Dave&Meeks&Mitch&Lucas&Sam&Holly@Home

Family outing to see the dinosaurs at Luna Park

2012-02-05T20:47:00.000+11:00

Today was the first weekend day for weeks (well actually the first day full stop for weeks) where the weather has been nice in Sydney, so we decided to take advantage of the good weather and head off on a family outing to see the dinosaur exhibition at Luna Park and to go on a few rides.

We arrived and were fortunate enough to get a good park just a bit up the hill.

After a bit of lunch and a brief play under the bridge we were ready to head in

That's us the tiny people to the right of the entrance

Inside the dinosaur exhibition there were a number of quite large animatronic dinosaurs that moved and roared. It was actually quite good. The twins eyes were the size of dinner plates looking at the dinosaurs and wouldn't go too close to them. Mitch just loved it too.

There were also a few dinosaur related activities which they enjoyed.

After the dinosaurs Mitch and I had a ride on the Wild Mouse rollercoaster which was fun except I kept on feeling like I was going to be thrown off the edge, or the little car we were riding in was going to tip over. Mitch loved it too.

While we were on the rollercoaster Meeks and the boys had an icecream. Here's a photo of Holly just because she's cute.

After that we all had a ride on the Ferris Wheel together

Did I mention it was a nice day today?

After the Ferris Wheel the boys and I went on the carousel and Meeks went off to feed Holly.

One final shot before we headed off home, I love the way Lucas and Sam are holding hands

Little cuties

2012-02-04T11:24:00.000+11:00

One final blog post for the day. Lucas and Sam got dress up outfits from Santa for Christmas which they enjoy getting dressed up in. Mitch likes to dress up as a pirate.

I think that gets us mostly up to date, although I will have to take some more photo of Holly and give a progress report. She has started eating solids and absolutely loves them!

Bushwalking

2012-02-04T11:03:00.001+11:00

I have been trying to take the boys out for a bushwalk for weeks but it has been raining, raining, raining. Finally last weekend we got a chance to go.

Most of the track was wide and paved, but we decided to take a little detour down a side route to do some real bushwalking

Did I mention it has been raining a lot recently? Anyway, about 20m down the track first Lucas slipped over in the mud and then Sam - neither of them were happy about it and tears ensued. We made a quick decision to stick to the wide paved track.

Back on the path it was a long walk up to the tunnel under the M2

So 1.1km to this point meant 1.1 km back again.

It was time to stop for a snack and to assess the mess from slipping over in the mud

It was a long trek back to the car and the boys were pretty shattered, even with stops for snacks

Eventually we made it back to the car and the end of an adventure. On reflection it was probably a bit too much for Lucas and Sam, but they remember it positively even if they weren't too happy on the actual walk.

Hairy McClary with Nana and Poppy

2012-02-04T10:20:00.000+11:00

Nana and Poppy took the kids off the Opera House to see Hairy McClary in January. They all had a great time and afterwards had hot chocolates outside the Opera House. Here are some photos of the day:

Thanks Nana and Poppy for the outing!

Mitch's first fish

2012-02-04T10:05:00.003+11:00

In early January Poppy took Mitch out fishing for his first time ever and Mitch caught a fish and (as Mitch is so fond of reminding him) Poppy didn't.
Here is the proof!

Hooray for Mitch and thank you Poppy for taking him.

Beautiful girl

2012-02-04T09:59:00.001+11:00

We are planning on going to Fiji for a holiday later in the year so we need to get a passport for Holly. She's not the easiest to take a passport photo of mainly because she is so smiley. So we tried a few poses and got lots of smiles like these.

We did eventually get one that was passport suitable

Isn't she beautiful!

First day of school

2012-02-01T07:51:00.000+11:00

Well it has finally happened, today is Mitch's first day of school. He woke up very early and laid out his clothes but went back to bed until 6:30 (the time he is allowed to get out of bed). He had had his breakfast and was dressed before 7 and is more than a little bit excited!

Early Christmas presents and a beautiful laughing girl

2011-12-23T23:25:00.001+11:00

We had early Christmas dinner at Nana and Poppy's house last night. The boys were obviously very excited at getting some presents early. Sammy, amongst other things, got a tool kit. Lucas and Sam got buckets and spades. Mitch got a Lego city and he was very, very excited.

In the last picture Mitch is showing off his new "Spinning Electronic Lightsaber" which glows in the dark! Of course glowing in the dark means super cool glowing lightsaber photos!

Mitch was also sooooo excited about his new lego city as well, and when the boys went to bed today Mitch, Meeks and I started building it. It took a couple of hours

Meanwhile Sam and Lucas had a chat with Holly.

Holly is gorgeous and smiley at the moment.

She is not just smiling she is doing her first chuckle with Meeks here

What a beautiful little girl!

Gingerbread House Fun

2011-12-20T11:38:00.001+11:00

The boys had some fun this morning decorating a Gingerbread House that Meeks had put together last night. The challenge would be sticking the lollies on to the house and not eating them.

We started with a bare house

Then the boys started sticking lollies on

Holly watched on and cheered her brothers

The final product. They did manage to stick most of the lollies on, but if you look closely there is some evidence on their cheeks that not all the lollies made it on to the house.

Eating the left overs

Very cute!

Holly at 12 weeks

2011-12-11T20:07:00.001+11:00

It's hard to believe Holly is now 12 weeks old. She is a delightful baby and we just love her so so so much. She's feeding well and sleeping well and is a really easy to manage baby most of the time. She loves cuddles and kisses and smiles a lot. She does this funny thing at the moment where she stares at her left hand in amazement for minutes at a time when she's lying in her bouncer - she's going to be so excited when she realises she has another one on the other side!

Anyway here are some photos of her from today with Meeks and I

Putting up the Christmas Tree

2011-12-05T08:42:00.001+11:00

On Saturday we decided to put up the Christmas Tree. The boys were very excited and spent most of the effort getting the decorations out of the boxes. After a breakage of a precious decoration it was decided to restrict them to just the plastic ones.

They weren't great at putting the decoration on the tree, but they did their best.

Holly got into the act by being a little Christmas Tree:

Finally when we had all finished Mitch (with a little help from Dad) got to put the star on the top of the tree

Sam and Lucas on the swings

2011-11-20T16:05:00.001+11:00

I took a few shots of Sam and Lucas on the swings that came out fairly well so I thought I would share them. Sam is in the green top, Lucas is in the blue.

A mixture of very cute and very fun!

Sorry for the lack of Holly photos recently she's been going through a very spotty phase! She's just coming out of it now, so there will be some new shots up soon.

Big boy beds

2011-11-03T19:35:00.000+11:00

A couple of weekends ago we took the sides off Lucas and Sam's cots in preparation for moving them into big boy beds and today was the big day! They were very excited about it all with lots of jumping up and down (not on the beds of course!) and Mitchy got in on the excitement too.

Sam's bed is the red one

Lucas has the blue one

This is what happens when you ask for a smile ...

Mitch didn't really miss out though. Sam and Lucas got hand-me-down mattresses from Mitch (one from his bed and one from the trundle bed we've never used) and Mitch got a new mattress.

Here are Sam and Lucas all tucked in after dinner and ready for bed

It is currently about 30 minutes after they went to bed and I think they have just nodded off (or maybe not I can still hear chatter). Normally it takes them no time at all to go to sleep, but I think the novelty of being in big bed and not have sleep suits on has kept them awake. Fingers crossed no one falls out tonight!

1 month old

2011-10-19T21:37:00.000+11:00

It is hard to believe it's a month since Holly entered the world. She is doing so well and has finally started putting on some weight which is good because she wasn't for the first few weeks. She is sleeping well most of the time, although last night wasn't too good. Hopefully tonight will be better!

Anyway, here are a bunch of photos to keep a certain overseas grandmother happy :)

Family cuddles for Holly

2011-10-10T19:06:00.002+11:00

Over the weekend John and Mavis from Queensland dropped in (it was a long way to go for a pop in!) to see Holly and to have a cuddle and I got some photos of them and also Poppy, also some older ones on Nana with Holly from when she first came home.

The splotch on the side of Holly's face in the shots with Nana is from the sticky patch used to attach the "sunglasses" when she was under the blue light in hospital.

I'm sure these shots will make my mum even more jealous as she's in France and hasn't had a cuddle yet. By the time she gets back in a couple of weeks, Holly will practically be a teenager!

The two women in my life ... and Optimus Prime

2011-10-09T20:21:00.000+11:00

I had a chance to shoot Meeks and Holly today while Lucas and Sam were asleep. Holly was asleep as well which made the picture taking a bit easier as she was very calm about the whole thing. Meeks was very patient with me as I messed about with lights and trying to get angles right.

While we were shooting, Mitch was mucking around in the background in his new Optimus Prime superhero outfit striking poses any time the camera was pointed at him

Very serious business, this superhero thing :)

Holly home again - for good this time!

2011-10-02T23:06:00.000+11:00

After a couple of false starts and final blood test on Saturday, Holly finally got the okay to come home and doesn't need any more treatment. We're very relieved to have our little girl home and healthy. Here she is asleep in her bed

Normally she has her arms wrapped up when she goes to sleep, but usually manages to get one or both of them out of the wrap. She is feeding well and sleeping well, which makes things easier for both of us, but it is still tough having a baby in the house again.

The little boys love having their little sister home and every time she cries in her room their ears prick up and they say, "Holly crying!". They haven't quite worked out that them running around screaming and shouting could possibly be what wakes her up! When she's having a feed they all crowd around trying to touch her or kiss her and saying "Holly!", or "Sister!" or "Cute" or "Tiny". At least they have stopped calling her Polly, Molly or Dolly which is what they called her at various times while she was still in hospital. They fight over who gets to sit next to Holly in the car every time we go out. When we changed the seats in the car around a few weeks ago they were fighting over who would get to sit in the back row with Mitch, now they fight over who gets to sit in the middle row next to Holly.

