Annoying instincts of Ella

When babies are born they have a number of built-in survival reflexes such as the sucking reflex and moro reflex. As they develop towards their first birthday a number of other reflex actions start to make an appearance. The purpose of these reflexes is not clear but it may be to test their parents patience. Ella has been showing the following reflexes:
- change table turnover -- must turn over when parent is trying to change nappy
- reject the last spoon of food --if there's one mouthful left must not eat it
- bed side drawer attraction -- must empty out contents of bedside drawer messily

Brownian motion simulator

that is what ben is when he is trying to get back to sleep at 4 in the morning in our bed!

Lost in translation

Ben has started to talk a lot more. The only problem is that you don't always know what he is saying. Here are some translations:
Yar = yoghurt
den = devon
shard = sandwich
shaw = strawberries
tom = thomas
an = twister (the game)
Sar = Simon

History Repeats

Ben is now happily sleeping in his new bed and no longer asks to get into his cot. He has also dispensed with the sleeping bag and he loves covering himself with his doona. He has only fallen out of bed once when we had the bed guard wrongly positioned.

His elder brother has always gone to bed with a cast of thousands: books, animals, toys and toy catalogues. Well history is repeating. The other day when I took Ben to bed for his lunchtime sleep we went with: Teddy bear, drink, rubber frog, rubber lizard, plastic cow and Thomas the tank engine.

The attack of the cute baby.

If you blow up the photo you can see the reds of her eyes.

Champagne tastes of the Harris Boys

Favourite foods of the Harris boys:
-Bananas strawberries avocados grapes and salmon

Family get together and Pram transfer

Two Sunday's ago we had a Harris afternoon tea, with Mark, Leanne, Megan, Isa, Gareth and Kayla. Granny and Leanne supplied the food - thanks for the dips and cakes. With a new baby on the way for Leanne and Mark it was a good chance to offload some unused baby stuff. Leanne has kindly taken the old pram and bassinet. We are slowly clearing out the house. 2 cots, 1 change table, 1 pram and 3 kids still to go.

The way it used to be.

It was a hot sunny day on Saturday and the pool looked inviting, even if the water was slighty cold. I thought about how five years ago we would have been lying on our pool lounges under the umbrella having breakfast or morning tea and reading the newspaper. We would be thinking about what movie to see in the afternoon and where we were going for dinner.

Oh well, now we have three beautiful children who have us up from 5:30am. We have done the food shopping by 9am. Friends have dropped in for a swim by 11am. By 12am we are think about packing them all off for a nap and having one ourselves.

P.S. The pool lounges were broken a couple of years ago, the sun hardens the plastic and makes it brittle. So we don't have anywhere to lie down and read the paper anymore anyway.

My wife the card shark

Last Friday night we hosted the regular work poker night. Every few months my workmates get together at someone's house to play poker and sledge each other. For the second time they came along to the Harris household. Most of them are single and don't really cook for themselves so I cooked dinner for a few of them. For one it was his first home cooked meal for months. Even though he lives at home - oh the life of a single person.

Anyway when we play at our house, Sarah also plays. For the second time Sarah won. All of the guys think she is a card shark. Sarah often asks questions during the game about which hands beat which other hands. The truth is that she really doesn't know.

Anyway the hustler's winnings paid for a new outdoor umbrella. Lets see if she manages to clean up at her work poker night. Next year I might put her on the professional poker tour.

Happy Brithday Granny

Happy Birthday Granny,

We all hope you had a great day, even if you didn't see us today.

Congratulations Rob

On the weekend we went to a picnic organised by one on of Michael's cousin's. While we were there, we were told the exciting news that an old friend that we don't see as much as we used to anymore, Rob, has got engaged to the lovely Gabi.

Congratulations Rob and Gabi.

Granny informs me that Rob is a big fan of the this blog.

Nightmare on Cobar St

Ella has started to crawl!. She is now preparing to terrorise/annoy her brothers.

