I blinked.

I blinked, and it's November. The time has disappeared and again, I feel bad about the number of blog posts that I've made this summer.

So, I'm currently sitting in the car waiting for Jack, who is having a piano lesson. He's been learning for a couple of months now and seems to be enjoying it, mostly because I think he's learning something new each time he comes here. It's half an hour a week, and then he practises at home. 'Practises'.  He's getting good at playing 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', which he's getting better at, but this song only requires three keys, from three fingers on one hand. He *should* be playing some of the more challenging songs in the book, as they require more effort, namely multiple keys, over two hands.

He can read the music notes as he's playing them straight from the book, which is absolutely brilliant.

Oliver is at home with his mum, and they're probably going to be learning some letters, or short words, as she's been spending quite a lot of time with him going through it, as we did before for Jack.  Oli has picked these up brilliantly, and not through us forcing them down his throat, but more him asking, or observing Jack and his reading.

Oli is now at pre-school, but only doing half days until September, which is the way that the school like to run things. My sister's twins, Callum and Aaron, are in the opposing half of the day, and then, come September, they should be in the same class, but that seems like a lifetime off just yet!

Oliver has grown up massively recently - physically and mentally.  He's a totally different little boy to how Jack was at the same age; Oliver is just as confident and bullet-proof as all snotty-nose kids are at that age, but he's different in that, for one, he's got a little temper on him, and he stamps his feet, and blows raspberries when he gets annoyed. I can't help but smile when he does, but it doesn't help to resolve a situation by smiling or giggling.

They've both learnt to get on with each quite a lot, not through us doing anything very differently, but they've been enjoying each other's company and play toys or games co-operatively, which is a relief.  Don't get me wrong, they can still have their moments, then Oli gets in a strop, and usually Jack ends up worse-off, due to being smacked on the head by a blunt Oli-powered instrument.

School for both of them is going well - Oliver is getting on very well in his class, and making friends and all that. I would say I know what he gets up, but I think children must leave all memories of being at school… at school!

Jack had a bit of a wobbly time at school, which I'll go into another time, but I think he's been getting a bit more fun out of being there.  Something that has lifted his spirits, is that he was given an award for 'Best Academic Achievement' at the end of the last school year, in Summer - this was completely unexpected on all of our parts, and he was quite made up, once he understood what it was that he had been given.  He's definitely my boy there! Ahem.

Oliver has been getting certificates himself, for doing his work on the Reading Eggs website - it's an educational website that makes learning to read a lot more fun, and makes the children WANT to do more chasing certificates and so on.  Again, I'll probably expand on this is in a separate blog post, but in summary, he's doing very well for his age. Again, mine. Ahem.

Oooh - swimming! Oliver is a fish - officially! He's catching Jack up in terms of swimming classes, which isn't a big deal, as the classes get harder as they progress, but both my children can (honestly) swim better than I can.  This is obviously something that makes me proud and happy for them, but then disappointed in myself for not making more of an effort as a child, and for being too clever for dodging swimming lesson at school. My parents are obviously to blame, too, and I think I/we are over-compensating for this, and making sure that they can swim, as it's a brilliant thing to be able to do, as the alternative is to be good at blagging it like I do, which I don't want for them.  Again, more on this too.

So, this has almost turned out into being a summary/catch-up blog post, as a reminder setting for the next blogs, but that’s ok. I can manage that!