A Matter of Choice

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...

Two weeks ago in a moment of apparent madness I decided to do the ' Scan Bran Challenge' along with several others from my Slimming World group. It's a bit of a craze sweeping the groups at the moment, the idea being that you eat 5 scan bran a day (either as a 'Healthy B choice' or counted as 5 syns) along with drinking at least the recommended 2 litres of water a day to help speed your weight loss. Its had mixed results in the group, some good weight losses and some no different to usual.  I did very well at the start of the 1st week, sticking to the challenge from Monday until Thursday, at which point I went out drinking Thursday evening and then it all went to pot! At the weigh in on Monday I'd gained a pound, but I blame the drinking and resulting hangover cures, plus the kids party I went to on Saturday where I found myself eating cake and such like all afternoon! They say that it will always catch up with you though and this week I was very surpri...

Although I'm not the worlds greatest cake maker I do enjoy the challenge of trying to make a good cake for Leo's birthdays.  The cakes are usually a joint effort between Aaron and I, with me doing the baking and usually handing it over the Aaron for the hard bit of decorating it at the end! This year I found the idea for the cake on my friends blog - Emma's Lunch  and thought that it would be easy and effective. It was only the day before I came to make it however that it occurred to me that it needed to be oval, and I only had a round cake tin.  I didn't realize though just how easy that problem is to solve.... Using red fondant icing, I covered the cake and then handed over to Aaron for the bit that needs a steady hand and some patience. It was a great joint effort, although in hindsight I should have brought the smaller 'decorating gel' rather than the icing which would have been a bit neater but overall I was really pleased with the ...

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...

Now we've started something!  This was the first time Leo has ever asked to go on a kids ride in a restaurant. Some how I don't think Louka will get to the age of four before his first go! Preparations underway for Leo's Spiderman party -  Aaron made this for the 'Pin the Spider on the web' game. You can never have too many photos of babies trying to eat spaghetti! The birthday boy blows out his candles Keeping the party decorations up until the weekend! I passed my Greek course with 93% in the end of term exam, A hard day by the pool!

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 ...

Making decorations for his 'Spiderman party' next week Last year I showed Leo how to play his Leapster game, today Louka picked it up and knew exactly what to do! After who knows how many times I've built Leo tracks I think he's now mastered it -  he did this all by himself Choosing a Dvd together - not that Louka actually had any say in the matter even if he had understood! Dot-to-dot with Nana At a birthday party, here is Louka enjoying some party food!

Why is it that no matter how many brightly coloured musical  interesting toys you have, babies always have more fun with things that were not designed to be played with. Louka playing in the kitchen And that this is true for every baby as after you've taken a photo you realise you've been here before.... Leo in 2010 Although it turns out I do have a new spoon!