Mitch is a little more cool to his sister, in a sort of 5 year old boy manner. Add to that he still thinks he's the centre of the universe (also a trait of 5 year old boys), but if he loves her and gives her little kisses too, although he doesn't gush. Besides there is only so much time in a boy's life and when a large part of it is spent looking at his Star Wars Character Encyclopaedia which he was given when Holly was born. He's a little bit obsessed. It is amazing how much of it he knows and sometime you forget that he can't actually read what is on the pages. He just remembers it all. Speaking of reading and spelling, Mitch is also obsessed by that. He's not at school this year, but I suspect by the time he goes next year he will be able to spell lots of words. He keeps on asking us to teach him how to spell new words. It's the same with maths. He will be sitting there eating lunch or something and he'll turn to you and say, "Dad, did you know 3 plus 3 plus 3 is 9?".

I have lots more photos to go through from the past week, but here are a few from last week when Aunty Mandy and cousins Lilly and Will visited. Lilly had a cuddle with Holly

and then had a photo with Mitch, who needed a bit of encouragement to smile

But eventually managed to ...

He looks so grown up!

Home again

2011-09-28T23:11:00.004+10:00

Holly and Meeks are home again tonight. Meeks came home this morning and I went back in and picked up Holly around 5pm so she was able to have the maximum time under the blue light. We have another blood test on Saturday morning to determine if she's over the jaundice. We have to give her top ups of formula with each feed as well until then. So all in all good news and we're altogether as a family again. Yay!

Back in hospital

2011-09-27T16:31:00.003+10:00

Holly (and Meeks) are back in hospital for another night of the blue light jaundice treatment (for Holly, not Meeks). We had noticed Holly getting more and more yellow/orange and lethargic over the last couple of days despite feeding well, so we rang the hospital and they advised bringing her back in for another treatment. Meeks will be staying in over night with her to allow her to feed. Apparently going back in for a second dose of treatment isn't too unusual and sometimes babies even have to come back in for three treatments. It will also be a good chance, hopefully, for Meeks to get some rest as well, although the stress of not being at home sort of counters that. I'm at home with the three boys which will no doubt be challenging :) All three actually slept through last night, so fingers crossed that happens again, or it could be tired, cranky Daddy tomorrow.

Hearing test and jaundice

2011-09-23T22:59:00.002+10:00

Sorry for no update yesterday, I left my camera at the hospital last night. Never mind a double update today.

Yesterday was another good day at the hospital with Holly feeding well and Meeks getting a fair bit of rest over night. In the afternoon Holly had her hearing test which pleasingly she passed. Here is a photo with all the paraphernalia attached to her for the test

You may or may not be able to tell from the photo above, but she started to show a bit of jaundice yesterday. So today Holly had a blood test and it confirmed she needed some treatment. Neonatal Jaundice is fairly common in newborns affecting over 50% of babies in the first week of life according to Wikipedia. The treatment is putting the baby under blue lights. As you can imagine this creates some difficulty for photographing! Anyway, these are what I could come up with. She is very cute, even under these conditions!

She got some cool eye covers with a picture of sunnies on them to protect her eyes and help her to sleep as the light is quite bright. She will be under the blue light for 24 hours and then they will do another test to confirm she's okay. The negative is that she wont be able to come home first thing tomorrow morning as hoped. If the test tomorrow comes back is okay, she and Meeks will be able to come home tomorrow afternoon. We're all crossing our fingers, Meeks wants to be home and we all want her and Holly to come home!

Day 3 with Holly

2011-09-21T21:56:00.001+10:00

It was Day 3 today and it was characterised by much better sleeping overnight and much better feeding throughout the day which is great news. Holly had some tummy time which she loves - she has a bit of a milk moustache - very cute.

Mitch has his last day of pre-school before the holidays and he and Lucas and Sam came into the hospital with Auntie Marion in the afternoon. There was lots of excitement and cuddles.

There were also gifts for the boys including an "awesome" encyclopaedia of Star Wars characters for Mitch

As usual, the boys found something else to be distracted by. On Monday it was Meeks catheter bag, on Tuesday it was the parking garage, today it was the garbage bins.

We also had visits from Tasha, Amanda, Auntie Anne Daisy and Uncle Rob.

Lets hope little Holly has another good night tonight and that Meeks' milk comes in tomorrow so that Holly doesn't need any more bottle feeding.

Just a reminder, I'll keep updating the slideshow here with more photos than I can show on the blog here.

Holly's first bath and other photos

2011-09-20T20:21:00.000+10:00

Before we get to the cute bath photos it's worth making a few comments about how things are going. Meeks is doing really well, so much better than previous births. She has had almost no nausea and no vomiting which is great. When Mitch was born she was sick for the first 24 hours and couldn't sit up without vomiting, so that has been a huge blessing. With the twins she had very significant bleeding to the extent she needed a blood transfusion and was pretty out of it for the first couple of days.This time she has had nothing like that and as a result was well enough to have her various tubes removed this morning and was able to have a shower and walk around a bit. The ability to have a shower may not sound like much, but it is a huge thing for her.

Holly is also doing really well, she has been released from special care and is back in the room with Meeks. Today she cried quite a bit and didn't feed terribly well. Hopefully that will improve when Meeks' milk comes in which should happen in the next day or so. We had to do our first nappy change today and anyone who knows about those first few nappy changes, it's not pleasant (Google "meconium" if you're wondering why). We have also decided changing nappies on boys is easier than on girls.

Lucas and Sam came in to see Meeks and Holly today as Mitch had preschool. They are very excited about having a little sister and are constantly wanting to touch her and kiss her and poke her and jump all over Daddy and Holly while she is having a cuddle. After a while though, they do get a bit bored. Fortunately, what to the average person is a very ordinary view:

Is a very interesting view for a couple of 2 and a half year olds who like cars.

After lots of cuddles and kisses and some playing with cars and colouring in and a visit by Marion, Nanna and Poppy it was time to go home.

After a hour or so of average sleep and a cuddle

and a visit by our friend Kate we decided to give Holly her first bath. She wasn't thrilled by it and cried most of the time, but was very cute and now she is also cute and clean.

She is very cute! I think she looks a lot like Mitch did, compare this shot:

with the shots of Mitch here and Lucas and Sam here.

More photos of Holly Kate's first day

2011-09-20T09:17:00.001+10:00

For those who are using iPads and other Apple devices, and therefore unable to view Flash things you can go to this link or if that doesn't work try this.

Or barring that you can look at this smaller selection:

Welcome to the world Holly Kate Clark

2011-09-19T15:45:00.000+10:00

A 7:28am this morning Holly Kate Clark was born into the world. She was 4.25kg and 58cm long (much taller than the boys!) and had a head circumference of 35.5 cm. She had low blood sugar like the boys, so will need to spend the night in special care, but is feeding much better than any of them did. Meeks is doing much better than she did after Mitch or Lucas and Sam.

Anyway, here are a few photos :)

Pregnant bellies

2011-09-10T17:04:00.000+10:00

Well here we are at almost 37 weeks and I took a photo of Meeks' pregnant belly to compare it with the belly from the twins. Meeks feels big, but there is no comparison. The twins belly is much larger!

Meeks is beautiful in both, even if she doesn't feel like it :)

Play time the backyard

2011-08-27T13:32:00.001+10:00

As I'm sure I've said before, one of the great things about this house we're renting is the backyard. It is big enough hold a big trampoline for the boys and a swing set and still have room to run around. This morning we were out in the backyard having a play and I took a few photos.

The boys actually sat still for long enough to get a shot of the three of them with Meeks

Sam and Lucas, were quite unsure on the trampoline at first, but are getting better at it. They are very cute when they're jumping around. Lucas even did a forward roll on there this morning for the first time without assistance. He likes to jump up and land on his bottom. Sam likes to jump around pulling his legs up under himself.

Mitch tends to go all out on the stunts. He's very good at various types of somersaults which is fine except he sometimes doesn't think about where he is going to land and ends up barrelling into his brothers.

In a total aside, tonight I'm working and we have a major delivery at work. The computer system that I have been working on and supporting for 13 out of the last 14 years is finally being replaced by a new system. This is the culmination of the work I have been doing since September 2007. Yes I have been working to effectively work myself out of a job for the last 4 years - in fact it was probably the only way they would let me go! What does that mean for me? Well, not that much in the short term, I'll still be supporting the new system for a while in a hands-off "how did the old system work" sort of a way. After that I'll move on to a different project somewhere.

The other bigger news is that the new baby is only a matter of weeks away now. The doctor has said he will deliver on 19th September if the baby hasn't already arrived. Meeks is healthy which is great, but uncomfortable and having trouble sleeping. Not long to go now!

Dad's 70th

2011-08-10T10:33:00.001+10:00

Last night we went out for dinner to celebrate Dad's 70th Birthday. It was a nice evening with some amusing conversation as we celebrated the old man reaching this milestone. Here are some shots of the night

This is a shot of Dad talking to James on the phone who is in the UK so couldn't make it to the dinner. Also amusing because Rob's nose is making it's presence felt on the right edge of the frame ... family joke :)

Tickling twins

2011-06-20T23:09:00.000+10:00

Meeks captured this video today and I had to share it. They sometimes do the cutest things when no one is watching but as soon as you pull out a camera or something they stop. This time Meeks managed to get some footage of a particularly cute game that we've never seen them play before.

Lucas and Sam playing

2011-06-11T11:54:00.000+10:00

Mitch was off having an adventure with Ganny and Grandad today so it was just the small boys at home. So while Meeks was off at the shops we decided to have a play in the back yard. The weather is overcast, but that seems to make for really richly coloured photos which I like. Here are some from the morning.

Adorable!

Ducky park with the boys

2011-06-09T14:46:00.002+10:00

I had a rare weekday off work today after working most of the weekend so this morning Meeks and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful winter sunshine and go to Fagan Park (or Ducky Park as it is known in our family). It is always fun in a park to see how far the boys' general coordination has improved. Mitch swings from ropes and other equipment like a monkey, whereas Sam and Lucas are getting to the point where they can climb and hang on to ropes and things - in fact they spend half their lives being told to get down from tables and benches they have climbed onto.

