Beach boys

We got up early, jumped in the car and drove to the big smoke this morning.

Dad met up with Eden to go to a gallery exhibition (that sounds highbrow - it was actually the 'history of computer games'!)

Mum and I hit the shops instead. I kixked a few people from my stroller. But they were'nt hard kicks, just friendly 'hello kicks'.

Then we went to the beach to visit a friend from England.

It's been a while since I've been to the beach, and I wasn't keen on getting my feet sandy, or my toes wet. I relaxed enough to have a little paddle, safe in dad's arms, and decided the hard sand was ok too, but when we saw a little blue bottle jelly fish, we were out of the water pronto.

Guitar hero pt 1

We went to Andy's place for tea.

He has guitar hero. I am quite fond of guitar hero. Especially the drums.

They let me have a go.

I loved it. I ddin't get many notes right, but boy did I have a big smile on my face. Until the song finished. Then the smile turned into a big cry.

You see, I have a limited window of patience. It's about three seconds.

And it takes more than three seconds to choose another song.

As the night wore on I wore down, and Wendy wset up a makeshift bed for me in the study. As I drifted off to sleep I could hear the 'band' in the other room and mum says I did a bit of air drumming, even with my eyes closed!

Comb golf

I entertained mum and dad tonight with a comb and a tennis ball.

I used the comb as a golf club/bat. I'd carefully place the ball in front of me and then whack it with the comb.

It kept me entertained for quite a while.

Almost made it

I almost slept the whole night in my own bed.

We had visitors for tea and I went down a bit later than usual, but I was still snoozing at the 11pm mark (which the usual time I wake up and wander into mum and dad's room) - but couldn't make it to daybreak.

Where did the bath go?

I had an early bath today because I got very dirty at the park.

I had a very good time at the park.

I ended up having a very good time in the bath too.

Mum was supervising, and noticed there was a lot less splashing than usual.

I was sitting in an empty bath.

She said 'where's the bath gone"

And I leaned over to the plug, lifted it up and pointed down the hole.

Aussie Aussie Aussie

We celebrated Australia Day with some lamb pizza and a visit to Andy and Wendy's place.

They've got Guitar Hero, and I watched everyone carefully for the first few songs, and then decided I wanted to join in. Luckily mum was prepared and whipped out my Gibson guitar and I jammed along with dad as he jumped around the room with the other toy guitar. When they were all rocked out I grabbed the drumsticks and had a bash.

I spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandad's place before we came home for a very Aussie tea of scrambled egg and parsley (green and gold!)

Last baby standing

We had to go to a BBQ this afternoon, so mum and dad were keen for me to have a good sleep in the morning. Dad even postponed a guitar hero gig at Andy's place so I could keep sleeping. Now, that's love!

By the time the barbie rolled around I was ready to play.

I roamed around the backyard, getting mixed up in the game of cricket the bigger kids were playing (I'm not much of a helpful fieldsman, but I did do a lot of ball identification. When it came near me I'd point and say 'ball!')

By nightfall, the kids dropped off to sleep one by one. All except me. I kept going. All the adults were impressed with my stamina, except mum and dad, they worried I'd be up all night because I missed my usual bedtime window. But as soon as we hopped in the car I was asleep.

Ball

The word for today is 'ball'.

I must have said it a million times.

It helps when there's balls everywhere to remind me.

I found one in the dining room and in the bedroom, and even at the shops with dad.

We didn't buy any balls, but we did get a couple of Australian flags for the big day on Monday. I was in charge of waving said flag in the checkout line.

Work visit

I visited dad at work today.

Mum had an appointment in town, so I got to go to work, but I had to be woken up, and that meant I was not in a good mood.

I insited on sitting on dad's knee, and would not budge, even when he said he had to get some work done.

Fortunately the bosses daughter came to visit her dad, and she played a game of peek-a-boo with me and that helped warm me up.

Soon I was running up and down the hallway and playing with a makeshift ball, totally forgetting about dad and his knee back at his desk.

