Another week gone

Time is flying at the moment. I am not sure where the week went, but I am glad it is over. Brodie and I were not well this week, although we are both much better now. I had to give a talk at work this week which I was dreading. I dislike giving seminars at the best of times, but given I have short term memory loss, I was more anxious than normal. I kept thinking about the what ifs and what would happen if I went blank. Luckily I didn't and it went swimmingly.

Brodie has had a funny week. His latest saying is NO WAY. So, if asked, Brodie would like like a piece of apple, he will not just say, no (thanks), it is a definite NO WAY. He has been a bit reticent at going to childcare this week, and was particularly unhappy going Monday morning. He enjoys it when he is there and has a lovely time with his little friends. Katie comes in on Mondays and does music and dance with the children. Brodie loves this and we usually get a mini concert during the week, where he sings the songs he has learned. Pretty cute; we need to catch this on video!

Brodie had his first haircut at a salon today. Mum is a hairdresser and usually cuts his hair around him playing, a snip here and a snip there until it is finished. Brodie's hair has gotten out of control (check the picture taken before his haircut today) so this afternoon he went and had it cut by Roland's hairdresser. I must get some photos of his new 'do and put them on the blog. It wasn't as painful as I'd imagined and his hair is much neater and will be easier to try and keep looking tidyish. But, it makes him look older though *sob*

Ciao for now

Q and A time

Take a look at this photo. And tell me:

A) which boy is asleep, and

B) which boy should be asleep.

The answer to A is not the same as the answer to B :-) They do look very peaceful, don't they!

Bus wash

This week Brodie and I joined his childcare friends and carers on a bus wash excursion. It was well worth making the effort to go and I think that Acton buses give a great service to the kids. The bus picked us up at 10 am and it was one of those extended buses, with the swivelling middle bit (can’t explain it), which the children loved. Brodie was not feeling well (he has had an upper respiratory infection) and sat on my knee the whole trip. He did enjoy it, but just not in his exuberant way!

We went to the Belconnen bus interchange, where the children waved at passengers waiting for buses. Man, there are a lot of disinterested and grumpy people out there – hardly anyone waved. So if you see a busload of 2-4 year olds waving madly at you, please wave back! Then we went to the bus depot, where we saw some buses being fixed and went through the bus wash. The bus wash was Brodies favourite part of the trip. Both the driver and the conductor were great with the kids, really involved, funny and started the children singing the wheels on the bus etc.

As I mentioned, Brodie is sick. Not too bad, and he went to childcare on Friday. He is pretty ordinary this weekend, snotty and whingy. I am supposed to be taking him to an undercoverwear party. I am thinking that it is going to be an interesting party, because nothing we do is right for Brodie today!

Bathtime fun

Having fun in the bath

And I wonder where he gets his facial expressions from

Warm weather

It was a beautiful day yesterday, so we decided to spend a fair bit of time away from the house. Firstly we went to Black Mountain Peninsula, to check out the spot we are having his birthday party. There were some black swans on the lake, and boy can they be very alpha male and aggressive.

We also went to Black Mountain tower (not at the same place, despite the name). We have to spot this tower every. single. time. that we go out in the car. We thought that Brodie would love it and we were not wrong. The tower tip is 1000 m above see level and there is a viewing platform 870 m above sea level. He was so excited about going up the tower and by the view. We can't wait to take him again. I don't think the attached video shows nearly how excited he was. The tower is on top of Black Mountain and it was known formerly as Telstra Tower (I wonder, did telstra stopping its funding support???). Black Mountain peninsula is the peninsula on Lake Burley Griffen closest to black mountain.

Some photos and a video of us

And despite the photo of him with me (how grumpy does he look!!!), we all had a fab time :-)

The last post

was some photos of Brodie I wanted to show Mum of him in his new jumper. We are very fortunate that my Aunt Margaret (actual, she isn't strictly my aunt, but we are related!) has knitted Brodie some jumpers last year and this year. She is a fabulous knitter and keeps my boy warm in winter. This is her latest creation and is a joint effort between her and Nanna! Thank you!!

For Mum

Slow week

It has been cold this week, which has meant lots of inside activities. We went to the indoor playcentre with K and S and some others on Wednesday. Brodie has always been too hesitant to come down the big slide himself and used to come down either sitting on my lap or holding my hand. Well no more! My little determined man has found a way to come down the big slide on his own, at the same time as being able to control how fast he comes down. He comes down on his tummy, feet first, so that the can put his hands on the slide to slow himself down. If he went down the slide once, he went down 20 times. Very cute!

Well, not much else has happened this week. Brodie is grumpy with me for some reason and is a real Pappa's boy at the moment. He sobbed earlier today when Roland went out to pick something up from the shops. Of course, this could all change next week :-) We had kept Brodie up on Friday night, waiting for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. We knew it started at 8.08 pm, but for some stupid reason, forgot that this meant 8.08 pm China time, not 8.08 pm Oz time. So we had a very tired boy, who missed the opening anyhow.

Wobbly legs???

