JJ and myself just spent five days away from Adelaide. We’re on holidays and this coincided with a party at a friend’s property a few hours away. We broke it up a bit by staying at a friend’s place halfway and then went to a place at Marion Bay to stay with a couple of friends and their son in a house we rented.

Their son is a few months away from turning six years old and my son is seven and a bit and it’s interesting watching the dynamics between the two of them.

One minute they’d be best of friends and the next minute they’d be at each others throats. It was usually for pretty small reasons like someone not following the rules. My son likes the rules to be followed and so does this other boy so were there some fireworks when it didn’t happen.

JJ did the right thing when he got angry and took himself to another room but he was followed and more arguing ensued. I’d say to the other kid to leave JJ alone for a bit but he just didn’t listen to me. I don’t know if I should have just let them battle it out and to a certain extent that’s what we did but more than once we had to intervene and try to explain that you don’t say or do those things to your friends.

The two boys spent a night together with the other boy’s father while his mum and I went to the party and at the back of my mind I prayed that things went okay and there were no major blow-ups. Fortunately there weren’t.

At this party (it was a weekend long camping affair) which JJ attended during the day he was fine and was really good with another kid who’s nearly three years old. He kept an eye out for him and hung around with him for a long time. It’s just with this other kid that there’s these blow-ups.

Hopefully it’s just a stage and they’ll become best of friends without fighting all the time.

And just for a change of subject, below is a photo of the landscape near where I stayed. What animal does it look like to you?

This is me up one of my favourite climbing trees. Mum’s always taking photos of me, and psst – don’t tell anyone, but I kind of like it. (Mum’s already used this one on her website so perhaps she’s just not taking enough photos of me).

When mum took this we’d just been to see my cousin in the hospital and I tried to tease her but she was a bit too sick to be teased and mum told me to stop. She’s been in hospital for about two weeks now and mum said to say that so far all the tests she’s had done have come back clear.

When I’m not climbing trees I’m usually running around doing something. I don’t sit too still for long, but when I do want a bit of quiet time I like playing with my stretchy plastic lizards or my fluffy penguin.

I also love drawing and writing. I’ve written this little book about a hungry fish who’s pretty too. There’s a mean octopus and a nasty shark in it. Mum makes a big fuss over it and she gets me to read it to her every now and again.

Now, my mum. I love her to bits and she’s my favourite person in the world, but I wish she wouldn’t yell at me sometimes. Last night she cooked a beef stirfry and she put capsicum in it. She knows I hate capsicum but she keeps putting it in food and making me eat some of it and then gets cross with me when I don’t. I carried on a lot last night and didn’t finish my dinner so I missed out on dessert. I like my dessert and I would have had an icecream last night but I didn’t.

I apologised to her this morning about my carry on. I think she likes it when I apologise to her. Actually I think all adults like apologies when I’ve been naughty and I’ve been naughty a bit lately. Don’t know if mum’s mentioned it, but I’ve been in a bit of trouble at school and the teachers are keeping a close eye on me at the moment. Mum’s also been talking to the deputy principal a bit and she’s also taken me to someone who asks me lots of questions and expects me to talk a lot to her. The first time I saw her I just answered her back but I’m getting used to her now. She’s actually ok.

I’d better go now and next time you visit this website, mum might have written something. She’s been really busy with me which is why she’s not around here so much.

Bye for now, JJ.