Dragon McTavish - the Charmer

There wasn't much happening so I went back to some old photographs for inspiration.

Enjoy some light relief.

Click on the icon in the bottom LH corner to see the video.

Dragon at the beach

See those rosy cheeks?  That was not sunburn or wind burn or from energetic running around.  That was just because it was sooooo stinking hot!  These boys really needed a dip in the nice, cool sea.  Unfortunately nice, cool sea is at least 1000 km away, so they were looking forward to a dip in the hopefully-not-too-warm-sea.  The specks of dirt on Dragon's face are bits of sand from trying to play in a tiny bit of shade that the eaves created near the side of the house.  Perspiration made it impossible to wipe them away because they just stuck like mud.

While waiting for the sun to die down a bit, Dragon and Lion produced some beautiful drawings - very generously given as gifts to Mummy McTavish and Grandma.

When we were finally able to get down to the beach, Dragon was not really very keen on the sea (shallow as it was) or the waves (tiny as they were).  He had a little bit of a paddle, but did not let go of Grandma's hand  for even a few seconds.

When Grandad said that he was going for a walk, that was great news for Dragon.  He liked walking on the beach and it avoided the stress of being expected to actually enjoy the scary water.  Off he went with Grandad.

You could not describe it as a brisk walk, especially since there is a childrens' playground behind the trees about half way along.  Somehow Dragon managed to twist Grandad's arm to spend about 20 minutes at the playground.

Soon after Dragon and Grandad's return, big brother Lion was confined to the shore for being disobedient and causing his Mummy and grandparents unnecessary worry. Lion dug a hole in the sand.   Dragon helped by fetching buckets of water to pour into the hole.  The problem was that Dragon still did not want to go into the water, but he was counting on the waves coming up to the bucket.  The annoying waves always stopped short of the bucket.  Just look at those disappointed, sagging shoulders.

With a bit of help from Grandad and Grandma, a few bucket-fulls were collected and a safe, little artificial beach was created by the boys.  "Little" is probably an understatement as you can see from the bottom photo.

Dragon got in trouble from Lion for putting some sand into his pool, which Lion began to feverishly dig out.  How do you tell the difference between the original sand and the unwanted, added sand? 

That is Lion wisdom that is too lofty for mere mortals and little brothers to understand.

Dragon birthday post

I did it for Lion and intended to do it for his little brother Dragon. So better late than never :)  Dragon's 3rd birthday was weeks ago.

This is his birthday post from his Grannysaurus.

Honestly, I don't know why my family put up with me when I take so long to do things.

Poor little Romeo once waited months for the tooth fairy to remember that there was a tooth waiting to be collected because I forgot to let her know.  They must be a very forgiving family.

But on with this short picture history of our darling Dragon.

In the top pic he is one day old.  Already you could see what a spunk he was going to be.

Next picture is baby Dragon being cuddled by his big cousin Cheetah.  He is about 3 days old.  Not Cheetah, Dragon. Cheetah is 7 here. After that is baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph Dragon with Mummy and Wolf McTavish at the Stable on the Strand (an annual major Townsville Christmas event that unites churches and community) in December 2006 when Dragon played a pivotal role for a short time.  He played his part well, but doesn't Mummy McT look tired?

I had to include a picture with his big brother Lion.  They are such good mates and the beach is one of their favourite places.  They were all dressed up for the beach wedding of Aunty Juliette's big sister.

Last pic is baby Dragon in the arms of Aunty Chimera getting his photo taken with his friend Ralph and Ralph's dad, King Rick. Ralph and Dragon and Lion are still all good mates and love to get together for a play as often as they can nag their long suffering mothers into it.

A belated Happy Birthday Dragon!

You can meet Ralph here.

Dragon Dreams

I don't need to be told that this is NOT the most flattering pic of me, but any pic with our little Dragon is a good pic. He is so darn cute.
On Friday his Mummy was not feeling great so I picked up Dragon and he came to work with me. I can do that because Mr Sunshine, Romeo (previously Jingles) and I own the business. I didn't get much work done, but I was there and I answered the phone.

On the way to work I did my usual thing when I have grandchildren in the car - my racing car sound effects. You know, brrrrmmmm brrrrmmmm through the gear changes and eeeeeeeeeee around corners, making sure to include the Doppler effect and any other relevant stuff. Later in the morning Dragon came to me with a very serious look and tone and said in his cute deep voice, "Grandma, I'm a dump truck today". I told him that I love dump trucks and gave him a cuddle and off he went to do some more drawing. At no time did he actually act like a dump truck, but dump trucks don't have to act like dump trucks. They just are.

Later in the day we left work, went to the bank and went to my home for a nap - both of us. Dragon slept on Grandad's side of the bed and I read him a story or two and fell asleep on my side of the bed. About an hour later I was woken by a strange whining sound coming from Dragon and I thought he was having a bad dream. The whining sound was then interupted by brrmmmm sounds and then more whining sounds and another brrrrmmmm sound. When Dragon woke up I asked him if he had been having a bad dream. "No," he assured me, he was having a good dream. He was dreaming he was a dump truck.

I guess this dump truck was doing some pretty fast cornering.

Monkey McTavish

Isn't he just beautiful? No need to answer that because we know.





He is a good baby. His brothers are besotted with him especially Dragon who can't get enough of holding him, stroking his face, staring doe-eyed at him . . .


Of course Mummy and Daddy are pretty happy about it all too. Like I said, he is a good baby. He likes to sleep (so far). Therein lies my problem.


