Tales of growing up

  • The Coral Beach

    So many hermit crabs!

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  • Jellyfish!

    Jellyfish!

    On our last two visits, Silverstrand has been covered in jellyfish.

    Such ethereal, otherworldly looking creatures.

    They didn’t stop this kiddo from racing around the place – so impressed at his ability to dodge them at speed!

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  • Milestone: baby’s first babychino

    In Ean!

  • Rescuing a starfish

    Today we got to be real-life Octonauts! Ari was splashing around in a tide pool and we spotted a large starfish slowly moving around on the sand. The pool was already dozens of meters from the receding tide, so we sounded the Octo-alert and in the absence of a sweet Tweak-designed GUP, we managed to rustle up a watertight bin from the car and relocate the starfish to somewhere safer.

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  • Photowalk Scavenger Hunt: Signs of Spring

    Photowalk Scavenger Hunt: Signs of Spring

    Ari, Ada and I went for a walk today in Barna Woods. When we got out of the car and I got Ada settled into her sling, I handed Ari his camera and told him we were going to have a little scavenger hunt: he had to take photos of as many signs of spring as possible! 

    A quick note about image quality – we prioritised usability over image quality for Ari's camera. We bought it for him when he was three years old, and that made sense at the time. Seeing these shots and watching how carefully he took them, I think it's clear that he's struggling against the limitations of the camera.

    This is what he grabbed (captions by Ari):

    Gorse flowers opening and in bud.
    It’s a thornbush!
    Flowers we spotted among the hedgerow.
    Flowers!
    The stream in full swing
    A lake!
    Purple berries for the birds.
    Berries!
    A bud in the foreground with a mossy rock behind.
    Buds!
    A bud in the foreground with fallen leaves in the background.
    More buds!
    …more buds…
    Daffodils in bud.
    DAFFODIL BUDS!
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  • Question: Jack and The Beanstalk

    Ari is doing Jack and The Beanstalk this week at school. That means they read the story every day and practice with kids doing different parts and so at the end of the week they stage a performance for themselves.

    The question is: In this week’s performance of Jack and The Beanstalk, which part are you looking forward to seeing, and which part would you love to do?

    Jack! And I want to see the beanstalk.

    Ari, 5

    Update: Ari played the giant!

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  • Barna Woods

    Barna Woods
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  • Question: Stations

    Ari does “stations” at school, which is how academic learning is handled for junior infants. My question for him today was: What was an interesting thing you learned today during stations?

    Not all shapes can roll.

    Ari, 5

    Pretty good takeaway tbh.

  • Question: The Hobbit

    Question: The Hobbit

    Ari and I finished The Hobbit today! We’ve been reading parts of it nearly every night for a few months and he’s really been loving it. I asked him today: Which part of The Hobbit do you wish you had been there for in real life? Spoilers (!) for The Hobbit up ahead.

    The bit where Bilbo Baggins has to buy all his furniture back, I would love to be there and see him have to buy it all off the people who took it.

    Ari, 5

    Kid knows a good gag when he sees one.

  • Winter photowalk

    Winter photowalk

    Ari and I regularly bundle up for what we call “a lap and nap”, whereby we do a lap of our estate and Ada gets in her last nap of the day.

    Today we decided to turn it into a photowalk, as it was such a crisp and gorgeous winter afternoon.

    Things we photographed: the stark outline of trees against the sky, cool shadows on the wall, some colourful graffiti, frosted moss and at least one dog.