I know we have been through this before. We were overseas in an apartment when Simon started to crawl, there wasn't a lot of chance for him to get into trouble. Ben did get up to more mischief. However now we are home and we have a huge accumulation of toys for Ella to get into. Constant vigilance is required.

The worst thing about crawling is that they won't sit still on the change table and keep on rolling over. It has often been a nightmare changing Ben's nappy. Ella is easily the most active of the children (obviously taking after her father). She already kicks and screams when you are dressing her. Yesterday when Ella was put on the change table, in a flash she was on her stomach trying to launch herself head first over the side. Five minutes later after a good work out she was finally changed.

A moment of madness

Sometimes the mind of a toddler works in mysterious ways. All logic can go out the window when you are desperate to prove a point.

Scene: Michael going upstairs to fetch Ella.

Sarah: Ben, do you want to watch ABC kids?

Ben: No! (wailing at the bottom of the stairs) I want Daddy.

A father wins over TV, not many times that will happen in life.

Breaking news -- first sleep in for weeks

Last night certain countermeasures were taken to head off the 4:30am battle: Ben was put in his roomier sleeping bag, the blinds were drawn more tightly as Sarah noticed a glimmer of light entering at 4:40 the other morning, and Ben's doona was returned to the cot to make sure he was extra warm. And we got a result! Ben slept till 5:55. Mind you Ella woke at 5am but she stayed chatting away in her cot for about 20 minutes.

Hopefully this is not a mere aberration and Ben will continue to sleep more. Parents can only hope.

Sleep Wars continued

Warning: This post contains potentially contentious political information.

There have been recent news articles about the legality of the CIA's use of torture when interrogating prisoners as part of the war on terror. One of the torture methods being discussed is sleep deprivation.

This household has first hand experience in 'sleep torture'. The names of three members of the axis of evil are well known: Simon, Ben and Ella. The coalition of the exhausted -- Sarah and Michael -- have been waging a long war for a sleep past 6:00am.

After a long campaign Simon has finally been subdued and now regularly sleeps past 6:30. The junior member of the trio, Ella, remains a mystery but now sleeps in until 5:30am on a good day. This brings us to Ben. Sleep deprivation is the main tactic/weapon being used by both parties in this bitter struggle. Ben has also brought a fair degree of screaming and shouting to the battle.

For the last few weeks Ben has been waking up between 4:30 -- 5:30am, most commonly at 4:30am. At first a number of peaceful solutions were suggested by the concerned UG (United Grandparents ) including cohabitation with his brother and putting him into a big bed. None of these had any impact.

As exhausted parents we have decided to fight fire with fire. Ben used to sleep for at least 2 hours each afternoon -- we needed the break as well. However, in the end we have been limiting Ben's sleep to 1 hour a day and drugging him up (he does have a cough) at night. There has also been a concerted effort to run him ragged in the afternoon. Results so far -- exhausted child. He fell asleep on the couch at 11:40am the other morning. And exhausted parents. He still wakes up before 5am. It means we need to go to bed around 9am. Not much good for doing anything at night.

Our next great hope -- Daylight Savings. At least it will be 5:30am instead of 4:30am

nine months and still gorgeous

Yes she is gorgeous. She is wearing a dress that her grandmother and aunty gave her.

Ella dropping a bottle

We have finally stopped giving Ella her night time bottle and she is managing to mostly sleep till the next morning without it. Now we just have to get Ben to stop waking up at 4-4:30.......

So well trained - Whose the boss

Script 1:
Ben shouting at Simon:

Ben: Simon move away.

Simon:You're not the boss of me.

Ben: No Daddy is

Script 2:
Sarah talking to Ben:

Sarah: You are not the boss, I am

Ben: No Daddy boss!

Spring has sprung

The weather has been gorgeous the last few days and we are enjoying the warmer weather and blue Sydney skies. This has followed day after day of rain which was driving parents of small children stir crazy as they had to stay indoors with their little darlings.

