object and says something which sounds like "ang-weh".

What else? Oh, hopefully another family holiday away somewhere fun. Ideally with a bit more beach and a bit less stinky mud pool. And if it's later in the year I'll be able to read the signs and chat to William along the way. So bring on the 2018!