Little Miss our soon to be four year old still refuses to talk to grown ups. I asked her why today and she said that it was because she was too little and that she would do it when she was a bit older.

I put the idea into her head that talking to grown ups was something that you did when you were four. She promised that she would do it when she was four and was at preschool.

But to be honest I don’t really care that she doesn’t do it. She talks to kids her own age and those slightly older. I have watched her happily make friends with strangers at the park all the time. Sure sometimes she is shy around her peers - but can’t we all?

Others are convinced that this is a sure sign of the coming apocalypse or something of the like. But as someone who spends his days talking to ‘grown ups’ I am not entirely convinced that you are better off doing so. Maybe the kid has the right idea and has just decided to save herself a lot of annoyance and eschew society completely. Smart girl!

Well it is back to the daily grind for all of us here. After a calender month off work (my longest break ever that didn’t involve a new baby - well not yet lol) it’s now time to return to the ratrace.

Not only is it time for me to head back to work, but it is time for the two youngsters to go to daycare. For Little Miss this was a day of excitement as she reaquainted herself with her friends and all the fun that goes with that.

As for Usurper it was her first day in daycare. From all reports she dealt with it far better than Wife did. Actually that is not strictly true - Wife dealt with it extremely well after a shaky start, to the point where she was actually enjoying herself. I think that will happen when you finally get a day off after almost 2 years But Usurper is already a favorite with the careers due to her bubbly, outgoing, cheeky personality.

Of course this is only the beginning of a very busy couple of weeks, upcoming we have the following:

1. A visit by the interstate grandparents for a week or so.

2. Little Miss is turning the big F-O-U-R, she is definitely a fully formed person these days, for better or for worse.

3. Little Miss starts preschool one day a week shortly. The preperations for schooling have begun, peer pressure and smoking behind the gym can’t be that far off now!

4. The big one is that Wife returns to work in a week and a half for 2 days a week. This is not going to be fun for anyone involved, but we will get there - I hope. Of course there is still one more 20 million dollar lotto draw between now and then so there is still hope.

Well that is it apart from sharing my New Years resolution - I promise to post twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays I think. That and I have to focus more and getting tasks completed, not just started - but there is nothing new in that. Oh and I will not just read blogs, but will comment on them as well. Naughty daddy for being a lurker

Actually before I go I may as well some things have learned while on our little break.

a) That you can actually have a GOOD family holiday and do lots of things. We went lots of places, had lots of fun, every day was an adventure and it was all done with good humour and almost without tantrums.

b) That no matter what the cost, membership to the airlines business lounges is worth it when travelling with kids - I recommend it to be able to not queue at checkin time alone!

c) No matter how old you get you always feel a little naughty when fooling around in your parent’s house - especially if it is in the room you grew up in

So 2008 is about to end and another year is about to begin and as is common at a time like this my mind has turned to what has transpired and what has been learned in the last 12 months - so here goes.

Usurper has had a busy 12 months - probably the busiest 12 months that you can have in the life of a normal human being. She has spent this year learning to walk, talk, sing, hop, play, eat solid foods, play peek a boo and bat her eyelids at cafe waitresses so that they give her a free cookie or the like. Her most recent development is a sense of ownership - everything belongs to someone and she gets most upset if the wrong person touches something. It also leads to being woken up by a deranged toddler screaming ’shoooooosssssss!!!’ at 400db while shoving smelly runners into your face because she thinks she is doing you a favour making sure you don’t forget your shoes even while aslep.

Let’s face it when compared to my main achievement this year of ‘not dieing’ it really does put most of us to shame.

Little Miss has gone from toddler to little girl and all that entails. She picks her own clothes, dresses herself, has a sense of style, a pop culture sense of self in everything from TV shows to hobbies. Of course with a sense of self has come tantrums, stubboness and a refusal to listen to the sensible advice given by her parents. It is as frustrating as hell at times, and it will get worse, but at the same time I can’t wait to watch her grow over the coming year - she is on the brink of reading and writing and of course she will start pondering the great philosophical questions of life - such as why is the stuff we eat have the same name as the pretty birds down on the farms?

Roll on 2009 - surely it’ll start getting easier from now on!

Well, aren’t we just a couple of very bad parents, possibly the worst parents in the world - well with the exception of all those parents that physically scar their children (we only tend to scar them emotionally).