Normal blogging will return shortly

As you would have noticed the frequency of update on this blog has reduced. Hopefully this will be rectified shortly.
Ben and Ella have been waking up early.
Sarah and Michael have been very busy at work.
Michael has been sick with a cold.

The above was written a month ago. Its been a busy month!

Grandparents return

The travellers have returned from Israel and we are all happy to see them.

It is a drughouse!

We have been hit with the winter colds. Simon and Ben have both had coughs, runny noses and temperatures. Ella has been coughing and sniffling away. The Dimetap and Nurofen have been flowing freely. The DVD player has been working overtime. We kept Simon at home today. hopefully he can return to preschool tomorrow.

After many unpleasant childhood experiences. I have kept the house a VICKS FREE ZONE.

The Boys

I didn't really have anything much to say about these two. Sarah took the two photos on the weekend.
Simon is looking very civilized reading his book in slippers. Yes I know he is on a beanbag.
If you enlarge the picture of Ben you can see his dimples.

That will be four for dinner

Last Friday night we decided to have Thai takeaway for dinner. It had been a long week and neither of us felt like cooking. Thai is the one meal that Simon will always sit down with us at the "big" table and eat. It always feels great to have a real meal with your children. As soon as the delivery guy arrived, Ben was at the door and Simon was shouting "The man is here". Simon refers to Thai as "the dinner the man brings". When the three of us had sat down, Ben showed some interest and before you knew it there were four for dinner. We are progressing.

Ben tried one spring roll, a curry puff and a bit of rice. Obviously worried that the food in the house was going to run out very soon, he managed to get lumps of rice stuck all down the front of his pyjamas. So when the food did run out he could just reach down for a snack

Our Marriage is saved! - Why we have not blogged

Don't worry this entry is not about sex. I would give it a G rating. There is some medical information contained but it is pretty tame with no pictures.

Two weeks ago when I was home on a Tuesday - the power kept going off in the kitchen and also for the TV. This is not good when you are trying to make lunch and keep children entertained. I eventually tracked it down to the dishwasher. We pondered about buying a new one since our last experience with the manufacturer's service department was pretty disappointing. After doing a bit of research and finding out 5 or so of the brands are made by the one manufacturer we decided to try one of the repairmen who advertised in the local paper. Yesterday the repairman came over and identified that the short was in the motor. He replaced it but wasn't happy with the new one, which he said was running too hot. He will be back again today.

So the lack of the dishwasher has meant we have to wash up after dinner instead of blogging. Over four years ago when Simon was born we went to see one of the local doctors because Sarah was worried she was getting mastitis. He misdiagnosed her and she ended up with an abscess. However the patronising twice married quack also decided to give us some marriage advice:
"To keep your marriage healthy, you and your partner should try and do the dishes together at least once a week. This will give you a chance to talk".

Without the dishwasher for two weeks we should last a few more years together.

A late weekend report

It was a very busy weekend. We are still recovering from it. It was the weekend of Grandma's 75th birthday party. On Saturday morning Sarah set off early to do the shopping. then Grandma and Auntie Sheila dropped in for morning tea and a quick Ella fix. In the afternoon Sarah took the kids out to see her friend Karen who is visiting from Hong Kong. Then in the evening we went to the big birthday bash and Angela's house. Megan kindly babysat for us.

Then on Sunday, Sarah took the boys to Nathan Woo's birthday party (Liesel's son). They all had a great time. It was at one of the play centres. Ben and Sarah enjoyed climbing to the top of the "tube thing" and eating a large amount of junk food. They each returned with a balloon and a lolly bag. We just had a quiet sunday afternoon after everyone had a sleep.

A Late Weekly Report.

It was another slow news week. Sorry the report is a bit late.

