What the lads are up to

I haven't written much about the boys lately, it seems.

Marcus (at 4 years and eight months) is drawing beautifully. He is writing well when he concentrates. The latest thing is to make up puzzles and mazes. Yesterday he drew a man, with stripes of colours here and there, and letters in and around him. Outside the man were a list of letters and swatches of colour to find in the puzzle. The "d" was drawn around the man's eye. It was all pretty ingenious. This morning he drew a patient and a doctor (above). The doctor is trying to give an injection but according to Marcus "the patient is grabbing it to turn it around and stick into the doctor's neck", which smacks of a boy who has been read a lot of Roald Dahl. He was very keen to get all the right instruments on the doctor's shelves.

He seems to have no trouble making friends. He's socially less switched on than some of the other kids, but they are mostly a little older, which can make a big difference when you're 4.

Our main difficulty with Marcus is over-excitement. He gets revved up very easily, and then its hard to deal with him sensibly. He pushes his lower jaw forward, talks in a super-macho grunt, titters with a grating fake laugh and generally gets right up our noses.

He's mad about chess. He was having a little grizzle yesterday about not winning more often. In the course of pointing out that he was doing very well for his age, I asked rhetorically "Well - you have won 2 games so far, how many have we played?" I wasn't expecting an answer but he said matter-of-factly "Twenty eight or twenty-nine."

Michael, on the other hand (at 2 years and nine months), is sweetness and light mostly. He is mind-bendingly cute. He says please and thank you, and when you thank him he says "you're welcome". He has fabulous parroting skills. He remembers, word-for-word, long snatches of Wiggles dialogue. He did his first (I think) deliberate drawing OF something yesterday (initially an insect, he changed his mind before adding any legs and made it a snake). He wrote a few Ms the other day. He dances. He sings. He may have a future on the stage. He still walks about sawing his arm back and forth like Captain Feathersword.

Michael can read something like 30 words. He doesn't have any close friends of his own yet, but he likes palling around with the kids next door, and with a few of Marcus's other friends. He plays outside with Marcus at Friends, and also goes to visit Marcus' Pre-Kinder room quite often. The kids there accept him and he obviously feels at home in their company. I love to hear him yell "See you later guys!!" when we leave Friends. As I write the boys are in bed together, nearly an hour after lights out, laughing their heads off.

Michael is eating a lot better now, and he is looking very healthy. Unfortunately my Mum hurt her back picking him up the other day, when he was distressed that we were leaving. He has packed on the weight since she last lifted him I think.