Growing

This is our official family photo for 2011. If I was witty and eloquent I would accompany it with an annual family message. But I can’t compete with Mil Millington. So go and read his message for a few wry smiles. I will let you into a little secret about this year’s photo. I had it all planned - and in advance, which is a first for me. We were going to go to the beach and get a shot of 2 Aussie boys on their boogie boards enjoying the surf, sun and sand that epitomises living in Sydney. With Father Christmas hats on. It was already the perfect Australian Christmas photo, in my head. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. It has been cold, grey and raining for the last few weeks and on the day I had allotted for the Christmas photo it wasn’t any better.

In a first, at least recently, here is the November photo of our two subjects actually published in the month of November. You probably won’t notice a lot of difference since last month but a variation in dress and expression is at least worth an extra picture. November is always a quiet month here. Spring is just getting started but it’s still not unabashed sun and warmth every day. We are on the home stretch towards the end of the school and calendar year and small boys thoughts turn to those endless days of the summer holidays. Small boys parent’s thoughts, meanwhile, turn to how are we going to be at home for six weeks and still keep our jobs. Some combination of 4 day weeks (SWMBO), extra utilisation of Lesley and strategic days off (yours truly) should see us through. Fingers crossed.

I know it’s November, but I’m playing catch up. Somewhere between watching the Rugby World Cup, paying scant attention to the bin lids and working a little bit too much there doesn’t seem to have been much time to curate my photos. But I’m catching up. Slowly. Here is the formal picture of two small boys that I took in October, 2011.

A special double month bonanza in this post. First, we have two small boys from July, otherwise known as the birthday month. We had quite a busy time with 2 parties to (in my case) attend. MIGO’s was first, even though his birthday is later, and we enjoyed a couple of quiet hours at AMF Bowling in Dee Why. Well, as quiet as you can expect with 12 children between the ages of 5 and 8. Still no one lost any shoes and there was very little crying. So I count that as a success.

In a special shot from Aunty Lorna’s wedding to Uncle Richard here are two small boys in their outfits for this special occasion. The addition of the top shoes was my idea, apparently that makes me a style guru. They had a great time with their cousins and the rest of the family who gathered at the Old Bell in Hurley for the nuptials. I took this photo nice and early in the day in case the boys got dirty later. It was a great wedding and you can see some of the photos I took in this gallery.

We have made it to April, 2011. Here are two boys showing off their acheivement awards from Manly West. In April we have had the Easter school holidays and the start of the second term of the year. Both boys went to ‘vacation care’ at their Mum’s office and loved every minute. Both have lost a tooth (or two) and no one has had a hair cut.

Here are the two boys in question in March, 2011. Since we last published a photo we haven’t done much. We did go to Jervis Bay and dress as Romans, but aside from that they have been spending most of their time at school and then recovering from being at school. This year the boys are in before and after school care and adapting to a new routine. Instead of lounging around the house in their pyjamas until 8:30 and then sauntering down the road to school they have to get up early, get dressed (usually whilst still complaining that they are asleep), have some breakfast and then be out of the house by 7:30. Then after school they stay until we pick them up at 5:30. After a quick dash home it’s time for homework, dinner, bath and then into bed. With all of this going on there isn’t much spare time for causing havoc and mayhem.

It would appear that I have been remiss. A quick check of the archives shows that I haven’t shown you any photos of the kids since November 2010. I have been taking them, honest. In fact if you check the photo set you will see entries for January and December. The December one is a bit different as it was the official family photo from Christmas 2010.

This one is a bit late, but has been up on flickr for a while. Here are two small boys in November, 2010. In the month since the last photo the junior members of the team have been on their first camping holiday. As a sign that they are growing up the smallest member of the team has attended his initiation at Manly West and is all ready to start at big school next year. He has the uniform the hat and the bag and he has taken to wearing it to pre-school most days. Photos will be forthcoming of a small boy and a very large bag.

Here are the two apples of our eyes pictured in October, 2010. They have just come to the end of two weeks school holidays, a small break before the final term of the school year. Many people have gone away, we didn’t. Mum was working hard on a hardware upgrade and I have no holiday. It didn’t stop two small boys having a great time. They have play dates, been to the movies, tried a couple of new parks and spent far too much time playing computer games. In fact they even persuaded Lesley to let them rent a couple of Wii games for a few days last week. Now I just have to explain why I won’t be buying them their own copies of these games.

It has been a while, but here is the latest instalment in my occasional series “two growing boys”. Since the last time they were featured on this blog the boys have had a birthday each during a visit to the mother country. This had two great advantages for me - no birthday parties to fund and less presents to buy because the baggage allowance wouldn’t allow much. They did have a great time and were spoilt rotten whilst we were away. But that has all stopped now that we are back home. The poor dears now have to exist on a diet of bread and water and endure regular forced marches, all the way to school and back.

Here we have the great hopes for the household in their usual pose. Here in Sydney Autumn has finally arrived and sensible people have started dressing in warm(er) clothes. Some members of the household have taken to demanding hot water bottles and extra blankets at bed time. They are in for a rude shock when we visit the UK in July, I suspect that they will be demanding thermal underwear as soon as we touch down at Heathrow.

Here we have the two little charmers in April, 2010. We have survived the Easter school holidays, including a trip to Albury and Wodonga. Some say that it is the wild border country, we just couldn’t spot the joins. I did try and convince JFGP that he needed his passport every time we crossed from NSW to Victoria (and vice versa) but despite some initial gullibility he just wasn’t buying it. Back to the drawing board.

Here we have the junior members of the team in March, 2010. Not a lot has happened since last month’s photo, although it is getting towards the end of the first school term of 2010 and everyone is getting a little tired and emotional. Not least the parents of these two little charmers.

Many apologies, December and January seem to have slipped by without much in the way of photography. But I am pleased to show you a picture of two smalls boy in February, 2010. In the last 3 months they have had a fine old time with 2 holidays, 3 trips to various soft play facilities, an outing to feed sharks and rays, a Christmas full of presents and delights, and a return to school for a new year.

Welcome to November, and here is the monthly shot of JFGP and MIGO presented for your “haven’t they grown” pleasure. Note the particularly fine outfit that my youngest son is wearing, the only way to get it off him at the moment is to offer to mend the holes in it. Pretty soon the whole suit will have more repairs than original material. The competition now is for you, dear reader, to spot the differences between this month’s picture and the one from last month. Answers on a postcard, or in the comments below.

I appear to have missed September, sorry about that. But here is the second in our series of pictures of two small boys growing up. You can see the first one here. It’s a bit more than the calendar says, but we will call this month 2. I would try and give you a running commentary on changes, but apart from hair a bit longer (MIGO) and shorter (JFGP thanks to a haircut) I can’t really say that a lot of things have actually, you know, changed. See you next month.

I have decided to start a project. With two small boys in the house and around all of the time its hard to see the changes that are going on in and around us. They must be growing because the food bills are staying high and only the other night JFGP told me that I would have to get a different pair of pyjamas out for him the following night because the ones that I had provided were too snug. Although he did graciously allow that he would wear them for one more night because it would have been too much bother to change them now that he had got them on.