Crumpled Home

This cute little guy is a Cormocephalus hartmeyeri (centipede) and will be staying with us for a little while. We found him just wandering along a path while we were up at Gingin. He’s about 15cm (7 inches) long and has a delightful poisonous bite, so he doesn’t get many cuddles. He’s visiting the kids’ schools, which their teachers are not too thrilled about. The fearless Mom performed the species identification which involved a lot of close inspection.

So far we’ve discovered that he loves to eat chicken and slaters (pill bugs). We’ve nicknamed him, “Mr Bitey”.

We found this cute little guy wandering along the path while we were out this weekend. He's staying with us at home for a little while.

RJ: I want some m??t chewing gum.

Dad: Mint gum? Oh sure, I guess you can try it sometime. Keep it in your mouth though.

RJ: NOT MINT!

Dad: You didn’t like mint last time you tried it.

RJ: Yes. Not mint. MEAT!

Dad: You want… meat… chewing gum.

RJ: Yes! It would be very yummy. Do you think mum will want some too?

We stopped by the park last week on the way home before dinner. Surprise, surprise — I grabbed a few photos.

High-velocity boy is quickly chased down by lightning-girl.

You'll have to carry me! ... Umm... No.

12 feet up with no proper foot-holds and not a care in the world.

How are we going to get across there?

Let's go across!

See RJ? You just have to jump across like this.

How to cross a stream in 5 seconds or less!

Look over there! A kookaburra!

If that fountain starts up again, we'll be drenched!

This is the fun crowd I get to hang around with.

Maybe we should have brought some more snacks?

That was fun. Time to head for home.

RJ: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…

(1 minute later)

RJ: (continuing) …eeeeeeeeeee …

(1 minute later)

RJ: (still going) … eeeeeeeeee …

Dad: RJ! What are you doing!??

RJ: Watch out for the bees daddy…

(Dad & LR adding location ‘Pins’ in Google Earth)

Dad: Okay, so here’s our house. I’ll add a marker here.

LR: Good. Now make it green.

Dad: Goodbye yellow marker!

LR: Great. But I think we have to go out front and check the front garden.

Dad: Huh? What for?

LR: Because there’s a giant green pin out there.
I hope we didn’t hit the swing set.

RJ: Thank you daddy. You’re a great daddy. I’ll call you servant.
Dad: I’m not sure I want to be called servant.
RJ: I call mummy servant.
Dad: But I don’t think she’s really your servant. That means she does everything you ask her to.
RJ: But she does everything I ask her to.

I’ve posted some pictures from our Fourth of July party that we had last month.

You can find them here: Fourth of July, 2009

RJ: I’m not scared of scary movies… That means I can watch Hairy Bottom.

The fearsome Hairy Bottom

RJ’s latest obsession has been the Kraken. After reading about it we’ve had endless discussions about it’s motivations, strengths, weaknesses and fears. We’ve formulated a fairly thorough escape plan on the off chance that we ever encounter one, although he is consistently reassuring me that they’re just in stories and movies “so boats are still safe for us”. After considering the multiple correct pronunciations provided by wikipedia, he settled on one and diligently corrects everyone who mispronounces it. He’s insisted that I find some video of it attacking a ship.

We’ve got some colouring in pages printed out, although they weren’t good enough because there weren’t any people on the ship and you couldn’t see the Kraken’s head. Apparently he needs to see the fear and panic of the sailors, as well as the brutal malevolence in the beast’s eyes to do it justice.

RJ: There’s a snake in the backyard.

Mum: I don’t think so.

RJ: Yes. It’s in the grass. I can see it.

Mum: It would be very bad if we had a snake in a backyard.

RJ: It’s a caecilian.

Mum: No, it’s not. It’s just a ribbon.

RJ: Just be careful, okay?