By the time mum came to collect me I was having a great time.

Change of routine

Mum and dad went to a concert in the city tonight, so I got packed off to Grandma's place and we had a great time.

We played and played and by bedtime I was so tired I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep pretty quickly.

It didn't last too long, I woke up a couple of times before mum and dad got home, but grandma kept me company.

Mum and dad had a nice time, but they said they missed me a lot, and dad kept checking the backseat out of instinct on the drive, even with me a hundred kilometres away!

Heavy nappies

I've been making heavy nappies because of all my drinking.

I'm still partial to cordial, and will whinge and complain if I see mum or dad filling up my sippy cup with only water. They only put in a token amount of cordial, but for me it's seeing the cordial bottle that makes all the difference.

I went to Sam's house and played with his toy workbench and tools. I like tools.

Bite marks

Olive and Harvey came to play today.

We had a great time.

Until I let out a yelp and a big cry.

I had been bitten!

By a girl!

I settled down soon after, but I'm still sporting two little marks on my arm.

But the good news is I am still quite fond of Olive, but I might think twice before giving her a big bear hug.

More

I've got a new favourite word, and I've been getting a lot of mileage out of it.

"More".

It's pretty much all mum heard today.

It's quite a handy word, especially when I'm hungry!

Fake shoes

Aunty Lyndall was in Hong Kong at Christmas. She bought some shoes at a market. They were supposed to be Converse All Stars - they are actually "Canvirsi Aii Stays"!

Everyone laughed when they saw them.

I wore them today because my real Converse shoes are a bit big for me.

Splits

While I was standing on the front porch today I discovered I could do the splits.

Everyone laughed!

Playing favourites

Grandad and Grandma and Aunty Lyndall came to stay today.

When we have visitors I prefer to hang with them over mum and dad. Today I decided I wanted to do everything with Aunty Lyndall.

Climbing

Mum and I went to a 'play cafe' today. It's for kids, and only opened this week.

It's like an indoor gym for kids, with climbing things and lots of slides and ball pits.

I surprised everyone by climbing right to the top of the climbing thing. It's for big kids. When I got to the top I looked thorugh the clear floor and waved to everyone below. When it came time to get down I slid down backwards on my tummy.

More telly

Mum let me watch a couple of episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine (from aunty Lyndall's massive Thomas library gift of last Christmas).

After the first episode I turned to mum and said "more?" I repeated that word while the closing credits rolled. As soon as the opening credits of the next episode fired up I got excited, and did what mum has christened the "Thomas Dance".

That's just the way I roll.

Oi Oi Oi

Dad and I watched some cricket tonight, and he thought it fitting to teach me "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi"

I add a "yay" at the end.

Big table

I've decided sitting in my high chair is not as much fun as sitting up at the table.

I refused to eat my tea, and mum thought I might have not been hungry, but as soon as she took me out of the highchair and let me sit on the dining room chair, I wolfed the food down.

Mum said we're off to get a dining room chair booster this week.

Falling out of bed and waiting

I fell out of bed at 1:30am.

And I cried in dad's arms until 2:30.

Then dad decided a spot of TV might help settle me down. At 2:30 there's not a lot on, and we ended up watching a music awards show from 1979.

By 3:30 I was nodding off, and so was dad!

We expected mum home for lunch, but she didn't make it until 5:30 - so we went and looked at the car yards. I had fun walking between all the cars and pointing to them and saying 'car'.

Boys are back in town

Mum went away with some friends to the city. They are going to spend the night there.

That means it's me and dad for a whole day and night!

We went to the shops and looked at blokey things. The hardware shop and the electronics shop got a workover.

Then we did a spot of visiting mates and hanging out.

Then we had a boys barbecue.

Stay faraway...So close

We had a visit from Ben. He had a cold.

He did his best to stay away from me, while I was doing my best to get close to him and show him my guitar, get a hug, read a story, and a million other things.

Blueberry boy

Mum and I went blueberry picking today. Mum did most (OK, all) of the work. I preferred to stay in my stroller - and it proved a good position to be in because a couple of the bigger kids decided to pick their blueberries and give them straight to me to eat!

