Hello, 2014. At this rate 2014 is already flying by
me. I didn’t manage to get January out
into the blog-o-sphere so this is a combined post of January and February.
We brought in the New Year with family.
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| Cousins watching the fireworks together at Glenbrook |
And to kick it off, we spent New Years Day
with a delicious lunch (Scarborough Hotel) and a play at the beach.
Fagan
Park
We had a lovely playgroup day at Fagan
Park. It’s a fantastic park with
sheltered picnic areas, playground, sand/ water area, eco farm and gardens.
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| Flying kites |
Australia
Day {Long Weekend}
We spent the Australia Day long weekend in Port
Macquarie, a 3.5 hour drive north. I
took the Friday off so we had extra time.
It was a busy 4 days! You can
read about our adventures here.
Eloise
Turns 5!
Did you miss Eloise’s 5thbirthday celebration post? Here is the
‘Princess & Pirates’ party post.
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| Pre-school birthday celebration |
Eloise has had a big month, not only did she turn 5 she also had her first loose tooth… and lost it.
The
Tooth Fairy
Not long after she first felt her tooth
wiggle, it fell out – thanks to a chicken wing at Pho Sam’s. She was so excited… until Mr H told her that
not only does the Tooth Fairy bring her money, she also burrows into your ear
to lay her eggs. Although we promised
her we were kidding, she did not believe us.
It worked out well in the end, as she preferred to leave her tooth in a
bag hanging on her door and we were worried about getting into her room without
waking her.
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| Thanks to chicken wings... |
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| The Tooth Fairy came! |
Eloise said “goodbye” to her friends and
teachers at pre-school mid-January.
Since Eden is still going, she will see her teachers quite a bit
still. She spent 2 weeks with Mr. H
prior to starting school in February.
They got up to quite a bit: timing the walk to school, The Australian
Museum, and gardening.
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| Flowers on her last day from the pre-school |
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| Australian Museum: Tyrannosaurs - Meet the Family exhibit |
Iron
Tiger
Taekwondo is back… and funnily, Eloise is
the highest belt for her practice time which means at the end of practice they
bow to her.
Just
Keep Swimming
With Eloise’s swimming on Saturdays, I get
to watch! And she is doing very well… check
out her stroke work! She’ll be swimming
open water with me in no time (although I currently have no time to get in the
pool)!
Eden
Turns 2.5
My not-so-little-man is 2.5 and toilet trained! One weekend, he refused to put on a diaper so we gave it a try and he did excellent! We even went to a birthday party without accidents! It was a bit more difficult when we tried at daycare but the next day, he was fine. The #2’s took us lots of bribes. He even sleep trained himself before he understood the #2's but we got there! I love the diaper free lifestyle… although we go to the toilet a lot just for "fluffs".
He is also finally into a big boy bed but
not his official bed. He was getting way
too heavy to lift over the side of the crib so we converted his bed. Did he make an appearance in our room? Nope.
However, if he rises before everyone else he usually makes his way into
Eloise’s room. He sits on her bed and
waits for her to wake up or plays with all her toys while she is still
sleeping!
Unfortunately he spent most of February in
quarantine. One day he was happy playing
in the water play area and the next he was spotty, congested and sick. Diagnosis: Chicken Pox. Luckily he has been immunized so it is a very
mild case with a few spots on his arms but it’s the whole 14 day incubation
period and keeping the peas in the pod separate.
But despite that, he is a little trooper. He is happy to spend his day watching movies
and have small plays outside (unfortunately he always wants to play in the sand
or with bubbles which irritate his spots).
He is always in good spirits and makes us laugh with what he says (and
he says a lot!).
The
Haircut
On arrival for his hair appointment, he
announced his arrival “Heeellloooo!
We’re here!”
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| That tickles, Melanie! |
At
Pho Sam’s
The owner couldn’t resist him and was
feeding him rice! He was hamming it up
with her and saying “Yummy rice! My
tummy is happy!”
