Dorje turned the tables on the Easter Bunny this year. He made a number of small boxes out of paper and hid these for the Easter Bunny to place the chocolates in.

This meant the Easter Bunny spent the night trying to find the boxes, including one he knew was in Dorje’s room, all without waking him up.

Even though the Easter Bunny’s attempt at hollow eggs were a flop, the hearts turned out well, and he even found enough foil to wrap them all:

As always, the most stressful part will be making sure all the chocolates are found, although if I find a chocolate or three in a week or so, I’ll enjoy the chance to eat it, all by myself.

I’m sure all the Easter Bunny’s offerings will be demolished before I even wake up…

It was Dorje’s grandfather’s 83rd birthday this week. Since he was the only young child at the party, and even sitting around eating chips can get boring after a while, we hit the swimming pool.

The blue thing under the water is his boogie board – we had fun trying to keep it submerged, and dodging when it went flying skywards.

Some of Dorje’s ancestors – my parents and I.

The eagle-eyed may have spotted a few oddities in the last picture. Everyone seems to have changed clothes, Dorje’s had a haircut and my father’s scar has miraculously healed.

Quite a party. Or perhaps it from his 82nd birthday, and just surfaced at the same time.

Dorje loves nothing more than fighting with me. Usually it’s not a fair fight…

and I end up an exhausted wreck on the floor.

This time however I wasn’t alone, and he’d been weakened by a marathon session with a ‘purple belt’ before he got around to me.

With years of tai chi practice I managed to stay standing

just long enough to find a weakness in the rear

and smash him to the floor.

Glorious victory was mine at last:

Dorje’s obsession with fighting was sparked by Kung Fu Panda, and is about to be taken to the next level now that he’s started karate.

He seemed to be loving the first class. The teacher asked him whether he was enjoying it, fully expecting an enthusiastic yes, only to be answered “not really”. He decided later to go back the next week and again seemed to be loving it. Asked by the teacher whether he was enjoying it, he answered “it’s OK”.

Again he decided in the week to give it another try, this time with a new teacher. The previous teacher is sailing solo across the Atlantic, and after enthusiastically telling his students of his plans, Dorje put his hand up to proudly tell the teacher that “my auntie has also gone overseas”.

Again he seemed to be loving it, and the new teacher again asked him whether he wanted to come back, and was answered by a long pause and a tentative ‘yes’.

That was his last chance as if he wanted to go back again we’d have to buy all the gear and pay the regular fees, so I asked him carefully again in the week whether he wanted to go back, explaining what had to happen if he wanted to go. He seems to be taking after his father when it comes to commitment, and I was worried that thanks to his Monopoly training he’d refuse just because it involved spending money.

However, he decided he wanted to go regularly and it looks like if I want a chance to knock him to the floor again, it’s time for me to oil those rusty tai chi skills.

Dorje and I were watering the garden the other day, and looking at the rainbows in the trees. He wanted to know how a rainbow formed.

Looking for a prism to show him, I came across this video. Dorje seemed genuinely amazed, calling it “beautiful” and he’s watched it a few times since.

A MIGHTY GIANT ROAMED THE LAND, LEADING A ROARING RED DRAGON. NOT ONE IN MIGHT OR POWER, COULD BE FOUND TO TAME THE TERRIBLE TWO. ONE LITTLE BOY WITH TRUTH IN HIS HEART AND LOVE IN HIS CARE COULD BANISH THE TERRIBLE TWO. HE SLAYED THE GIANT WITH TRUTH AND TAMED THE DRAGON WITH LOVE.

‎”According to me, the function of the parents is not how to help the children grow. They will grow without you. Your function is to support, to nourish, to help what is already growing. Don´t give directions and don´t give ideals. Don´t tell them what is right and what is wrong — let them find it by their own experience.” Osho

At school this morning, I gave Dorje a hug and tonnes of kisses and said “I love you my special love heart”.

He looks at me and says “Please mum you can no longer do that at school!” FARK, it ripped my heart out but, it was inevitable

Dorje’s having fun in his dreams. His nocturnal exploits inspired me to attend a workshop on lucid dreaming, and while I haven’t been doing much lucid dreaming myself, Dorje seems to have been making up for my lack. Most still involve the fun task of fighting monsters, not at all scary anymore now that he can defeat them easily.

I’ve been encouraging him to make friends with the monsters, which he seems to have done, but he finds it more entertaining that not only can he defeat them easily, he can control the monsters.

I have visions of Dorje leading an array of fearsome beasts in a quickstep – not close to as much fun as what’s actually going on I’m sure.

I asked him how he became aware he was dreaming. The usual technique involves looking at one’s hands, and it will change in some way, making us realise we are dreaming, but Dorje did this once and his hand turned “evil”.

His technique is a first to me but quite ingenious – he looks at his fingerprints!

Seeing that I’m not having much chance to lucid dream myself, I’m subtly planting suggestions for him to try out – a classic case of a parent living their life through their child I suppose…

It’s the end of Dorje’s first year of school proper, and the Grade 1 parents in Dorje’s class got together to give his teacher, Ruby, a present. If a wormy apple is supposed to be a sign to the teacher, I’m not sure what to make of this one. For her present she was asked to leap off a mountain. Safely tied to a paraglider of course, with an instructor to boot.

I’ve tried to climb Lion’s Head with Dorje once before, but about 100 metres in started complaining about his sore legs. There was no backing out this time though if he wanted to see teacher take her leap of faith.

The class gathered for a final photo – of the year, that is.

The instructions are simple. Run, don’t stop, don’t sit, just run. A surprising number of people apparently get it wrong, sending instructor and passenger tumbling into the bushes. Ruby got it right.

The take-off point is about a quarter way up Lion’s Head, and after taking off the paragliders usually soar on the updraft towards the summit. Dorje and Sankara kept a close eye to make sure she didn’t crash on the top. Dorje kept asking me if we could climb higher, so he was probably half hoping she would land there rather than Camps Bay beach below.

No such luck, and we raced Ruby to the beach. Most of us got there before her, but, being a Saturday afternoon, it was quicker to get to Camps Bay then to find parking, so by the time we got to the beach, Ruby was sitting safely, waiting for us.

I look forward to next year’s present:

Dorje recently made a card for a friend. The birthday girl is just finishing her arts degree, and, to my knowledge, without any prompting about struggling artists, Dorje made her a golden moneymaking machine.

News is that it’s already working. I quite like the eco-friendly design. Note the dirty smoke pouring out the bottom being sucked in again, and being converted to clean air.

It also doesn’t need a power socket as it’s driven by people power. I can vouch that it’s a good workout too, since my contribution during the testing process involved labour, not design and engineering.