nine

Today, being the 2nd of October, marks the 9th anniversary since the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Or maybe that’s 9 years and a solitary day extra. The reason that this little tidbit of information happens to lurk near the fore front of my mind is of course because on that occasion 9 years ago, Thomas decided that he’d had enough of the snuggling in the womb activity and wanted out.

So whilst watching the closing ceremony for the Olympics, Caroline quietly arranged for Michael and Sam to have a sleep over at Oma and Opa’s, let her parents know that things ‘might be happening’ and we toddled off home to our place. It was some time early in the morning that we made the trip in to the hospital for the commencement of true excitement.

Anyway, 9 years on and we were greeted this morning with a very chirpy young chap (whom I suspect made it out of bed at 5am) quietly enquiring as to what time he had been told he was allowed to come in and see us to receive loot presents. Being that it was at that time 6am, I informed him that I had told him 6:30 so he could go away and come back later on. Had it been later than 6am when I was asked, and had my brain been firing on more than 25% functionality, I would have told him to come back at 7!

Between running off to get dressed, find the cameras and wake up the older brothers, Caroline regaled the happy chap with the tale of the end of the Olympics er, his birth day. Then he tore into the paper that so inconveniently hid the contents of the presents with a grin from ear to ear.

After another year in Canada, Thomas continues to grow up. He’s an avid builder of Lego, especially star wars and can often be found tinkering in his bed late at night when he’s supposed to be asleep. He’s also developed some of the passion for reading that permeates the family which tends to be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because we all want our kids to read a lot, a curse because he uses the ‘I have to do my homework reading’ as an excuse to delay the drift to Noddyville when we boot him up the stairs for the night.

He continues to be an avid hugger, for which I am thankful and is in fact the most adventurous eater of the four kids, willing to try almost anything at least once and often surprising us with what he likes.

I don’t know that there’s a lot more for me to say at this point, so I’ll just end with Happy Birthday Thomas.