Quick one!

A quick one - I have been meaning to say that David is doing interesting things. For the past couple of weeks he has been working on pronouncing his 'L's - with a big slightly exaggerated tongue movement. Effective too - especially noticeable on the Rafaella, Linda and other important L words. He can now roll his tongue, and click it too! Interesting what he focusses on. The tongue clicking started when we we in the car listening to the Shrek title song "Allstar" (AKA the "Hey Now" song) and I did it in time to the music. David wanted to do it too.

He can't click his fingers yet, but he came home from Daycare just before his birthday to show me how he could hop!
He is getting much more interested in dressing himself "all by myself" and now is putting shoes on, as well as just taking them off. I am letting him choose what to wear (with the obvious consequences that sometimes it is the Batman PJs, or the Lightning PJs all day. But he then is really happy about what he wears, so there are lots of compensations. The Daycare touches are wonderful. On Friday, in the park for Finn's birthday David took his shoes and socks off. I found them up on the climbing castle. He had neatly tucked his socks inside the shoes, just like they are told to at Daycare. Then he and Katie and Celestine got naked and ran around a lot. Which is of course another story!

Katie is back and they were so happy to see each other - David had been calling out to her all the way to the park, even though she couldn't possibly hear him. Definitely partners in crime. Katie wanted David's water bottle (as usual) and David wanted to share (as usual). He also is really noticeably playing much more with other children, not just beside them. It is especially noticeable when you see Liam, who is six months younger, and reminds me of what David was like at that age.

Well, we will see what this week brings. Lots and lots of chaos on world markets - definitely will be different for his generation growing up, rather than the current Gen X, Y who have never really known hardship. I just hope the important things continue though - peace, clean air, clean water, clean food, good health. When I hear about the food & milk contamination in China, the dreadful hardship in Zimbabwe, Somalia and Sudan I do realise just how lucky we are!!

Birthday season!!

Well, David turned three! He is asleep, so I am doing a quick update.

We had the family outing, the day before his birthday, the birthday (just us), the cake at daycare (lots of fun) and the small birthday party for his friends (fun, on a very hot day). We have also been to a couple of other birthday parties. We have not only survived, we have thrived!

The outing was to the movies to see Wall.E. We went on the Friday, Dad took time off work, and it was GOOD, on all levels. As it was the day before school holidays started there were only four other people in the cinema, and it didn't matter if David talked. and he did, just a bit. The movie was great, and David loved it. We also spent some time in the amusement arcade next door to the cinema - loud, lots of flashing lights, "the claw" games that we just can't win and (importantly from David's point of view) shooting games. He was very excited to sit in a booth and point guns at a big screen - guns with holsters. It is amazing just how much fun he can have without the game working - just on the demo screen. As a digression, it is a bit like the photo booth near daycare. He loves going into the booth and sitting on the seat and listening to the voice tell him how he could use the machine.

The day was also noteworthy for me, as David howed me that he is now tall enough (with stretching) to open the front security screen door - also to lock and unlock it.

On his birthday, he got Batman pyjamas from Nanna Jan - dress up PJs with a detachable cape. He loves them, and wore them off and on for the whole week. They are size five, and too big, but wonderful. Once I worked out that it is better to roll up the tops, rather than the legs, we reduced the trip hazard, and we were in business. He loved wearing them to daycare, out on his bike, to bed, around the house, everywhere! Uncle Stephen got him dinosaurs! They can fight, so they are very good! We got him sunglasses, some new clothes, and ratatoille themed presents - toys, a tin case and a soft rat. Emile shoots a grape out his mouth, so he is a favourite.

David can, very proudly, hold up three fingers to show how old he is. On Monday I took a cake to Daycare, and at afternoon tea ( I came over for it) he sat up with all the other kids and they sang Happy Birthday, he blew out his "3" candle and then everyone had cake. The cake was decorated with a Spiderman picture, which looked really fantastic. He knew all about it, and had been telling everyone that he had a Spiderman cake for his birthday. He was (of course) dressed as Batman. It was followed by bubbles, as I organised a box of little bubble blowing kits, with one for everyone. He was very happy with it all, especially that Rafaella, his friend was there, sitting next to him. Just as well, because in the morning he had sand thrown in his eyes in the sandpit. His eyes were red, but he seemed OK and was fine the next day.

Thursday we had a quiet morning - it was the first hot day (34C) and we got all the dust off everything outside, scrubbed down the tiles with soapy water, got the paddler pool out, gave the bubbles kit and toys and paddler pool a trial run and got cakes ready. DAvid wasn't going to havea sleep, but then had a late sleep. Then we met Dad and Grant at the local restaurant for dinner. David then didn't go to sleep - I had made the birthday cake (late), and was making up goodie bags when I heara little voice from the stairs saying "What are you doing?" Of course he saw the chocolate frog bag from his peeping through the stairs. I think he was asleep by 11.00 or so.

Another very hot day for his party (36C), but it was OK in the house, and outside, and got slightly cooler later in the day. The ceiling fan was fantastic - lovely all day. We had a few from Mothers Group over, and Liam. It was small but relaxing and just right. I was so glad that we didn't have it in the park because it would have been too hot. Overnight the rain arrived, and it is 10C cooler and wet today.

In total, we had three cakes for his birthday - all carrot, his favourite. On Saturday it was a Woody & Buzz cake, on Monday at Daycare a Spiderman cake (and bubbles) and at the birthday party on Friday, a Lightning McQueen cake. So now we have left over cake - including the banana bread from Friday.

We are still waiting for his new bed, which is on order. Hopefully in the next week or so!

Party season

Well, David turns three on Saturday. Wow, doesn't time fly when you are busy! It is party season with Mother's Group and cousins.

