A Matter of Choice

Whilst going through some old blog posts I came across this little gem from 2011,  it was part of a 'Blog meme' where lots of bloggers would tag their blogging buddies and everyone would join in and write a post on a certain theme. It was part of a longer post which is not relevant now so I thought I'd update it .  Back in 2011 I asked Leo what he would like to be when he grows up at several different times in the hope I would eventually get an answer that made some sort of sense. (Don't forget he was not yet two years old!)  Replies included table,  bebums (raisins), look Mummy dirty feet,  a circle.  Eventually I got the crayons and paper out to immense excitement from him as it is possibly his favourite activity and asked him to draw what he would like to be.... "is kerkles an lines mummy" I also rephrased the question and asked him what he wanted to be when he was bigger..... He replied (with arms waving above his head...

Since I started my blog I have written a post for boys on their birthdays, it was getting harder to do as they got older and last year I decided to stop at 10 years - conveniently of course as Leo turned 10, but it was a nice round number and also a good time to print them all off and give them to him now he was old enough to appreciate them all.  So this year I've saved myself a job but I can't have a birthday go by without a birthday collage... And a little flashback to his first birthday... For the last few years we have had Leo's party on a different day to his birthday because the last week of May is 'crazy week'.  Due to half term in the UK it's usually the busiest week of the year here in Cyprus for weddings, of course this year is a little different as we still have no tourists but luckily we are out of lockdown and so we can still have a party for him.   Our parties are always very small so we fit within the rules too! Every year I end up retelling the ...

Ten years of birthday letters, blog posts about parties, and birthday interviews! Our Leo is now in double digits! No birthday blog letter this year, I've still written one but I've printed it off along with all the previous years and will be giving them all to him when he gets home from school today. Not too old for the themed party though - it was Pokemon this year (at the time of writing it is still in planning )   Going on last years birthday blog fail, I may or may not write about it!   I realised I'd missed the post party blog only last week and wrote a very belated birthday post. It's fine, May is crazy month and with work, kids and businesses it's amazing I've even written this! Happy birthday to my (not so) little Leo! 

Happy 9th birthday gorgeous boy! For the last 8 years I have written you a letter and published it on my blog, on your birthday. This year it seems a bit silly to do it as I've not blogged for a long time yet on the other hand it seems wrong to break the tradition. So instead I will not publish your birthday letter,  it's for you after all and not the world. I know one day you might not thank me for all the times you've been mentioned on here, I hope you'll forgive me!  Just be thankful that I at least thought it through a little bit and I never put on photos on you in the bath! Of course I have no need to wish you a happy birthday online as I will do doing so in that crazy thing we call real life but as you have grown up with this blog I couldn't let it go! Love you Leo mou!

Back in June, with the 3 month school holiday looming I was a little nervous as to how we would make it though and stay reasonably sane at the same time.   Leo is on the whole a very good boy but at the end of the day he is only four years old and that means he can be a right royal pain in the bum when the mood takes him! I'd only used a reward chart once with him whilst potty training and although it worked well I didn't know how I could make it work now.  The problem wasn't so much that I wanted him to do specific things it was more that I needed him NOT to do things. As I realised I couldn't 'reward' him for 'not hitting his brother' or 'not whining/ banging/ interrupting/shouting etc  so when I saw this fab idea on Pinterest I thought it might just be the answer. Leo hates to think he is 'naughty' and was always asking me if he was good or becoming very sad if he was told off. Although he is no angel, he really wants to be good a...

Although summer has been around at least a month here, its now official as the schools finished back on  the 19th June.   Leo had the option to continue going until the end of June, (well,I say he had the option...  he didn't have much say in it!) so he finished last Friday. There is a summer program running a his school for just €10 a month more than we would usually pay but after some thought I decided to give him a decent break. Because of the very long summer holiday the rest of the year is long, no half terms and only a few days off for Easter and Christmas.   School starts early at 7.45am, so it will be nice to not hustle him out the door every morning for a while. Leo has had a fab school year, better than I could have imagined back when I was so worried about it all. His teacher was lovely and thankfully Leo thought she was great. Leo went happily to school almost every day, and sometimes asked to go on the weekend! He loved playing with his frien...