I just want to get a photo with his eyes OPEN.

Toilet training

I hope that one day in the distant future Dragon will forgive me for posting this photo.

Dragon, Little Bear & the Bubble Party

Here is the video from the Little Bear & Aunty Mummy McTavish birthday celebration.

Dragon is such a party animal!

Life's a Beach

Blessed, aren't we? So much beach, so few people. It's almost like having your own personal tropical island, but it is only 40 minutes from Townsville. And don't forget that this is winter. It was a 'cool' 27 degrees centigrade for most of the day. To make it even more ideal for toddlers, the water stays shallow until you walk out for meters and meters.

All we have to worry about are crocodiles.

Making a splash

I thought I would try for an arty beach photo of Dragon running with water splashing up as he ran. The outcome was predictable and instead of an arty, splashy photo, I got an action series of Dragon falling over in the water. At 8 photos per second that makes it exactly 2 seconds for the whole thing to unfold. No wonder I rarely even get the camera pointed before the action is all over.

A Butt Fly nested in my hair

My dear little Dragon had one of these butterflies that fell down from the ceiling in the guest room. He was holding it up, pretending it was flying and landing on various objects while making butterfly noises (???) - a sort of squeaky chirp according to Dragon.

Eventually it "landed" on my head and Dragon giggled as he helped it create a nest of my hair and told me, "The butt fly is nesting in your hair".

Cuddles rides again

This is an old photograph of Jingles.

Uncle Jingles is now 22, but when he was a little tike, grandad (my dad) took him to a big toy store in Sydney that sold nothing but teddy bears. In fact two floors of teddy bears. You can imagine what a 3 year old thought of that. There were teddies of every colour, shape and size. Every teddy had its own certificate of baptism. Truly!

Jingles chose the teddy he wanted - not the biggest teddy or the best dressed teddy, just the right soft, cuddly blue teddy to cuddle up to in bed. The teddy's name was on his baptism certificate already, "Cuddles". Very appropriate. So we took Cuddles home and he was always a favourite.

Eventually, Jingles grew up, got married and left Cuddles behind. By then we had Lion and Dragon and Cheetah and Little Bear often coming to visit so Cuddles never got lonely for long.

But Dragon has taken a special interest in Cuddles, whom he calls Huggles. He has even taken Cuddles/Huggles home to stay with him and Lion for a few weeks, but Cuddles belongs here and comes back to wait for Dragons next visit. Cuddles is never disappointed. Dragon always takes Cuddles for a little walk around the house and once even around the whole park. They make such a cute pair.

Cuddles is one lucky little bear.

Dragon calls the shots (click on the collage for a larger view)

Mummy and Wolf McTavish wanted to give Lion a big surprise because he had been such a good boy this week and even longer. His surprise was going to the cinema for the very first time. The movie they went to see was Madagascar 2. Dragon is a bit too little (and lively) to sit through a whole movie and besides this was Lion's treat, so Dragon came to spend the afternoon with Grandma and Grandad (Grannysaurus and Mr Sunshine).
This was no 2nd-best for Dragon because it meant that he would be an "only grandchild" for at least two hours. No competition for the toys, the attention, the food or the affection. What's not to like about that?
After we had practised ball throwing and catching and basket ball into the laundry basket, timed races up and down the hall on Dragon's "fave....rit.....bike" (Dragon always speaks in staccato syllables), and helped Mr Sunshine shift 2 cupboards onto the ute to take to Aunty Chimera and baked muffins to share with Mummy, Daddy and Lion when they came back, we decided this needed a photographic record. This is where Dragon really called the shots, dictating what photos we would take and where, especially the one with him holding up his pink handbag and the one with him wearing Grannysaurus' plastic shoes and nursing his bike with his "sun... ny... glass... es" on his head. His pink pig handbag is on his lap, but you can't see that. His daddy says it is a "wild-boar man bag".
The top, middle one of Mr Sunshine waving from his recliner is the photo that Dragon took all by himself. His first attempt at photography and he was pleased with it. Not bad- being a published photographer at 2.
It was a great afternoon. We ate the muffins and Lion and Dragon (their parents too, of course) ended up staying for dinner which they, Lion and Dragon, helped prepare. That meant about three times the washing up because Grannysaurus, Dragon and Lion all had to have a mixing bowl and paraphernalia each. I think they both went home very satisfied with their day.
Mr Sunshine is still catching up on the washing up.

Why Grannysaurus?

One of my sons-in-law got caught out listing my number in his mobile phone as "Dragon Lady". One of my grandsons goes by the nom de plume of Dragon McTavish. I have occasionally been called Grandma Dragon. That didn't seem to have the right flair for a blog name so I did some dragon research. Everybody's favourite lizard in Australia is the little dragon lizard known as a "Frilly" or Frilled neck lizard. He belongs in the genus Chlamydosaurus. As anyone who has read about Dinosaurs knows, saurus simply means lizard, but our Frilly-saurus is a dragon lizard. So I liked the sound of it and the connection to my favourite dragon - the Frilly - and adopted "saurus" in the place of "dragon" and became Grannysaurus.
A bit of convoluted reasoning, I know. But convoluted reasoning is one of my talents.

The photo is Grannysaurus and Dragon McTavish.

You can follow the adventures of the clan McTavish here
http://samster-dot-com.blogspot.com/

You can learn more about the Frilly here

http://worldbiggestspider.blogspot.com/2008/08/frill-necked-lizard-called-frilled.html