Book drive for bushfire schools

Dylan's school is collecting donations of childrens' books for the families and schools devastated by the bushfires in Victoria. Three primary schools were completely destroyed, and thousands of families are now homeless.

If you have any new or used quality kids books (ages 2-16) please drop them off at Annandale Public School, Trafalgar St entrance, on:

Friday February 20th: 3pm to 5pm

Saturday February 21st: 10am - 12 noon

Saturday February 28thL 10am -12noon

Thanks for your help!

The Bunny Miracle

We lost Bunny for the third time on Saturday - but this time it looked like it was forever. That night, as he was getting ready for bed, Sam realised he had left Bunny at Dylan's football match that morning. He was inconsolable, worried that Bunny was cold and scared, and blaming himself.

Jason was dispatched to King George Oval with a torch and instructions to look in the bins. He returned an hour later. No Bunny. Sam woke a few times that night asking where Bunny was. None of this makes for a happy house.

The next day we looked around the oval in daylight, and asked one of the Rugby League managers if they had a lost property. No Bunny. We trekked over to the Westfield in Bondi Junction to see if we could find a new Bunny. But nothing even came close.

Sam was still sad that night. Jason told him Bunny had gone on a holiday with The Snowman (as in Raymond Briggs... we were reading it at the time). He looked dubious.

On Monday night, Dylan had football training again. Jason checked with the canteen lady, just in case. She hadn't seen Bunny. But a few minutes later, a boy raced after him holding... Bunny! He had been put up on the top shelf of the canteen.

The look on Sam's face when he saw his beloved friend again was priceless. I had to prise Bunny from his fingers the next morning to give him a wash and stitch his ear back on a bit better. He has been telling everyone he meets about Bunny's adventures - his holiday with The Snowman, his wash and his getting fixed. And Bunny is not going to football ever again.

Preparing for school...

Dylan has been counting down the sleeps until he finally starts kindy (again). Now it's just 14 hours to go and he is beside himself with excitement.

There is a sense of deja vu - this time last year he had just started at Hilltop in England. But this time it feel like a real rite of passage, rather than a hurried item on my moving-to-do list. All his friends start tomorrow (or today) and we spent the Australia Day weekend at various BBQs, holding photo shoots of the school age group.

He has spent so much of this summer holiday wearing his uniform that both t-shirts are stained and need soaking (I realise this 15 hours before the big first day, of course - lucky I found that extra emergency t-shirt still wrapped in the back of the wardrobe.)

I will probably need a few more emergency t-shirts, as we have just lost our laundry. We are starting our big renovation (phase one) and the back of the house is completely sealed off and wrapped in dusty plastic. In 6 weeks time (if it doesn't rain) we should have a brand new shiny bathroom/laundry. That seems a long time to be doing my washing outside in the tarp-covered machine.

Dylan spent his last day of school holidays being completely indulged by me (what's new?) After a swim at Leichhardt pool with his pre-school friends (who are also in a frenzy of excitement) we saw The Waterhorse at the cinema and had a special mummy-dylan lunch. I will miss his company during the week. But I feel very ready to let go too!

At least tomorrow is not forecast to be cold and windy and wet - as it was on his first day of school last year. I am sure it will all go according to the plan he has formed inside his expectant brain. When asked what he is looking forward to most about school, he replied; "the work." Asked if he meant the reading and writing he said: "no, the cutting out and colouring in!"

Fashion trends for 2008

Sam says:

This year I will mostly be wearing underpants on my head. And sometimes on
my bottom too.

Summertime… and the living is easy

Christmas on Sapphire Beach

This will be remembered as the summer holiday where Dylan discovered books. Chapter books that grip you ‘til the very end. Unfortunately he can’t read, so it is also the summer holiday that Jason and I tag-teamed on endless chapters of Fantastic Mr Fox and the Usborne book of Illustrated Stories for Boys.

It will also be remembered as the holiday where Sam slept in a big boy bed for the first time. A trundle bed that rolled beneath Pete’s study daybed. Much comfier than the travel cot, but the cause of desperate attempts to get him to stay there at night time. Up and down, up and down until after 9pm most nights. We dropped the day naps in the end.

It is the first holiday where Dylan and Sam have really played together, constantly and for long periods even though it usually ends in tears. Setting up camps and schools on the deck, digging enormous holes on the beach. Sam really missed sharing a room with his big brother, and on the first morning woke him up with a hearty “I miss you, Di-Da!” Poor Dylan was lucky to get any sleep-ins at all, Sam was always so keen to set off to the beach (with his big brother) from the moment he awoke.

The soundtrack to this summer holiday includes Jingle Bells (sung by Sam, nosily), It’s Raining Men (which Dylan and Sam think is a hilarious concept) and Sk8ter Boi, which Dylan thinks is all about him, as Santa came good on the promise of a skateboard. This hasn’t been tested on a ramp yet though – its main purpose so far is as a make believe car ferry boat transporting matchbox cars up and down the deck. I’m quite happy to leave it this way.