Last week we went to a birthday cake Mother's Group on Friday and a cousins' party on Saturday with 22 Haselhursts (and partners/spouses) and 4 September birthdays. On Sunday it was Celestine's birthday party in the park. Lovely to see David running around with three other Haselhurst cousins (Monty, Laura and Declan). We picked up Marie and took her along to Annie's place in Paddington, so we had the full age range, from 1 (Monty) to 89 (Marie).

The weather was exceptional on the weekend, and perfect for parties. David was tired on Saturday night & Sunday nights due to no afternoon naps, but had a good sleep at Daycare on each of the three days. We have had a quiet day today, with a walk and play in the park this afternoon. David said that he didn't want a sleep, but fell asleep anyway on the couch after lunch. A bonus as it means I have been able to write this.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do a family outing, with Paul taking some time off. ( A surprise, so I will tell you later) The actual birthday is AFL Grand Final day, so we will probably follow the usual routine, with a present session over breakfast, cake at lunchtime and afternoon for footie. I am planning another cake at daycare on Monday and a small party next weekend.

The attached is a photo of David blowing out the candle at the cousins party - Declan is turning 7, hence the candle. Declan, Laura, Monty and David all took turns blowing out the candle. Howard and David (snr) passed on the candles, but all enjoyed the cake. I hope that you like the t-shirt with Bart Simpson on the front. It has been languishing in the wardrobe for months but is suddenly rediscovered and favourite. It fits him now, too!

At last! Another update

Well, where to start? It is all so exciting.

David is toilet trained. He pretty much went straight to "no nappies" and "no pullups" from the last blog. Not even at night, which I was thinking would take longer. Only one accident - and not in his bed. He got up to get me out of bed, so I could help him go to the toilet, and couldn't quite last until I woke up and got him to the toilet. But, as we say, accidents happen! Never mind.

I went out and got a lot of new underpants, to allow for accidents, and frequent changes. There are dinosaurs, monkeys, robots, Cars and plain. A digression - I asked David if he wanted to wear robot underpants or plain underpants. He got really dispapointed that the plain ones didn't have (air)planes on them! My fault. I explained what plain means. He is asking me about words a lot these days. "What means because?" What means welcome?" What's hallelujah?" "What's Praise the Lord?" "What's sweet dreams?" "What means bet?" ( Try thinking about how to explain the concept of betting so that you can meaningfully get him to understand what you are driving at when you have said "You bet!!")

Also exciting is that I am back at work on a small project for my old employer, part-time, flexible with the job to get done by Christmas. Rewriting existing policies, and updating some new global policies for local application. Great stuff. I feel like I am getting back in practice, and I have been effective from the first morning, which is great. I am also talking to someone else about some part-time work, so wish me well!

The even more exciting part is that we have a cleaner!!!! Yes! and she is going to come weekly!! We had a test clean done this week, and it was absolutely WOW to walk in to a clean, tidy house that I hadn't done. Kudos to Paul, who said that it was a condition of my returning to work.

We are now in the run up to the third birthday - and the co-incident AFL Grand Final. Exciting. I will keep you posted.

This is a photo of David with his new easel and paper roll. He loves it. It was an early birthday present from Nanna Josie. Delivered early on a wet weekend. My thinking is that it also helps him appreciate the individual items a little. Otherwise, it is extreme overload on the birthday itself (like Christmas). David is wearing his swimming rash top - not quite sure why. Probably something to do with it raining and it having Woody and Buzz on the front. He can sit on his chair and draw, or stand on it, as here.

I will try to get back into short sharp updates to the blog. It is hard though as David is still going to bed late, so I can't do it at night. We have had a few days with no naps (quel horror) and this also means that I can't use it during the afternoon. We are working on convincing David that when there is no nap, it means an early night. With some success. However, I have to be really careful about being in the office on the computer, as I turn around and there is someone watching me, who wants to play and look at things on the computer. Last Friday he said that he would make a nest on the floor and sleep there while I worked - yeah, right. He had lots of fun, but didn't sleep. I went to a sleep seminar organised by the day care centre, and it was really useful. Not really specifically aimed at techniques to get a child to sleep, but more general on building a happy, resilient child, who then should sleep well. Things around reducing anxiety and overstimulation. I have been trying a few things. Anyway, it is all good.

David does talk about things a bit if they bother him. He is saying more that he misses Daddy when he is away for work. He says that he misses me when I leave him at daycare, but he says that he has a "Great" day. He has to go back and say goodbye to everyone through the fence, before we leave, and hug various friends. His latest friend is Rafaella, and they are inseparable at the moment. They did toilet training together.

Batman!

Last week, as a treat, David got a toy Batman - it isa news toy, anda big boy toy. It is an action figure. He deserved it for practicing going to the toilet and brushing his teeth. And the big news is that in the last few days David has succeeded in toilet training himself . We still need to practice, but he is there. He is wearing big boy underpants, at his request, and staying dry. Still using a nappy at night which takes some negotiation sometimes. Because he is getting to be such a big boy, we went out yesterday and bought a doona set. I thought that Spiderman was the favourite, but David chose Batman. It is great. We have a nice washable doona in it, and I think that David was a bit hot last night, because he crawled out from under it at least twice. I eventually covered him with another quilt, and he slept late.

The Olympics has been exciting and David has a little Australian flag to wave, and knows how to encourage - Go [insert name] Go!! We have been staying up late to look at sport, so maybe next week I will get a few earlier nights.

Here are a couple of photos from our outing on the ferry last week to Circular Quay, with daddy! Also a photo of David with claws!

What comes next?

Hello! Another week has passed. David is well, and continuing to test all the boundaries. Mostly good, but still gets very frustrated when he doesn't get what he wants.

Nanna Josie is much improved. The operation on her knee went well, and we are hoping that it may end up with a new and improved knee when she finally gets out of hospital. She will be on antibiotics for a few more weeks, to make sure that the infection is gone. She had been having trouble with the knee, so hopefully the new components will will assist with how the knee feels, when she is back home.