We didn’t start well with Ben running a temperature last weekend. The only time that Ben likes to cuddle is when he is sick. On Monday Busy Lizzie stepped up to bat with a slight cold. Simon went off to preschool and Ben and Ella had a quiet day,

On Tuesday I was in charge. We had another quiet day. We walked down to the park in the morning. My former work mate Giles came over for lunch and the afternoon. Ella had a long sleep and Ben had an even longer one. Ella was extremely charming when she woke up. She sat on the floor smiling away. It was hard to talk to Giles without looking at Ella. We all went off to fetch Simon from preschool at 4 pm. Ben was having such a long sleep that I had to wake him up to go. Giles left at about 5pm when they all started wanting their dinner. He left with the illusion of the domestic bliss that is the Harris household. Things deteriorated rapidly after he walked out of the door.

Wednesday, I got the phone call from the preschool to say Simon had a temperature and was not himself. As I arrived to pick him I was greeted with cries of “Simon’s dad is here” “Simon your dad is here”. After some TLC and LOTV (lots of TV) he is back to his usual chatty self).

Thursday, Busy Lizzie was back and they all went next door to Megan’s for mother’s group.

On Friday, the cleaners came; it was a very wet rainy cold day. Sarah and the kids didn’t do much.

The weekend was very busy. So busy in fact I’ll put it in another article.

bath time

A record number of baths for the Harris household this week. Three baths in three days for three children.

First ebay sale

Sarah has made her first ebay sale! She sold a baby rocking chair that a friend gave her very cheaply with only one bid. It has been agreed the proceeds of the sale will go to a book for both of them to read. I'm sorry Lisa it won't be a hardback as I only got $25. Maybe I should pay a bit extra for advertising next time...

Ben's first complete sentence

Ben: I watch ABC Kids!

Michael: We're not watching yet.

Ben. Not fair!

They learn so fast

Scene: Michael reading a book to Ben. Ben is smelly indicating there has been some activity in the nappy. Ella is asleep in her cot.

Michael: Ben have you done a poo?

Ben: Noo...baby

A new babysitter

Simon says: Granny will be so pleased that we've got a new babysitter. Simon's ideas of babysitting are a bit different to ours. Yes Ella is now sitting by herself. She still doesn't like lying on her tummy too much but we are making sure she does her exercise every day.

She is also starting to eat a bit more. We found a jar of baby food that she actually likes and today she actually slept for 2 hours in the middle of the day after eating almost a whole jar.

The boys are back in town

The cousin's Vince and Darcy have come back to Australia for a visit. Last week they dropped in to see Ella for the first time. Ella got herself dressed up for the occasion.

After the long trip form Dubai, Darcy was feeling a bit dirty so he had to jump in the bath with his cousins.

Simon "Freud" Harris

It's never too early to learn reverse psychology and then try it out on your parents:

Simon: I want to watch TV.

Sarah: What about doing a puzzle or some drawing? Those are exciting things

Simon: I want to watch TV.

Sarah: That's pretty boring, why don't you do something more exciting

Simon: I want to do something boring. I want to watch TV.

we've got a parrot

Yes, we've got a parrot. Ben is now talking all the time and copying everything people say, especially what his brother Simon says. He saw his little cousin Annabel this afternoon and she taught him the name of the Scobie's dog - Mintie. He still misses a lot of ending syllables but he's getting there. Although we're excited to hear him talk we're not looking forward to two little annoying voices after a long hard day.

Boulder

Ben, like his older brother before him, is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. And he's now started reenacting some of the stories. One of the 'scarier' ones about a big boulder that comes down the line to threaten the trains is his favourite. Ben uses the ball from Ella's new toy that Maz gave her (which she hasn't yet touched since Ben laid his eyes on it) as the boulder. Here's some shots of it.

Louise and Colin

Louise and Colin came to visit and Colin who has 3 older kids must have had lots of memories of when they were younger.

You just don't blog like you used to

Yes its true the frequency of blogging has gone way down. That is because I have gone back to work and am too tired and Michael is really busy at his work. We'll post more photos soon though.