Following on from last years 'Leo, aged 3 loves' post , I've made a new one to join in with Lauren's linky.

I always imagined that once I had children I'd be taking them to lots of activities - not in a pushy mother type way you understand, more of a 'How the hell do I keep them occupied' kind of way!  This was back in the day before I ever imagined living in Cyprus and I could see the huge range of activities for them to take part in in England. Little Kickers classes have been running for a while now in Cyprus and I've had my eye on them for Leo for some time, although at first there was no class in our area.  This month however Little Kickers  launched in Paralimni, just down the road from us! Although Leo enjoys playing with a ball, football has never been part of his life as both Aaron and my Dad are not fans themselves so I wasn't sure how excited he would be about the classes. I guessed he would enjoy them as what's not to like about running around with your friends for a hour but I have been surprised just HOW much he is loving it! He's been to thr...

Last year when Leo turned 3 I interviewed him after seeing the idea online. I thought it would be interesting to see how his answers change (or not) over the years. Here is my interview with my four year old (with a little bit of input from his little brother!) The filming could have been better but Louka insisted on standing up so I was trying to stop him falling over or grabbing my camera. There were a few random answers but that's Leo for you!   I was also quite surprised that he burst into song halfway through when I asked him what his favourite was, especially as it was in Greek! Oh, and he likes Lucie really!

Last year we went to a restaurant with a fab play area and every time we have driven past it since then Leo has asked to go back. It closed for the winter not long after our visit so when we drove past a couple of weeks ago to see the 'biggest bouncy castle in the world' all inflated I knew it wouldn't be long before we returned.  On Friday evening (it doesn't open until 6pm, which is annoying but it would be too hot to walk on in the day)  a couple of friends were going so invited us along. My Mum offered to look after Louka so Leo and I went on our own.  He was very excited, especially as we had dinner first and I told him we'd be out until after it had got dark. We very rarely go out late, despite the fact I always imagined I would do with him and because of that he usually trots off to bed quite happily at 7pm and I relish the peace and quiet to much to change it! However, summer is here and in next week he will finish school for 3 months so I  want...

Some time ago Leo suddenly announced that he would like to go bowling, it took me some time to work out what he meant as he couldn't remember what it was called and spent a long time trying to explain what it was he wanted to do. Eventually I asked him if he meant bowling, worked out from the random description and demonstration he was giving me but was confused as to how he knew about it. It turns out that he saw it in an episode of Handy Manny! Initially I thought it would be an expensive activity that probably wouldn't go well and so I introduced him to bowling on the Wii.  He loved it and it instantly became his favourite thing to do. Just before Aaron started back at work however, we decided to take him to do the real thing. Not far from us is Play4all - a great little place with ten pin bowling, soft play and games areas. We've been to the soft play many times before but he'd never noticed the bowling lanes as you enter! He was very excited when we told hi...

After much debate earlier in the year between party themes, Leo decided he'd like to have a Spiderman themed party.   My original idea of Mike the Knight or Toy Story were never going to stand up against old Spidey as Leo and his friends are absolutely Spiderman mad at the moment.   We have no real idea why as none of then had seen it but it's come from school and the other children there. Wherever it came from he's been 'webbing' everyone for months now and rolling around on the ground at every opportunity pretending to be his new hero. At first I was unimpressed, knowing nothing about him whatsoever and I looked fondly back on last years ' Thomas party' back to the days when I knew everything there is to know about a character!  But after a bit of rooting around online I got into the idea and as usual enjoyed every bit of the party preparations. While Leo was at school I decorated the house, his face was a picture as we got to the front door a...