Here are a few of photos from the day on the play equipment:

and a video of Mitch on the flying fox:

Lucas and Sam decided to go and chase the birds

Mitch decided to join in

We also walked down to see the ducks.

No photos of the ducks because Meeks and I spent the whole time trying to contain the little boys excitement which meant keeping them from jumping in the water with the ducks and other scary birds (and eels). Unfortunately, after walking down the big hill we had to walk back up. Obviously we were all going too slowly for Mitch

Sam was doing okay walking, but Lucas wasn't having a bar of it and Mitch was disappearing into the distance so Meeks decided to carry Lucas, at which point Sam decided he needed to be carried too.

Then there was a bit more playing on the equipment and off home after a fun morning.

Bushwalk

2011-06-01T12:31:00.000+10:00

Last week Marion and Tony came up from Victoria so while they were up Meeks and the boys, Marion and Tony and Nana all went for a bushwalk down the end of our street.

Mitch took over the camera at this point:

That's watermelon juice on Sam's lip in the image below in case you're concerned :)

Mitch is fascinated by the idea of bush walks. Whenever we drive anywhere past any sort of bush he says, "We could go for a bush walk there". Uncle Mike has promised to take him and cousin Lilly on a long one, one day - Mitch is looking forward to it (hint, hint).

Diorama

2011-06-01T12:23:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago Mitch and Meeks made a diorama of a jungle for Mitch's animals to play in. Here are some photos of the making of and the final result:

Doing crafty things like this is one of Mitch's favourite things, but finding a time and organising it all is really tough - also tough is stopping Lucas and Sam tearing it apart in their quest to play with it. I think this one managed to last a few weeks because it was mostly kept out of their reach :)

Pirate Mitch. Normal Mitch

2011-05-08T22:22:00.000+10:00

There was a church fair at the end of our street yesterday and Meeks and Mitch went down to see it. Mitch had his face painted to look like a pirate!

Scary!

When he's not being a pirate he can be a very cute little boy :)

That was just before his fifth birthday after he'd had a hair cut!

Two year old twosome

2011-04-28T20:24:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was Lucas and Sam's 2nd birthday, so we braved the rain and visited the zoo. The little boys loved it and Mitch did to although he seemed more concerned about getting to see as many animals as actually looking at them. As a result he rushed us from animal to animal until we told him to slow down a bit. Here are some shots from the day

It rained from time to time, but we were able to get undercover for most of the heavy bits. We rode the sky car thing up from the bottom of the zoo and the boys loved looking at the animals from up above. On the way home three exhausted boys slept in the car.

Last night after dinner Meeks made a yummy cake which we all enjoyed!

Lucas and Sam really love cake!

Birthday boy at Balmoral

2011-04-19T19:49:00.000+10:00

Today was Mitch's 5th Birthday so we started the day with pancakes with mascarpone and strawberries and banana and maple syrup (sugar free for the kids!). After that I headed off to work and Meeks and the boys went to Balmoral to visit the beach. They had heaps of fun!

Mitch's 5th Birthday Party

2011-04-16T22:04:00.002+10:00

We had Mitch's 5th Birthday party today. It poured with rain all morning and for most of the party so unfortunately there was no opportunity to enjoy the trampoline and swings in the backyard. Fortunately we had arranged other entertainment!

Many thanks to Brett from ReptilesUpClose who brought the reptiles and entertained the kids. They all had such a wonderful time and I'm sure will remember it for many years to come.

How could I forget the cake?! There was a huge scrum of kids around the cake when Mitch blew out the candles. Fortunately I had taken a few beforehand.

At home with the boys

2011-04-12T19:53:00.003+10:00

I found myself with an unexpected day at home with the boys today while Meeks went off to work for a day. I say unexpected because we had forgotten all about it. So the boys and I played in the garden with the new toys and I took some photos and video and then after lunch and sleeps took some more photos of the boys around the house.

Firstly, before lunch on the trampoline

And a video!

Then around the house after lunch and sleeps. Sam and Lucas eating chocolate eggs

Lucas drawing and smiling

Mitch and Sam at the computer

A couple just of Mitch

Tramapoline!

2011-04-05T19:51:00.002+10:00

One of the reasons we wanted to get a big backyard in our new place was so that we could give the boys somewhere to burn off the energy they have in abundance. A perfect way to do that is with a trampoline. So with the boys birthday coming up at the end of April, we had their birthday present delivered and constructed (a wise investment given the difficulty in putting these things together) a little early.

This all happened while the little boys were out with Meeks and Mitch was at Pre-school. When they came home, it was a huge surprise! It is something we can all enjoy too.

Mitch shows off his acrobatics

The three boys playing together

Mitch decided to play photographer for these ones (you can see his toes!)

We hope to have many hours of fun on the new trampoline and no doubt a few injuries as well!

Sleeping through

2011-03-31T09:28:00.000+11:00

It's only taken 1 year, 11 months and 3 days, but last night Lucas and Sam both slept through the night without waking up. Up until last night either one or both of them (when one wakes up he normally wakes the other, but not all the time) would wake up one or more times during the night. Mitch was doing it at 11 weeks, but lets not go there. We hope it will become a regular thing, but I guess we'll have to wait an see.

Anyway, it is a significant milestone and we hope it becomes a habit!

New Home

2011-03-31T09:23:00.000+11:00

Over the weekend we moved into our "new home". It is a great relief that we will finally be a bit more settled after moving 3 times in the last 9 months. We hope to be there for a long time.

There is still a fair bit of unpacking to do and we still have to move a few things from our old temporary place, but we are already settling in and the boys are getting used to their new rooms. There is also a playroom for the kids which we bought a separate TV/DVD unit for on the weekend so they can watch their shows and not have to sit in the grown-ups lounge room. The house has a huge backyard and a pool which is great except the previous owners had the creepy crawly thing in the pool turn on at 2:30am and everyonce in a while when it climbs up a wall it gets to the surface and makes a hideous slurping sound. The first time it happened it freaked us out. At 2:30 in the morning you don't want huge slurping noises outside your bedroom window!

We have also bought a second car. Unfortunately the new place is not within walking distance from a train station so I drive to the station each morning. We had been borrowing my brother Rob's car while he's been in the UK, but he is coming home for a holiday soon and a friend was selling her car for a good price, so the timing was good. So now we have a white 2000 Subaru Impreza RX AWD to add to the Territory. It is not an expensive or fancy car, but it's fun to drive and can take three car seats at a pinch. Given I only drive it about 10km a day, it doesn't need to be fancy or new!

Fourth

2011-03-14T11:48:00.001+11:00

A bunch of people already know, but to make it official, we're having another baby. Just one baby. Not two or three :)

Here's a picture ...

The due date is around the start of October. We were thinking it was the end of September, but this scan suggests the 2nd October as the due date. Given our past experience we're expecting the baby to come mid-September!

The baby is well and Meeks has been reasonably well but has had some bad days with morning sickness.

Mitch is very excited about the prospect of another baby brother or sister. Lucas and Sam like babies a lot, whenever they see one the go up and point to it and say "Baby! Baby!".

We're very pleased and relieved that it is only one!

Sunday afternoon in the park

2011-03-13T21:05:00.000+11:00

It was such a lovely Sunday afternoon that we decided to go to the park for a bit of fun. It's been ages since I took any pictures of the boys, so I thought I'd bring the camera along too. Here are a few photos of the afternoon

After playing in the park we visited Nanna and Poppy and played games in the backyard including hide and seek.

Mitch and Sam managed to put Poppy's back out play "Up High".

Tomorrow is a big day for us. Some of you will know why, others will have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

A new place to call home

2011-03-06T16:40:00.000+11:00

After literally months of searching, yesterday we signed a leaseon a new place to call home. We've spent the last few months eagerly watching the new rental listings on domain.com.au and realestate.com.au hoping a suitable house would come up. We've visited more than a dozen open houses, been horrified by many, been amazed by a few and confused by others and even got the point of sending in an application or two, all with no luck. We've already moved once into a short term lease rental in Hornsby, that has given us additional time to look, but has never really felt like anything more than temoporary accomodation. We didn't quite end up where we'd hoped to end up, but we've found a nice house for us to live in. It's not very beautiful to look at, but it has 5 bedrooms, a couple of living areas, decent kitchen and bathrooms and a huge backyard with a pool for our growing boys to play in and it is also a decent and reasonable price (which we couldn't say about a lot of other places).

It has been a very uncertain time and Mitch particularly has been quite noticeably unsettled by it all. He's normally such a relaxed, confident boy and that hasn't been the case these last few months. It has been difficult to watch and we can only hope this house and a more settled home will help rebuild his confidence.

We move in around the 26th March and once we're settled we hope life can get back to a more "normal" state.

London 2010 Recap

2011-01-16T21:02:00.002+11:00

I've finally had a chance to gather the photos from the cameras (actually I've just remembered, I've got a bunch on my phone I need to get too) and put them into a single set on Flickr, so here is a set to give a view of what our holiday was about. Obviously it does capture every moment, but it certainly captures a lot of them

A bit of a recap of what happen towards the end of our trip.

On the 29th (or was it the 30th, it's all a blur) we took the boys into London again and met up with Uncle Jamie and Aunty Phaik and visited the Natural istory Museum. Mitchy absolutely loved it and rated it the best part of his holiday. Here are some photos of us standing in front of the giant dinosaur skeleton in one of the halls

We had a great time wandering the halls and seeing the amazing exhibits - and it was all free! Mitch walked around with eyes the size of dinner plates. Sam and Lucas had lots of fun to walking around and looking at everything. It was great to see Jamie and Phaik again and we wished at the time we'd been able to spend more time with them, but all too soon it was time to get back on the train and make the journey back on the Surrey.