Photos

I know that all you really want to see is photos of the children so here we are.

Strange Sighting today

Ben playing with Scoop. It is not often his possesive sibling allows someone else to play with his treasured friend.
Note: The marks on his shirt are milk. He still insists on eating his Cheerios with his hands. We do provide him with a spoon.

The exhaustion of Busy Lizzie

Looking after three children is not easy work. I have only done it for a few hours at a time. Sarah used to do it on Thursdays.On Fridays there was always 2 of us. However poor Lizzie is now doing two days a week. Busy Lizzie likes to be busy and the children are all entertained, fed and the house is aways tidy when we get home from work. She always does far much more than bothof us together achieve.

However on Thursday when I got home poor busy Lizzie was slumped in the chair a bit worn out. The kids had been out to a park in the morning for mothers group. Then in the afternoon Penny, Chris and Lily had come over to play. Well that is close to a normal Thursday, except for the fact that Ben had not slept at lunch time (He was up around 5am in the morning) and Ella had slept for about 25 minutes. These last two things had prevented the quiet lunch time that is essential for getting through the day in one piece. We cooked dinner. Sarah and Lizzie went shopping for an hour and Busy Lizzie was in bed and asleep by about 9pm.

On Friday, they all had a quite day with just a visit to Chatswood for a Baby Cino. Yes apparently Ben does sit down long enough for Lizzie to enjoy a coffee!

Higher degrees in Engineering required for successful modern parenting

The old joke used to be about the parents not being able to work the video control. The one skill every father needed to have was the ability to be able to put the new bike together the night before the birthday. Luckily I have a wife who spent 12 years at university where one of the useful skills she picked up was bike assembly so we have that requirement covered.

However bike assembly is nothing compared with car seat assembly and fitting. Ella has grown too big for the baby capsule (luckily because we need to return it). So last weekend I changed the capsule out and put in the car seat for her. She looks cute in it but I don't have a photo yet. Anyway Penny was kind enough to lend us one of hers that she is no longer using. Despite any sentiment expressed in this blog entry we are very happy to have it. It came with a set of instructions and I was tasked with adjusting the straps to so that they fitted Ella snugly. I saw the seat was of French origin - need I say more. Things were going to be complicated. After an hour of wresting the straps and buckles through various holes and joining them together the straps were adjusted for Ella. This involved 11 steps and 15 diagrams. As an engineer, this looked a very complicated design and my conclusion was that the seat was a potential safety hazard. It took a bit of skill and patience to properly fit the straps. I wonder how many of the chairs are in circulation and are not properly set up. Don't even get me started on take-apart toy assembly.

Weekend Report

It was a slow news weekend at the Harris Boyd Household.

I think everyone was a bit tired from the change of schedule during the week and also due to a couple of night wakenings from Ella and Ben's early morning starts.

On Saturday, we went with Penny and Deb to a childrens playground opening at Fox Studios. Grandma looked after Ella and we had lunch with her and Pa when we fetched Ella.

Immy and Lisa came to visit on Sunday morning. Immy was a very good sharer! Ben not so good. As I type this Ben is stealing Ella's baby toys from her. Lisa lent us some Thomas and Bob DVDs. The boys were happy and they spent a couple of hours in the afternoon watching them. Hala came for dinner to see the boys on Sunday night. Hala and Sarah watched a science show about Epigenetics. Now we have to find out about the health of our grandmothers in their 3rd trimester and our grandfathers as they reached puberty. This affects whether certain genes are triggered or not.

Hopefully the excitement level will pick up during the week.