We went to the library today and got lots of good books. David likes the library, and choosingbooks. Unfortunately, he chose one, and somehow it didn't get checked out - he was too busy carrying a video and running. We will survive. Curious George has been a big hit, so we have renewed it again.

We have been shopping for a big bed for David - we have found a couple that we like, but it will take 4 to 6 weeks on order for the favourite. So we haven't rushed in yet and will keep looking. What David really liked was all the character sheet sets. In particular, Spiderman sheets. We will see! We have almost decided on a king size single bed and I just hope that they make licensed sheet sets for king size single beds!

Attached is a photo of David with his Spiderman hat, still a favourite after over eight months. He still has milk in a bottle in the morning and night, but drinks everything else out of cups and straws etc. A bit of a comfort thing, I think. You can also see the big boy shoes and big boy trousers.

Just another week

Well, I am not really sure what to start with. The bad news is that nanna Josie is in hospital. After a few days the consensus is a serious infection in her knewe - the one that has the artifical joint. She is due to have an operation tomorrow to clean out as much of the infection as possible. We are hoping and praying for a good result.

In other news, late July & August is another birthday hot spot. We had a gathering at the house last Saturday for Dad's birthday. David loves birthday cake (carrot of course). Cousins, friends and Katie came, so David had a wow of a time. The two of them were up and down the stairs all afternoon, playing in David's room - and Katie enjoyed getting lots of things out of the wardrobe. She had fun getting into David's bed, then asking for all the possible blankets to be piled on top.

Then Cousin Matthew had his birthday - David spoke to him on the phone and wished him Happy Birthday. Matthew was a bit shy to talk. Then it was Uncle Steve's birthday. We posted him a parcel and called him on the phone. Nanna organised a surprise birthday party for Uncle Steve at the Friday night dance, which has been very exciting, even from a distance. Uncle Steve had no idea (and generally gets his way and has absolutely no fuss for his birthday) so it was a real change. A very big birthday cake too! There may be pictures in the paper - we will have to wait and see.

I bought David some red mittens yesterday as it has been so cold. He wore them this morning on his walk with his dad - and now I can only find one! They even had a long string connecting the two, but that only lasted a couple of hours. Because they are plain red, David thinks that they look like boxing gloves. How does he even know about boxing? I think that I explained something about it once, but it is a big leap to then decide that your new warm gloves are for boxing!!!

Man of Action

Well, another big week. Yesterday, David asked me what was in his LEFT hand. I asked him if he knew which was his left hand, and he thought and waved his left hand. I played the game. Then I asked him which was his right hand. He thought about it and waved his right hand. Later in the day, when we were reading books before bed, he picked up the toilet training book and said "This is called Stay Dry." I don't think that we have covered either of those things at home, so perhaps he has picked them up from Day Care. I was pretty impressed.

David got an Action Man yesterday. It was in the window at the Salvos store, and we passed it on the way to the post office. There were lots of desirable toys, but on being convinced that he could only have ONE, he chose Action Man. Pretty wonderful ("It's my favourite toy!"). You can see him giving Action Man a workout. He flies, he leaps does just about everything. David understands that a big boy has grown too big for Action Man, so he has given it to Salvos so that someone else (David) can buy it and play with it. No shoes or hat, but Action Man has tough feet, and head. David wanted to know what his other name was, presumably, his secret identity. After a few trial names, we think that his secret identity name is Jeffrey. Marcus or Carl came a close second. It has been a good week for Salvos. I picked up a bag of assorted old cars, earlier in the week, containing two more working rechargable cars, which goes with his racecar set. Absolutely magic, and useless unless you have the recharge "pitstops". We gave them a good workout on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

We are trialling phasing out the afternoon nap. Yesterday he didn't have one, and was tired and fractious all day. We had a few small confrontations, and one major meltdown. It took 45 minutes to do a 5-10 minute return from the local park. After David tried to bite me and then threw his drink bottle at my head (he got me) I ran out of patience and frog marched him home to the naughty mat. He lay on the floor on the naughty mat and cried about a lot of things. It took a while to progress, because essentially he wasn't sorry for hitting me - he meant it, because he didn't want to come home. Anyway, that is being two going on three years old. He went to sleep at about 8.30pm, and slept until 4.15am when he came into bed with me and fell asleep until 7.00am.

Today we got up slowly because I was tired after yesterday and the broken sleep. After a shower and breakfast we went late to Playgroup. David dressed up as Spiderman and had a lovely time. It was a much better day, and we managed to negotiate putting the suit back in the cupboard without a tantrum, in fact it was fun because we moved on to the next thing which was stamps, a biscuit and playing on the other equipment. After we finally left (a bit problematic) we then went to the park. We cancelled the planned trip to buy bagels and fruit before the park, because he didn't want to go. We went home, got towelly and some lunch and then went to the park, and kicked the ball, ran, climbed and had a picnic. Lots of fun! This butcher bird came to the picnic, and David shared his sultanas. It came really close, and caught the sultanas out of the air. We came home at 2.45pm (after more than 4 hours out) and David had afternoon tea and watched Play School and a few other things while I made a cake and his dinner. David was helping with the cake, and then went back to sit down. He was fast asleep when I put his dinner out just before 5.00pm. So, we will see how he goes with sleeping through.

David is improving a lot with kicking the ball. He is very good and kicking it while he is running. He loves it. Stationary kicks require thought, and it is a real effort to kick with either foot. When running though, he just does it and with both feet. Lots of fun for us all, and particularly for Dad. We had a great afternoon at the park on Sunday, playing then kicking the ball, then using the bat and then running part of the way home. The photo is of David climbing the playground equipment, without any help from Dad.

