Thursday fun

Normally I have Wednesday's at home with Mitchy but we had a reshuffle this week so I'm at home on a Thursday. This morning Mitch and I went to the park next door and played for a while. We started off on the swings:

Then moved on up to playing on the fort.


Looking down the big slide.

It was a fun morning in the park!

Mitch is growing up so fast! His speaking is getting better and better and he's stringing two or three words together to make little sentences. Last night I was trying to encourage him to eat his dinner, but he wanted to give it to me and he said, "Daddy ... food ... mouth!" ... Cheeky monkey!

Tonight Meeks and I are going to see The Police (supported by Fergie) with Phil at ANZ Stadium (which used to be Telstra Stadium which used to be Stadium Australia!). It should be a great night.

In other news, my work is very much up in the air at the moment. At the end of last year CBA decided not to extend it's Application Development contract with EDS. That obviously impacts me, but it could work out well. CBA has apparently targeted me because I'm a Subject Matter Expert which is knowledge they want to retain. How exactly that will play out I'm not sure, but it may end up with the CBA or the new vendor offering me a position. Please pray for Meeks and I about it, because it's a bit stressful!

iStockPhoto is going slowly. I've sold a whole 14 photos now! Whoo hoo! Obviously it's not a viable alternative career yet!

Hot, hot, hot weekend

It's been a very hot weekend in Sydney and we're all a bit over it. It's been a busy weekend too. On Saturday morning Meeks, Mitchy and I went for a little bush walk. It was mostly on a concrete path or raised boardwalk so it wasn't too tough, but it was in the bush! Mitch loved the chance to run around. He kept on trying to run ahead but as we were the first people on the track that day there were huge spider webs everywhere, so we kept on having to pull him back. He wasn't happy but he got the message. At the end of the bush walk (all 400m of it) was a park so Mitch had a play. It was very hot though so it didn't last too long and he sat down for a drink and a banana (or "manana" as he calls them).

Mitch also got the chance to practice his balancing.


After that we went home because it was very hot! Saturday afternoon we went for a swim at Nana's place.

Meeks was trying to teach him to walk slowly the other day and the result is this kind of exaggerated stepping action which resembles a sumo wrestler striking his pose. It's very cute! I'll have to get a photo of it.

In other news we're currently doing a bit of a renovation of our laundry. Another of the smallest rooms in the house after the bathroom ordeal of November 2006. It's only a very basic reno this time. Basically we're going to strip everything out, paint everything plain white, get a new slimline tub, shuffle a few things around and build some shelving to make it a bit more of a practical space. This weekend we achieved the stripping and most of the painting and we've moved the washing machine and dryer back in (the dryer is now mounted on the wall). The new tub needs a bit of pipe and we're back to a functioning laundry. Then I have to build some shelves and move the stuff back in and we're done. Needless to say the rest of the house is a bit of a mess.

What's been happening?

As usual it's been an eventful week or so. Mitch has been up to his usual capers, including playing in the park next door

Click on the image to see Mitchy climb the ladder. Clever boy!


Picking flowers

Playing "Peek-a-boo"


And a visit to Fagan Park where we had a picnic and fed the ducks


There were some other birds there too which were a bit aggressive. Mitch was fearless though and wanted to go up and pat them. We thought perhaps that wasn't the best idea. His little fingers could be mistaken for juicy worms.

What other news is there? Mitch has learnt to count ... well kind of ... if you start at "one" he will say "two" and "three" and even "four" (which sometimes sounds like "bore") on a good day. He has trouble with "five" it comes out as "fight" or "fard" so he usually skips it and goes straight to "six". "Seven" is another problem number so he normally jumps to "eight" and then gives himself a little clap and cheer. For some reason he gives you a clap and cheer if you say "ten". It's his way of saying "Well done Mummy" or "Well done Daddy!". Either way it is very cute.

That's about all the news. I've sold 4 photos now which is very exciting. This duck is my highest seller!

New words

We were having dinner with Nana and Poppy last night and Mitch made a couple of break-throughs. He pointed at himself and said "Mit", so he finally knows his own name, and secondly he pointed at Poppy and said, "Pop" which was the first time he had done that. We were all very excited! Poppy was very relieved because he's been able to say "Mummy", "Daddy" and "Nana" for ages but had never said "Poppy" before.

Later on he looked at himself in the reflection in the window and said "Mit" which was very cute. He also found his shadow on the wall and tried to point to it and say "Mit", but it kept on moving (because he was moving). Later on he tried to find his shadow on the same bit of wall, but the sun had gone down so there was no shadow, he was very confused. He pointed at where the shadow had been earlier and turned around and looked at us and said, "Mit?". Very cute!

First sale!

I sold my first photo on iStockPhoto today. Someone, somewhere in the world bought this photo of Mitchy drawing on his easel, what a cutie!

Copacabana 2008

The weather in recent years at Copa hasn't exactly been great, however this year it was beautiful

We had Lilly's second birthday up there too. Here Mitch is helping her open presents

Although she did open some of her own too.

Mitch spent some time playing with Ganny


Then it was time for Lilly's cake

Little Miss Chocolate!

Finally the sunset on a lovely day at Copa

Christmas Day

Forgive my slowness, there are a wealth of Christmas and post-christmas photos to show off!
Firstly Mitch opening his presents on Christmas morning

Riding his hobby horse at Nana and Poppy's house

Mitch and Lilly playing together at Mike and Mandy's house

Uncle Rob playing with Mitch at Mike and Mandy's. Rob spent a heap of time playing with Mitch and Lilly in Mike and Mandy's backyard.


Lilly did some big jumping by herself too



Also with Ganny

In fact everyone stood around just watching Mitch and Lilly playing.


From Mike and Mandy's we moved on to Ganny and Grandad's house where we had a lot of eating and present opening, but I had put away my camera by then.