Stolen Cereal.

A dirty face and a box of stolen cereal. 

When I picked Roman up from Bryan's parents home he was running around with his cousins  and I fully expected that he'd be stuffed with food and other treats (and he was.) The minute we got home we were in the kitchen - Roman making a beeline for it as soon as he was free of his buggy straps. He begged for food; rice cakes, lollipops, nice drinks, even a strawberry jam roll that he normally eats for lunch. Figuring that he must be growing I offered him a rice cake but he only ate half of it.

"CEREAL!" he chanted, very excitedly, once he spotted the box. When my back was turned he took this as his cue to grab the box while standing on tip toes. He ran to the living room, box in hand, and dug deep until he got a nice handful of the stuff. "Roman," I said gently. "Did you take the cereal without asking?"

Roman: "Chocolate cereal! Mmmm!" 

He certainly wasn't apologetic or guilty about his thievery and even when I caught him in the act he kept digging into the box and stuffing his face with cereal, cheeky as you like ;).

Broom Boy.

It got to bed time today when I realised I hadn't captured Roman's day in a photo - it was an awful day; awfully tiring, awful people being awful and generally just awful. I was going to quickly force myself to snap a photo randomly and then talk about our day...but honestly? I really didn't want to do that. I didn't have the energy or motivation and it just didn't feel right to be writing about false positives on such a down day.

Well, luckily Bryan had snapped this in the morning - our little man carrying out act of service three doors down on our street for some lovely neighbours that we know from church ;). I laughed my head off when I saw this photo, but it's true; Roman loves to be a little helper, especially when he can be in complete charge of whatever task is expected of him. I'm not entirely sure that he's much help in this situation above but I'm glad Bryan left him to it, childhood is about discovery and the freedom to discover and I feel that too many parents are just too quick to tell their children they're doing it wrong, i.e not the way they, the parent, want things done. 

That's just not our style as parents.

Euro 2012: Roman Learns A New Word.

Roman learns a new, or lots of new, words every single day. He then loves to repeat them over and over. A few days ago it was 'Granpa Work' (my dad, whose last name rhymes with 'work' and coincidentally he works an awful lot) and a few more days ago it was 'football.'  

Roman's first coherent word was 'Dada' at around 7 months, so that boy has been practicing his speech for sometime now. With the European world cup on at the moment it's no wonder that he has picked up on this word. My goodness do I find football boring as hell! If Roman becomes a footballer then I'll live with that but right now I quite honestly don't understand the fascination with the 'beautiful game.' 

Now whether we had a Roman or Eliza let me tell you this scene would be no different apart from the gender of the child sitting with Bryan. Roman wasn't really interested in the football and instead decided to flip through his photo album until he got to the picture of him, as a new baby, with my dad. 

"Granpa Work!" he told me, full of excitement. 

"Oh! They nearly scored a goal there!" Bryan shouted soon after.

Photos and football. I wonder who Roman takes after? ;).

Engrossed.

We're always so busy (and tired) that sometimes I feel like this project is last on my list of priorities - but it should be somewhere near the top of my priorities. I need to keep reminding myself that I won't get this again, there are no do-overs and the time is now.

Today I spent a rare morning speaking to my sister on the phone for what seemed like ages, playing catch up with her. Throughout the whole phone call Roman pretty much entertained himself with Bryan's computer chair and the many boxes around him. This is why I love toddler hood. While I don't make a habit of this kind of thing he can and will entertain himself, with my supervision. That's how I know babyhood is far behind. And that's a painful excitement. 

When I got off the phone - or rather Roman hung up on the call while speaking to his aunt - I watched Roman play. I studied the funny and quirky things he does. I laughed, smiled and inside I praised everything he did. He has his ways and they are uniquely his. He took the wheels off his pirate ship and tried to stuff them into the jigsaw box, this kept him busy for quite some time and I was more than happy to just watch. I didn't tidy, organise or clean or work on anything this morning because I was incredibly busy with my anthropology exercise: watching my son. Soaking in the moment, holding onto this precious time. 

Bubbles.

I was all set to tell you about our very successful toy swap today (swapping his massive toy box full of toys for three smaller boxes full of 'new' but actually old toys ;) and it went very well. He was excited for the change-over and was even more excited when he discovered the pirate ship, with pirates, in one of the boxes. I took many photos to document the swap but then he did this. 

I was running us a bath, while trying to get lots of other things done at the same time, and Ro took his chance to run through and rub some 'bubbles' on his head ;). He used to call them 'bubbos' but lately his speech is becoming so clear and so developed - my big boy. He was absolutely laughing his head off when he caught sight of himself in the mirror like this and while I tried to hold back my laughter, I simply couldn't. It was hilarious. Though next time I think I will keep a very close eye on him when the bath is running ;).

Roman's New Coat.

A new coat meets Roman. Roman and the new coat meet the garden - the wild, wild garden. He loved the coat, he didn't want to take it off, and once it was off he'd plead to have it back on.

I'd just like you to know that Bryan took the above image - he's quite proud of it, as was I when I saw it. I was so sure I'd taken it ;).

I decided it would be good to try and tame this wild garden of ours, starting with pulling up some weeds. No one told me that gardening is so difficult and well...totally messy. Of course Ro tried to join in, imitating all the huffs and puffs I made as pulling up weeds requires some exertion of physical strength that I'm apparently lacking in.

I gave up when the bottom half of the garden looked somewhat reasonable again - that's okay, right? I'll start again tomorrow and maybe make it our project for the week. Today, being out in the garden like that, reminded me that Roman loves nature; being out in it and exploring the environment around him.

This happy face says it all. Tomorrow and as long as the weather is good, this is where we'll be. Even if it means I'm sitting at the back door watching him play in the garden.

Sleepy.

Eyes still glazed over, the fingers slowly coming down from his mouth. This is the boy I get post-nap.