We are still working on preliminary toilet training. Both at home and at Daycare. David is asked if he wants to sit on the toilet several times every day. Sometimes he does. He is still in nappies, and not really ready for underpants. (We tried last Sunday for a couple of hours). He has a chart and a couple of books, and he gets stickers for sitting on the toilet.

This week - what's been happening

Well, to start with a few things that have been happening. Today we went to a Playschool concert. There were a few of us there from Mothers Group and a room full of excited toddlers and (mostly) their mums. At 45 minutes it was just the right length. Lots of singing and toys and a few jokes. David was very excited all morning, particularly as Katie was going to the concert too. No breakfast, but toast in the pram. He sat or stood with us and sang and clapped etc for at least 25 minutes of the concert, and then we ran around, explored, climbed and jumped on chairs and steps for the last 20 minutes. For David, that is pretty good. A very good time had by all. Afterwards, we went to a coffee house with an outside play area. Because of the concert, there were lots of other kids there and they all played together very well - nine of them! There were two big groups, so the others knew some of the kids, but David played with and talked to them all.

Also, I attach a photo of David in his new robot pyjamas climbing on top of the couch. The robot pyjamas have been a huge hit. They are actually more summer pjs, and a bit big but David loved the robots so much that he had to wear them. As the quilt was warm, it didn't seem to worry him in bed. He wore the top to daycare, and cried because I wouldn't let him wear the shorts too (not warm enough). The top looks just like a t-shirt, with robots on the front. The Sunday morning after the first night, he wore the shorts over his trackpants and the top under his jacket up the road for his walk with Dad. On Monday, he wore the top to Daycare and cried on the floor when I wouldn't let him wear the shorts - not warm enough. I went back and bought another set of pjs exactly the same, so we could alternate.

It has been cold here in Sydney for the last week or so, and particularly so the last couple of nights. Eight celcius is cold for Sydney. So, the last two nights he has been in his new (too big) Thomas the Tank engine pjs. Again, very excited about them, and he had to wear the shirt to daycare. These look a bit more like pjs though!!!

Dad is back for the weekend, so we had a lot of fun this morning and the weekend will be excellent.

We went to the library last Sunday and took out books with David's own library card (NEW!!). He likes having his own card. David found a Curious George book with several stories and that has been a real favourite this week. I have taken it along and read one of the stories to him when I drop him off at Daycare and it is helping the separation process.

Grandad

Paul's dad passed away on 26 May. He had been very ill for some time, and he just slipped away. It is very sad. David and I went to Melbourne arriving from WA just after the funeral. We stayed with nanna for almost a week and with David around it was never dull.

Here is a photo of David and grandad taken at Christmas, and another of David having fun in grandad's chair.

We were away in WA when we got the news that the doctors were worried about grandad. After several months in palliative care, the end came quickly. On Saturday he was asleep from in the morning, didn't wake for lunch or dinner. On Sunday he was quietly asleep, but there were concerns about his breathing. He slipped away quietly just after midnight on Monday morning, with Josie and Gaye there. We got the news in WA just before midnight on Sunday. No time for any of us to get there, but Paul had visited him just a few days before.

David and I went to visit my mum, who is still having chemotherapy, and stayed for a few days. On Saturday, in the middle of a dreadful storm with high winds and torrential rain, which we mostly avoided, we drove up to Perth. In a very large blessing, the rain stopped for us to leave the hire car and make our dry way to the airport. However the storm returned to close the airport, delaying the flight for three hours. We survived it all, and a full flight and got in late on Saturday night. A long day.

We saw all the family, and David saw Matthew and Evan. It was lovely to see nanna, but sad that grandad is no longer there. We showed David the picture of the modified light destroyer (HMAS Adelaide) on which grandad served during the war. He was very interested in the guns, and could remember that there were anti-aircraft guns as well as big guns to shoot other ships. Nanna told David about the time that grandad was stuck in the crow's nest during a big storm, and was sea sick. I am not sure if David realises that grandad is gone. We are dealing with it as it comes up.

The last photo is a blast from the past, with grandad holding a much smaller David.

David was still on Perth time for sleeping for Melbourne and several weeks after. We are now back in a routine and David is going to bed around 8.30pm. A bit late, but he does see his dad every evening. More soon.

Howdy and haircut

Well, after a long break, here I am blogging again. I will start with the immediate, and probably go a acouple of retro blogs to fill you in on recent developments.

The first photo is David helping me with the washing up. He is washing a sweet potato. There are many uses for his chairs, all good. We are really happy that we got the strong ones, that are good for standing (whether it is me or David).

Last Thursday, David had his first haircut. We had been talking about it for a while, and David was changable as to whether he wanted it or not. David has been saying hello to Tom on the Saturday walks since he was only a few months old. That's where dad gets his haircut. An example of the varying attitude - coming home from daycare, in terrible traffic at 6.00pm at night, he wanted a haircut - cried for it for over five minutes. When dad took him for a walk right to the barber shop, and he could see Tom, he didn't want a haircut. Generally, the further he was from Tom's, the more he wanted it.

However, dad & I arranged to meet at the barber's on Thursday at just past lunchtime. After a complete little meltdown, because I couldn't get David to go downstairs, we eventually got out of the house. It was nice and quiet and Tom and Lily talked David through it. Lily cut his hair, and he had a lollypop afterwards. It is a good cut, and he looks quite grown up after it. No more baby fluff. As you can see, we did it near the window, not in the barber chair. Lovely.

We kept some hair for the nannas!

Camera is back!

The camera is finally back and repaired. Let's not go into why Australia Post can't manage to deliver parcels, or even tell you that they are there - the parcel has been at the post office awaiting collection since 22 May.

The big news is that it is back. This is a photo taken the last day at the park on the day the camera broke. Good isn't it? David is driving a digger and looking moderately happy!!!!

More news and photos later when I feel able to go into all the news.

