Daniel had a bowl of dry cereal and a cup of coconut milk. We were sat at the dinner table as he can make a lot of mess, and he poured the milk into the cereal. He then tried to pour the combined cereal and milk back into the cup from a bowl, so I helped. This went on a couple of times until Daniel looked into the bowl and declared, ‘look…there…bubbles’. Then he popped them and I said, ‘pop!’ Daniel continued to do this for 5-10 minutes saying either ‘bubble’, ‘pop’, or ‘more’, each time looking at me and laughing. It was lots of fun and a really good connecting time. Alex has been watching a show on Youtube called ‘Blaze’. I’ve only seen small bits of it, but he has told me about friction and forces this week. Not simply regurgitating what he has heard either, but putting it into to practical terms. He also asked me about 4 plus 3 making 7 (it took a few attempts to get the answer) as there was a storyline about missing pigs and he was working out that 8 went missing, they found 7 and so there was one left hiding. I like that the shows he watches can open up windows to new views – new ideas that may not have naturally come into conversation or been an interest. This week we’ve been to the zoo (again, lol) and saw the snakes in the reptile house. We actually went to see the baby gorilla but unfortunately the baby was out of view in the mother’s arms. The next day we went to the museum. I wanted to take Alex to the section on Melbourne to see the growth of the train lines. He was only mildly interested though so we headed to the outdoor area of the children’s section. On the way we passed a cabinet with huge pythons in it. We’ve seen it before but it only just occurred to us that the snakes were reticulated pythons – Alex’s favourite as they are the longest.
I’ve made an observation about Alex. He shows far more emotional intelligence than any other kid I’ve met of his age, and even older. If a child falls at a park, or whilst he’s playing football, Alex will be the kid that asks if he’s ok whilst the others look on. At karate, a boy got his white belt. Alex was the only child to clap and say ‘congratulations’ – and he is the youngest there. It’s a really nice feeling to see that your child is so respectful and considerate of others’ feelings. I’d like to think we had a little to do with that…