We had better weather this week than we have had the last couple of weeks. The sun was shining and it was a bit warmer so we decided to have a bit of fun outside. First though, the important things ... lunch!
Then it was on to playing in the front yard.
I made some panoramas of out the front of our place. They came out okay without being brilliant. I used a free program called Autostitch.
Mitch loves his drawing on his easel on the deck. Today we had a bit of time playing on the deck.
First he collects his pencils ...
Arranging his pencils on the step ...
I'm going to draw on this side today daddy ...
This is fun!
After completing his artistic pursuits he turns to hand eye coordination ...
We had been waiting for a nice day so we could go to Fagan Park and visit the Gardens of Nations. We finally got the chance today.
There is a Dutch garden with a Windmill and a little canal. "Hello!" to our family in Holland! Thanks for visiting the blog.
Mitchie got to see some ducks in the pond. He pointed and said "Duck!"
There was also an African themed garden which reminded us of our friends Pete and Paula in Namibia. The African Garden had the most interesting plants.
Mitch loves being thrown in the air (and caught again). As he is getting bigger this is getting harder to do so we thought we'd take some photos of the small boy getting some serious "air".
A belated farewell to Krissy as she jetted off to live in the UK with Glen a couple of weeks ago. We will all miss her a lot. Here are some photos of the airport.
This is the first time Mitch had been to the airport and seen planes.
When it's rainy outside, a little boy has to move his playing inside with his pencils.
Mitch is coming along really well with his talking. He says "Bah!" for a bath and his says "Ball" and bounces his big blue ball around. He also says "Duck" and "Star" and "car". He is very cute. He understands heaps more than he says. He has about 20 finger puppets and can pretty much identify all of the animals, for instance if you say "Where's your monkey?" he looks at his puppets for a while until he sees the right one and then his face lights up and he grabs it.
Meeks and Mitch are both sick at the moment. Mitch has a very snotty nose and Meeks has a nasty cough and a stuffed up head. I haven't caught it yet, but it's only a matter of time I'm sure, Mitch has coughed in my face more than enough times. He doesn't understand hygiene yet.
In other news the car is stuffed AGAIN. Same problem again. It is so frustrating I just want it to be fixed. Fortunately we can borrow Meeks' mum's car as they have a spare with Krissy's car.
And no comments about how we should have bought a Subaru. You know who I'm talking to.
Mitch went to a Play School Concert with Nana and Auntie Krissy yesterday. He loved it, but was a little star struck. Apparently he sat there the whole time staring, mesmerised. Krissy took some photos, but I don't have them and now she's on a plane to the UK. Please send them to us!
After pulling all of the clothes out of his drawers and pulling all the toys out of his toy box (which he only learned how to open yesterday) and assembling it carefully on the floor, Mitch decided he needed a better vantage point from which to survey the devastation he had created. So he decided it was time to learn how to climb onto the arm chair in his room.
Once his graceful climb was completed he looked out upon his kingdom of messiness, well satisfied with his handiwork.
NB: The astute of you may have noticed a discrepancy between the story told and the sequence of events depicted in the above photos. Aren't you clever ... sometimes it's hard to have the camera handy at the crucial moment so some restaging/reordering of the available footage is required ... they do it all the time in Survivor apparently.
Meeks and I were hoping to go to Fagan Park today to look at the international gardens. Unfortunately the car is stuffed again. Crappy transmission. So we're temporarily without a car, until I can pick up the rental tomorrow.
So instead we went to the park in Asquith where we could walk to. It was still fun. Here are some photos.
Last night we had the Blairs over for pizza and games. Mmmm ... PizzaCutters. Then we played Jenga and Pictionary. Sharon "Hands of a Lumberjack" Blair lost the Jenga (nice "jame" Shazzy) and the boys smashed the girls in Pictionary, but overall a really fun night.
Today is the shortest day of the year. Generally, I don't mind the winter - the cool crisp air, warm winter stews, etc. But I'm glad today is the shortest day of the year because I'm a bit sick of getting up in the dark and coming home in the dark. On the other hand today is not all bad, it's my Mum's birthday. Happy birthday Mum.
Last Saturday we had a lunch at Mum and Dad's to celebrate my birthday. Mitch and Cousin Lilly got to play together.
And one final one of Mitch:
I forgot there are a couple of bits of news.
We have been putting Mitch to bed with his teddy lately and yesterday Meeks put him to bed without teddy who was sitting on the trunk opposite his bed. Mitch stood up at the bars of his cot and pointed to teddy and then when Meeks got him he lay down again, giving teddy a cuddle. A beautiful moment.
Last night, after his bath, we put Mitch in his little sleep suit which is dark blue and has stars all over it. Mitch very clearly pointed to the stars on his arm and said "Darr!". Very cute.
I thought I'd make a new banner for the blog (that is the picture at the top in case you hadn't noticed something had changed). What do you think? Better than boring old text if you ask me. What do you think? Leave a comment!
I might start adding labels as well. They make it easier to search the site later one and we don't have to remember when we posted a picture or milestone.
Apart from a new banner, no new news or pictures. Sorry! I did take some on the weekend but haven't had a chance to go through them yet. Maybe tomorrow on my day off.
I aged another year yesterday, such is the progress of time. I don't feel any older though which is always good.
On Wednesday Mitch and I went to the park:
After that we came home did some drawing.
Apparently Meeks used to do the tongue poking out thing when she was concentrating as a little girl.
Mitch is walking more and more now, in fact probably more than half the time. He's still a little unsteady on his feet and it's more of a stagger than a walk but it is very cute.
In other news, Meeks and I have decided it's time for us as a family to start going to the morning service at church. We've been trying to do the evening service thing, but unfortunately it just isn't working out, so starting in a couple of weeks we're going to start going to the morning service. We really wanted to be able to go to church as a family and for Mitch to get used to the pattern of going to church and creche initially and then Sunday school. We've been to the morning service a couple of times and he's been to creche but it is so unfamiliar to him, he gets a little upset. I am also stepping down from the evening service worship team as well (but not for a month or so). Thanks to El, Lachie, Deb, Phil and the bands. It has been a wonderful time sharing in service with you all, and I will miss it. Initially I wont be singing in the morning just to give us a chance to settle in but will probably end up doing that closer to the end of the year. So ends one phase in our life, I guess, and another one starts!
We bought Mitch and easel from Ikea so he could explore his creative side. He only has textas and crayons at the moment. He also has an enormous painters smock which is very cute. Here are some pictures:
As always there is a bit of mess, but thanks to the smock it's only on his fingers:
He knows how to make the diamond from "Twinkle Twinkle". Now that is very, very cute!
Today we had a joint 1st Birthday for all the children in Meeks Mothers' Group. It was at Fagan Park in Dural and it was a beautiful warm winter's day.
Meeks and I got there a bit early so Mitch had a chance to play on the play gym by himself.
Then we had some fun on the slide.
When the other's had arrived we had lunch and Meeks made another huge birthday cake.
In other news, the car is repaired and back home again which is great.