We spent New Years Eve with Michael and Lorraine and Krissy and Glenn and played cards up until midnight and watched the fireworks in London on the TV. Meeks was feeling sick so she had an early night and was in bed at 10:30pm!

A couple of days later we visited this cool place called The Lookout which was near Krissy and Glenn's place in a place called Bracknell. There is a huge outdoor play area with walking tracks and all sorts of things, but we mainly went for the indoor area (because it was raining) which was sort of like Questacon in Canberra. There were a whole bunch of fun sciency experiments (that may be a strange set of words to place together - yes science can be fun, just ask the guys from Mythbusters!) which were really hands on. Again, Mitch had a lot of fun and the little boys enjoyed playing with everything without really having a clue what was going on! There was a giant piano

And human body experiments

And a giant frog!

Thanks to Michael and Lorraine taking the boys for a night, on the 3rd and 4th Meeks and I managed to get away for a night in a hotel in London. We had dinner with Jamie and Phaik in a cool little Mexican restaurant in/near Bayswater and then went off to a bar where they go frequently. It was great to see them without the kids and to have a chance to have a chat. The next day Meeks and I got a chance to walk and walk and walk around London and visit some of the sites. It was freezing cold, but wasn't raining and was fairly clear and just as we reached Buckingham Palace started to snow a bit. It was a really great time and we loved the chance to have some time just with each other and to see some of London.

A couple of days later and it was time to head home. The less said about the flight home the better. If the trip to London was experiencing the 4th level of hell, the trip home was slightly better, only the 3rd level of hell. When we landed back in Sydney, someone must have been praying for us, because we were through customs and had picked up our baggage in record time and walked out to see the lovely smiling faces of Phil and Shaz who met us at the airport with our car. After the difficulty of the previous 24 hours of travelling, it was such a delight to see the faces of our friends, we are so thankful they got up early in the morning to meet us and it made getting home so much easier and so, so, so much more pleasant.

So that was the end of our holiday. Thanks so much for Michael and Lorraine's generosity and also to Krissy and Glenn (and Hannah) for letting us stay with them.

More holiday news

2010-12-30T00:14:00.000+11:00

Well the snow has now gone from the ground. It is very odd to see the grass in the backyard and in the streets. It's now become more like a normal English winter, that is damp, dark, foggy, and cold (not very cold though). I'm glad we got to see some snow and for the kids to have a chance to play in it. I suspect it will be something that Mitch, at least, remembers for a long time. For the little boys there are always the photos. I hope it doesn't snow again otherwise I suspect we will be stuck here judging by the inability of the English airports to handle a bit of snow.

Yesterday I got to do something that I had never done and that was meet an iStock friend in real life. For those of you who don't know, I sell photos through a site called iStock, and there is a thriving community of photographers from around the world who get together virtually and share tips and encouragement and general life stuff all the while competing against each other for sales. It is surprising how well we all get along! Anyway, yesterday I got to meet Jo, his fiancee Angelina, his mum Dee and Jo and Angelina's little boy Stephan who is a month younger than Sam and Lucas (also Jo's mum Dee was there). I've known Jo through iStock for a few years and we have quite a bit in common given the age of our boys so it was fun to actually meet him in person. I and the boys (Meeks was off in London having tea at the Ritz - more on that later) traveled down to East Sussex which was about an hour and a half long drive through some of the worst fog I had ever seen. We took some photos of the boys playing together (we are photographers after all!) in Jo's nursery "set" and then went back to his place for lunch. There are a few shots on Flickr, but I haven't had time to process the best ones. Many thanks to Jo and his family for their hospitality.

Yesterday Meeks, Krissy and Lorraine went into London yesterday for a girly shopping trip and tea at the Ritz. Apparently they all bought new boots and ate cakes, pastries and cucumber sandwiches :)

In other news, it feels like Sam and Lucas's talking has come along a lot while we have been over here. They are both trying lots of new words and becoming more confident with the words they have. They love their little cousin Hannah and are always saying "Hi!" and running up to touch her when they see her.

To has been a bit of a rest day and tomorrow we're off to see Uncle Jamie and Auntie Phaik in London. We're going to visit the Natural History Museum which has dinosaurs!

There's only a week to go which I'm sure will happen so quickly!

Christmas

2010-12-29T09:36:00.000+11:00

Okay so it's a few days late, but finally some Christmas images. Many thanks to everyone who cooked ... which I think was everyone, but mostly Glenn and Krissy.

More snow fun

2010-12-29T08:53:00.000+11:00

While there was still snow on the ground we thought it good to get out and play in it. Near Krissy and Glenn's place is a park with some fun equipment to play on ... in between having a snowball fight.

More sledding pics

2010-12-28T08:47:00.001+11:00

I'm running a bit behind in the posts. Before Christmas, Poppy and I took the boys sledding again, this time in a park near Nana and Poppy's house. Here are some pics from the day:

Sledding in the backyard

2010-12-20T20:20:00.004+11:00

Yesterday we had lunch in a real English Pub. Getting there was a bit of an ordeal, first we had to clear 2 inches of snow off the car then we had to get the kids rugged up (I thought it was hard getting the kids ready to go out at home, but when you add 17 layers of puffy clothes plus beenies and gloves it takes forever. Driving on snowy roads is quite tense. Most of them were clear, but our street wasn't clear and even when the roads are clear you drive around at half the normal speed.

The pub had flagstone floors and very low ceilings and the food was very nice. The little boys had sausages and mashed potato followed by ice cream. Lucas was a little champion. He ate one and a half of the big sausages and a big helping of mashed potato and did it all using a spoon all by himself. He then moved on to the vanilla ice cream and ate most of that and when he'd had enough started feeding me and Mitch.

When we came home Mitch, Poppy and I did some sledding in the backyard. A selection of the shots are below, but there are heaps more on Flickr here.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2010-12-19T00:58:00.003+11:00

Well here we are in the very cold and snowy UK. We're staying in a little village called Lightwater which is in Surrey (which is South West of London). If you're wondering what it looks like, imagine the village from any English comedy or drama from the 70s and 80s (e.g. Some Mother's do have 'Em) and you wont be far wrong. I'll post some photos of the village a bit later, it's very cute especially in the snow.

Let's take a couple of steps back though. We left on Wednesday afternoon Sydney time and the trip was 24+ hours of hell. Mitch was great, but the little boys hardly slept (It didn't help when the airline left the lights on on the plane all the way to Singapore where we arrived at the equivalent of 12:30am Sydney time) and when they weren't sleeping they were whining and crying and writhing and ... well Lucas vomited on me on the descent into Singapore. We arrived in London very early (5am) on Thursday morning. There were issues with the gantry which meant it took ages to get off the plane and we got off last because it would have been impossible to get all our bags and things with people queuing up behind us ... which unfortunately meant we were last in the queue for Customs. We were incredibly fortunate that a Customs lady took pity on us and we were jumped almost to the front of the queue, then it took ages for our bags to come out during which time the kids were crying again. Eventually we made it out of the airport only to find we had to take a bus to the car rental place then our type of car wasn't there so we had to get a different one and then spent ages figuring out how to fit the car seats then finally drove to the exit gate only to find we had picked up the wrong car (there were three cars of the same model sitting next to each other with number plates that only differed by one letter) so we drove back in, moved all the luggage and refitted the car seats and eventually got on the road to Lightwater.

Okay enough about the trip here. I don't want to think about it again ... ever ... or we might not be able to get on the plane to come home!

So back to the snow. It snowed a bit yesterday evening and had a big dump this morning which is when we got the shots below. Mitch had a ball playing in it and the little boys were adorable in their little all in one outfits.Sam was in the blue and Lucas was in the red.

Mitch cops a snowball

It's great to be here and we're looking forward to our time here very much. A huge thanks to Krissy and Glenn for putting up with us all!

I should add there are a bunch more photos on our Flickr page. The link is on the right of this page or follow this link to a slideshow

Pre-Christmas Christmas Dinner

2010-12-12T22:54:00.000+11:00

We had our family pre-Christmas Christmas dinner today. Ganny and Grandad and Mike, Amanda, Lilly and Will joined us. All the rest of our family is in London and we're looking forward to seeing them soon. It was a beautiful hot sunny day (a bit different to what it will be like in London!) so it was perfect for playing in the back garden (once it had been mowed - all the rain we have had recently means the grass is reaching "has this house been abandoned" length in between mows) and having a good long swim. Mitch has come so far with his swimming even in the last month. At the start of summer he was nervous even to step off the steps in the pool and swim to me when I was 2m away. Today has was able to swim a whole lap of the pool. Added to that today was the first time he was able to tread water with his head above the water (a very valuable skill to have I'm sure we all agree!) and float unaided on his back. His confidence is through the roof and he is so pleased with himself. Obviously though he knows never to go swimming without an adult.

Anyway, here are some photos of the day.

After all the swimming and playing we had a delicious Christmas dinner that Meeks had cooked for us. Ham and turkey and roast vegetables and Christmas pudding with ice cream and custard. There is plenty left which I'm looking forward to eating over the next few days.

Preschool Christmas Concert

2010-12-06T20:45:00.000+11:00

Mitch had his preschool Christmas concert tonight. He and the other kids sang Christmas Carols and then Santa came on a fire truck. It was all very exciting.

Mitch was very cute

On Santa's firetruck

Sam and Lucas had loads of fun playing in the playground

Boys in the garden

2010-11-03T21:25:00.000+11:00

Sammy and Lucas were mucking around on the bench at the back of the garden the other day, I ran to get the camera, but as usual their fun had pretty much finished. I did manage to get a few cute shots though.

Sam is on the left, Lucas on the right.

18 month olds

2010-11-01T12:42:00.000+11:00

Last week Lucas and Sam passed 18 months. We didn't make a big fuss over it or anything, in fact I didn't actually realise until the next day. In any case I wanted to take some really nice photos of them at 18 months so we could remember them as they are now. I'm at home by myself today with the twins as Meeks is off at work and Mitch is at pre-school so I thought I'd do it today. The problem is that it is almost impossible to keep them in the same place at the same time, so I figured I'd pop them in the cot together and see what happens. You might remember this shot from when they were almost 1.