Some more photos

Just a few other photos from earlier this year. I liked these three. David is looking at photos of himself on Dad's phone - fascinating!

The second is taken in a park near Luna Park in North Sydney in the late afternoon in January. I liked the effect. Also, he looked really sharp. THose shoes are too small for him now!

The last photo is David doing a trial run for daycare, before he started. The hat and backpack are the ones that he uses for daycare. The outfit is actually pyjamas (Christmas present from nanna), but he really likes them. They have Lightening McQueen on the front. You can see our front door.

Update

Well, no new photos. The camera that Paul bought for my birthday in December is off being repaired under warranty. Hopefully I will have it back later this month. There is a wait of 4-6 weeks for repairs. I am not sure if that is because there is just so much work, or to discourage the repairs under warranty. It is a really nice Ricoh, so I am persisting.

So this photo is an old one, taken in January. It features towelly, in fact lots of them. David was wrapped up in them on nanna Jan's couch. Towelly is still in the picture - an essential source of comfort, particuarly during the early days of daycare. It (he) goes with David every day, and is out and about during the day, not just for his sleep. He gets very dirty, particularly when digging in the sandpit with a digger, or when painting. The only thing better than one towelly is two, or three. Not always, but often, David sucks his thumb when he has towelly. The interesting thing is that towely is getting more & more of a personality. He shares, helps, keeps the sun out of David's eyes, can be used to mop up, wipe things down, even hit people. Think of the towel in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and you get the picture.

So a couple of things, in no particular order. The bike is back in favour. David can now reach the pedals on his bike (he has been able to for a few weeks). He is not that good at pushing the pedals yet, but is getting the idea. When we go any distance on footpaths, I still push, and his feet go round & round. In Callan Park there is a long concrete footpath through the park with a gentle slope down, so I now set him up at the top, and he pedals down the slope, steering as well as he wants to, all by himself. He loves the Park, and spotting the spiders. There are lots of big spiders, with stripy legs, often in little colonies. We have also spotted the leaf curl spiders over in North Sydney near childcare. We also run on the grass, kick the ball or use the bat in the park.

David has been interested in sport for a few months - he loved it playing with Grif & Mac and their big soccer balls, and basket ball hoop and bats. He also saw people playing tennis at a club and cried about having a tennis racket. Since we have been home, he has insisted on getting our tennis rackets down and is showing some promise in hitting a soft ball. Between us we have now got him some initial sport equipment - badmington rackets, plastic cricket bat (full size though), beach cricket set, frisbee - all that sort of stuff. We just have to get to the park during daylight to practice with it all.

Also, fishing. He loves playing with dad's fishing rod, and casting a big plastic hook, and using the fishing reel. We are getting very good at untangling it all. Erin gave us an old bright green fishing rod, without a reel, and we have played with that too.

Also cooking. We have been making biscuits from my grandmother's recipe. David loves rolling out the dough, using the cutters (particularly the praire dog cutter) and then eating the raw dough. He has his own rolling pin and a mixture of real and playdough plastic biscuit cutters.

David seems to be settling in to daycare. He is eating more, sleeping well at naptime, and enjoying all the activities. He likes the bikes and sandpit and loves the playdough. We have been getting paintings home too.

Bookcase & books

We moved a bookcase into David's room a couple of weeks ago (see photo). It enabled me to tidy up all his books and have them in one place - his room - rather than our room, downstairs, in the bookcase in the hall. As you can see, he already has a few books. He knows them all, because there is the occasional new one slipped in, which he finds as says"New book!! Read the new book!" He likes a variety every night and from night to night. The Gossie and Olly books are probably regular favouites, for the last book before bed.

I also took down the change table. this gives him more space to play. We have the duplo in his bedroom and a few toys. This is part of a broader reorganisation of the upstairs, including the office etc. A beginning, but a long way to go....

Anyway, David just loves having a bookcase full of books. He is hilarious - he stands in front of it and looks through them all. I ask him to choose a book and he says "ummm, this one, No, this one." Then when we have read it he jumps down off my lap on the chair and says "Read another book." I am lucky if we can confine it to five books before bed - he generally cries when I try to reduce it to three. Cruel mummy! They are generally short books though. Then I have to sing him a song (or three). The favourites at the moment are My darling Clementine (he thinks it is very funny when I sing "Oh my darlin..") and Leaving on a Jet Plane. This one is a bit sad, particularly with his dad flying away a lot, but he still really likes it, and asks for it. I also sing a variety of other songs, like "Botany Bay", Molly Malone", "Born Free", "You are my sunshine" and folk songs, nursery rhymes, anything else that I can think of. The funny part is that during the day he will say "NO SINGING" if I start singing, but at night he yells out "Sing another song" as I am trying to get out of the room and going down the stairs.

He asks for more books, and songs when he doesn't go to sleep, or wakes up, and calls out to me. It is often the easiest way to settle him again. In the night though (for example, last night at 9.45pm) he definitely gets only the book or a song.

More Catch up

A little more about our trip to WA. It was HOT, really really hot. Mostly 35 - 38C. This is the second year of the three year trial of daylight saving in WA, and however lovely it may be in Autumn, it is really horrid in January & February. The maxima are reached around 4.00 to 5.00pm and it is still high 30s at 6.00pm. I tried to get David to sleep from around 2.00pm until 4.30 to 5.00pm, because it was just too hot to do anything. He was waking up with his pillow soaked with sweat, and then as soon as the shadows started to come over, going out to run around the back paved area. After a little while in Wagin there was a change, and a bit of rain over the weekend (lots in Perth) and while Perth went back to VERY hot days and nights, Wagin was having cooler, windy nights (the Albany doctor) and cooler overcast mornings. Mid morning the sun was out and it would suddenly be roasting, but the wind at night was a blessing.

