Warning: Lots of Photos of Cute Kids!

Is this just the sweetest thing you've ever seen???

Wolf told me that I needed to take a photo of the boys sleeping with their hands together. I couldn't see in the room because it was too dark so I just took a photo and then saw in the photo what was going on... then I started crying. Here's a close up that's a bit fuzzy (it was dark and I had teary eyes by this point)

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I'm getting a bit sick of the "I don't like that" at dinner time. I went back to an old faithful that is a friends recipe. The trick is it's so easy that they can do it themselves and they are more likely to eat something they cooked. It only has one veg in it, pumpkin, LOADS of pumpkin. So I cut up the pumpkin, poured the extra stock that we didn't need out of the carton so they didn't have to measure it, and then I just instructed them.

C'mon Mum, can we just start this cooking????

Dragon is in "TV Chef" mode... Just keep smiling!

Then smile some more... Lion was enjoying making the pumpkin "splash" the rice out of the bowl... until mummy put a stop to it because we were a little short on the right amount of rice anyway.

Then you take turns pouring in the stock.

Lion was creeping the dish closer and closer to himself, I'm not sure if he was trying to get Dragon to spill it or if he was hoping that if it got too hard for Dragon then it would be Lion's turn again.

*sniff sniff* "Will I like this Mummy?" "Yes darling, yes you will like it"

They didn't. They ate all their rice, no complaints. Lion ate all his pumpkin and Dragon missed out on dessert.

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Getting some towels off the line this afternoon and Lion saw a shooting start. A very slow shooting star that looked incredibly like the setting sun reflecting off a jetstream... I did tell him the truth but I got excited about it with him and we took a photo because it was "SOOOOO PRETTY". Can you see it??? It's that white smudge in the middle of the sky. My poor old camera was having trouble with it but it made Lion happy and that made me happy.

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Now for a very excited Mummy Brag!

Background: Lion's usual drawing style has been scribbles. He's nearly 5, I know he can be more deliberate if he slows down but all we have ever managed to get from him is smiley faces. He can draw GREAT smiley faces. I sometimes have wondered if he was ever going to get it because he would do a quick scribble with a few different colours and tell me that it was a daddy or a car or whatever took his fancy. In colouring books he just scribbles all over the page, it doesn't matter what the picture is he just scribbles. But I've kept encouraging, after all I am happy if he is just drawing, around here paper is more likely to get turned into a paper plane. The birthday card he was making for a friend the other day ended up being a paper plane that I had to write the birthday message on, thankfully other 4 year olds get excited about that sort of thing. I have been trying to keep paper and crayons where they can get to them all the time (easier to clean than textas and wont damage my couch like pencils) in the hope that they will occasionally occupy themselves with some colouring in. Today I was trying to concentrate on something so I suggested they go colour in. A few minutes later Lion brought me a picture to look at... it was SOOOO much more than scribble. My boy drew his first person! Absolutely identifiable as a person. He originally was the head/body and legs and feet, I asked what else the person might need and he went and added the hair, arms, hands and fingers! YAY, my boy CAN draw. I was just about in tears again! I took a picture on my phone straight away and sent if off to daddy. I also stuck it to my newly cleaned wall!!!!

Then I asked what else he could draw, could he draw a house? So he started... he drew the house with the roof and door (and door handle) first and I gushed over that... I asked if he wanted to put anything in the garden. I thought he might do some flowers or a tree or something... nope, "a garage with a stone driveway like ours (pebbletex stuff) and a stone pathway leading to the house" that's what all the spots along the bottom of the picture are.

So there you go, my boy took his time but BOY, he does a good job when he gets down to it.

I also drew some shapes on a page (square, triangle, circle, flower) and asked if he could carefully colour them in without going outside the shape. He started on the flower and did a great job, after that I am assuming it got too boring for him and he started each shape slowly and deliberately but then got faster and messier as he went. I keep telling him that if he just slows down he will be able to do so many more things that he thinks are too hard for him. So often I need to remind him "SLOW DOWN and you will..." stop tripping over, be able to get your pants on/off, be able to fold your own plane, find the toy you are looking for, etc. He faces life at full speed my boy does. I can't keep up but I sure do love him!

oh yeah, amongst all this colouring in was the constant talking about nothing. I did manage to catch one snip of what he was telling me "my person I drew is skinny, not fat like you mummy". And I still love him.

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We did make some paper planes with the scrap paper though... I was making one for Dragon and he climbs up on the chair next to me and gives me a little poke in the cheek like we sometimes do to his chubby little cheeks and he says with his little grin... "It will be a fast one you cheeky monkey". He is such a cheeky monkey!