Well here they are now ... laughing

Shouting ...

And telling Daddy to put the camera away

The past 18 months have been very, very hard at times, but we have three beautiful boys and we thank God so much for all of them.

PS: That's Sam on the left and Lucas on right if you were wondering.

Reptile World

2010-10-29T16:23:00.001+11:00

I had the day off work today so we decided to take the boys up to Reptile World at Gosford for the morning. It was a surprise, so we bundled them into the car and told Mitch we were going somewhere that was a surprise and it would be fun. Imagine his disappointment when we stopped at Coles on the way. After assuring him it wasn't our final stop, we set off again and soon all of the boys went to sleep which was great because they had all woken up at 5am. They are all sleeping in the same room because Poppy is home from London for a week. Going to sleep is fine, but waking up in the morning is not so good. Mitch has a clock in his room normally and knows he's not allowed to get up before there is a 6 on it. Unfortunately, there is no clock in the little boys' room so he just gets up whenever and generally wakes his brothers up too. Or they wake up and see Mitch is on their floor and think it's party time. Anyway, I digress.

We arrived at Reptile World (okay it's really called the Australian Reptile Park, but we just call it Reptile World) and woke all the boys up and Mitch was soooooooo excited when he realised where he was. He kept telling us he had been there before and had really wanted to go there again and now here he was and then started jumping up and down in excitement. We had been unsure of whether to go because the weather was overcast and a bit dicey, but his reaction showed us we had done the right thing.

We went around and saw the attractions and Mitch loved it. Lucas and Sam loved it too, which is great - last time they went to a zoo in Victoria in March they weren't really old enough to know what was going on and just cried the whole time. We saw birds and two Galapagos Tortoises and kangaroos and dingoes (for some reason Mitch is fascinated by them) and wallabies and echidnas (which Lucas and Sam especially liked).

We also saw a reptile show where Mitch got to see (and hear) a rattle snake and a Burmese Python and even got to touch an alligator's back. There were heaps of other reptiles and there was also spiders and frogs. All in all a boys' paradise of slimy creatures and creepy crawlies.
All of the boys got to pat a kangaroo too which Lucas and Sam were very excited about. The kangaroo was fortunately very patient because at times all three boys were trying to pat it at the same time. Lucas and Sam were very cute with it.

Here are some photos of the morning ...

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
When we got home, it was time for everyone (except me) to have a sleep.

Goodbye Grampi

2010-10-13T21:24:00.003+11:00

This afternoon Grampi Bill Youll passed away. He was at peace and apparently ready to go. We recently celebrated his 90th Birthday with the family. Here is a shot of Bill with all the grandkids and Rob at the 90th Party.

He will be missed by all of us.

Update from Meeks

2010-10-02T15:53:00.007+10:00

Believe it or not, this is actually the first time I have blogged (at this rate I'll be on facebook by 2020!). I thought it was time for a new update but sadly there are no photos or video today. Life has been busy, the kids have been sick all week (colds, fevers, vomitting) so there hasn't been much sleep for Dave or myself. On the up side, Marion came up from Victoria to visit. The kids just loved all the attention, cuddles and playing and it was lovely for me to have a bit of help in the first week of school holidays. We went down to Clontarf one day and Mitch had a wonderful time collecting shells with a little girl he befriended. He paddled in the water, which turned into a run, which turned into a spectacular full-bodied immersion. It was hilarious to see him fully clothed, soaked from head to toe.....until I realised I didn't have a change of clothes for him (not a single garment). Guess who rode home in the car completelly nude! The twins had a great time too. Sam enjoyed chasing birds and paddling his feet in the water and Lucas who had been miserable and crying all morning was really happy to be outside in the fresh air.
For week 2 of the school holidays, I have booked Mitch into Soccer Clinic which he will absolutley love. Mitch is also off to see "The Gruffalo" at Glen Street Theatre with Gannie and Lilly in the middle of the week which is a real treat.
Apart from being a bit sick, Lucas and Sam are doing really well. Lucas has perfected the art of kissing his mummy (video to follow soon). It's so gorgeous watching them play when they don't know you are there. Last weekend the two of them were playing peek-a-boo from behing a tree in the back garden, taking it in turns and laughing so cutely. We were watching them from the back door. One of those moment you wish you had the video camera out. Lucas just loves books, he's always bringing you one to read. Sam loves racing to the door as soon as he senses you are leaving, so he can say "bye, bye, bye" for ages, even after you've left. For a while he was saying "die, die, die" so I'm glad he's finally got it right. They have also perfected the art of the double hug (when they both come at you for a huge cuddle), it's moments like those that you forget what's hard about twins. We had their hair cut last week (quite traumatic) and they look a bit more grown-up now. What is a bit tricky, is that Lucas' hair cut has made him look a little more like Sam. Mitch has often since got them mixed up and I have to admit, I have had to resort to other distinguishing features (freckles) for clarification.
Mitch is getting so good with his drawings, he'll spend hours drawing elaborate pictures of monsters, aliens, animals, boats and helicopters (such a boy). What is really lovely, is you can now mostly tell what it is he's drawn because the shapes, proportions and features are really distinguishable. Mitch is becoming a bit of a fashionista. He often remarks on random people's clothing and will ask people if they like his shirt or outfit. He continues to be fashion advisor for mummy (who has recently bought new skirts and dresses because that's what Mitch likes) He now dresses himself in the morning with the only instruction being "long or short" and he does a good job at matching colours and patterns. Even as I was writing this last sentance, Mitch came running from his bedroom to me, struck a pose, and asked what I thought of his chosen outfit. It's all quite amusing!
Anyway, that's enough for an anecdotal update. Maybe, I'll blog again sometime.

Grampi's 90th and Rob's Farewell

2010-09-12T20:15:00.001+10:00

Today we had a lunch at Mum and Dad's to both celebrate Grampi's 90th and to farewell Rob who is heading off to the UK for 12 months to continue his studies in Law.

Grampi and all the great grandkids

Uncle Rob and the twins

And a bunch of other images from the day

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Vege Garden

2010-09-12T20:05:00.000+10:00

One of the great things about moving into Nana and Poppy's was the vege garden. We get broccoli, snow peas, spinach and a few different types of lettuce. A bit later on we'll hopefully get potatoes, cabbage, broad beans, tomatoes, garlic, chives and strawberries. When we moved in most of the plants were quite small but due to good weather and Meeks' diligent weeding we have had a continuous crop of great veges. Mitch loves playing with his toys in and around the veges and enjoys picking the snow peas too - in fact he even helps Meeks with the weeding!

Here are some shots of the vege garden:

Mitch's soccer

2010-09-05T14:22:00.001+10:00

On Thursday morning Mitch plays soccer at a local indoor sports centre. He absolutely loves it. He has a couple of really great coaches called Luis and Woody. They are really great with the kids. They do a number of little skills practices like kicking and throw ins and goalie throws and passing and dribbling and also a special trick each week - this week was the circular ball hop, where you hop on one foot and roll the ball around you with the other. Very tricky and to tell you the truth none of the kids could do it but they all had fun trying. At the end they all have a short game. Mitch listens really well and has heaps of fun and looks forward to it every week.

This week I was working from home on Thursday and managed to go and watch him play.

Here are some action shots:

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Boys in the bath

2010-09-05T14:08:00.001+10:00

The boys don't always have baths together, but when they do it's very cute. They love to splash and make a mess, which this video clearly demonstrates! Mitch does most of the splashing. That's Lucas on the left and Sam on the right. Little cuties!

Boys morning in the park

2010-09-05T14:00:00.001+10:00

First of all an apology. We've had some internet issues and have been unable to upload much in the last few weeks, so there is going to be a bunch of new posts so keep reading!

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday morning, I took all the boys to the park to play and give Mummy a chance to have a break from them all. I used to take Mitch to the park a lot but hadn't done it with all three boys, so off we went. I was a lovely sunny morning and the boys had lots of fun. Now that Lucas and Sam are walking it was funny watching them wandering around the park. Mitch of course loved climbing to the top of everything in sight.

Here is a slideshow of the morning. Lucas is in blue, Sam is in red.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Mitch playing kicks in the garden

2010-08-18T23:17:00.000+10:00

I took some video of Mitch kicking a ball in the back yard today. He did it over and over and over again and wanted to see the video after each one. Here is a compilation:

Lucas and Sam walking video

2010-08-15T14:51:00.001+10:00

Just a little video of Lucas and Sam walking.

Morning in the Park

2010-08-07T14:31:00.000+10:00

We walked to Coonanbarra Park this morning our new "local" park. Mitch rode his bike and Sam and Lucas took a ride in the pram. Mitch played on the play equipment and Sam and Lucas had a little swing and then practised their walking. Here are a few shots.
Lucas first ...

and Sam ...

When you have to get somewhere though, crawling still works best:

Moved

2010-08-04T14:28:00.000+10:00

Well it has been a long time since I have posted anything. It has been a very busy time. Here are the headlines:
- We've all been sick multiple times
- Sam and Lucas have started walking
- We finalised the sale of our house and moved out
- We moved in to Nana and Poppy's house while they are over in the UK
- I went to my first AFL game and watched the Swans get trounced by the Cats
- Mitch officially doesn't have diabetes

There is the executive summary! Read on if you dare.

It feels like one or more or all of us have been sick for months. There has been colds and coughs and tonsillitis and ear infections. Just when it looks like we're all better it starts again. We're sick of being sick quite frankly!

