Three years later and it has always bugged me that I never posted Clark's Week Fifty Two. I remember it just being a busy week and basically not taking many photos. Hot, exhausted from the third trimester with my daughter... all a bit too much.
However I present... Week Fifty Two. I had to log on to our old PC (really must make my husband transfer the photos and files so we can "archive" this old thing), however I found that at some stage I had actually edited a photo. So am rolling with it. This park, his favourite for many years, the joy of not rushing as it was that idle time between Christmas and New Year. I remember it being hot however loving watching this boy who had grown so much, play with his father. Before his little life changed and he became a big brother. It is interesting looking back at this 3 years later as at the time he seemed so much older, so grown up. And now he is 6. And going into Year 1. A big brother, a reader, artistic, empathetic, and still in love with Dinosaurs though they vie for attention with Pokemon.
And my heart. Worn on the outside of my body.
When I think of the things Clark loves to do, I cant help but wonder which of these are influenced by us. Either because we love to do them, or because he sees us doing them. Of course there are other influences in his life, with childcare and other friends and family. However colouring-in and drawing I cannot help but think are loves inherited from his father.
Clark's go-to this week has been colouring-in. While he has liked it before and certainly has drawn many a picture, there has been an extra focus on colouring-in over the last week or so and he just cannot get enough of it! Sitting over one picture for a long time, being careful with how he holds his pencil, working within the lines. Sometimes he will change pictures declaring the current picture "a bit tricky" however generally he is content to colour one picture until it is done (or almost done). I love his face of concentration and how he bites his bottom lip as he is colouring.
And at 30 weeks pregnant and feeling very slow and tired, it is a past time I am happy to help him indulge in.
Oh how this boy loves his swing. Any time we go out the back he wants a swing. He can climb in on his own, buckles himself in and.... well that is what he can do. Pushing must be with two hands from behind the seat. And at the moment he likes to nominate how many pushes... and if you count as you push he laughs and laughs and laughs. Most of the time I am going out the back to put yet another basket of clothes on the line, and often this is dragged out by needing to go back and forth for some more pushes. If he goes high enough to clip the under-porch clothes line with his toes he is in toddler swinging bliss! He has only just gotten big enough to not be able to twist the swing around without banging his head on the ropes... something that was definitely a favourite swing activity!
This must be one of his most used items... we gave it to him for his first birthday and at the age of three I cannot see him letting go of it in a hurry! In fact Clark has just seen the photo I am posting and has instantly said "I want to go on the swing!". The simple things in life!
Christmas is coming and coming fast. Though not fast enough for Clark! I have mentioned (probably too many times) how tired and ready for the end of the year we are, however instead of having a quiet weekend we crammed in as much Christmas as possible!
Clark has been loving his advent calendar, and Friday morning he opened up the little pouch to find a note that said to go and look at Christmas lights. So once it was (finally) dark on Friday evening, after dinner and a bath, we climbed into the car and made the trek to see the amazing lights at Forrest. Clark was overawed at walking amongst the lights and it was truly beautiful. I felt my Christmas excitement start to creep up. A trek back to the southside to check out the lights in Gordon and Clark nodded off before we could see any more! I attempted to wake him (bad Mama) to see some of the amazing displays, however he was solidly asleep. There was something almost tranquil about driving around with my husband looking at the lights with our small boy asleep in the back.
The bulk of the weekend was taken up by Christmas Shopping at the Handmade Markets (sans small notaloverofshopping boy) and working for me on Sunday at the Young Carers Christmas Party. Once that was over I rushed home to ready my family to go to the divine Lanyon Homestead Christmas Carols. Lanyon Homestead is where Glenn and I were married and I delight in taking our growing family there at any given chance.
After such little photographing of our little boy over the last couple of weeks, we embarked on the end of our full-o-Christmas weekend event with camera in hand. Settling in to our picnic at Carols by Candlelight at the divine Lanyon Homestead I pulled out my camera and... the battery had run out. And yes, it was Sunday night. No more chances to take photos! So this week you are going to have to make do with iPhone photos!
