I have been to a restaurant  twice. Both times were for very special occasions, birthdays. We went to an Italian restaurant both times. It served wonderful food.

The first time was for Imogen's eighteenth. We decided to eat pizza.

We sat at our table talking and laughing while the chef made our pizzas. After a little while heaps of lovely smells came out of the kitchen and over to my nose. It was delightful.

It took quite a while for the pizzas to cook, but it was worth it. The pizzas were yummy. Callum and I ate nearly a whole prawn pizza between us. Everyone else was too busy eating the chicken pizza. I didn't like that one quite as much as the prawn one.

The next time we went to the restaurant was for Callum's twenty first. Mum said we could have either pizza or pasta. Callum, Duncan and I went for the pizza. Everyone else had pasta.

Once more wonderful smells came out of the kitchen. I could not wait.

Once more we talked while we waited for our pizzas and told stories until the waiter served us. It felt so strange but royal to be served.

The pizza was once again delicious. I could have eaten three times as much as I did, but I didn't. I saved myself for the lovely dessert that was to come.

I love going to the restaurant, but with a family as big as mine we don't get to go too often. It is all the more fun when we do go though.

The good thing about the Italian restaurant is that if you don't eat all your pizza or salad before you want to go home, you can take it home with you.

The next big birthdays are Charlotte's 18th and Imogen's 21st in 2015. Will we have to wait until then for our next restaurant dinner?

Have you been out to dinner?

Each evening Dad, Gemma-Rose and I settle down on the sofa to watch one of our favourite TV series, Joe 90.

Dad has a lot of pets. He just keeps getting them!



This Meerkat is always ready to welcome people. Standing there with his welcome sign he looks very cute!






This flamingo is as vain as can be. Standing in the middle of the garden on its long legs, it is most definitely looking down on everyone else.

I was quivering with nerves as I entered the orthodontist. What would he say when he found out that I hadn't wiggled my baby teeth out? I can't have my braces fitted with those teeth still in my mouth. Would he be angry?

It turned out that the orthodontist wasn't angry. He just smiled and joked about it. He poked about in my mouth a bit and then he looked at the x-rays he had of my mouth. He turned to Mum.


"Sophie will have to have three teeth taken out," he said. I stared. Three teeth? I had never even h one tooth taken out by the dentist, let alone three.

Mum rang up the dentist and arranged for me to go and have my teeth out.

Yesterday afternoon, Mum, Imogen, Charlotte, Gemma-Rose and I hopped into the car to go off to the dentist. Mum, Imogen, Charlotte and Gemma-Rose were going just for check ups.

I was worried. Charlotte had already had four teeth taken out before she got braces. She said there was nothing to worry about, but I still worried. Charlotte told me that the worst bit after the anaesthetic was the noise and the crack as the tooth came out. It didn't sound nice.



I sat down in the waiting room while everyone else got their teeth checked, and I thought about having three teeth out. I wondered which teeth. I was starting to think that the anaesthetic must be really painful if it was the worst part of having teeth out, when it was my turn to go in.

The dentist smiled at me as I entered and sat down in the chair. "I will start by putting the anaesthetic in," he told me.

"Are you going to take the teeth out before or after checking her teeth?" Mum asked.

"After. I'm just putting in the anaesthetic first so it can start taking effect," the dentist said. I closed my eyes as the needle went in. I opened them a few seconds later.

I hardly noticed what he was doing. I was too busy listening to what he was saying. Not all of it was on the subject of my teeth.

Then the dentist examined my teeth. I was not worried about them having any cavities or anything. I was not even thinking about what he was doing. I was thinking about all Charlotte had said about having teeth taken out.

"The inside of your mouth will hurt a bit more," the dentist said. I started to pay attention again. I suddenly realised that he had finished checking my teeth. What was wrong? Why was I feeling no pain? The dentist was still smiling and I could hardly feel my upper mouth. It turns out that all the teeth that were going to be pulled out were in the top half of my mouth.

Nothing was wrong, and in a few minutes the dentist was getting a tool to take out the teeth.

He started on the left side of my mouth. I closed my eyes again.