Sam and Lucas have both started walking. They still crawl a lot especially when they want to get somewhere quickly, but are doing more and more walking. Lucas did it first and then Sam followed. Both of them are at a fairly similar standard now and are both able to stand up by themselves from flat ground. They are both still very wobbly and cute and have this look of wonder on their face when they do it. It is gorgeous to watch. I haven't really had a chance to take video of it. I think Meeks has but I haven't had a chance to pull it off the camera yet. They have both started saying a few things too which is very cute. They like to say things like "ta da!" when they do something clever or "uh oh!" when they knock something over. They also both like to say "Hi!" when someone walks in the room. Lucas also says, "p-boo" when he's playing peek-a-boo. I'm looking forward to hearing more of their cute little voices.

There were some last minute shenanigans on the sale of our house which caused us more stress than is already associated with selling a house. Basically we sent through to our Bank the form which said "Yes we're going to sell our house" and apparently we didn't fill it in properly. That was on May 26th. Rather than telling us or our Conveyancer about it and getting it fixed up quickly, they apparently did nothing. Last week, less than a week from settlement, when our Conveyancer tried to book them in for the settlement they decided to tell us it was filled out wrong and therefore the settlement couldn't go ahead. What followed was a flurry of phone calls and a number of outright lies on their part trying to cover their own incompetence, but ended in them pulling their finger out (actually I think our Conveyancer pulled it out for them) and getting the settlement completed on time. Our Conveyancer (Austates Convenyancing - ask for Mary) was brilliant throughout the process and was forceful and tenacious in kicking their sorry backsides. Anyway, we got there eventually.

We moved out of our old house and into Nana and Poppy's over the weekend and it was a long and arduous process. Our movers (Tae Guek) were also brilliant. They finished so fast it ended up costing about half what we had been quoted by other companies. Unfortunately that was only half the problem, there was still a lot of cleaning up to do at our old house and organising at Nana and Poppy's house. It was a big job deciding what we needed over the next 6 months and what we wouldn't. Things we didn't need went into Poppy's shed (which is chock full, I will have to take photos). The pile of things without a home is gradually decreasing in size and at the same time the house and shed are filling up further. I think a couple more days and it will be finished.

We are so grateful to Michael and Lorraine for letting us live in their house. We'll try to leave the house in as good condition as we found it.

The boys have had a few difficulties adjusting, Sam and Lucas are not going to sleep well, although it's difficult to tell if that is because they are unfamiliar with their new home or just because they are, as earlier mentioned, sick. Mitch has been okay going into a big, big bed, but he has been waking up due to a nasty cough.

On Saturday night, I used my birthday gift from Meeks which was a trip to Sydney Olympic Park to watch the Sydney Swans play Geelong. My friends James and Phil came along with me. James being a Swans supporter like myself and Phil being a die hard Geelong supporter meant whatever the result someone was going to leave happy - everyone had their money on Phil being the happy one. We had dinner before hand which was delicious, the seats were awesome and had a great view of the game, James had brought lollies and chips and we were all ready for a great game. Unfortunately the Swans got smashed. I can't remember the final score, but it could have been a lot worse if the Cats hadn't switched off in the last quarter. Hopefully I'll get to go again and actually see them win!

On Monday, Mitch had an appointment at the diabetes clinic at the hospital with a specialist and basically he doesn't have diabetes at this stage, which is a great relief to us. We had been told previously that he most likely didn't but there were still a few anomalies in his tests so there was some lingering doubt. Those have been cleared up which is a great relief.

So that is a big catch up. Annemieke has sent out a big email with her new email address and our new home address and phone number. If you didn't get it and want the details give us a call or leave a note on this post and we'll get it to you. We're changing our email addresses as we are no longer connected to Optusnet. That is inconvenient, but a fact of life. Our mobile numbers remain the same. It has been a very busy and stressful last month or so and we're glad we're almost out of it. We're looking forward to a slightly less stressful couple of months before we make some more decisions about what we're going to do when Nana and Poppy get home. With any luck the Sydney property will crash and we'll be able to buy our dream home in a good suburb!

PS: The next post will have more photos and less talking I promise!

Dedication

2010-06-30T08:31:00.001+10:00

A lot has happened recently and I have been very slack in making Blog posts.

On Sunday we had a Dedication at church for Mitch, Lucas and Sam. A Dedication is when we, as their parents, stand up in front of our church community and introduce our children to them and thank God for them and essentially dedicate them and ourselves to God, stating our intent to bring them up to know Jesus. It gives the church community an opportunity to pray for us and our kids and for us to thank them for their prayers and ongoing support of us. Neil, the Senior pastor, prayed over the boys with the congregation. Normally it's done one child at a time and before they're one, but we were a little slow in deciding to do it so we did all three of the boys at once.

The Dedication was part of the church service, so after the service had finished we had a little party at Lorraine and Michael's house (which is where we will be living in a little over a month). I didn't get any photos of the dedication (I was up the front, so it was a bit hard). I took quite a lot of photos at the party though. Here is a selection:

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Meeks made a beautiful cake which you can see in the photos. It is still being eaten :)

News

2010-06-15T11:51:00.001+10:00

No photos today. I took some over the weekend, but haven't really had a chance to process them yet. I just thought I'd give a little progress update with the boys. Youngest to oldest!

Sam is now able to stand up by himself. He can't go from sitting to standing, but if you help him up, or he helps himself up on a chair he can stand up. He can't walk yet, so he sort of stands there looking cute until he wants to go somewhere at which point he lowers himself down and crawls off. It looks like he wants to walk, but can't quite get his feet moving yet. Sam and Mitch like to play this game called "Hello under there!" where Sam gets into the Downward-Facing Dog yoga position and Mitch peeks in underneath and says "Hello under there!" which makes Sam laugh and he crawls off to somewhere else and does it again. The game continues until Mitch or Sam or both get bored of it. Sam has a nasty cold at the moment and lots of snot. It doesn't help his sleeping and as a result, neither Meeks or I are getting very good sleep.

Lucas can't do the standing up thing yet, but he is a born climber. He climbs up on the to the arm chair, which Mitch wasn't able to do until he was a bit older. He also climbs up onto Mitch's little table by climbing up onto one of the chairs. He either then sits on the table looking very proud of himself, but not really knowing what to do next or climbs from the table onto the couch. He can't get down from any of those places other than head first in a hurry. Not good. Yesterday we went to a park in Berowra and he climbed the stairs of the play gym and went down the slippery dip, fairly slowly face first. Not the safest way to do it, but he had fun! Lucas also has a cold and isn't sleeping well either.

Mitch is going well. He loves playing little lego (as well as big lego which Sam and Lucas play with). Little lego is just the right size for Sam and Lucas to try and swallow, as as a result Mitch has to play with the little lego in his room with the door shut. On the weekend Mitch and I made a little lego town, complete with police station and a tire shop, tall street light with antenna and a couple of other buildings (I have some photos for later) and the next day we made an office complete with workers sitting at desks with computers on them, filing cabinets, printer area and a break out room with a microwave, and fridge and table (no photos though). Mitch also makes the most fabulously creative cars with wheels all over the place. Mitch is currently healthy which is great! We're trying to move him towards not needing a nappy at night time. He has a dry nappy a few night's a week, but he's still not getting himself up to go to the toilet at night. At the moment he goes to the toilet before bed and I get him up at around 10:30pm when I go to bed. If I leave it to much later he does a wee in his nappy, but once he does one at 10:30 he seems to be dry until the morning. We might try and go without this weekend and see what happens!

Anyway, that is all the news for now!

The boys playing in the sun

2010-06-05T15:00:00.001+10:00

The weather here has been foul of late. It feels like it has been raining for weeks. This morning, there was a break in the rain and the sun came out for a while. It was still too wet to play outside, but at least the boys got to play inside in the sun. Here are some pictures. Sam is in the dark blue top, Lucas is in the gray.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Hair cuts

2010-06-01T19:31:00.001+10:00

Lucas and Sam had their first ever hair cut today. They were looking a bit shaggy so it was time to get it done. We went up to Hornsby and had it done there. Lucas went first and didn't enjoy it. He cried most of the time. Sam went next and didn't cry at all. Quite illustrative of their different personalities really.

Anyway, here are some photos of their new hair cuts. Lucas is in red, Sam is in blue.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Little boys

2010-05-30T19:32:00.001+10:00

It's been a while since I put up a post about anything to do with the boys. So here goes.

Lucas and Sam are growing up quickly. Both boys can walk around now if you hold one of their hands. They're not quick and they're not terribly steady, but they think it's great fun. They're not up to standing up by themselves or walking by themselves yet. Aside from that they furniture surf like professionals. Lucas also likes climbing up on things like the couch and recently Mitch's little table. This is obviously a concern because he hasn't figured out how to get off yet, so if one of us isn't around watching, he will fall off.

They have started saying a few words like "Mum" and "Dad" and they also say "Hi" and "Bye". They have also starting repeating back animal noises like "Woof woof" and monkey noises and cow noises "Mmmmm".

Here are a few photos of them together

And one of just Sam:

And one of Lucas:

Unfortunately we're still having issues with the boys sleeping at night. They still wake up multiple times which makes it very hard for both of us, although mostly for Meeks.

Mitch is a good big brother. He loves his little brothers and loves pre-school and riding his bike. Here is the three of them together

And as a final shot, Poppy has been making us bread lately and last night he out did himself and made a crocodile out of bread!

Thanks Poppy!

SOLD!

2010-05-22T13:24:00.000+10:00

Well it's been a whirlwind week with a crazy last 24 hours.

We had a couple interested in the house after the first Open House last weekend. They came back on Monday night to see the house again. Meeks had a slow cooking curry on which filled the house with beautiful smells and we put the fairy lights on on the deck and well ... it must have done the trick because we spent the rest of the week negotiating with the buyers and agreed on a price yesterday which we were very happy with and I think was fair in the current market. We finally officially exchanged fairly late in the day last night (Friday).

It is a huge relief to us that it is all done and dusted. Only having to have the house on the market for a week is a huge blessing. Having to pack all the kids stuff away every time we had an Open House and clean up was quite tiring, mostly for Meeks admittedly.