Movie
Marathons
We noticed that Eden would say “Yoo hoo!”
to get our attention or animals at the Billabong Zoo attention. We weren’t sure where he picked this up
from. Then we were lucky enough to have
a copy of Frozen to watch at home and we had our answer: Oaken the shop
keeper! We were pretty impressed with
his memory! Then there was the Saturday
morning (at least it was after 8am) that he climbed into our bed, pried my eye
open and said “Do you want to build a snowman?” BTW,
we now watch it at least 3-7 times a week.
We watched Brave one afternoon when Miss E
was at a birthday. When she got home, he
told her “We watched movie with puppies”.
Mr H: Puppies? How many puppies were in the movie?
Eden: 3
Mr H: Those were baby bears. Name “cubs”
Eden: Not puppies?
Mr H: Bear cubs
Eden: Oh.
He also gives advice to jie-jie.
MissE: Today, I fell over and there was
blood. I had to get a bandaid.
Mr E: Be careful, jie-jie!
MissE: Today, J was being mean to me. He kicked me.
MrE: Don’t play with him then!
Sydney
Weekender
Digging for Dinos
Our local shopping centre had a dinosaur exhibit and activity.
Another weekend, we went to a water play park.
One Saturday we visited Sydney Fish Markets for lunch then had afternoon tea at Papa’s Pasticceria.
Our local shopping centre had a dinosaur exhibit and activity.
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| Watch out Eloise! |
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| Eden excited to see the dinosaurs up close! |
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| Palaeontologist Eloise |
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| Expert digger Eden |
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| To be a kid again! |
One Saturday we visited Sydney Fish Markets for lunch then had afternoon tea at Papa’s Pasticceria.
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| Lunch platter |
And just recently we spent a Sunday Funday
at The Darling Quarter, followed by The Lindt Cafe.
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| Eden caught by surprise! |
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| Eloise enjoying her hot chocolate |
Mr
H
Mr H has been very busy outside this
month. After 4 years, we are finally
getting to the front of our house. Our
property, annoyingly, also includes the front nature strip that is much more
than a strip. He cleaned it out,
removing many overgrown plants and dead trees, and then re-planted with plants
and trees that we actually like and hopefully require less up-keep. It’s a work in progress but we are much
happier with it.
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| Mr H extending the deck (now features drop down sand pit) |
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| Before: front nature strip |
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| Before: driveway |
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| After: side view of the front nature strip |
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| After: the driveway |
Me
Are you a New Years’ resolution person? I never have been, but this year I decided I would. Towards the end of 2013, I realized I hadn’t e-mailed a dear friend who recently moved away since mid-October and I missed her. Nor had I called local friends. I was assuming family and friends knew what was happening because I put it on Facebook, but that is not the same. Nor did I like that assumption. So as of January 1 (actually a bit earlier), I turned off my social media apps (and even deleted a few (Twitter)! That’s not to say that I don’t hop on once a week to see what is happening (maybe) as it’s still the best way to keep in touch with my friends from home, and post the important stuff, like Eloise’s 5th birthday. To be honest, I haven’t missed it and I soon may be part of the growing numbers of ‘FB Stoppers’. How much time have you wasted on Facebook? See for yourself.
Mama
Daycare
This month MrH had a training that fell on
a Wednesday so I got to spend it at “home” with Eden and had the pleasure of
doing school pick-up/ drop-off. I really
enjoyed it since it gave me a chance to see Eden at swimming lessons (check out the little fish in action) and Eloise
at taekwondo (they changed the schedule for this term, which means I don’t get
to see how she is doing at all. Cue the
mommy guilt.)
9-5
Brisbane
in a Day
I had a day trip (fly-in/ fly-out same day)
to Brisbane this month. It’s been quite
some time since I had been to Brisbane, and also done a day trip. We spent the day in South Bank and it was
great… minus being over-dressed for the 36c heat!
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| Walking along South Bank |
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| Hard at work on a site visit |
Unfortunately I had to work the weekend (and
the next but who’s counting?) of Chinese New Year so we did not bring in the
Year of the Horse with a parade. Instead I spent it with my work colleagues and champagne… did I mention the champagne? I did
get to see the Sydney Opera House in “lucky red” though.
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| Moet & Wildfire (Brazilian BBQ) Terrible view. |
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| Gung Hei Fat Choy! |
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| "Double Bubbles" Bollinger at the Intercontinental Sydney |
Until next time…
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