Cycling at Homebush Bay

On the last day of our holidays (yesterday) we went cycling at Olympic Park at Homebush. It was Meeks' idea and it was a super one. Mitch loved being on the back of the bike although he did a bit of exploring by himself too

We stopped for lunch at a park with some play equipment. Mitch checked it out first and then Mitch and Daddy had a go on the flying fox


After having lunch together we peddled off back to where we hired the bikes and went home quite weary



Finally a panorama of the beach on our holiday to Bateman's Bay

Now this is more like it!

Well, the weather has finally turned pleasant and we are still on holidays. Pity it wasn't like that last week when we were actually away at a beach resort with a pool and sand. To take advantage of it we went to Balmoral and enjoyed the sand and Mitchy and Mummy had a little swim.

Before we went to the beach we visited Dr Wyeth (his name is Barry ... get it Barry Wyeth? Sound familiar? I'll give you a hint "Darling I, can't get enough of your love baby?") Mitch's paediatrician. Mitch is a delightfully normal little 18 month old. He is normal weight, slightly taller than average but apparently has a large head for his size. Apparently this comes from his Mum and Dad - neither of us suspected he we had a big head, but apparently we do. We always though Mitchy had a small head. Oh well, he's normal and healthy and was very well behaved when the doctor was poking and prodding him.

While we were away we tried to count all of Mitchy's words. He can say more than 50 words now, I wont bore you with the whole list, but it's apparently very good for his age. He only really says one word at a time (or the same word over and over) although he has one phrase which is "More cake!" ... cake is anything sweet, whether that actually is cake or he actually means ice cream or yogo or soemthing else - not that he gets a whole lot of any of those, but when he does it goes quickly.

He also has one joke. When we get home in the car, we ask him, "Who lives here?". He knows Mummy and Daddy and Mitchy live here, but he says, "Nana!" instead so we say, "Nooooooooo!" and he laughs and laughs. He's started branching out with his one joke, so now whenever we ask him a question (like "What did you just put in your mouth?" or "Why are you digging in the pot plants?") he replies "Nana!" with a big cheeky grin on his face.

Anyway, back to Balmoral. As you can see the weather was beautiful, here is the familiar arch

and a couple of Mitch playing in the sand


We also made a lot of sand castles for which Mitch had the newly found pleasure of destroying by first stepping on them, saying "Kick! Kick! Kick!" and then squashing them with his belly.

Bateman's Bay

It was under leaden skies that we left for Bateman's Bay on Monday morning and under leaden skies we returned this afternoon. Unfortunately it pretty much rained most of the time so our "beach" holiday didn't quite turn out how we had hoped. This was about as good as it got!

That photo was taken during one of the brief lighter moments. We took advantage of those by going for walks down to the beach. Mitch did lots of running around during those moments to make up for being stuck inside when it was raining.

The highlight was visiting Mogo Zoo one morning when it wasn't raining too much. Mogo Zoo is about 10 minutes drive south of Bateman's Bay. Mitchy loved seeing all the animals. There were some friendly animals:



And some big cats:



Mitchy took whatever vantage point he could get:

So it was good to get away, but a lot of the time we were stuck inside wishing we could go and play ...

... outside!

And that is the story of our holiday to Bateman's Bay.




Okay ... a couple more animal pictures:

Sydney Aquarium

Today was the first day of our holidays and it was raining (and it looks like it's pretty much going to rain for the rest of our holidays) so we decided to have some indoor fun and went to the Sydney Aquarium. Mitchy loves fish and particularly sharks so he loved it. Here are some photos:





Later on Mitchy was just being cute so we took some more photos:



Hopefully the weather will get better, but if not we'll just have to find something else to do indoors.

Messy painting

Mitch did some painting with Meeks the other day and managed to make a big mess, but he had lots of fun!



In other Mitch related news, he has learnt to jump ... well kind of. He did it for the first time on Friday night when the Smart's were over, but was so surprised he fell over backwards. Now he just runs around saying "Shump! Shump!" and kind of jumping, but not really. There is a lot of enthusiasm and a fair amount of arm waving and a little bit of knee bending, but not a lot of air. White boy can't jump, I'm afraid.

Mitch has been a bit off colour the last few days. He's been off his food and a bit clingy and a bit sooky. We're not quite sure what the story is. He had his 18 month shots on Monday so that might be it, but he doesn't look sick or have a temperature or anything. Hopefully he'll perk up soon. Poor little guy!

