Throwing stones and chasing birds

From the time my boys could walk they had a facination with chasing birds. This could have been due to my efforts to stop the scrub turkeys for eating everything in my garden. Now my younger boy Hunter took chasing birds to a whole new level, with him rushing after anything with feathers, seagull's, pidgins and parrots all tremble in terror with H chasing after them. We did our best to discourage him but how can you deny your boy soo much joy.
Around 3 years old they also took a liking to throwing sticks and stones randomly at any object or person, thankfully this phase resulted in no major property damage or injury.
This habit of throwing stones and chasing birds will continue for the rest of their lives in different forms, the sticks and stones might be replace with bats and balls and let's just say the birds might start wearing skirts (not for a while I hope).

Fathers and Sons

I am not just a dad but also a son. I have learned a lot from my dad, business , service and being a good dad. I grew up in a small seaside town of Coolum Beach on the south coast of Queensland, Australia.( I am back living in Coolum again but it's not quite as small and laid back as when I was a kid)
Our family ran the corner store and real estate agency, they called my dad "The mayor" of Coolum. I was reminded recently about the constant parade of visitors and the endless cups of tea served around the kitchen table in the back of the old shop, I am sure there were many stories told and deals done around that table. As a young boy I was more interested in playing over the road at the beach or building forts in the storeroom from empty cornflake box's than paying attention to what the grownups were doing around the table, at least untill the ginger nut biscuits or red salmon sandwiches came out.
We lived above the shop and it was 7 days (& nights) a week, pretty quiet most of the year but crazy in holiday time. As a young boy I guess that I was lucky that even though dad worked long hours, I was with him a lot more than kids whose dads worked in regular jobs.
I am also lucky that Dad (&mum)are still with us, he just turned 83 and is in pretty good health. My boys are lucky too, as thy have spent plenty of good times with him, which is something I didn't get do with both my granddads passing away before I was born.
I really value the opportunity to spend this precious time with both dad and my boy's as I know it can't last forever, but until then we'll all keep enjoying our regular afternoon tea's.

Pride

Its an amazing feeling when your son takes pride in achieving something that he couldn't do or at least thought was beyond him. My eldest son Frazer(8) has been playing junior club soccer for a couple of seasons, he is lucky that his team has been pretty constant with a few coming and goings but the core staying the same players and coaches for the last 3 seasons. Some boys are better at different aspects of the game and especially this year it has started to gel for them all, now they are a long way from the world cup finals but we have a couple of really good players on the team. Frazer's always wanted to be the Goalie and has had a few goes in goal(and did pretty well if I do say so myself) but this season two of other boys have shared the role and I think he has struggled a bit to find his place. He is a good mid fielder because he's taller then most kids his age, so can slow down the attack of the other teams best players letting his faster better skilled team mates to get back into defense.
Today his team had a make up home game with one of the other U9 teams from Coolum FC (shh don't tell the league but it was supposed to be on Sunday and the parents thought we'd save the disruption to our weekend and had the game instead of training). My boy's can't kick the ball the hardest, he's not the fastest on the pitch cause his got very long legs and he lopes along like a big puppy, but today he found pride in himself by getting to do the throw in's  from the sidelines and he realized that his long limbs and height lets him really throw that ball , his smile and inner glow was worth a million bucks.
I got me thinking maybe that we feel best in ourselves when we find our best position on the field and our place in our home team.

Oh by the why his team won 3/1.

Parent teacher interviews

Don't you love Parent Teacher interviews, well actually I'm not real keen on them. Teachers do a wonderful job and trying to keep up with all the different personalities in a class must be a real challenge. I always feel that the teachers are looking at you for your child's lack of progress, maybe they're right.
I was never much of a scholar. I was OK at math but really struggled with reading and writing (thank God for a keyboard or you'd never be able to read this). I have been known as a bit of a talker and have a head full of lots of little bits of info on lots of subjects, and I guess it's either genetic or it's rubbed off on my boys.
Both are loved by their teachers, little fonts of knowledge on their favorite subjects  but when it comes to reading they are way below the level they are supposed to be at their age. They love books but just the reading bit they're struggling with.
It was suggested mid last year that my younger son (Hunter 6) was lagging behind on a lot of development and learning milestones and might have Aspergers, he has a few quirks but the pediatrician agreed that he was  a bit behind but not enough to put a tag on him and to see how he progresses for another year. In the last couple of weeks especially he has made some bit steps forward, I just hope that it continues.

I've been Thinking

I don't know who said it but I once read something like "The greatest idea in the world will amount to nothing if you never start".
Isn't it amazing how you brain runs away with sooo many thoughts once you've actually bitten the bullet and started something.  In this case it is my Dad Down Under blog, I know it's not going to the greatest idea in the World, It won't solve global warming, hunger in Africa or bring world peace, but I hope that any thoughts or idea's I put down here and any suggestions or feedback I get back will help me along on my journey through life and if some others get any value from it I guess that's a bonus.
Even the name of my blog "Dad Down Under" that popped into my head out of the ether, I guess can have a few meanings. I am an Australian dad so literally I am living "Down Under", some days life's little troubles make you feel overwhelmed and being pushed "Down Under" but I guess the underlying meaning is that after everything "Down Under" I am just a Dad try to raise my Sons to be the best they can be.

Welcome to Dad Down Under

Well today I woke up 40+ years old, My business that I'd worked in way too much in for the past 10 years down the dunny, Gout in my foot, a couple of Kilo's too heavy and thought to myself; What's all this about.

I was never much of a writer and being Australian I struggle with basic English, so if the grammer or spelling are off in my posts I appologise now and I hope you'll stick by me on my journey as a Dad Down Under.

I am thankful for the Love & support from my 2 great boys, Frazer (8) and Hunter (6), my beautiful and very tolerant wife Georgie.

PS I'm on Twitter @dad_down_under please follow me there.