Today we topped even ourselves. It was end of year party time at Little Miss’ daycare centre. If any of you happen to remember last years disaster where an too upset to even cry Little Miss then you will know why I feel extra bad about this. She was so upset, and yet sooooo brave last year, that we should have made an extra effort to be there to support her. Instead we missed the concert completely.

The closest we came was seeing some video of her singing along and scanning the audience looking for familiar faces (and finding none). Luckily for us one of the other parents reassured Little Miss that we were there just trapped down the back of the sea of faces.

Being extra special parents we have continued the lie - well sort of. I have steared away from saying we saw her, instead going with non comments like: “I am so proud of you for singing today - was it fun”. Which is true - I am proud of her for overcoming last years disaster and taking to the stage today to sing (especially without any support).

But enough of the bad stuff - being the final day of childcare, we also go a report card - so maybe I will share some of the gems:

The photos from her 3rd birthday where she was so shy that not even a cupcake made her smile! Or the collage of photos from her time in the little (0-3 year olds) room under the heading of “Some of the fun I had in the bilby room” - she is just scowling or looking at the ground in all of them. Contrast that to the big room where she was all smiles - in fact at the mid year review when asked her favorite place she said “the big kids room”

How touching it was to see that about 80% of her drawing of people were apparently of her little sister Usurper - sure she tortures her, but I think she may really love her as well.

Noticing that like Wife she has a scientific bent - our shy little girl actually volunteered to do all the science experiments on science day!

I loved the comment from her carer that she had ‘gone from being afraid of the taps to helping everyone turn their taps on and off’ - she is now officially a tap nazi!

I also learned some things about her like: - apparently at one stage she wanted to be a cook, but now she wants to be a aeroplane driver. That what makes her sad is ‘Grumpy old trolls’.

My favorite bit was though was discovering that when asked to complete the sentence “I am happy when………..” Her response was “Mummy makes me happy”. And it’s true - she does, so do me a favour go to Wife’s blog and remind her that despite her protestations and todays little mishap that maybe her daughter loves her and that is because she is a wonderful mother.

She must be because as the carers themselves summed up “Little Miss is a soft spoken child, who shows kindness and empathy towards her peers. She is a delight to care for’ - so maybe we haven’t completely blown it

I have a feeling we are in for our first Christmas disappointment for Little Miss. You see after months of not specifying anything specific as a desire for Xmas she has with 2 weeks to go decided that there are indeed certain things she wants:

To whit:

1. A telescope - I think she wants one like dora. Not a problem $5 at Toys’R'Us or the like.

2. A robot - easy as, quick trip to the markets across the road at lunch time and one cheap robot will be obtained.

3. A puppy - oh dear. At least it isn’t a real puppy she wants, but a ‘tend one. Seemed simple enough at first, but then she started to get quick specific. When asked to describe it, we get the following - as a excited stream of consciousness:
“I want a puppy, a ‘tend one, not a real one, it does stuff, but it doesn’t make a noise ‘coz that would scare me, oh, oh, oh and it’s pink!”. Bugger!!

She obviously has a very specific puppy thing in mind. So we have been racking our brains to think if her friends have one that like, or if she has seen an ad or something. But no such luck. Anything we get will be a guess - a ‘best fit’ solution. And that means it won’t be exactly as she imagined in her head and hence her first taste of the Christmas disappointment that is to come.

Still it will prepare for things such as:
Getting a girls bike for her 6th birthday, complete with handle bar streamers and a loral basket! (Ok she probably won’t mind getting a girls bike, but I did. Not that it has left any permanent scaring or anything)

The year she gets a hotdog shaped soap as one of her presents - I mean WTF is that all about?

Asking for a tennis racquet - only to find out your well meaning mum has not got you the Wilson tennis racquet you asked for but a ‘Willsun’ one from K-Mart that seemed so much more reasonably priced!

And don’t get me started on the years of wearing ‘Grasshopper’ jeans instead of cool ones like everyone else. I am still quietly convinced such things in my formative years lead me to being the social recluse I am out of fear of ridicule by my peers.

At least I know that Usurper will love her present for all 10 seconds she gets to hold it before Little Miss ’shares’ it right out from under her nose.

Ahhhh - I love Christmas.