
Well, another big week. Yesterday, David asked me what was in his LEFT hand. I asked him if he knew which was his left hand, and he thought and waved his left hand. I played the game. Then I asked him which was his right hand. He thought about it and waved his right hand. Later in the day, when we were reading books before bed, he picked up the toilet training book and said "This is called Stay Dry." I don't think that we have covered either of those things at home, so perhaps he has picked them up from Day Care. I was pretty impressed.
David got an Action Man yesterday. It was in the window at the Salvos store, and we passed it on the way to the post office. There were lots of desirable toys, but on being convinced that he could only have ONE, he chose Action Man. Pretty wonderful ("It's my favourite toy!"). You can see him giving Action Man a workout. He flies, he leaps does just about everything. David understands that a big boy has grown too big for Action Man, so he has given it to Salvos so that someone else (David) can buy it and play with it. No shoes or hat, but Action Man has tough feet, and head. David wanted to know what his other name was, presumably, his secret identity. After a few trial names, we think that his secret identity name is Jeffrey. Marcus or Carl came a close second. It has been a good week for Salvos. I picked up a bag of assorted old cars, earlier in the week, containing two more working rechargable cars, which goes with his racecar set. Absolutely magic, and useless unless you have the recharge "
pitstops". We gave them a good workout on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

We are trialling phasing out the afternoon nap. Yesterday he didn't have one, and was tired and fractious all day. We had a few small confrontations, and one major meltdown. It took 45 minutes to do a 5-10 minute return from the local park. After David tried to bite me and then threw his drink bottle at my head (he got me) I ran out of patience and frog marched him home to the naughty mat. He lay on the floor on the naughty mat and cried about a lot of things. It took a while to progress, because essentially he wasn't sorry for hitting me - he meant it, because he didn't want to come home. Anyway, that is being two going on three years old. He went to sleep at about 8.30pm, and slept until 4.15am when he came into bed with me and fell asleep until 7.00am.
Today we got up slowly because I was tired after yesterday and the broken sleep. After a shower and breakfast we went late to
Playgroup. David dressed up as Spiderman and had a lovely time. It was a much better day, and we managed to negotiate putting the suit back in the cupboard without a tantrum, in fact it was fun because we moved on to the next thing which was stamps, a biscuit and playing on the other equipment. After we finally left (a bit problematic) we then went to the park. We cancelled the planned trip to buy bagels and fruit before the park, because he didn't want to go. We went home, got towelly and some lunch and then went to the park, and kicked the ball, ran, climbed and had a picnic. Lots of fun! This butcher bird came to the picnic, and David shared his sultanas. It came really close, and caught the sultanas out of the air. We came home at 2.45pm (after more than 4 hours out) and David had afternoon tea and watched Play School and a few other things while I made a cake and his dinner. David was helping with the cake, and then went back to sit down. He was fast asleep when I put his dinner out just before 5.00pm. So, we will see how he goes with sleeping through.


David is improving a lot with kicking the ball. He is very good and kicking it while he is running. He loves it. Stationary kicks require thought, and it is a real effort to kick with either foot. When running though, he just does it and with both feet. Lots of fun for us all, and particularly for Dad. We had a great afternoon at the park on Sunday, playing then kicking the ball, then using the bat and then running part of the way home. The photo is of David climbing the playground equipment, without any help from Dad.
We are still working on preliminary toilet training. Both at home and at Daycare. David is asked if he wants to sit on the toilet several times every day. Sometimes he does. He is still in nappies, and not really ready for underpants. (We tried last Sunday for a couple of hours). He has a chart and a couple of books, and he gets stickers for sitting on the toilet.