This was Clark's first Christmas Carols and he loved it. A picnic (complete with many flies and noisy people encroaching on our space) followed by a shift to a quieter and more pleasant spot amongst the trees. Wandering the lawns completing Christmas craft activities and watching other children play. Eating ice cream as we sat and listened to the wonderful band and beautiful voices of Sing Australia. Once we had moved and had space to spread out and listen to the music, my Christmas bliss finally set in properly. I love Christmas and the excitement that goes with it, and this year it feels even more exciting with Clark being really involved in what is going on. He is excited about Santa coming (though has hidden some of the decorations behind the tree away from Santa) and we have talked about Christmas being a time for giving and spending time with our family. Today we made a trip to the shops so he could pick out a couple of presents to put under the giving tree and he did this happily. Little traditions and things that are important to us that we will build into his idea of Christmas and what it is about. Of course he is also very excited with the idea that Santa will bring chocolate coins, a lion and a dinosaur!
To add a further note... I have since charged the camera, and will keep it charged for the last few weeks of the year!
It was a sick week and a ratty week. A week too full of appointments and things we had to do. We made poor decisions like taking Clark shopping when really he does not like it. If I do not like grocery shopping, why would a three year old who has felt cooped up all week? As Clark pushed against the boundaries and we all felt worn out, there were tears and tantrums... and not just from the three year old. As I cancelled social events due to illness I too felt cooped up and restless, and impatient with the lack of natural rhythm to our family life.
But we love and hug each other and say sorry for the times we lose our patience. We try to teach our boy about kindness and hope that we move through the rough patches more quickly and smoothly each time. As we learn more about what our boy needs each day, I think we in turn learn more about ourselves and our own needs.
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I am finding more and more that each week Sunday arrives and I have not taken a photo. I think that this has been a great project for me but I have to admit that I cannot see how this will work in 2014 as we ready ourselves for our new arrival and move from balancing the busy lives of three to the busy lives of four (and less sleep). I know I will have the camera out constantly to take photos of our new arrival, but if I manage to blog I will be surprised. That said I do also think that this could be the natural tiredness that comes with the end of the year. I will see how I feel in a few weeks (cannot believe it is almost 2014 already) and go from there I suppose!
Five things I have discovered recently that my child likes:
- 'golfball' on the oval after school
- taking his socks off during the day at school (but leaving his shoes on)
- short sleeves
- plums straight from the tree
- turning on the blue fairy lights on his tent to have "a party"
First trip to the circus, with 'my cousin Chelsea'. Clark does love that girl. And Chelsea loves Clark. Their relationship is lovely and Miss 10 is so great with Clark... playing with him, keeping an eye on him, and letting me know when he is getting up to too much mischief. Everything has a golden tint to it when Clark knows that Chelsea will be there! A heart of gold and so very sincere is our Chelsea... something Clark knows well.
Clark also loves 'webbing'. We are at the circus, but Clark would like to throw webs. It is a serious art and comes with rules. We do not web at each other. And sometimes we are only allowed to web outside. Webbing is for baddies and to get ourselves out of (sticky) situations. Clark climbed behind the Christmas tree the other and had problems getting out. He called for help as he was 'stuck in the mud'. I reached in and helped him stand up, but before I could help him out he said 'no, I will web out'. And web out he did.
Playing much catch up this week. Catch up on washing, catch up on blogging... catch up on life! I feel I am moving more slowly the last couple of weeks, a combination of our ever growing baby girl stretching against my insides mixed with this oh so busy time of year. I really think our boy is feeling the pressure of it all and has needed extra attention to get through these hectic days. So I have really pulled myself out from behind the camera and just focused on what our beautiful boy needs... a balance between getting out and running, mixed with time to sit with his Mama and Daddy and read, make, talk.