"Got it!" The dentist said. I opened my eyes at once. The dentist had my tooth and was putting it down on the tray. I had felt nothing.

The next one came out the same way. I was hardly feeling anything.

"Two more to go!" said the dentist as he put gauze in my mouth.

"Two more?" Mum asked. "Wasn't she going to have three out?"

"I was told four. I will check if you like." The dentist looked at the letter he had from the orthodontist. "No, it is definitely four."

"The orthodontist must have changed his mind," Mum said. The dentist agreed.

He started to take the next tooth out. I was trying to bite onto the gauze and have my mouth open at the same time. It was not easy.

The dentist kept putting his tool around my tooth and pulling, but the tooth did not come out. I was starting to feel a bit scared again. The dentist talked to the nurse and she went off to get something.

"The adult tooth has grown up the side of the tooth I am trying to get out, but it is in the way of my tool," the dentist explained. "I am going to get it out with a different tool."

As soon as he tried it with the new tool, the tooth came out. It still had a huge root.

The last tooth came out as smoothly as the first two. I was very glad. I got some more gauze to absorb the blood and was then able to go home. At first I tried to talk, but then I worked out it was no use and I just nodded and shook my head.

As soon as I was home, I sat in front of the TV and watched a movie till dinner.

By dinner time the bleeding had stopped enough for me to take the gauze out to eat. My mouth was still very numb.

Mum and Imogen made me custard for dinner as I couldn't eat burgers. It was very nice, but the only problem was that it was hard to get it off the spoon without my top lip. It took a long time to eat. By the time I was finished everyone else had finished washing the dishes. They had given me the night off.

Mum let me watch another movie in the evening. I was very grateful. The movie took my mind off the teeth or rather lack of teeth.

This morning I was feeling a bit better, but not brave enough to try some toast for breakfast. I made porridge instead.

It is still a bit tricky to eat with so few teeth, but at least I am eating proper food again!

I don't want to have any more teeth taken out, even though it was not as bad as everyone made out.

On to the next step, braces!

I love nuts. They are so yummy and crunchy.

Dad often gets nuts for his birthday and Christmas. He loves nuts too.

Often Dad shares his nuts with us. I like it when he does that, especially when we are watching a movie.

We often put nuts in our curries. They are my favourite bit of the curry.

I don't know what my favourite nut is. There are so many to chose from. I could chose almonds or peanuts, walnuts or cashews, Brazil nuts or hazelnuts? There are so many of them. Do you have a favourite nut?

Sometimes Dad gets really hot nuts. I don't think I like them quite as much. They are a bit spicy for me.

Quite often we get walnuts on finger buns or cakes. That is my favourite way to eat walnuts!

Sometimes Mum buys little boxes of dried fruit and nuts for morning tea. I like them. Nuts and fruit go really well together.

Nuts are so yummy and you can eat them in so many different things. They go well with so many things you would think they shouldn't.

I love my Mum. She is so kind and loving.

My Mum unschools me at home. She never gets upset or angry. I think she is the best teacher in the would.

Mum likes reading to me and Gemma-Rose. I like it when she reads to us. She is a good reader and makes the characters in stories come alive.

Mum is always willing to help people out. She helps me knit, helps Imogen with her uni work and helps with so many other things that I would have to sit here for a year to list them all. Mum never gets upset when I ask her to help me with something. She just puts down what she is doing and helps me.
It was Mum who taught me to knit, it is Mum who taught me to sew and it is Mum who is now helping me learn to sew on the machine.

Mum is a good knitter. She enjoys knitting cardigans for me and Gemma-Rose. She will go down the shops and come home with heaps of balls of wool and then for the next few weeks she will knit away. The cardigans I own that she has made for me are my favourites.

Like me, Mum likes to blog. She writes wonderful blog posts. She can make even a boring subject interesting. I wish I could write like Mum.

Mum is always listening to my novels and giving me praise. She enjoys helping me out of sticky spots when I don't know what to write next in my stories or when I don't know how to add a character. Mum is really good at giving advice like that because she also likes to write stories.

What would I do without Mum? I have no idea. I would probably go mad. I am so glad I have her.

I want to be like Mum when I grow up. 

I love lyrebirds. They are so funny.