Dear Leonidas, Today is your 4th birthday, I told you we'd get there eventually after all those weeks of counting down the days!  I know this has seemed such a long time coming for you as your friends have been four for ages now and you have been asking me for so long when it would be your birthday. You are so very grown up now, going to school every day and even sometimes even saying goodbye to me at the gate and going in on your own. We are all very proud of how well you are doing at school, speaking Greek all the time and getting on so well with the other children. You love playing with your friends, and on the whole you all get on very well.  You love to go out, whether it is to the park, beach or pool or visiting Daddy at his shop. You have learnt so much in the past year, you can read brilliantly and there's no stopping you when it comes to picking up more information. Your latest love is playing on the Wii and it amazes me how fast you have learnt how to do ...

Two years ago I published a blog post ' The many faces of Leo'  where I had a series of photos of him pulling different faces for me, so when I saw this weeks Gallery theme was expressions it was the first thing that came to mind. I showed him the original photos and the blog post and explained that I wanted to write a new one and he was very happy to oblige, although he had to choose the faces he made this time!

If you've been reading my blog a while you will no doubt remember how worried I was about sending Leo to school, from trying to work out where to send him, and how to enroll  to his first day at his 'big school'   it's been quite a concern of mine.  Although he seems to have enjoying his time at his school since September I had wondered exactly how he had been getting on, he always says he doesn't remember when you ask him what he's been doing and because of the language barrier he often can't explain very well even when he does remember! Today the parents were invited to spend an hour in the class and then to enjoy coffee and cake whilst having a chat to the teachers about the children's progress. It was interesting as my Greek is not yet good enough to understand what was going on very well but brilliant to see him there being so much a part of the class and happy.  As I walked in, he had the biggest smile on his face and after running over for a k...

I've missed the last few weeks of my favourite linky - Flashback Friday but after seeing Lauren's last week I decided to go with the same theme! Leo's first beach trip was at 8 months old, almost exactly 3 years ago, in January 2010. Although I had started my blog we still had no internet having only been in Cyprus for 3 months at that time and back then I didn't 'blog' much at all anyway! We took him to Macronissos beach in Agia Napa, probably on the way to our 'local' pub which is just at the top of the road leading to the beach. I think Leo was fairly nonplussed by the whole event, neither hating it or showing signs of loving it,I do remember he was bemused by the sea and 'stood' for a long time just staring at it.  I did take him for a little paddle - you can tell we were fresh of the plane as it seems ridiculous to think of dunking Louka's feet in the sea in January!

It's not often it can be said but tonight our little Leo was an angel! He played his part in his first ever school play and was brilliant! I had no idea if he would take follow in my footsteps and refuse to do it and burst into tears  or if he would do what he was supposed to.  He had learnt his lines off by heart, even correcting me on my pronunciation of them, and had been excitedly showing me how he had to run around on the stage but I didn't know if the huge audience and camera flashes would put him off. Unfortunately we were sat the other side of the stage to where he stood but we did see him and also manage to get a great photo. It was the only photo we got of him as he refused to let Aaron take one before we left home.  Not wanting to upset him before the play we didn't force the issue! He had been looking forward to going to school at night (the play was at 6.45pm - interesting as he usually goes to bed at 7pm and he has to be at ...

Christmas in Cyprus is generally much more low key than in the UK (Easter being the bigger celebration here) so I'm always keen to find 'Christmassy things' to do. This year so far has been more successful than our previous years here, partly because Leo is a bit older and can enjoy them more. Last weekend we kicked off the festivities with two Christmas events.... Saturday was the Christmas lights switch on in Agia Napa, a great free event which takes place each year in the town square.   It's always very busy with locals and tourists alike and to get involved you do have to repress the extremely British urge to queue! Santa arrives in a horse drawn carriage and gives out free presents to anyone who can brave the scrum - luckily my Mum seems to have adapted to the surroundings and can wiggle her way to the front of crowds quite well now! There are also stalls handing out free wine and snacks but we decided it wasn't worth the effort (especially hav...