I have attached a couple of photos with trucks from the backyard. Nanna and Uncle Steve provided a fantastic Tonka truck, which David ran up and down the driveway (and into Charlie's fence) and a yellow digger. The best trick was pushing the truck down the hill in the driveway and watching how far it would go, and if you could hit the fence. There was also the great fun of beating and stabbing the hedge on Charlie's side of the boundary with a very large metal hook (one of the hanging basket hooks). Charlie was marvelous, and helped David get the hook out when it was stuck, rather than telling him off.

In this one, David is wearing his spiderman cap, which has been wonderful, because David enjoys wearing it. That is also the photo with the two crashed trucks - David is proudly showing off the stacked, crashed trucks.

We were also swimming a lot until Nanna got too sick - sometimes in the morning (but again, it was getting really hot, too hot to be coming home when the Wagin pool closed at 1.00pm) or in the evening, as the pool was open until 7.00pm. The best time was from around 6.00pm, again because it was so hot. Nanna came down one day to watch us. Another day, I walked down for a swim myself, which was marvelous, and Nanna dropped David off later. David was really enjoying the different pools- paddler, deeper paddler and the full olympic size pool. There is also a proper diving pool (4.8m) with diving tower, but I did convince him that it was too deep, and that you have to be 11 to use the diving tower. The Wagin pool is lovely, clean, a great temperature and never crowded. Other than during vacation swimming lessons, it opens for three sessions - early morning from 6.00 to 8.00am, then from 11.00 to 2.00pm, then again in the afternoon from 3.00pm to 7.00pm. It is staying open later because of the daylight saving. The two guys who look after the pool are lovely and very friendly. They take care of the Australian flag on the flagpole outside, and David really liked seeing our flag every time we went to the pool. We got to know a couple of regular swimmers - Seb who is 6years old and Meg who is 11 years old. Sorry but there are no photos of David swimming, mostly because I was always in the pool with him. David also loves getting out of the pool and running around - from one end to the other, on the grass, up the hill to the diving pool, and over to the toddler pool. It was pretty hard on my shoulders, with all the lifting and jumping and supporting him in the water. My back & shoulders got a bit proppy after a few weeks.

He hadn't been swimming for approximately 12 mths until getting to WA, but he quickly got more confident and loved it all. I have taken him swimming only once since we got back - to Leichhardt pool. I thought we would go for an hour, but we stayed for three. We were both exhausted after we got home, and my shoulders took a few days to recover. I think we need to keep it to shorter sessions.

The Library was also a great place for us to go. Rita, one of Nanna's friends operates the library, and we were able to borrow books, DVDs and videos for David on Nanna's card. David loved them all, and loved visiting. It is a small library, but with a good selection for toddlers. Hooray for LSWA!

Cats etc in Wagin

While in Wagin, David got up close and personal with Puss, Nanna Jan's cat. Puss took it very well. At first he just kept moving away, when David invaded his personal space, and when it got too much, went next door to Charlie's house, or Av and Cyril Jenz's house. Not that David saw that as much of a problem - the day we arrived, he happily followed Puss into the Jenz front yard, up on the verandah and round towards the back, with Mum in pursuit. He tried to follow Puss into Charlie's house, but was somewhat hampered by the thick hedge along the fence, and the fence itself. Bare feet were best, because the gravel on the verge was a bit too hard on his feet to make the going easy. With shoes, there was very little to stop him.

After a week or so Puss got used to David and would hang around more, generally taking the patting in good part. Puss also got used to not being able to use his cat door. I understand that after we left, he went happily back to using the door, and to sleeping in David's bed.

It took David until day 2 to get the hang of the cat door. On lots of days, if the doors were open, he would do circuits - in the cat door, then out the back screen door, and round again. We kept it locked up at night, because I had visions of David taking off up the street after Puss in the middle of the night. It didn't happen, mostly because David was having too much fun running around the house until all hours of the night. He is big enough to climb out of the bed in Wagin, and boy was that fun! Some nights I was putting him back every couple of minutes. Growling didn't have any effect. When I told him it was naughty to keep getting out of bed, David took off for the naughty mat like it was an excuse to rampage out in the living area! I am still not sure how to deal with that reaction.

He also said that he was frightened of the dark, so we were leaving a light on for him. It didn't keep him in bed though.

Uncle Steve also has a cat, Ted. Ted had no doubts at all about David. As Steve said, he was convinced that David was a bogeyman, and behaved accordingly. I saw Ted a couple of times, but David only saw him disappearing into the distance.

David was very comfortable in Wagin, including the morning, after we had been staying for some week, when with Paul and I both in the house, and getting ready to go for a walk, we lost David between us. He had decided that it was all taking too long, and took off for uncle Steve's house. He was there, in the back yard, having closed the gate behind him. We had about three minutes of fear, becasue David wasn't anywhere, until I thought to check Steve's place. Then he was walked back, with a big talking to, and he said sorry. I almost thought that I was wrong on the way down, because Ted was sitting calmly in the front yard, but he did have a disgusted look on his face, so he had seen David shoot past.

David and the gun and the motor bike

Well, boys are boys, and David is a boy. It is amazing what kids seem to pick up by osmosis (compared with say, learning to brush their teeth, which seems to take years). This is David's first gun, photo taken 14 January 2008. We were at Paul's cousin Debbie's house for a bbq, and Debbie brought out a box of Duplo. Guess what David found in the box? Yes, a gun. No idea about the trigger, but able to point it and say bang very loudly. I was shot, and so was Daddy and most of the family. He didn't want to let it go!

Subsequently, when staying at Grif and Mac's house in February, David and the boys found a noisy gun in the toys in the garage. That was a large sub-machine gun type with sound effects. Kel didn't even know it was there. Heaven on a stick. Even now, we can be driving down the road in the car and David will say "Grif and Mac have a gun." "Where are Grif and Mac?" "I want to go to Grif and Mac's house." (I wonder why?)

