Playing at Fagan Park with Joshie and Owie

A new playground has been put in at Fagan Park so, last Wednesday, Mitch and I decided to go and check it out. To make it more fun we invited Phil, Joshie and Owie to join us.

There is a cool slippery slide on a hill, but Joshie and Mitch thought it would be much more fun to slide down the hill next to the slide. Of course rather than running up the steps it's much more fun to climb up the hill you are about to slide down.

The sliding surface was quite sandy, so it was fairly slippery.

Although sometimes they needed a bit of a friendly push

It also meant there were some nasty wedgies. Mitch is still wearing nappies (we gave up on the potty training), but it must have been quite uncomfortable for Joshie who is out of nappies. I don't imagine it was doing anything good for their pants either.


There was also a sand pit which is great for making "sand castles".


And there was of course a bunch of other things to do.

Owie was not quite old enough for playing with the big boys so he hung out with Phil. "Look Daddy!"


In other news Mitch, Meeks and I seem to mostly be over our various ailments although Meeks had a bit of a sore throat this morning. Mitch has learned to blow his nose when we hold a tissue or hanky up to it which is very handy. Mitch's favourite things at the moment are definitely cars. He would play with them all day. He also loves the animated movie "Cars" which he calls "Race Car Movie".

I'm still enjoying playing with the camera, I now have 168 images in my portfolio to iStockPhoto and have have just over 200 sales. It's never going to replace my day job (unfortunately) but it is a enjoyable, if time consuming hobby. I'd like it if it would just pay for my photography related purchases, but I don't think it's even going to do that at this stage unfortunately! Oh well!

Autumn Leaves

We had a fun in the park next door this morning. There is Liquid Amber tree in the park which has lost all it's leaves and Mitch and Mummy had a big play in them. Here are some pictures. First Mitchy played by himself.


Then mummy joined in.

Mitchy got mummy.

Then mummy got her revenge!

In the park again

It's been a while since I posted some pictures of Mitchy, so this afternoon while we were playing in the park I took a few photos. First Mitch coming down the slide ...

And then he went back up again ... and down and up and down and up ...

It was quite overcast and it was getting a bit dark when we moved on to the swings so the flash came out.

Then it was playing amongst the trees ...

Then just as we were about to leave, Mitch found a little ladybug.



I should say that when you take a photo with the flash it is meant to just fill in the light, not make it look like we were taking photos at night! I'm still learning :)

To the Park

Mitch and I went to the park this morning and had a long play. The weather has been so horrible lately we could not waste the sunshine. This is the same park from this post and this one. It's amazing to see how much Mitch has grown and how much more he can do on the play equipment.




After lots of playing and "Runny, runny" it was time to go home for lunch and a sleep, possibly for both of us!

Thursday fun

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

Then moved on up to playing on the fort.


Looking down the big slide.

It was a fun morning in the park!

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

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

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

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

Hot, hot, hot weekend

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

Mitch also got the chance to practice his balancing.


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

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

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

What's been happening?

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

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


Picking flowers

Playing "Peek-a-boo"


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


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

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

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

A morning at the park

After all the wet weather we have been having lately, it was nice to finally have a sunny Saturday morning, so yesterday we went out to Coonanbarra Park in Wahroongah. Mitch had loads of fun in the sand pit.



And then moved on to the slide. He climbed up the ladder all by himself and then slid down without falling off.

Then he tried going up the wrong way.


In other news, I had my first photos to iStockPhoto accepted during the week. At the moment I have 12 images and there are another 11 waiting to be inspected. They're not what you'd call stunning images, especially the "Embarrassing situations series" (there is many more to come in this series), but it's aiming for a market rather than for beauty. No one has bought any yet, but I only have 12 photos out of more than 2.5 million in the collection. I just have to keep on shooting and uploading. Generally people don't start seeing regular sales until you have more than 100 photos in your portfolio.

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.

On the slippery-dip

Mitch is still learning how to go on the slippery-dip. We're trying to get a bit more freedom, sometimes it's hard as parents him experiencing things for himself, knowing he could hurt himself. As it turned out, the first time he went down by himself he flew right off the end and landed on his bum on the ground. Thank goodness for the rubbery ground at the park! The next time Meeks tried to catch him as he flew off the end and half did it, but he ended up bumping his head on the slide. He cried a tiny bit but then went back up for another go.

I love the motor drive on the camera, it means you can get sets like this one.




Meeks had to catch him again, he's so slippery!