Carpet shampoo testing continues

Warning: This post contains references to bodily fluids

It has been a quiet week in the household this week. Sarah and Ben were ill on Monday with a stomach bug. There were numerous vomiting episodes and the bucket came out. Ben was quite a bit more messy than Sarah. We had heard that Ben's buddy Tom had been sick with a 24
hr bug the week before.
Tuesday was Sarah's first day back at work after taking maternity leave for Ella. She made it to work but had to turn down the offer of being taken out to lunch. I spent the day with Ben and Ella. Ben was pretty lethargic and after a few more vomits I took him down to see Dr Doug. Dr Doug said it should pass in day or so and it has been going around. By Wednesday afternoon Ben was feeling much better and was tiring everyone else out.
Thursday saw the return on of Busy Lizzie (aka the craft nanny) who was looking after all three of them for the first time. Sarah was back at work and was well enough to be taken our for a nice lunch. Lizzie stayed overnight on the futon. Sarah and I hit the toy shops and were still going at 9PM. We have purchased christmas present for the boys and also something for cousins Vince and Darcy who are coming to visit in a few weeks. We also purchased two take apart "Lightning McQueen"s for the boys . Simon had been bugging us for weeks and was probably feeing a bit hard done by. (I am sure Granny would have bought him one a few weeks ago- He is missing you!)
On Friday, Lizzie was still in charge until 5:20PM when I returned home. I was hit with a 3 pronged children's assault: Ben demanded that I put electric Thomas back together, Simon demanded that I help take apart Lightning and Ella just wanted to play. After 45 minutes, they were all satisfied, I was exhausted and Sarah walked in from work drinks.

For those of you confused about the schedule this week: I have changed my day off to Tuesday, Sarah is working Tueday, Thursday and Friday. Lizzie is here on Thursday and Friday.

The Sleep Conspiracy

Anyone that knows us, knows that:

• we have 3 beautiful children
• we have 3 children that go to bed nicely, without much drama
• we have 3 early risers

So we are often talking about how early we have to get up all the time. With the extra activity Simon is getting at preschool he is now sleeping in until 630am or sometimes even 7am on most mornings. The current early bird who likes to catch the worm when it is still a very dark 5.30am is Ben. Back to bed Ben!. I am convinced he and his brother are conspiring to prevent any form or sleep-in for their parents. Whenever on the rare occasion that Ben decides to sleep in past 615am he arranges for big brother Simon to get up earlier with some lame excuse such as he can't find one of the hundreds of toys in his bed. Simon is actually too lazy to get out of bed, he just shouts out so one of us will come rushing in.

Who knows what they are telling their little sister to do or maybe she is the brains trust behind this little scam. Everyone knows how manipulative girls can be and she is cute.

Cute or what?

Michael wanted the title of this post to be "Entry in the most ridiculous outfit competition". I disagreed as I chose the outfit.

Where to now skippy?

On Friday we planned to visit Waratah Park - the home of the Skippy TV series. We got the idea when a few weeks ago we saw an episode at the Powerhouse museum. We checked on the web to ensure it was still open. However when we rocked up at 10AM - we were informed that new management had just taken over and the park was now only open on weekends.
Ben took the news rather badly as he was bundled back into the car. Where to now?
It was looking like it would rain so we headed off to clown town again. Everyone had a good time. Ella loved looking at all the other children and the huge climbing equipment. There were some anxious moments as Ben disappeared on the third level of the climbing apparatus and Sarah was sent in to search for him. The boys then decided it was fun to play on the car racing game with their mother.

In with the new and out with the old

We knew that we really needed a new couch when the Salvation Army collection service rejected our old ones. Now we are left with the old couch and two chairs on our front verandah until we can organise my retired brother Michael to help us take it to the tip. Here's a picture of the new ones. They are in as kid-friendly colours as possible and are still to be scotchgarded completely. Yet another job on our long list.....

Playgroup Smalltalk

Mother 1: Before I had kids I wouldn't be caught dead in KMart.

Mother 2: Me neither.

Mother 1: Now I shop there all the time.

Mother 2: Me too.

Mother 1: You know you're really sad when you start buying your own clothes there...