At one point, I was offered so many berries I had to start putting some in my lap for mum to discover later when I was getting in the car.

After the blueberry picking we went back to the house of some of the kids and played with their toys for a bit. I found a cricket bat and a ball and spent a lot of time pushing the ball around with the bat. Dad was very impressed when he heard this. I must have been paying attention to all that cricket on the telly! I also continued my habit of sampling the other kids drinks from the afternoon tea table.

In the afternoon, after a long sleep, I had fun playing with mum. She noticed that I said 'guitar' very clearly and she was very impressed. But she was not impressed when I started throwing water out of my bath. Apparently that's a habit that won't be able to continue. My bath was cut short and mum told me if it happens again my toys will be confiscated.

Me and my mouse will do some drawing

I decided the coolest thing to do today was draw at my table while holding dad's old toy mouse.

I've taken a real liking to it ever since he pulled it out of a box of his old stuff. His grandma made it, so I am under strict instructions to be very careful with it.

It took a while for mum to interpret my instructions. I wanted to sit in my chair, crayon in one hand, and mouse in the other. We got there. And I had a great time chatting to the mouse and scribbling.

Early bath

I had an early bath today, and mum reckons it might become a regular change.

We just had to be careful I didn't get too messy at teatime.

Back to work

We all went back to our normal monday workplaces today.

Me to grandma's. We had a great day. We (grandma, grandad and I) visited the nearby park. It's full of swings and things that are all a bit old for me, but I had fun on the swirly round thing.

I refused to go to sleep in the morning, but had a big afternoon sleep. I've been sleeping quite a bit in the afternoons lately.

Asleep/awake

I started the day being really loud in church. I wasn't being naughty - just loud. Mum had to take me out the back to where the other mums and loud babies sit.

Then we went out for lunch. to Tim and Yaana's. They have baby chickens. I got to pat one.

I fell asleep on the way home in the car and didn't wake up until tea time. I was grumpy. It took me a very long time to settle down.

I didn't sleep too well in my new bed and I woke up next to dad in the big bed. At a very early 5:45!

'Pcheeew'

Today I've been walking around the house saying 'pcheeew' - like a laser sound - no one knows where it's come from - no one here really understands lasers - dad would like to take the credit for it and point to Star Wars, but I haven't seen Star Wars yet.

Imet dad at the very unearthly 4:45am this morning. But I wasn't in my room. Or their room. I was in the loungeroom. Since I've been sleeping in my own bed (which is closer to the ground than the Big Bed) I can get in and out when I please. And seeing all the doors in the house were open (all the inside doors - don't worry about me leaving home just yet...) I headed to the loungeroom! Dad's going to make sure the doors are shut tonight!

Mum and dad did a spot of bowling on the Wii - I had a great time running aorund the loungeroom copying their arm movements and waving anything that remotely looks like a controller. Mainly the TV remote.

If all else fails, try the car

I wouldn't settle for my daytime sleep. Mum and dad tried all their usual tricks. None worked, and then dad remembered a story from ancient history (it was last year, but those sleepless baby nights will do that to a person's memory), the classic 'put baby in the car and go for a soothing drive'.

It worked.

We did it again for tonight's sleep, not on purpose though. We dropped around some roses to Glennys and Steve and it happened to be around my bedtime, so on the way home dad drove around the block a few extra times to make sure I was properly asleep before we got home.

Body parts

I woke up on new year's day in my own bed! Last night was the first night I spent in my own bed. Mum did have to come and join me for the last bit, but still, I made it!

At tea tonight dad decided to test how many parts of my body I could identify.

I got nose, ear, tummy, foot, arm and hair. Dad showed me a few more so soon I'll be able to sing 'head and shoulders, knees and toes...'

Today I started a new project for the year, it's called 'a picture before tea' - and I'm going to draw a different one each day, and we'll share it right here, well, right here over there - to the right - click on the picture. Or here