Santa found us, thanks to the various notes Dylan carefully left around the house. He was instructed (by Dylan) to leave his gifts at the foot of the wood burning stove. Dylan explained to me earnestly that Santa would definitely fit down the narrow chimney “’cos it’s magic, mum”. Sam preferred all of Dylan’s presents to his own, but was quite happy with his Lightning McQueen racing track once the batteries made it work.

We've fit our usual north coast activities in between many trips to the beach and lazy afternoons on the deck. Mooching around Bellingen estate agent windows, pretending we have enough cash to buy a Promised Land retreat. Coffee at Riverstone and Lodge 241 cafes, the butterfly maze, the steam train at Glenreagh and the not-quite-as-exciting mini railway at the Clog Barn. We have managed to avoid the Big Banana, apart from the thrilling game of being the first to shout Bingo! when we see it on our many trips back and forth.

Today was the day of the Big Wave – the tsunami of Sapphire that knocked Dylan off his feet and sent Sam wailing. It took out the whole beach shoreline and swept our beach bag out to sea. Luckily Jason rescued a damp copy of Fantastic Mr Fox, otherwise we would never know what happened next.

Crashing back to reality, via the holiday traffic snarl, on Tuesday. It has been such a good break I can hardly bear to think about it. Happy New Year!

Back to school

Yesterday was Dylan's first day at his new school, Sam's first day at his new child care and my first day at work.

And what a difference for Dylan, compared with his first day at Hilltop Infants School in England just 10 months ago. For a start, it was warm and sunny and we were more concerned with sunscreen than padded coats and wellies. His pre-school is in the grounds of Annandale Public School, where he will start kindy next January. It takes about 3 minutes to walk from our house, depending on how quickly the traffic lights change on Johnson St - not a 15 minutes drive behind a slow tractor to Ashbourne.

He and Sam were so excited, with their school backpacks and gear, that we were running about an hour ahead of schedule - no mean feat on a Monday morning. Sam raced off to play with the trains at nursery, without so much as a backwards glance - the extra time I had allowed to settle him in was completely unnecessary. So Dylan and I hung out at the school playground for over half an hour, checking out the big kids in their school uniforms. It was the longest 40 minutes of my life, he was just so keen to get to his new class and meet his new friends.

There is no school uniform this year, and two huge playgrounds just for the pre-school. The outside space definitely appeals to him after all the rain and indoor days in England. But of course I have to negotiate the hat wearing - no hat, no outside play in this part of the world.

That afternoon when I picked him up I asked him who he had played with and what he had done that day. Rather than the sullen "no one... nothing" that I usually get, he rushed to tell me about the bike track, the silk worms, the stories, the toys. "And mum... we didn't do reading and writing at all - we just play ALL DAY."

Well, I guess he should make the most of it. Next year will mark the beginning of his 12 years at school. And that is a daunting thought for us all. Now I just have to work out how to compress my work day into the 5 1/2 hours the school run allows me. All advice welcome!

Home sweet home...

It didn't take much for Dylan and Sam to re-adjust to life in Sydney. Two weeks of sunshine, beaches, swimming pools and boat trips, and Yew Tree Cottage, horses, lambs and rolling green hills have been all but forgotten.

Sam still describes his plane journey to everyone who will listen: "I went up in the sky... wooosh... and then down boom boom". This version of events equates perfectly to his experience as he fell asleep as soon as we took off in Singapore, and only woke up when we landed in Sydney with a bump (boom boom). Dylan has slight traces of his English accent, but it is disappearing quickly as he picks up with his old friends again in the playgrounds of the inner west.

For me, though, the re-adjustment has been slightly harder. First of all the crashing reality of unpacking our former life, all musty and mildewy. Once the dust cleared and the boot loads of stuff I forgot we ever had and no longer needed had been taken away - to the tip or to charity, depending on their mould levels - things felt slightly more real. And of course it has been wonderful to see all our friends and family again... but I must admit to the occasional longing for the cosy aga (even when the temperature outside soars to bushfire levels), and wishing we had done a few more of the many things on my "to do list" in Derbyshire.

Which means, of course, that this blog is not over, as our eight feet are still itching to various degrees. Maybe they will travel more across Australia for the next year or so, or maybe we will find a way to get abroad again soon. What I do know now is:

• Travelling with small children gets easier as they get older (what a huge difference between flying with Sam at 16 months, and again at 2 and a bit.)


• Always stopover. Sentosa Island is the perfect place for kids to break the London to Sydney route. Dubai may be the answer for Australia to Europe flight (let me know!) Either way, the result is no jetlag (yes, truly, NO jetlag) and that makes for happy mums and dads.

So... stay tuned for more Howard family adventures!