Lots of things are now guns - sticks, bits of pipe off my bke handle bars, a bike pump, a caulking gun, anything really. If there is no gun, then David uses his Buzz Lightyear laser instead.

Liam was given swords (made of soft foam) for his birthday this month. He loves them and so do David and Katie. Remember Oscar Wilde "yet each man kills the thing he loves"? Well, two-year olds love shooting stabbing and killing those that they love, a lot! Over and over again! With much love and affection and no malice at all.

The second photo is also at cousin Debbie's house - with her son's trail bike. As David said "Better than a forklift!" His cousin turned it on for David, but the engine was a bit loud for him. He does like sitting on it though!

This week - and Easter - lots happening.

Well, where to start? This week Paul was away again travelling, this time back to Perth. The good part was that the trip went very well from a work point of view. As Mum is still in hospital, he reorganised and extended the trip for the whole week, returning Good Friday and was able to visit her, drop off warm slippers and some photos of David. Jan is finally starting to improve, and we hope that she will be well enough to go home at the end of next week, after another session of chemotherapy.

Paul is now home and we are all happy that he is not travelling at all next week.

David has now dropped back to two days a week at daycare. After discussion with the director, she suggested it as a way of making the transition smoother - we will just go Monday and Tuesday for a couple of months, and perhaps move to three days when David is settled and happy. He finds it very hard and upsetting to see me leave in the mornings. The perfect result would be that he was at daycare and that I was there too for the whole day. He does enjoy it, and is getting more settled and happier - he didn't want to leave on Monday afternoon - and is starting to make friends. He is also sleeping well and starting to eat the food. But, he looks for me during the day and asks about me. Outside daycare, he now says (quite regularly) "David can't find mummy at daycare." and occasionally "David can't find daddy at daycare." We will see how the shorter week goes.

This week has been warm, with temperatures around 27C to 30C. On Wednesday we went to the pool, for three hours. Lots of fun, and David in the last hour wanted to swim - kicking with his hands and using his feet - not just paddle & play. We were so tired that we both went to sleep in the afternoon, and my shoulders were still stiff from all the lifting the next day. On Thursday we met Zoe, Liam and Finn and went to the Washhouse to play all morning. On Friday the weather changed to cool, raining and miserable for the long Easter weekend. We visited friends in the afternoon before Daddy came home.

Today, Easter Sunday, we have been to church and visited the cousins, Matthew and Evan. David and Matthew really enjoy playing together. Both David and Matthew were very excited and looking forward to the visit. David managed to have small easter eggs at church and chips for lunch. How exciting!

Other things about this week. I have been giving David his water in a grown up cup at dinner more often lately. This week he decided to again start dunking his food in the water - he has done this before. He was dunking his bread and avocado and then eating it and saying "Delicious." Very funny.

Yesterday we had a fairly quiet day at home. I got out the hand drill to put a door stop on David's bedroom door and a hook on the back of his bathroom door. David loves tools, and loves screwdrivers. He also loves the handdrill so this was all fairly exciting and he was a big help. Since I used the hand drill about a week and a half ago, he is very excited by it. He knows about drill bits and how to turn the wheel, and the first time I got it out he practiced with drilling holes in a spare piece of pine in the garage. It made a big impression because he spoke to Katrina at daycare about it. She told me on Monday that David asked her if she had a hand drill. She wasn't sure what he was talking about, but when she said she didn't have a hand drill, he told her that everyone has a hand drill! That's it until next time.

Catch up photos - January 2008

And because David isn't asleep yet (at 9.10pm) here are a couple of photos from January.

This is the carousel or mery go round at Darling Harbour. It has the old fashioned steam or pipe organ music, and horses and sleighs for riding. David & I went into Darling Harbour on the light rail, then played in the fountains (his feet were really wet) then had two rides on the merry go round. The first time on the sleigh, then this second time on the horse. David had a great day.

This second photo is of David playing with his Duplo train set. He is older and playing a lot more constructively with the Duplo. Of course it really helps if we play too .... And it is a lot more interesting. We make trains, farms, zoos, and I add the fences, flowers, trees and other girly bits! One of the best things for him still is the noise when he tips up the whole box of Duplo onto the floor.

The new year - and how life is sometimes

Well, there is probably enough for another blog in "catch up" for early January, but it will have to wait. I have attached a couple of photos of David in Wagin, including David at the Giant Ram.

We came back to Sydney for a week or so, before going to Perth on 13 January. We stayed a couple of days with my friend Carolyn, and celebrated her birthday. David inherited some excellent toys from Carolyn's niece & nephew (many thanks) and then we went to Wagin to stay with Gran & Uncle Steve. Paul headed off to work and home, leaving David & I for a few weeks R&R in Wagin.

The thing was, that Gran was a little unwell. Her cough had come back from last year, and she had no energy, and was losing weight without trying to. She had been going to the doctor (in fact a series of GPs in Wagin) had been referred for tests but without anything being detected. Gran got a lot worse over the next couple of weeks. The cough prevented her from sleeping, and then from even lying down, or reclining in bed.

We went out for a drive to Lake Norring on Australia Day, and that was about the last thing that we could do, because she got a lot worse. Eventually she was admitted to hospital with a build up of fluid in her chest cavity on Tuesday 2 February. The cough stopped when she was put on oxygen, and they immediately drained 600mls of fluid out of her chest. More followed in the next weeks, litres in all. A diagnosis took more than two weeks. It was overian cancer. Jan has now had surgery and the first session of chemotherapy. She is still in hospital, and still on oxygen. The lung is improving, but overall she has been very slow to improve after the surgery. The doctors drained her abdomen today for the first time (1.6l so far this afternoon) as the bloating wasn't clearing by itself. We are not sure whether she will be home for Easter, but that may mean that she has her second dose of chemo before she leaves.