Then as an added surprise this morning, we were sitting inside enjoying not having to worry about cleaning up for another Open House when we heard a huge bang outside. We ran out and found that a truck going past had caught the power wire going to a post next to our driveway which runs power to the house at the back. As the truck drove on it pulled the wire and snapped it and also pulled down the pole and the pole crashed onto our fence and broke it. The truck disappeared off up the road oblivious to the chaos behind it. Anyway, after visits by the police and power company, the outcome is that we have a broken fence and the people at the back have no power until they get someone in to fix the post. They're not home and she's very pregnant, so they could even be at the hospital. I'd hate to come home to that.

For Sale!

2010-05-13T23:15:00.000+10:00

Ever since Lucas and Sam wereborn we knew it would only be a matter of time before we had to find a bigger house. Through a series of events we have decided to sell our little house. Here is the web page on Domain. It will be hard leaving here. We have lived the majority of our married life here (only just) and there are so many memories. It is the first place we were abl to make "our own" by renovating and decorating as we liked it. It is where we brought all of our boys home to and it has been the only home they have ever known. We're going to make a video with Mitch so he can have something to look back on as he grows up so he can remember it.

The market is pretty strong at the moment, so we're hoping we'll find a buyer who takes a liking to our house's charms and offers a good price, but at the same time are trying to be realistic about what we will get for it. Fingers crossed!

Laughing boys

2010-05-09T22:03:00.003+10:00

Lucas and Sam are starting to interact more with each other and it causes some very cute moments like this.

Sorry about the terrible camera work.

Silver on iStockphoto

2010-05-01T15:53:00.000+10:00

In December 2007 I started selling my photographs through iStockPhoto. Basically I take photos of things like people (I can't sell photos of people without a Model Release which states the person in the photo has agreed), landscapes, objects, food, whatever and upload them to the iStockphoto website and people all over the world buy them for use in websites, magazines, newspapers, advertising, books, products, etc. When someone buys a photo you get a cut of the purchase price. The process is such that you don't actually know who has bought the photos or how they have been used (there is a fairly strict set of rules about how you can use them though, so they wont turn up somewhere unsavory). I have been told about my photos appearing on websites like Yahoo.com, ABC Nightline news in the US, various technical websites, and a number of other places. There are a few examples here.

On the iStock site you rise up levels depending on how many sales you have. Each level is repersented by a little film cannister (which is a bit of a throw back to the old days because almost all photos submitted are digital - although there are some scans of old film shots). In September 2008, I was awarded the Bronze cannister when I reached 250 sales. I also went exclusive at iStockphoto which means that I don't sell my photos anywhere else (there are a number of other similar sites out there). This meant I got an increase in what I earned per sale.

Yesterday, I was awarded the Silver cannister for reaching 2500 sales. It has been a fun process uploading and selling photos and has more than paid for itself and indeed has helped us to pay for various things over the past few months which has been great. The next cannister is Gold but it is not until 10,000 sales which is a long, long way away!

In the Park for Lucas and Sam's First Birthday

2010-04-27T16:46:00.000+10:00

When Mitch turned 1 we went to Coonanbarra Park in Wahroonga. Today was Lucas and Sam's first birthday so we thought we'd do the same thing. The weather was a little overcast, but it was warm enough and not raining so off we went. Mitch was at pre-school so it was just the four of us. Here are some shots from the picnic.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Compare Mitch at 1

With Lucas

and Sam

Without doubt they are all beautiful and we love them dearly. Happy Birthday boys!!

Little one year olds!

2010-04-27T10:30:00.002+10:00

It's hard to believe that Lucas and Sam are 1 year old today. Happy Birthday boys!

A year and one day ago, they looked like this:

Then a year ago they looked like this:

Look how much bigger Lucas (on the left) was than Sam!
Now they look like this (Lucas in blue, Sam in red):

and like to do this:

Meeks and I are hopefully going to go and have a picnic in the park with the boys later today. Mitch is off at pre-school today so it will just be the four of us.

Mitch, Lucas and Sam's Birthday Party

2010-04-25T21:37:00.000+10:00

We had a combined party today for Mitch's 4th, Lucas and Sam's 1st Birthday. The day started off rainy and wet and fortunately cleared in time for the party so we were able to start off in the park. Midway through the party, it started raining ... a lot! In a mad scramble, we moved everything under cover and continued the party on the back deck.

Here are some shots from the day:

Created with flickr slideshow.

Mitchy rides again!

2010-04-21T18:57:00.002+10:00

Another video! This time a bit more creative and it has some accidents!

Mitch's birthday

2010-04-20T22:33:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was Mitch's 4th Birthday. Among other things he got a "big boy bike". He was very excited! He has never been able to ride bike before, because he couldn't work out how to push the peddles. On the morning of his birthday he experienced the same difficulties on our drive way. He was a bit disappointed.
Off he went to pre-school with cupcakes with dinosaur sprinkles to share. After pre-school, Meeks and I picked him up went to a park which is next to his pre-school which has lots of room to ride and an oval with a flat concrete bike track around it. After quite a lot of practice he finally got it and he was so proud and excited. We were so proud of him too. When we came home from the park, he decided he wanted to ride it around (and around and around) our back deck. Here is a video:

Nana came over for dinner and we had Mitch's favourite dinner which is Mummy's chicken pie and ice cream for dessert. All in all a pretty great birthday for a 4 year old! More photos to come soon!

Small boys around the house

2010-04-11T21:31:00.000+10:00

Mitch, Lucas and Sam and I were playing around the house today. Lucas and Sam are getting to the point where they can play a bit more with with Mitch which is great. I decided to bring out the camera. Mitch is not a fan unless he get's to make funny faces

Sam and Lucas are still in the inquisitive stage :)

Sam is in dark blue, Lucas is in grey.

Here is a slideshow of the shots

Created with flickr slideshow.

Snip, snip

2010-04-05T19:14:00.005+10:00

The little boys hair was getting a bit too long at the side and the back and well ... they had Mullets. It's not a good look. Even on cute little boys. So we had a bit of snip, snip and while it was a bit rough, they don't look too bad! (Sam is in the green sleep suit)

Chewing the bar of the cot, yum, yum!

Mitch is pretty cute too!

Standing up, sitting down, rolling over

2010-04-05T06:42:00.002+10:00

I haven't posted for ages so I thought I'd post a quick progress update.

The little boys continue to progress in their ability to do things, not quite in the same order, but they're both getting along. Lucas and Sam have both mastered pulling themselves up on things, but unfortunately only Lucas has managed to work out how to sit down again, so every little while you will hear Sam whining because he's pulled himself up on something and is now "stuck". Sam has got the hang of rolling over ... sometimes. He's a bit lazy about it though. He did it three times in a row the other night just before we were about to put him to bed so I hurried and lowered his cot, then the next morning he promptly forgot how to do it. Since then sometimes he remembers, sometimes he doesn't. Lucas is still resolutely stuck on his back. If he doesn't get it soon we're going to start calling him "turtle" because they can't roll over from their backs either.

Lucas has developed a nasty habit of face planting. He did it about 4 times on Saturday. The first time was after a bit of "encouragement" by his big brother which lead to a huge bleeding fat lip and he spent the rest of the day looking like he had a very bad collagen lip injection job. Unfortunately through the rest of the day he face planted another 3 or 4 times each time bumping the big lip and leading to much more tears.

In other news, congratulations to Krissy and Glenn on the birth of their little girl Hannah. We're very much looking forward to seeing her via photos of Skype or whatever as soon as possible and meeting her in person at Christmas. We love you all and hope the coming weeks are full of wonderful new experiences and as much sleep as possible. Mitch was very excited at the thought of a new cousin and the prospect of playing with her. Although he did have some concerns. When asked about whether or not he was looking forward to meeting his cousin he said, "She might be friendly or she might be as tall as a bridge!". Admittedly he had only just woken up from a sleep ... but still, amazing imagination!

Merrijig and Mount Buller

2010-03-29T23:21:00.000+11:00

The laptop is just holding up and I managed to put together and edit this panorama of the Merrijig Valley near where we stayed with Marion and Tony. About one third in from the right and one third up from the bottom is Mount Buller. It was a bit of mammoth Photoshop cloning job because as locals would be able to tell you telephone lines and power poles run straight through the shot from the position where I shot it! It's not perfect yet, there is a bit of tidying up to do, but it's most of the way there.

Mitch running

2010-03-24T23:59:00.000+11:00

Over the weekend we went down to country Victoria to visit Auntie Marion and Uncle Tony in Mansfield. We had a great time and Mitch absolutely loved it. There was a lot of fun and playing.

I haven't had much of a chance to process the pictures I took because my laptop is on it's last legs and I need a new one because it keeps turning itself off in the middle of doing things. Very annoying. I did manage to process this series of Mitch running on the back deck:

Created with flickr slideshow.
More to follow!

Good news!

2010-03-09T14:46:00.000+11:00

Some very good news. After the tests on Monday and the results of other tests coming back, the doctor has concluded that Mitch doesn't have diabetes. This obviously comes as a huge relief to us and a huge answer to prayer. His explanation of Mitch's higher than normal Blood Glucose readings is that they are normal hormonal fluctuations. There is still one test to come back which might say that Mitch is more prone to diabetes, but at least for the time being he doesn't have it.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us and Mitch, we have really appreciated your care and concern and especially your prayers.

New achievements and a big test

2010-03-07T15:20:00.006+11:00

Sam took a while, but he has finally caught up in crawling ability to his (slightly) older brother. He's not as quick as Lucas (who is getting much quicker everyday) but he gets there eventually. Normally they crawl around doing their own things, but they often come together and sometimes you hear them complaining because they're trying to sit on the same piece of ground. They have the whole floor to sit on and they end up sitting on each other! They like to follow Mitch around too which is both a source of delight and frustration to him. He likes it when he wants them to follow him to his room and play, but he doesn't like it when he is playing his own game and they come and interrupt and try to play with "his" toys. We're trying to teach him to distract them with alternative toys, which usually works! They also like to watch him when he is in the bath. They can't pull themselves up to standing yet, so they sit on the floor of the bathroom reaching up to the edge of the bath and try to look in. It's very cute. I'll have to get a photo soon.