Brodie says the funniest things at time. Often it is to try and get out of doing something that he doesn’t want. Take last night for instance. We were trying (and I do mean trying) to get him into his all in one fleecy sleep suit. And Brodie was having none of it. He wailed “Don’t want it, make my legs all wobbly”. WTF, the sleep suit makes your legs all wobbly??? Roland and I burst out laughing at this, and couldn’t stop. After a moment Brodie knew that his parents had finally “won” and that he would have to concede this battle on allow us to get him dressed. Parents 1 : Brodie 152674986.

Brodie and I had a lovely day yesterday, mainly pottering around. We went over to have a play date with S and baby T. Brodie loves S and was very happy to see S again. Actually, the morning went very smoothly, no hassles about getting dressed, or getting into the car, or putting on shoes. Of course, he knew that the less time arguing about these things would mean the sooner he got to play with S. Cheeky monkey! Our afternoon was spent watching some Dora and Explorer, doing some cooking (Roland came home to a gourmet meals last night, if I do say so myself), playing with trains,with plenty of time for cuddles, tickles and cheekiness.

Ciao

We are theatre goers :-)

We took Brodie to the theatre on Saturday. We saw a children’s production called Boom Bah, which is based on the children’s book of the same name, by Phil Cummings and Nina Rycroft. This is a picture book to theatre production by Windmill Performing Arts, aimed at children from ages 1-3. We sat around the performers and Brodie was quite entranced. In the play, at one stage the cat was asleep. My little man could be heard shouting out “Wake up Katze” – Katze is the German word for Cat – at the top of his lungs. Very cute. We got to meet the performers after the performance which was very cool. We shall definitely see one of their productions again.

We all have colds at the moment. Just colds, but I can honestly say that I am very over sickness. I just want one month when none of us are sick. I suspect this is too much to ask.

I have discovered Gymboree clothing. It is a US kids clothing brand, which is known for its slightly different styles and its durability. With the exchange rate between here and the USA, and the great sale on last seasons (summer) stock, I have been able to get a heaps of great clothes for Brodie for a really good price, even with the postage costs. As is always the way, the girls clothing is cuter that boys, but there are still some lovely little outfits.

Ciao

Words

The word NO is a word that Brodie loves to say. And that we dread to here. Because it invariably comes at a time that we really, really need him to say yes! Well, no is no longer in Brodies vocabulary. Wonderful I hear you say. Well sort of, but NO has been replaced by NOT? It took me a while today to realize that he was saying NOT, and that NOT had replaced NO.

Today Brodie and I had a quiet day mostly at home. We went out briefly to the Belconnen Markets, and had a coffee, got some apples and played at the Mushroom (a playground). It took nearly and hour and a half to convince Brodie that it would be fun to go out. Every time I brought it up, he said NOT!!! The little minx has again decided that getting into the carseat is not want he wants to do and it requires all my negotiation, acrobatic and time management skills to get him in and buckled up. *Sigh*. If we didn’t need apples and if I didn’t need my daily coffee fix, we would have just stayed home.

Tonight he fell asleep in my arms straight after his shower. I decided to cuddle him for a while before putting him down into bed. Suddenly he sat up, opened his eyes and said “Thomas”. As quickly as he sat up, he fell back down into my arms and was snoring :-) I think he did all this in his sleep – and yes, Thomas (as in the Tank Engine) dominates his thought whether awake or asleep.

Ciao :-)

The loss of the day sleep

Is, to many, a parent’s worst nightmare. We have been fortunate and Brodie still has his day sleeps at childcare. At home, it is very hit and miss, although you can almost guarantee that he will not have one on a Saturday. And that if I am particularly tired on a Wednesday, he won’t have a sleep either. Today he fought the day sleep, but as you can see he fell sound asleep in front of the telly. Watching Hi5, which I thought was banned in this house???!!! Although if it puts him to sleep on a day that he desperately needs to sleep, the Hi-5 ban can be lifted!

Actually, we have banned a few shows, the mean parents that we are. The Fairies are banned as they drive me insane! Hi-5 are far too perky, and we have avoided them until recently. We love, love, love Thomas the Tank, Bob the builder, Dora and Shaun the Sheep. I love Shaun the Sheep the best, it is really funny.

Speaking of fairies, the dummy fairy came this week. The deal was that Brodie left out his dummies for the dummy fairy and she brought him a present. The present was a cranky the crane, which is a Thomas the tank accessory. Brodie knew the deal and decided that he was ready to ditch the dummies and ready for cranky to join all his other Thomas trains. Look, things went better than expected and 6 days later, he only half heartedly asks for the dummy once or twice per day. So all appears to be going well and no separation anxiety at all J

Attempting to update the blog, Again!

I am not so good at this blogging business. But I will see whether I can improve and update as much as I wish to. Brodie has had a nice social time of late, including a playdate with his two little friends, running around and being generally crazy.

I am finding that he is really enjoying have friends over, or meeting friends at other places. the difficulty lies in getting him to leave. It is never the right time to leave in Brodies eyes. This is when bribery, errrm I mean encouragment comes in handy!


Brodie has become quite the chef and often asked to help us in the kitchen. he and Roland baked me some fabulous cupcakes for my birthday and he enjoyed making them more than he enjoyed eating them. I have learned not to cook with him just after we have cleaned the kitchen though.

And yes, hasn't he grown. He is no longer my baby *sob*

Ciao