... and now for the muse

Was just doing a bit of a clear up from where the old apple cores and soggy biscuits manage to hide themselves (middle of the lounge floor with our kids!) and came across these coupla stories by Case. Recorded here so I can recycle the originals:

There was a dog. He had shap teeth. He did not eat you like some dog's did. One day it was his Mum's Bthday. he had some Bthday cake. dog's do not eat Bthday cake. At the Bthday it was so hard to here out youre eere. At the end of the Bthday the kid's were so happy.

And...

There was a little boy. he thought he was a girl. he went to school. When it was the girls turn to go to play he went out with them: that boy. He kissed all the girls. When the boys came out to play the little boy ran away.

I have administered great care in retaining the actual spelling and great pains to insert [and not insert omitted] apostrophes. She's killing me with those! But fairly impressed with that colon slipping in in the second story - not much function. But great effect. And remember, never start a sentence with a conjunction, or worse - use a preposition to end one with.

Casey has been missing her aunty Tania lately. She's just come in to the office with a lovely letter she wants to post to her. Apparently the ill-feeling from Mum is because Tia is smelly...

To Tia
I hope you had a nice time. I love you Tia more than me. You do not need to love me. I need to love you. Mum has some thing to tellyou. Mum does not like you. I am Sory to tell you that. I am very very very very very very very very very very very very very Sad. I will show you how I look. [image of :-(]. I want you to come back.
Love love love from Casey

A small picture in the corner of the letter has a smiling face with the inscription: Be happy now my baby.

On Willie Lose's Radio Sport drive home show he announced a competition spurred by the ever-approaching Mothers' Day. The prize is an over-night stay with cooked brekkie and extended check-out at a hotel. Me's thinking I'd kinda like that.

To enter you had to email a good reason for winning (100 words or less). Here's what was sent on Casey's behalf.

My mum deserves a break because...
I'll be 6 years old in two week's time. I have a baby brother, Braedan, who is just 3.

A month ago mum and dad had their first weekend away without us. Actually, they've only had three nights without me around since I was born. They came back so much nicer.

I like my mum nice. Can she stay at your hotel for the weekend?

The next evening I heard Willie read the email out - so I guess it's in the draw!

Updated
It won! Now we just need to find a baby-sitter. Tiaaaaaaa

The little man turned three the other week. If you've been following through you'd realise that that was the very day after I turned 23. Anyway, aside from wanting to clear the commotive™ clash around his actual day we also had to make sure that he didn't fall further unprivvy to the second child syndrome.

Second child syndrome ^un™ is easily recognised when trundling through photo collections where there's more than one sibling. That was the case with my two brothers and I. Colin, the eldest by some 18 months has about 1 squillion more photos of himself than Mark (1 billion) and me, 1 half-35mm-roll. (and these were the days when processing took nigh on a month and cost a decent percentage of the monthly grocery bill). There's other tell-tale signs of second child syndrome ; plunket records, grandparent visits, ... and birthday party organisation.

Well, this year, in defiance of scs™ we not quite over-sightedly got Brae's birthday party organised for the weekend following his birthday following the weekend when we hadn't already got booked up with less important things. It was a relatively small affair; i.e. most of his cousins - ranging in age from 5 months to 8 years: small relatives - were invited. The party was wonderful with an impromptu visit to our glorious Hamilton lake playground facilities, ear splitting screeching for most of the day, tempered temper tantrums, the odd spacheler-removed-child-from-the-ceiling, and plenty of lollies and chips.

The piece of resistance (excuse the non-translation) was seeded by a wonderful DVD that Nana Anne gave Brae a few short days before his birhtday. The Very Hungry Caterpilar and other stories by Eric Carlè was a must-see every bloody waking hour for the first week or so it was in our home - and it proved the perfect inspiration to be Brae's birthday cake. Once I retrieve it off the camera I'll add a photo of the wonderful creation that Fones and Noo-noos made (with a little help from dad) that you can compare with the official book cover Suffice to say that it was the wonderment of little Braedee's day and the antics of his wonderment were to die for.

There's still a few molding bits of the caterpillar's bum in the pantry - if you like banana cake.