Here is a very quick video of Sam clapping and crawling (and me making a goose of myself).

In other news about the little boys, Meeks weighed them both the other day and they were both the same at 10.3kg. Little chunky boys!

In news about Mitch, he has a glucose tolerance test tomorrow at the hospital. Basically he can't eat or drink after midnight tonight (Sunday) and then he has to go to the hospital tomorrow morning for a 9:30am session where he will get a glucose drip put in and his blood sugar will be monitored for the next two hours to see how his pancreas is working. Obviously it is going to be very hard for the little guy to not eat for hours and have a needle in his hand and sit around not doing much for hours. Meeks is going to the hospital with him and I am staying at home with the twins. We're going to try and make it as fun as possible for him by taking DVDs and Meeks' Netbook so he can play games, but he is going to be sooooooo hungry. Poor little guy! Meeks is quite apprehensive about it all, as you can expect. His Blood Glucose Test readings this week have continued to be a bit high, but nothing too out of the ordinary, so who knows, maybe it isn't diabetes, tomorrow will tell us more but still may not be definitive.

More photos

2010-03-04T20:12:00.000+11:00

Another slideshow of the little boys. Lucas is in the greener top and Sam is in the lighter top

Created with flickr slideshow.If the slideshow doesn't work you can view the set here in Flickr

One for their 21st Birthday

2010-03-02T18:56:00.001+11:00

You might remember Sam and Lucas enjoyed a bit of niggle right from early on.

Well now they have graduated to using weapons!

It always seems to be Sam doing the biffing!

Update: I should actually add, that despite what it looks like in this image, Sam is not actually hitting Lucas. Rather he was just holding the golf club and Lucas leaned into it. Makes for an amusing photo though :)

Mitch's diabetes - progress update

2010-03-01T15:47:00.002+11:00

After Friday's events we spent the weekend doing fairly regular blood glucose tests. Mitch is such a good boy and is being so brave and good about it. All we have to say now is "Which finger?" and he offers up one (usually the same one so we have to suggest a different one!) and then he helps take out the little test strip and put it in his glucometer. He still is not fond of us pricking his finger (no surprise there) but is being such a good boy about it. We have had to bribe him a couple of times, once with a toy car and normally with a (sugar free) lolly. We think it is still a bit of novelty at the moment, but hopefully he will remain okay about it when the novelty wears off.

His tests over the weekend were generally pretty good. They were slightly higher than they should have been, but none were dangerously high, which means he is somewhat borderline. We also changed his diet quite a bit to cut out a lot of the sugar he had been inadvertently eating (did you know Uncle Tobys sweetened muesli is 30% sugar!) so that in itself may be contributing to a bit of a honeymoon effect (that is the term used whereby after being diagnosed with diabetes a change in diet or commencement of insulin use gives the pancreas a "rest" and allows any still active cells to produce insulin, it is only a honeymoon period though and eventually ends) with his pancreas. Obviously we will know more later in the week when we get the results of the blood tests performed in hospital.

Meeks had to tell Mitch's Pre-School about it today. Their policy is that they will do blood glucose tests on Mitch at a prescribed time each day or when his behaviour is unusual and if there are any issues will ring Meeks. They will not however administer insulin, if it comes to that, which we're fine about. Overall that is a pretty good situation. Some Pre-Schools wont even do blood tests.

It is amazing how much Meeks and I have to learn about given Meeks has been a diabetic for so long. Having a small child with diabetes is a completely different situation from when she developed it as a teenager.

Diabetes

2010-02-26T18:13:00.001+11:00

As many of you know Meeks has Type 1 Diabetes and due to the increased likelihood of our children having it we have always kept a fairly close eye on the boys. Earlier this week Mitch started exhibiting some of the classic symptoms which are frequent urination and needing to drink lots of water. Meeks did a blood glucose test yesterday and he was higher than normal although not long after it had returned to a more normal level. This morning we did a test before breakfast and it showed a much higher level than it should have been after not eating for 12+ hours.

As a result we have spent the day talking to various doctors and the last 4 hours or so in the children's hospital. At the hospital, the blood glucose test they did returned a normal result which is good. They took some blood and will do a bunch of tests to find out what is going on. In the mean time they gave Mitch his own glucometer and we will need to test him about 4 times a day over the next week or so to see what is happening with his blood sugar levels. His normal reading in the hospital indicates that he is not 100% certain of diabetes, but is a borderline case. Either way it is very good that we have appeared to have caught it early.

It has been a very stressful and teary day as we have been considering the consequences of having an (almost) 4 year old with insulin dependent diabetes. Certainly there are worse medical conditions to have and he will still be able to lead a long and largely very normal life, but it is a chronic lifelong condition with no cure. Mitch is only 4 so certainly doesn't understand the consequences and impact on him, but he does understand that something is not right and having Mummy and Daddy do pin pricks on his fingers for blood glucose tests is no fun at all. We are trying to get him interested and involved, but at the moment he just wants us to leave him alone. He loves attention but when that "attention" involves pricking his fingers to get blood, he'd rather not have it! We get the blood test results next week and will keep you updated.

Keeping up

2010-02-25T16:27:00.000+11:00

Sam has decided he has had enough of watching Lucas crawling around and he started doing it himself this afternoon. Good boy Sam. I'll have to get some footage soon!

It has been a "fun" week watching Lucas crawl around. His favourite things are the wine rack and the dishwasher. First thing in the morning he will always head to the wine rack to play with the bottles. That potential disaster is averted by placing the bean bag in front of it. If you're in the kitchen and you open the dishwasher shortly afterwards you hear the slap, slap, slap of Lucas' little hands as he crawls towards it. Interestingly Mitch was exactly the same (scroll to the bottom of this post). Lucas also likes going to visit Mitch in his room which is very cute. This morning while I was having a shower he crawled down pushed open the door to see what was going on. It will be interesting to see whether Sam and Lucas will follow each other around or crawl around doing their own things. They have been forced to share each other's company for the first 10 months of their lives!

Crawling

2010-02-19T07:17:00.002+11:00

Lucas started crawling this morning. Before breakfast he couldn't do it. After breakfast he decided to crawl around and see what Mitch was doing in his play area. He wasn't quick and I don't think he realised what he was doing but one minute he was in one place, the next he was going around the corner. Sam just watched him go. The rules have changed again! :)

Update:
A video! (here is a direct link)

Sam is not totally static he manages to get around the floor, just not really crawling.

More photos

2010-02-13T18:25:00.001+11:00

I took a bunch more photos of the little boys today, just playing around at home. I have uploaded the set to Flickr and you can see it here. Here is a slideshow for you! (if the slideshow doesn't work click on the link)

Created with flickr slideshow.

Another one of Mitch

2010-02-13T09:47:00.000+11:00

Another shot of Mitch eating a chocolate biscuit. A suitable reward for sitting still while I took photos of him. Do you think he enjoyed it?

A new trick

2010-02-11T21:19:00.000+11:00

Lucas and Sam have learned to hold their bottle by themselves.

This is a great time saver for us because we can just give them their bottles and they drink until they've had enough and then they put their bottles down. Unfortunately, they still haven't learned to roll over and crawl yet so they kind of just lie there until you sit them up so they can burp. Speaking of crawling they're getting closer, but still not quite there.

Mitchy

2010-02-09T23:38:00.001+11:00

Mitchy is very rarely willing to sit and let me take photos of him, so when he does, it's a real treat. Here are some from today.

There was a bunch of funny faces too!

He's growing up so fast. He is at Pre-School 2 days a week this year and loves it. Yesterday he came home in his "spare" clothes because his first set of clothes were covered in mud (which did not come out in the wash). Apparently, "dirt cars" is his favourite game and after all the rain we have had, "dirt cars" became "mud cars".

Bathing baby boys

2010-02-09T23:11:00.000+11:00

We took a few snaps after Sam and Lucas had had a bath today. They are very cute little boys :)

Lucas (and me)

Sam

More teeth and general news

2010-01-25T14:50:00.000+11:00

It seems there will be a rush of new teeth over the coming week or two. Lucas already has his top four poking through and Sam's seem like they're about to pop through too. It is very cute, but it looks weird after getting used to Lucas' gummy open mouth smile.

Neither of the boys are rolling over or crawling yet, although Sam is looking like doing it first. We quiet often come into their room after a sleep and find Sam facing sideways or even completely rotated around in the bed. Lucas remains pretty much exactly as you left him. In fact there is generally a dent in the bed where his head was. Perhaps that is the issue, his head is too heavy! Once they're on their belly the are both fairly mobile although not in a crawling sense. Both boys rotate on their bellies and Lucas goes backwards, but no sign of getting up on their knees to crawl. Sam is getting better at moving from a sitting position onto his belly, but he always seems surprised when he does it!

Mitch starts at his new Pre-School next week 2 days a week (Monday and Tuesday). We're hoping he fits in well and enjoys it. He has been there for an orientation and enjoyed that, but I think he thinks that his friends from his old Day Care are going to be there. I hope he's not sad when they're not. Meeks is looking forward to having one less child to take care of for a couple of days a week, and we're hoping the little boys' sleeps will fit in to the Pre-School schedule.

Meeks and I are going to have a garage sale next Saturday afternoon to try to sell of some of the clutter in our house (think books, clothes, DVDs, CD, videos, high chair, platters, more platters, other stuff). There is just so much of it and we really don't have any room for it. We have just been putting more and more stuff up into the roof. So if you like garage sales come and visit us on Saturday afternoon.

Sandpit games

2010-01-17T14:36:00.000+11:00

Lucas and Sam got a sandpit for Christmas. Mitch loves playing in it, but Lucas and Sam do get to have a play in it occasionally.

A different view

Little cutie boys!