Growing

They may no longer be small, or boys for that matter. But here are the two offspring in a classic pose to celebrate their birthdays. One happened last week and the other is a couple of days away. Happy Birthday not so small offspring.

Here we have two boys at the end of October 2016. MIGO is dressed for his tennis lesson and JFGP is dressed for hanging around the house playing video games.

Has it really been over a year? I’m not keeping up with that photo a month publishing schedule I set myself. I will try and do better in future. Here we have two boys between their birthdays in July 2016. JFGP has just turned 13 and MIGO will be 11 in a few days. You can see them getting steadily bigger at the gallery here.

I have been just a little bit slack. I am trying to make amends by clearing up my photo library and posting what little backlog of growing boys photos that I have managed to take. Here are our subjects from December 2014.

Let’s just pretend that not much happened in the first half of 2015. Following swiftly on from the end of 2014 here are the boys in June 2015.

I have been very remiss. Checking back through the archives I see that I haven’t posted a growing photograph since September last year. When I checked back through my photo library I have only taken one decent photo since that last post. That was in April 2014 and is shown above. I’m off to charge my camera batteries and try and do better in the future.

In a half-hearted attempt to catch up here is a picture of our subjects taken quite recently. As you can see JFGP has decided that since he lives by the beach he needs a surfer’s hair cut. On our trip to the UK in July most of the extended family disagreed and said that he needed a trim. MIGO, meanwhile, is laughing at my excellent joke.

I forgot to take a picture of the boys in the depths of winter. Now Spring has sprung and they are dusting off the t-shirts and shorts. Sometimes they even put down the video game controllers and leave the house. Sometimes. I will have to clear out the shed soon and dig out the summer equipment. Boogie boards will be top of the list and hopefully they won’t be insisting on super thick wet suits before jumping in the surf.

Welcome to Winter. It’s so cold that our intrepid subjects seem to have lost their minds and have started dressing as animals. Either that or their Mum lost her mind when she bought them these outfits. I’ll leave it to you to choose. We have survived the birthdays and, more importantly, the parties mainly intact and with some sanity preserved. We now have a 10 and an 8 year old in the house. It seems a little cliched to say that they are getting bigger but it is true. I review the whole catalogue of these growing photos before I posted this entry and the difference between the first and this month’s is quite startling. Pretty soon they will have decent jobs and be paying me rent. Well, a chap can dream.

The boys are ready for bed. They need the rest this month because it seems to be non stop action. JFGP has a band concert, a band competition and a series of dance performances. MIGO meanwhile has a drama performance coming up at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts. With all of the rehearsals and the odd appearance in class at school they will be rushed off their feet. As will the taxi drivers.

I’ve done it again. I look away for what feels like a couple of minutes and I find I haven’t posted here for 4 months. Well here we have our 2 subjects in May 2013. Not looking a great deal different to the last photo even though they have had a busy few months. The larger one (JFGP) has taken up archery. He has been shooting arrows at targets with his Mum for the last few Saturday mornings. Now that the course has finished he is a fully fledged Robin Hood. All he needs now is some green tights. The little one has been coming to tennis lessons with me and if he carries on his current rate of improvement he’ll make the ATP tour any year now. Keep your eyes peeled for that one.

OK, hands up, who knows what happened to December? Someone? Anyone? No, fair enough then. I will just say that it was rather busy and for a change we have enjoyed quite a sunny Christmas and New Year. Two small boys were spoilt outrageously during the six weeks of their summer holiday. With a grand total of three different holidays to, in turn; Putty Beach, Kingscliff and then Soldiers Point. Although they did remark that all of this leisure activity tired them out before returning to school in February. The good news from this year’s holiday activities is that there were no broken bones and everyone is sound in wind and limb. Here’s hoping it lasts through the rest of 2013.

It’s November, which in this part of the world means the approach of both Summer and Christmas. I’ve been too busy to notice as there were 4 test matches on this weekend and I did my best to watch them all simultaneously. I’ve put in some hard work watching at the ground as well. A couple of weeks ago I spent the day at the SCG for the opening day of the NSW v Victoria Sheffield Shield match. But enough about me, what about the two subjects of our photo? They have been busy attending school but managed to wrangle a day out last week. They both took part in a chess tournament and managed a few wins each.

Say hello to the luckiest, and possibly most spoilt, young boys in the world. This weekend they have been exceptionally fortunate and have both received new bikes. They can thank their Mum for this. Inspired by Uncle Benjy she has decided to become a middle aged lady in lycra. As she was at the bike shop spending an extortionate amount of money she ordered a new bike each for 2 small boys. They all picked up their new 2 wheeled chariots this weekend.

Spring has sprung in the southern hemisphere as you can see from the fact that JFGP is wearing shorts in this picture. Not a lot else has changed since the long winter months. No one has broken any bones for a change. No one has won the lottery, sadly. There have been the usual school related fun and games; band concerts, excursions and quite a lot of speeches delivered - some of them were even written beforehand. But apart from that we continue on with life and two small boys continue on their quest to get bigger and bigger.

We have had some birthdays in the Todd household recently. JFGP turned 9 and MIGO 7. I could regale you with stories of presents and how wise it is to organise two different parties on Saturday and then Sunday. But I won’t. Instead I’ll let you gaze on two small boys fully decked out in the gear supplied by their Guernsey based relatives. Thanks to Aunty Ju-Ju we have been digging foam darts out of various nooks and crannies around the house for the last couple of weeks.

We’ve had a bit of a milestone this week. JFGP’s second plaster of the year has been removed. He is still on crutches, the doctor says that it will take up to a month to get back to normal. It was a good morning when the cast was removed though, as he had his first bath in a month and a half. To celebrate even further, and because his Mum insisted, he has also lost some more excess baggage. Yesterday I took him for his first haircut in quite some time. I think the results look quite good and even the subject himself seems to like it. Unlike my suggestion of a buzz cut which wasn’t very welcome at all.

We skipped the March 2012 growing boys photo because one of our subjects wasn’t able to stand on the coffee table. I managed to persuade him to pose for this month though so here are two smiling boys in April. The crutches and plaster are a bit of a giveaway but JFGP broke his leg last month. Ten days after the plaster came off his broken arm. Twice would appear to be the charm. On a happy note SWMBO has been told, and believes to boot, that on the third break we get a visit from DOCS. Here’s hoping that the newly christened clumsiest boy in the street manages to go a bit longer between this break and the next one. My wish is for at least 10 years.

Here we have two small boys at the end of February, 2012. They have survived the first month of school and it’s all downhill from here. JFGP’s cast is starting to show it’s age. Both with the accumulated dirt and debris and also with the odour. Four weeks of small boy activity and no washing can do that to a limb.

Here are our subjects at the start of the calendar year. New Year for us is at the beginning of the long summer holiday from school so I think we can say that the boys are relaxed. This picture was taken on the first “Dad day” of the holidays. This is where I and two small boys get the day to ourselves to play and go on adventures. Or in this case play computer games and go to the pool for a swim.