Weekend Report

Friday -- As Michael has already written we visited Ryde pool which is great for kids. It had two great animals sprouting water and a water slide the boys loved along with a whirlpool. Afterwards as we breathed a sigh of relief to be on the way home without any major incidents we had a major incident. Someone at the traffic lights pointed out our tire was flat so we pulled into the nearest service station and
proceeded to change the tyre. Unfortunately the wheelnuts were on so tight 3 strong men couldn't budge them. (Yes Michael is one of the three strong men. The other two were good samaritans who Michael asked to help) Luckily, one of the three strong men was a car mechanic who worked down the road and volunteered to go and get a special tool to help us) He soon returned and we were on our way.

Saturday -- We had lunch with the neighbours at Gladesville Hotel which caters for children. They have good outdoor climbing equipment and playstation games and a lady who does face painting. The kids all behaved really well including Abbey. The food was pretty average but the kids loved the hot chips. The food was better at the Jack-Boyd restaurant later in the day when we went to celebrate Michael's 50th birthday. Deb kindly minded the 3 children for us. We enjoyed being out on a Saturday night although we were a little bit tired after our long day. We didnt' manage to stay for cheese and cake but Mihcael didn't mind.

Sunday -- We minded Simon's friend Chris in the morning and Sarah went to yoga. Hala came for dinner and Michael cooked us stir fry.


I had my last day off on Monday where Lizzie minded Ben and Ella while I went out. Next week I'm returning to work 3 days a week. I had a gym visit, massage and stroll through the shops by myself. I can't describe how much I enjoyed walking down the shopping aisles by myself.

The Weekly Summary

For those of you who want to know who is funnier, Michael is the principal author of this blog entry although Sarah did add in a few extra comments.

Last Sunday night Ella moved out of the bassinet into her new old cot. Stay tuned for another Rainy Day Kids activity – “Cot Assembly”. She has also moved out of the walk-in robe into the upstairs study. While happy with the arrangements we have not seen any great improvement in sleeping habits.

Monday: Busy Lizzie (aka the craft nanny) looked after Ben and Ella while Sarah pretended to be a lady of leisure – playing a bit of golf and having lunch with grandma at the club. In the afternoon Busy Lizzie (aka the craft nanny) took the boys for a baby cino up at Chatswood. Apparently the kids are regulars and are well known there. In unconfirmed reports Ben actually sat still for 45 minutes. I went to work.

Tuesday: Deb (the Tonia Todman of the mother’s group) babysat so Sarah could attend a craft morning at the preschool. In the evening Sarah and Simon went to a lantern festival at the preschool to celebrate the winter solstice. He looked very cute – unfortunately there are no photos for this event.

Earlier in the day, the Salvos rejected the old couch and chairs. Funny how life reflects TV. The new Simpson episode (the only show that deals with the serious issues in life) also contained a segment about the Salvos rejecting some “donations”. I went to work.

Wednesday: We started the day with a carpet shampoo test after Ella threw up part of her morning bottle in the study. The big event for the day was the “Bob Movie” in the afternoon which Simon proudly announced the moment he arrived at preschool. Deb (the Tonia Todman of the mother’s group) came over with Sam and Tom and everyone had a good time although Sam was disappointed that he had seen the movie before. Sam was even allowed to borrow one of Simon’s lizards – There is hope for him after all! Sarah had bought home some unfinished craft from Tuesday morning and ‘Tonia’ quickly finished it off with glee. I went to work.

Thursday: Mothers group at Deb's (the Tonia Todman of the mother’s group) and then Aunty Ronda came for a visit in the afternoon. The local paper arrived with all the shopping catalogues. Simon has a new favourite magazine to drag around the house with him – The Myer toy catalogue. We now have a four page list of items that he wants for his birthday. We are comforted by the fact that his next birthday is so far away. But then again he does have a phenomenal memory. I went to work.

