Does a Triceratops have teeth? And where are all the ducks?

At the risk of actually being up to date with this blog, I will herewith give you all an update on each junior member of the family, in ascending order of age...

Phoebe (or Chubber as Will is now calling her) alternates between absolutely lovely and absolutely heinous. Basically, as long as she is stuffing food into her mouth or being held by a parent (or, ideally, both at the same time) then she is happy. Otherwise she is generally screaming in a meet-my-needs-now-dammit kind of way. She can scream through car journeys, supermarket trips, getting dressed, getting undressed, being spoon-fed (more about that in a mo), being put in the pram.... It's become the soundtrack to my life, and in fact she is doing it now so I think I'll just go and pour myself a glass of wine!!

Her repertoire of sounds has expanded past dadadadada and now includes 'the coffee machine' 'cccccccchhhhhhh ccchhhh chhch chhh chch'. And of course, 17 different ways to scream!



Food is a big part of Phoebe's life, but now that she has discovered that she can feed herself from her highchair tray, she completely refuses to be spoon fed (though will make an exception for yoghurt) and is rejecting all 'mush' food. In the last few days she has powered her way through pepper and ham omelette, chicken sandwiches, tuna and brocolli pasta, pork and peanut noodles, avocado, watermelon, strawberries, raisins, breadsticks, ricecakes, toast and marmalade, grated cheese, banana, fishfingers, peas.... Probably more but that's all I can remember recently! In spite of this, she is actually rather a petite soul - well, as far as this family goes anyway - being just under the 50th centile for height and weight.


Part of the eating frenzy has also probably been triggered by the fact that she now has four top teeth to go with her two bottom ones. Putting a finger in her mouth is NOT a good idea. Actually, putting anything with pain receptors in her mouth is not a good idea - she decided to try out her new pearly whites on me a couple of weeks ago when I was feeding her and I yelled so loudly she didn't feed again for three days!

She is mobile in so far as she can roll to get anywhere she wants to, but she is also now pushing herself backwards and also pushing herself up into a bridge shape on her hands and feet. I keep telling her there really is no rush, but she's not listening (that's how I know she's a Shortt)





Ella continues to be a cheeky wee minx with attitude, but is still our greatest source of amusement on a daily basis. She has taken to pluralising everything ending in a consonant with '-ses', like brainses, kneeses, pramses, spoonses...., describes something vaguely pink as 'pinklish' and is apparently attending 'playgroupery' on a Tuesday...

We have a huge world map on the wall and I thought (at first) that geography with a two year old was going exceptionally well. Foolish woman.
'Mummy, what's that country?'
'The Russian Federation'
'Rush-in Federay-shun. What's that one?'
'Libya'
'Libby-ya'
'And do you know where this is that we are living in now?'
'Australia!!'
'Well done Ella!'
'And what is the blue country?'
'That's the sea and it goes all around the world.'
'Oh. And where are all the ducks?'
'Ermmmmm...'

But she's not daft. The other day's conversation ran as follows after I told her off:

'Ella Shortt! Don't you dare stick your tongue out at me! Come here for a smack on your bottom'
'Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo'
Well, do you have something to say to me?'
'Don't smack me!'

And finally, finally, toilet training seems to be going well. Smartie bribery is working (one for a number one, two for a number two) as is having her own mini-seat for the toilet. Not in the conventional sense, you understand.... She refused to sit on the big toilet without being held, I bought her her own special seat so that she didn't need to worry, now she goes every time without the special seat to prove what a big girl she is. Worth every penny of the $9.95 I spent on it. But really, oppositional or what?


Will has a mutual appreciation society going with Phoebe at the moment - he loves her, she loves him, they grin at each other...

He has had his first orientation session at Manifold Heights and is so looking forward to starting school. He has another four sessions culminating in a big parents and pupils picnic so he should meet lots of the children he will be at school with - important, as he isn't at kinder with any of them. I do think though that the fact that he will be at school with his big brother will help too.

Apart from that, he has been a bit of a wee horror recently - I suspect just doing a bit of boundary pushing, but it comes as a bit of a shock when it's Will in trouble most of the time! Apparently he is an angel at kinder though... and I got to see a day at kinder last week when I was on 'parent duty' - Will loved showing me all the toys and all his friends and showing off his sisters. Ella of course thought she actually was at kinder- she loved sitting down for storytime and snack and helping with the weather report.

Will has also started asking the kind of questions I used to expect of James - most recently 'Did Triceratops have teeth?' and 'If there were no people, who looked after the dinosaurs in the safari park?' and 'Why does there have to be sand on beaches, cos I don't really like the sand. Could there not just be grass?' Good question Will, I don't much like the sand either!

If you think Will and co look a bit odd in this pic, it's because they coloured their faces in with chalk to be Red Indians. Actually, Ella coloured all of herself in.... We also made headdresses with 'feathers' and they whooped around the garden for hours.



James has been - wait for it - an absolute gem in the last few weeks. So helpful and well behaved. He says it's because he's 7 now, bless! He loved his week at Cartoon Camp and I have scanned some of the drawings he did here. Not only did he really improve his drawing skills, but he has picked up a lot about the different styles and now points out Manga, Disney and so on when we are out and about.

He got a new Quiksilver scooter for his birthday (the boys have really been missing their scooters from home) and has been putting it to good use on the ramps at Sparrow Park. We also got him some books, DS games, Star Wars figures and DVD's and he got lots of generous gifts from the UK too.


We also finally got the results from his assessment - interesting but inconclusive. It said he was of above/high above average intelligence, but not off the scale (which we knew) and that he should not need any special provision in a normal school. It also said that he might be bored at school here as he has come from 'one of the strongest education systems in the world' (so there!!) but that he is also what is termed 'hypercompetitive' which basically means that although he is obsessed with winning and coming first, he doesn't want to learn the skills required to do that. This means that often he doesn't try if his success is not assured, or will not attempt something if he considers it 'too difficult'. Which we also knew!!! It has reminded us of how long it took James to learn to ride his bike because he refused to try in case he fell off, and how he refused to try to catch a ball in case he didn't manage... Both of which he can now manage with considerable skill, so presumably there is light at the end of the tunnel!

We suspect that either boredom or his lack of persistence may be at the root of his intermittent disruptive behaviour in the classroom, so we are going to see another educational specialist in a couple of weeks to see what we/he can do to sort it out. We are well aware that in the grand scheme of things, James is absolutely not a 'problem', but I think it's worth seeing if a bit of a tweak now could make his journey through school a bit smoother- for all concerned!