Selling Photos

I'm going to try and sell some of the photos I have taken with our camera. It is done through a site called iStockPhoto. There are a whole bunch of hoops to jump through before that happens including choosing photos, passing a test, and then getting approved by the site. It is a bit of a process though but it might be a good way to make a bit of pocket money. Wish me luck! I'll tell you if I get approved.

NB: I had to change the title of this post. It kept on appearing in google searches for sickos who were searching for photos of people being flogged

Movember

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I've not had the time!

I am growing a moustache (we'll goatee anyway) for 'Mo'vember. If you don't know what Movember is, it is an event whereby men (predominantly) grow moustaches to raise money for Mens health issues like prostate cancer and depression. You can get more details here.
If you are feeling generous and would like to sponsor me you can go here and enter my registration number which is 116663.

I'll be posting occasionaly updates of the state of the growth. The last time I grew facial hair was when Meeks and I went to Europe in 2002. I hope Mitchy (and Meeks) are willing to put up with a prickly face for a month and don't disown me!

We're on holidays from tomorrow (Yay!) for a couple of weeks and the weather prediction is rain until the middle of next week. Not happy! We're going away for a few days next week to Bateman's Bay, so hopefully the weather prediction turns out to be as inaccurate as normal.

New banner

I made a new banner. The pictures in the previous one were a bit old. Mitch is now 18 months old and the previous banner only had pictures up to his 1st Birthday. I'm not 100% happy with it, some of the transparency blending is a bit harsh. I'll have to do more work on it later.

You can see the old banners by clicking on the "BLOG LAYOUT" label below.

Updated ... I'm happy now! What a cutie!
Leave a comment if you like the new banner.

The Entrance revisited

A couple of months before Mitch was born Meeks and I had a little holiday to The Entrance. It was a relaxing time for us, just before Mitch came into the world.

On a spur of the moment thing we decided to take a trip up the F3 and go and visit again yesterday. We left under overcast skies hoping it would fine up. We were lucky and it did!

We started off having a little picnic with fish and chips (or "ships" as Mitch calls them) for lunch.


After that we moved on to the play area. Mitch ran back and forth on the little bridge about 50 times each time saying "Up!" on the way up and "down,down, down, down!" on the way down. He has a little train set with a bridge and says the same thing when Thomas (for some reason he calls all trains "Waa wa") drives over the bridge.


Continuing Mitch's recent run-ins with bird life we met a very friendly pelican.


After that we went for a walk and had a bit of a play in the sand.






Finally there was just enough time for a carousel ride.


Then we drove home and a tired little boy slept all the way.

So much has changed for us in the 20 months since we last went to The Entrance. Back then we didn't even know if the baby was a boy or a girl. Mitch is an amazing blessing and we are so thankful to God for him. He is now 18 months old and learning so many things so quickly. He's learning to repeat words when he hears us say them (we have to be doubly careful around him now!) and is just entering that age where he is learning to assert himself and push the boundaries and has even had a couple of little tantrums. Please pray for us for wisdom as we try to be good parents during what I suspect will be learning time for us.

Blog turns 2

Okay, so it's not much of a milestone, but the first post on this blog happened 2 years ago!
Here is a link

So much has happened since then, not this least of which is Mitchy being born
He'll be 18 months old on Friday. Can you believe it!

Mitch, Lilly and a kookaburra

Ganny is back from overseas and was taking care of Lilly today so we decided to venture over and visit. Mitch and Lilly played together and Brandie thought it looked like fun.

And then we were visited by a very tame kookaburra.

Mitch and the Kooky stare each other down. I think the Kooky is actually wondering if he could eat Mitch. A little later on, he almost took a snap at one of Mitch's fingers


"And now for my close up!"

Off to Fagan Park again

Meeks, Mitch and I went off to Fagan Park again on Saturday. It really is a lovely park, especially when the weather is nice. Click on the picture for a big image.

There is this fun bridge over the water which Mitch did a bit of playing on:


But the big reason we went was so that we could see the ducks that live there. There are a couple of really big beautiful white ducks.

Mitchy wanted to go up and pat them like they were a doggy, but they looked like they were trying to have a nap, so we left them alone.


In other news Mitch is learning more and more new words. If you ask, "Where is Mitchy?" he now points to himself. He's very cute. Today he was trying to say Mitch. He's not quite there yet.