David & I came back to Sydney after the surgery after being in Wagin for four weeks, and Perth for nearly two weeks. Paul has been back twice (and is still there now) on business and to visit Jan. I think that Jan is actually improving slightly over the last couple of days. She finally sounds a little more like herself on the phone. She has also been able to enjoy a couple of visitors in the last few days.

Also, in January, Paul's dad, Grandad Reg, also became very weak, and no longer had the strength to get around. This was a big shock, after a good Christmas with the whole family. He was admitted to hospital after a number of collapses, and then transferred to palliative care. While he initially looked very weak, and we thought that he might slip away quite quickly, that has not been the case. The palliative care has been marvelous, and he is very comfortable, and peaceful. Nanna Josie visits him everyday. Paul has been visiting Melbourne whenever he can. Unfortunately, David & I have not been able to get to Melbourne since Christmas.

All in all, a very stressful time for all of us. It is not over yet. All this and the other stresses and pressures of work and life. David has coped remarkably well with all that has been happening, and has started daycare. We will survive. It has been a blessing that I have not been working while this has been happening.

after Christmas

Well, after Christmas we stayed on for a week or so into the new year. David had a lot of fun with Matthew and got to see Georgy (the dog) and learn to say "No, Georgy, down". She is a jumpy little dog and she thought David was new and exciting. The photo is of the cousins, David and Matthew giggling in Matthew's bed at Auntie Gaye's house. This was after Matthew had taught David how to jump on the bed. The boys are laughing a lot!

The second photo is of David on a forklift - one of his favourite things. We went for a picnic lunch at Gary's house after Christmas, but due to sewerage problems at his house in Eltham, we relocated to a nearby vinyard, that had a forklift and tractor in its shed. Guess who got to play on the forklift AND the tractor? David and two other boys. Heaven! David also got to run around on a very hot day in the vinyard with two lovely bigger boys, who were very gentle with him.

That's all for this update.

Christmas 2007 and a photo at last!

Well, there are a lot of photos from the new camera, and where to start? I am going to start with a couple that I liked from Christmas.

We spent Christmas in Melbourne with the Haselhurst clan. Cold for Christmas, (David wore his spiderman rubber boots and Matthew carried his new umbrella everywhere) but it warmed up to 37C the day we left. Hurray for taking two wardrobes! David had a lovely Christmas - playing with the cousins Matthew and Evan and seeing all the relatives. We drove down, leaving on Saturday 22 December after I finished up work on Thrusday and Paul got back from Townsville on Friday. We bought a new portable DVD player for the car, and managed it in a day, even when leaving late. David was restless, but slept a little, and watched lots of DVDs, like Toy Story and Toy Story 2.

The Photo incorporates two aspects of Christmas - David's new Buzz Lightyear toy, that he got from Mum & Dad, and his Buzz pyjamas. It also shows one of his loves at Christmas; playing in the suitcase. It made packing hard because David was always emptying the suitcase and climbing in. It is his car or plane, and he fastens his seatbelt.

We put up Christmas decorations in Sydney - lots of garlands and greenery and decorations on the stairs, but only put the Christmas tree up when we got to Nanna and Grandad's house, on Sunday 23 December. David and Mum and Nanna all worked on it together and had a good time, and we put it in the front window where it caught the light.

On Christmas day, David opened his stocking up for the presents from Santa first thing in the morning. Then we had the majority of presents, from under the tree with Mum and Dad and the grandparents later in the morning. Then we went to Aunty Gaye & Uncle David's house for Christmas lunch, and he got a few more presents. There were more on Boxing Day and a few more purchases or presents sprinkled throughout the week. By the end of the holiday, David was just asking about presents whenever he saw someone new, or went out, on the basis that he usually got something! Lots of small matchbox or similar cars trucks and similar items, as well as clothes, pyjamas, Cars backpack (or schoolbag), water bottle, barrel of monkeys and of course Buzz and Spiderman Mr Potato Head.

Even now (in March) he still really likes a model 30's Chevrolet vintage car we bought in Moonee Ponds, which he chose himself from a car and cigar shop. The doors open backwards and the dickey seat opens.

Reg was very quiet and tired for most of the holiday, but enjoyed David, and David enjoyed showing him things, and helping operate grandad's chair. David was very gentle with him, and very cautious when grandad was asleep, so as not to wake him.

David was out of the highchair on this trip and sitting having dinner with us all at the table. Generally he was sitting between grandad at his new chair, and me. One night we had takeaway roast chicken, and chips. Well, David discovered chips (in a big way). He had a few on his plate, with the rest of his dinner. He ate those, saying "chippies" over and over and then happily stole the majority of mine, off my plate and then stole grandad's chips. Chippies is a new favourite. We suspect that he has been trying a few somewhere else recently, because when I tried him with them months previously he said he didn't like them!

That is all for now. I will try to cover more territory chronologically in the next little while.

March already & starting daycare

Well, today was David's first day at Day Care - more about what has been happening in the last few months shortly. There has been a lot happening.

It went well, but he is not sleeping well - he is yelling out at me from bed as I type this.

David went from 10.00 am to 3.00pm. He didn't eat the food, but he did have a short sleep. He liked the toys - he played in the sand pit, and with two fire engines and a digger. We came home to see Dad before he headed off to Brisbane and Perth for just over a week. After a long bath, a play, a DVD another play and two long books, he should be sleepy..... But perhaps not.

As well as a couple of trial visits before Christmas and one in January, we went twice last week. David went it alone for half an hour last Thursday, and had his nappy changed by one of the girls.

He is enrolled for three days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. He likes it and all the toys. We will see how long before the novelty wears off.

I am hoping to have coffee tomorrow with someone from Zurich. Wish us luck!