The weekend was a busy one. Alex had football and swimming as usual, Vio was at a football training session so the kids went to Buni and Gigi’s for a few hours and later we had a family party to attend. The kids and I did not stay long. Vio was lectured about our lifestyle choice and called ‘irresponsible’. Meanwhile I lost Alex at the shops when he ran off to the toilet. I was frantic for about 5 minutes. I hope never to experience that again! We also managed to acquire some new family members – a pair of canaries. Alex has named them Hiccup and Astrid.
The kids and I spent the whole of the next day at the zoo. We had wanted to see the babies – the gorilla and pygmy hippo. We got a great view of the latter! I took Daniel to see the monkeys, as he seems drawn to them in books and says ‘nana’ when he wants to read one book in particular which is about a zoo visit. Alex was reading the map and was deciding our path. We went through the elephant trail which was probably another favourite for Daniel. Then we spent some time in the butterfly house. Alex was intent upon having butterflies land on him, and he achieved it numerous times! We love to look at the caterpillars and chrysalises which prompted Alex to ask if we could get another one for home – last year we purchased a butterfly kit and watched as a butterfly emerged from its chrysalis. then we set it free. We of course went to the reptile house. One of the previously empty exhibits now had a tenant. It was a reticulated python! Alex was very pleased, though also disappointed that the python was still rather small.
After the zoo, Alex had karate. Whilst he was there I took Daniel to the shopping centre as it’s not worth driving home and we wandered. i found a double light saber toy in Target and told Alex about it when I picked him up. I let him know is was $50 as he said he wanted it. When I told him that he only had $10 he replied “so I need four more tens then”.
The following day Alex requested to stay home and play. I was grateful, though this was my intention. We had some strawberries for breakfast which the kids both love. Alex is physically dominating, being older and bigger, and so I asked him if he would share with Daniel or if I should give them out. Alex decided to share and I could hear “one for me, one for you Daniel” for a while until they were gone. Alex spent time outside in the garden and in the playroom with Daniel too. He didn’t go on his iPad once which was a surprise to me as that is often his chosen activity when we are home. Finally, on Wednesday we saw the lion King! Just Alex and I. I really wanted to have Daniel with me, but it worked out in the end as he had a great time with his grandparents. He would not have enjoyed the show – too long for him for sure! Alex said that he had enjoyed it, though he was quite the fidget during the performance. It was useful to have known the disney movie first, as the dialogue was a little rushed and I wonder how well he followed what was happening. The costumes were absolutely amazing though, and he asked me a few times about how they could move parts.
When we got home, the kids decided to paint (without me knowing lol). There was a little mess, but Alex had decided he wanted to take prints. So he made one painting, then asked me to help him place another paper on the top to make two the same. I helped, then put the papers side by side and we talked about how they were not the same but mirror images. I introduced the idea of symmetry to him and we talked some more and he realised that if he took a print of the previous print, then he would have a copy of the original again. So i helped him with this, and displayed the final fours prints on the wall.