Pre-School

We finally relented and let Harrison move into the pre-school room at day care. It's not classic pre-school, just what they call their third room. He is loving it, even though he's just visiting for half a day at a time right now. We were a bit worried about over-educating him too early in life - neither of us believe in "hot-housing", or pushing him to excel and achieve when he could be playing and enjoying being a kid. But I think the different environment and slightly older kids is good for him. While we absolutely love the carers in the toddlers room, it's probably getting a bit too same-ish for him. There are younger kids starting there, and the dexterity and language etc between the youngest and oldest is quite significant at that age. The pre-school room also has a lot of "incursions" during school holidays - visiting firemen, farmyard etc, and interesting activities aimed at older kids. Mum had some good advice about not trying to push H to a higher level of achievement in reading, writing etc, but to look for other things that are still at a 3 year old's level to interest him. Cue for Simon to spend some time on music and sport, I think!

Shrek

Harrison's latest obsession (along with everyone else under the age of 10) is Shrek. We have the first movie on DVD, and he loves it. Especially the music. He goes around at daycare saying (in his best Scottish accent) "tha'll do Donkey, tha'll do", and "can't we just settle this over a pint?". He loves to pretend to be the Donkey, and points out that while Shrek calls him dong-keh, he calls himself don-kee. The karaoke bit on the DVD is played over and over and over.

Tomorrow I'm taking him to see Shrek the Third. Unfortunately Simon is working, so he'll miss out on sharing Harrison's first movie experience.

Health houses and handbags

Mum and Dad have both been keeping the Toowoomba medical fraternity busy lately. Dad with his diabetes (he's now on insulin), and Mum getting tested for a hereditary thyroid condition that it seems most of her family has. Dad also has to go back to the sleep specialist as his sleep study showed up some issues.

Paul and Anna have moved into their house, but their blog doesn't yet show the updated photos (see the link on the side bar). Madonna and Peter are also in their new house, which apparently is beautiful (they raised an art deco home and built under it).

Simon's marking exam papers at the moment, as well as looking at final proofs of his admin lawbook, and doing the update on his native title book. Plus he's going to Brisbane in mid July to teach an intensive Masters class at QUT. The good news is that he has a fairly light teaching load next semester, and those books should be finished once and for all in the next month. So we look forward to seeing him at dinner and on the weekends. Harrison is starting to think Daddy is just someone who visits occasionally!

I bought two dresses for Denis and Tracey's wedding (a girl needs choice, after all!), and I'm going to try my hand at making a handbag for them. Might have to ring Rosie for advice.

Winter begins

It's the first day of winter, and very chilly in Perth. It is a beautiful sunny day (as it was on the weekend, too), but there's a definite winter chill.

Simon's mum left yesterday after her 3 week visit. It was sad to see her go, and her visit seemed to be over very fast. VJ was talking about visiting sometime soon (health permitting), and Mum and Dad are considering a visit in September, so I'm sure it won't be long before that spare bed is in use again.

Reunions

It's Simon and my 20 year high school reunions this year. Neither of us are going, as they're on the other side of the country. Hard to get my head around having been out of school for 2 decades. We've been going out for 17 years in October, and married for 9 years tomorrow.... I certainly don't feel that grown up!