Scooter maniac

Daniel has been learning to scoot while his big brother has been focused on cycling. He can barely see over the handle bars but that doesn't stop him from speeding along confidently. He isn't that good at steering yet but he manages to get from A to B without any problem. A few people in the park have even come over to me to ask how old he is. It's clear that he is totally passionate already. As a consequence he has also become quite possesive about the scooter. We're going to have to get an upgrade for Nicholas so that Danny can rightly call it his own!

Daniel especially likes chasing after Nicholas and he doesn't do a bad job keeping up. By the way, I don't usually dress my boys like twins, but it was very tempting to put them in their Bafana t-shirts for saturday football by Fulham Football Club in Bishops Park. While they enjoyed the football they liked biking/scooting afterwards much more!

More biking/scooting

We love going for a 'walk' with Nick on his bike and Danny on his scooter. We've started venturing further afield but still prefer places where we don't have to worry about traffic. Nicholas loves going to the gravel road near out house because he can do 'mountain' biking on the pebbles and up and down the grass banks on each side. As you can see, his face is simply filled with delight, even if he crashes. He begs me to take photos and video clips, which is quite out of character, and loves looking at them afterwards. It was his idea to put on the half photo and the blurry photo because they show how fast he can go. He isn't shy when it comes to boasting about his bike riding. Daniel happily tags along on his scooter and enjoys watching all the action. Since I had my big camera out for a change I seized the opportunity to take a few portraits too!

Biking buddies

Nicholas wants to take his bike along whenever we meet up with Freddie. They have alot of fun racing around together. Luckily they are good at waiting for 'the moms and the babies', as Nicholas puts it, if they get too far ahead. Believe me it's hard to keep up. At least it's a nice way of keeping fit for all of us!

2 wheels!

Inspired by his friends, Dylan and Freddie, Nicholas asked Dad to take the training wheels off his bike during the Easter break. The fact that he made the decision himself meant that he was ready. Naturally he was a bit wobbly at first but his confidence grew in leaps and bounds. Since then there's been no looking back!

At first he needed Dad close by

Because he was a bit wobblyBut in no time he got the knack

He went from this ...

... to this in no time

I dug up an old post from August 2009 when Nicholas first go this bike (he was 2 years and 9 months old). I just have to add the link here because it's just too cute for words. It actually brought tears to my eyes - where has the time gone - now I know why I like blogging about my boys so much!

Biscuits

We invited Siana and Amaya over for a play date the other day. To make it a bit different to usual we decided to bake biscuits for them to decorate when they were here. Nicholas had a great time selecting some spring themed cookie cutters and I must say our biscuits came out perfectly. Both the boys and the girls had a lovely time decorating the biscuits and getting up to other mischief (poor Daniel was the victim of a water pistol onslaught)!

Gruffalo and Mouse

We went to a fancy dress party on Saturday. Nicholas and Daniel loved the idea of getting dressed up and were very excited when everyone was trying to guess who they were. I thought my Gruffalo and my Mouse were just too cute. Danny is mad about the gruffalo at the moment and Nick can't get enough either so the Julia Donaldson books remain a firm favourite in our house. Incidentally the Gruffalo website has some fun games and activities on it!

China plates

I found this old post - so old Daniel still has long hair - when I was trying to get my blog up to date. I love the photos and it is still totally true so I thought I would post it anyway. One day Nicholas said to his teacher: 'This is my lil' brother, Daniel, he is also my mate!' I'm not sure if he knew exactly what he was saying but it was very sweet indeed. He is very protective over Daniel, look out anyone that tries to give Danny trouble, Nick will be there to keep you at bay. All this even though Daniel spends a lot of time terrorising poor Nicholas!

I also like the way Nicholas tries to teach Daniel things. He especially takes the role of elocution very seriously. Heaven help us when Daniel talks as much as Nicholas one day. Here Nick is giving his little brother a lesson on the colours of the rainbow (I didn't have the heart to tell him that in actual fact the song is wrong)!

But beware Daniel if you destroy something that Nicholas has created!