Leigh-side By The Seaside

A weekend away

Well it's about time! Lots of times this year I've said to Dad how great our holiday in Waipu was - and that was over a year ago. Finally we get to go away on another holiday, even if it was just because Daddy won it at work. It was heading north again, but not as far this time - only as far as a place called Leigh.

We dashed up there after work and school on Friday afternoon. We were staying in a bach. Nice and big, but no sign of a TV. Oh well, at least I had my iPad.

I hadn't eaten in a whole hour, so naturally I was asking for food pretty much as soon as we stepped inside. We picked up some fish & chips and ate them on the beach at a bay near the bach.

William and I were sharing a room again, which we hadn't done since the last holiday we had to Rotorua. That was nice since it meant we could check on each other to make sure he was okay.

The next day was Daddy's birthday, so as soon as we woke up we bundled onto his bed to give him his presents. No time for reading that book or watching that DVD though - it's time to drive off to visit Goat Island.

But hang on a second... something's missing. Where are all the goats? Sure those trees are nice and there's some sand to play on, but someone's oversold us on the goats. Maybe they're up by that Maritime Centre up the hill...

...Nope, no goats anywhere near Goat Island. At least the Maritime Centre was fun to visit. There were some cool open-top glass tanks where we could tap the water and feel the seaweed and other little sea creatures. There was even a baby octopus in a tank (but we couldn't touch that one)!

The sun was still shining, so we next drove on to Pakiri Beach. It has a huge, long stretch of sand and sea, just perfect for paddling in. William's always copying me, so when I ran in to splash about a bit, he did the same. Which he thought was great fun, right up until he tripped and face-planted into the water. He sure wasn't as cheerful as he is in the photo below after that happened!

   

We'd had a couple of snacks during the day, but all this rushing about was making me hungry again. Luckily it was getting close to dinner time, and we were going to some place with lots of old machinery sitting outside. Hopefully the food is a bit newer.

Turned out it was my favourite dinner - pizza - at the Sawmill Cafe. We got a great table just above where some musical instruments were set up. Then, just before we finished eating, the band arrived and started to play. It was my first time seeing a real live band playing, right in front of me; the first time seeing people playing drums and "kee-tar"as William calls the guitar.

The next day was Sunday, which meant time to pack up our stuff and head back home again. But not before one last bit of excitement. It turns out my tummy isn't very good on long car journeys, and about a minute from home I was sick all over a towel. Uh oh. Maybe next time we should just take an aeroplane instead. Maybe back to Australia...?

Will's Words

The lexicon of William

Now that I'm at school I'm learning how to read letters and words, and am doing more and more writing too. But little William isn't as good as me. He's still learning to speak, so he only knows a few words. He is trying to speak proper words more, but sometimes they don't come out quite right. Like these ones...

bitty = bickie (biscuit)

cuggle = cuddle

One word he's only just started trying to say is his name. I guess it's a tricky word for a baby, but when he tries to say it, it sounds like he has something stuffed into his mouth. You'll see what I mean in this video:

Mostly he just says one or two words, but he has worked out how to say a couple of longer sentences. His favourite one seems to be "Go away lawnmower. Too loud.". He came out with that one after seeing Daddy mow the lawns, and he got really frightened with the loud noise.

Of course, one word he's immediately learned, maybe because I say it so often, is "cukky". It's handy that he knows the word, because he carries his cukky around everywhere - usually hanging out of his mouth, covered in dribble. Love for our cukkys is something we have in common.

Luckily for us all, most of the time we can work out what William means, even if he says it a bit funny. And luckily for William, he has a great teacher to learn from - me!

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.