So what do I do after finishing off last years posts? Procrastinate this years postings! Oh dear...
Well, if you can't tell by the title of this post, it has been ridiculously hot here in Ipswich since we stepped off the plane from Perth. It was like WHAM heat and humidity smacked us and it hasn't gone away. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times (in over a month) that it's been under 33 for a high. It's been soooooo gross. I used to like the heat, but that was when I was going on vacations to escape the cold. When you have to live in it, it is a whole new thing. I even lived in South Texas for almost 2 years and it was never this bad! Thank goodness for air conditioning!
Now on to the children!
Charlie is becoming quite the little independent rebel. He is starting to talk back and show all sorts of attitude - good times! His favourite thing in the world is milk, he wants it all the time and he likes it because "it's cold and has bubbles". He is potty trained fully now since coming home from Perth (I may have kept him in diapers for convenience sake while travelling...) with the occasional accident - yay Charlie! Man that kid got a lot of trains during the year it took for him to get potty trained - I think he knew how to work the system.
He has a great imagination and loves to play play play! His favourites are acting like a dog, playing with cars and trains, building tall towers and tunnels and he's recently really gotten in to Play-dough which is fun! He also still loves reading, mostly books about how things work (Rubbish and Recycling, Things That Go, My Body, etc) or Thomas the Train books. He will watch as many shows as we'll let him (which isn't a lot, poor guy lol) and his new favourite thing to ask for is chips. He also likes to make deals (or try to!) For example: "Mommy, I have an idea. After Elly falls asleep for her nap we'll watch my favourite show and then your favourite show. And I want some milk with it. And some chips. DEAL?" lol This kid is SMART! He's also gotten a bit picky in the last little while. Every time we sit down to dinner he says "yuck! I don't like this!" then we remind him he's not getting anything else to eat that night and he usually ends up eating it all.
Elly is talking up a storm! She babbles a heap, but knows quite a few words. Her favourites are: seat, shoes, pretty, puppy, fan, apple, no (she says no for yes as well, but with a nod so you can tell the difference), mine, moon, books, daddy, mommy, happy, ball, baby, hot, bottle .... It seems crazy to me that she already knows stuff! I mean, I know kids learn fast but she can point to tons of things in books and says what they are! She loves reading books and copying whatever her brother is doing. Most of the time I have two doggies running around the house. She loves swings, like in an obsessed-will-sit-in-them-for-hours-if-we'd-let-her sort of way.
She's a really good eater and out-eats her brother. Her favourite would have to be watermelon, and luckily it's in season! Elly is really observant and likes to be helpful. She's obsessed with shoes and whenever she finds them she returns them to their rightful owner "Mommy's shoes" etc. Actually she does that with anything she finds if she knows who's it is, water bottles, socks, necklaces.... speaking of which she is very much a girl and loves wearing necklaces and things in her hair (they usually don't last long but she gets them on, touches them and says "pretty" and then pulls it off and we start again.... a game maybe? lol)
So that's a little update on the kids! As for things going on around here, well Andrew's parents stopped by for a few days on their way home to Canada. While they were here we went to Southbank, Charlie and I got to go to a movie, we met some more relatives (a couple of cousins that live over here), Papa made Charlie the coolest bed ever, went on a BBQ, made arancini.... and I think that's about it! For Australia Day we were meant to go to our ward party but Elly slept through it! So we ended up not leaving the house until 5pm and went over to Springfield Orion Lagoon where we ate a picnic and had a nice swim with the hordes of other people there.... and we got to see some pretty good fireworks! Also, a girl I knew from when Shan and I were over here before just moved into our ward, so we got to catch up and that was neat! Playgroups haven't started up yet so we've been trying to keep busy with splash parks, the train museum, Koala Sanctuary.... the usuals. And my friend Holly has been down visiting with her two boys so we've tried to get the kids together a bit. Next week Shannon and Alex and Grayden come for a visit, then a few days after they go my parents arrive! So we've been quite busy and things aren't about to slow down any time soon.
Now onto the pictures!
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| Kholo Botanical Gardens for a picnic and a walk |
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| One of Charlies favourite things to do is go over to the athletic field and if people aren't practising we like to dig in the sand! |
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| Japanese Gardens |
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| More of Thomas' friends at the museum! |
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| Best place to go on a hot day - the air conditioned play pit at the museum (most of the museum isn't air conditioned but luckily this room is which is the kids favourite) |
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| Panning for cool rocks and gemstones at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary |
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| Charlie fell asleep on the way to the museum one day, Elly and I played for an hour before we needed to leave so Elly could go have her nap, and poor Charlie woke up on our way our and he was beside himself about having to leave! In my defence I did try and wake him up several times! |
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| Puppies in their baskets! |
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| We got a little pool to try and combat the heat! |
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| We built the coolest dog house ever! Poor Charlie had an accident just before this (hence the no shirt - I had brought him extra undies and shorts but didn't think about a shirt....) anyways, as we were leaving to go get him cleaned up he was crying and saying "I didn't want this to happen!" and "I'm sorry mommy!" Poor guy... |
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| We built a train track trying to use up all of Charlie's pieces! |
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| Picnic BBQ at Kholo |
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| CHEESE! Charlie and I got to go see Moana while papa built his bed and Nana watched Elly |
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| The coolest bed ever! Thanks Papa! |
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| Funnest swing at Queens Park! |
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| The Art Gallery has a fun thing right no ' Tapescapes' I think it's called. It's tunnels and cubbyholes and slides made up completely of metal scaffolding and duct tape - the kids loved it! |
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| Also at the art gallery they have a construction site - this is a mighty fine dog house! |
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| Oh Elly. She could eat watermelon all day every day.... and it's so adorable to hear her trying to say 'watermelon' |
