Grandad and Ganny, Mike and Mandy and Lilly and Will came over for lunch for Father's Day today. Mitch was thrilled to have Lilly over to play. Meeks made a couple of delicious big Beef and Guiness Pies for lunch. Mmmm ... pie!
Every one had a cuddle with baby Will
Mitch and Lilly played together
As usual, later in the afternoon Grandad "rested his eyes"
A lovely Father's Day.
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!
I've been playing around with a trial version of Lightroom 2. I played around with the the below photo of Dad and Will and came up with this:
Which one do you prefer? This could revolutionise my workflow!
We had a party at Mike and Mandy's place for Grand-Dad's birthday last night. Mitch and Lilly played on the see-saw:
And watched Play School together ("The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round"):
Meeks had a little cuddle with Baby Will:
And Grand-Dad had a cuddle with Will too:
Mitchy was having his lunch on the back deck and I had the camera out and decided to take a few photos.
We're all a bit sick at the moment. Mitch has a nasty cough and Meeks and I are just getting over one. All round ours is not the most healthy house!
It is interesting watching as Mitchy learns to do new things as his problem solving skills grow. He has a stool which he uses in the kitchen when he washes his hands at the sink. He has never really used it outside of the kitchen, but this week he has realised he can use it in other places. The other day he carried it into his bedroom and climbed on it to get something out of his cupboard. Then yesterday he used it to climb up on so he could reach mummy's jewelry from on top of the tall boy in our bedroom. Who knows what else he will use it for!
Our old TV was past it's used by date. It is still working, but was a bit slow to start up. We decided it was time to get a new one. The one we wanted to get didn't fit in the old entertainment unit so we decided to get one of those two. We got a good deal on the TV from JB Hifi (I think the salesman made a mistake, we got it for $200 cheaper than I could have gotten from a "fall-off-the-back-of-a-truck" internet type sites. The entertainment unit is from a place down at Manly Vale called Better Prices Furniture or something. It is nice solid wood and weighs a lot (thanks Brett for helping us get in inside no way I could have done it by myself). Meeks also got some bits and pieces from Freedom. Here it is:
One of the advantages of having the camera out is that when Mitchy is being cute in the bath you can take photos of it. Here he is making bubble beards.
Sometimes I am just stoked with what comes out of the camera. This is definitely one of those times. A single flash mounted on the camera pointing at the roof doing the lighting.
Mitchy loves having peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch. Today he has toasted peanut butter and honey muffins. Yum! I had the camera out so I took some quick pictures. A few of them turned out well.
Love that peanut butter smile :)
Today Mitchy started wearing undies instead of nappies. There were a couple of little accidents and not much action in the potty, but we'll keep trying. He's very excited about wearing undies and it is very cute. He has a lot of pairs of undies and enjoys choosing which ones to wear. He still wears nappies when he sleeps though.
Meeks has been sick for the last few days with a nasty head cold. Hopefully she will get better soon.
Mitch and Daddy went and bought a new soccer ball today. Then we went up to the local oval and kicked the ball around. Mitch loved it! Check out his form
Mitch shows off his trapping skills
Penalty referee!
Time for a rest
Mitchy had his face painted at Play Time last week. Here are a couple of pictures. Very cute!
Growl!
Meeks recorded some video of Mitch singing nursery rhymes. I have finally gotten around to editing and uploading it to the blog
If the embedded video doesn't work here is a direct link.
Very cute :)
As per the previous post, our plumbing blocked up on Sunday and the plumber came out and had a look at it. He cleaned out a blockage with the high pressure hose and found a problem in the pipes and organised for the pipe to be dug up so it could be fixed. His rough estimate of the price was going to be $2K to $5K. Now we don't have that sort of money and we are trying to save up to go to Krissy's wedding next year in London. So Sunday night we were fairly stressed and prayed about it.
Monday and Tuesday they came and dug a big hole in our carport down to the offending pipe. They came back this afternoon to quote on fixing the problem. Imagine you're staring down the barrel of a $2K to $5K plumbing bill. You've already been charged $4K and the plumber comes and finds further problems in a pipe that is under the deck and specifically under the spa under the deck. The original quote is looking "conservative". What is the best thing that can happen in that situation?
There is a curious quirk which states that once your plumbing meets the main, it is no longer your problem, it is Sydney Water's problem. The plumber has found that the problem isn't in our pipes it is in the main which just happens to run through our backyard and under the carport, they have incorrectly dug a hole and we wont be charged for it. They will be coming back to fill it in. Furthermore we can request repayment for some of the fee from Sunday Water for cleaning out the pipe in the first place. What an amazing answer to prayer.
There was finally some sunny weather here this weekend so Saturday morning Meeks and Mitch and I walked to the park for a play and some lunch. Here are some pictures.
Then today when we drove into the driveway when we got home from church we noticed there was water flowing out of the overflow pipe which normally means the sewer is blocked. We called the plumbers and basically there is a crack in the pipe where a tree root has grown through the pipe somewhere near where it joins the mains, so about 6m away from the house. Unfortunately that is under our carport and could be 2m down. All in all very expensive to fix. Big job. It's draining now, but is half blocked and will only block up again if it isn't fixed. There are many things I would rather spend thousands on.
Hot chips apparently. We were in Westfield the other day having a milkshake and hot chips as a snack. Mitch had already drank most of my caramel milkshake and had moved on to the hot chips. He was chowing them down and turned to Meeks and said, "Mummy! I love chips". He's never expressed his love for anything else before!
Mitch has picked up a few other sayings recently too. One of them is "of course". It's very cute. He says it in a very matter of fact tone. We were in the park yesterday and I was pushing him and said, "Do you want me to get on the other swing?" and his reply, "Of course". After his lunch, Meeks asked him to put his plate on the kitchen bench. His reply? "Of course".
One of Mitch's favourite games at the moment is "Chase You". Basically you chase Mitchy down to his room and he buries his face in the chair so he can't see you. You tap him on the back and run away and he chases you down to the lounge room and you bury your face in the sofa and he runs up and taps you on the back and then runs back to his room and you chase him and ... it goes back and forth and back and forth. If you try to do anything like actually hide from him properly he calls out quite annoyed that you have ruined his game!
One last piece of news is that last Tuesday, Mitchy did his first wee on the potty. We were very excited and hoped it would be the beginning of the end for nappies. Unfortunately not much has happened since then. He sits on the potty reluctantly and sometimes stubbornly refuses, event when offered treats. Oh well, we can be patient!
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!
Sorry it's been so long since I have posted. At the end of a Long Weekend you would think I have lots to post about. Well, it has been a good weekend, but there hasn't been much photo taking.
On Saturday night Meeks and I went to see Carl Risely at The Basement with the Blairs and the Smarts. If you don't know who Carl Risely is, he was the swing guy from the last Idol series. He was really good and we had a great night out. It was great just going out with some other adults and not worry about the kids. Thanks to the various baby sitters who made it possible.
The other news that I haven't blogged about is that I resigned from EDS on the 28th May and started with IBM. Not much as changed as I am still doing the same job, in the same seat, at the same place, on the same project, with the same conditions. The only change is the company (and pay conditions). Probably the smoothest transition between companies ever!
For all you photo junkies, here is one of Mitch that I took last week. I took a bunch more but none of them were much good! Obviously more to do with the photographer than the subject!
I finally got around to downloading all of the video we have shot of Mitch onto the computer so Meeks and I can start putting together some videos of the little cutie.