Friday: Ben woke up to watch the Socceroos qualify for the 2^nd round of the world cup. The high chair came out as Ella is starting to get the hang of eating. Sarah baked for the preschool fund raiser – (Oh how are lives are over!). I took Ella for her six month immunisation and then we headed out to the Ryde pool, which is like the Lane Cove pool only bigger. We are working our way up to the Homebush Bay pool.

That's about it - the weekend is looking very exciting! We are off to try out the kid-friendly Gladesville Hotel tomorrow.

The Garden of Eden

I know how popular photos are and you all must be hanging out for some. On Friday we visited a plant nursery called Eden Gardens. There was a small farmer's market on. I splurged $8 on the boys to buy 2 punnets of strawberries. These were quickly consumed over two nights.

Anyway I have attached some photos of the visit and also the previous visit when I took Ben and Simon with Granny and Grandpa.

Adam Scobie

Adam Scobie is my brother-in-law married to my sister Angela. He is a CPA and works in insurance in Sydney. We are here at his house in Mosman today to have chocolate cake with the family to celebrate Francesca's birthday. Ella didn't travel well and brought up her afternoon tea on the way here. Needless to say she won't be getting any chocolate cake this afternoon.

6 months today

The style of todays blog borrows shamelessly from a famous blogger (Heather at www.dooce.com) who every month writes a missive to her daughter about her development and progress. This will be Ella's first.

Ella you turn 6 months today and you are the happiest smiley baby we have ever seen. My mothers group calls you princess and a lot of them want you for their own. Of course you're not perfect and you have caused us some grief. When you were little you often woke in the middle of the night and had lots of unexplained crying (aka colic aka they have no idea what it is). And you're still having trouble with sleeping as long as we'd like; i.e. till past 5:00am. You look a lot like Simon did now with your chubby 'formula cheeks' and like Simon at this age you love people. You are a bit of a nosey parker and are always turning your head to see what is happening. This is quite irritating when we are trying to feed you. You are very talkative and take any opportunity to join in the conversation. You also initiate conversations yourself by blowing raspberries. You must learn that 4:10 in the morning is 'quiet time' though. Although you are not turning over yet you love jumping in the jolly jumper and love banging your feet on the floor when you are lying down. When we go out clucky women fight with each other over who gets to hold you and you happily oblige showering them with smile after smile. You bring joy wherever you go.

Since parents have to always try and be fair and not have favourites I have also written a few words to the two boys.

Simon, you are now four years old and scarily grown up. The words that come out of your mouth sometimes amaze us. You are a very happy boy but can sometimes be very serious too. You find lots of TV shows scary like Toy Story, Robots and Curse of the Were Rabbits except you weren't phased when the tiger devoured the deer on the animal documentary. You don't stop talking and sometimes your 'inside voice' can get a bit too much. You are very imaginative and now you have started doing your own puppet shows we won't be able to stop you. You love having company and going to visit people's places although sometimes you just want to play with their toys rather than the other children. According to your preschool teacher you have a good sense of humour but like your mother you sometimes laugh at your own jokes and have yet to learn that there is only allowed to be one 'funny one' in the family and your father has reserved that place. Readers of the blog can judge if he deserves it. You are very polite and gentle and other people have no hesitation in looking after you as you are no trouble. You love having sleepovers at your granny's and its not just because she lets you watch Nick Jr. Simon you are a pleasure to have around.

Ben, you are now your own little person and what a personality you have. You have a wicked look in your eyes which we think may have come from your grandfather Joss. You take every opportunity to tease your older brother but I'm sure its just because you want his attention. Simon is your favourite person and you are finally getting old enough so you can play with him for a few minutes before you start annoying him. You love reading books and can often be found pulling all the books out of the bookshelf and quietly leafing through the Thomas anthology which is one of your favourites. Unlike Simon you are very active and love running around. You are particularly fast at running out of the library and down the road. You have just learnt to ride a tricycle but insist on riding the one that is just slightly too big for you. You are another early riser like your Pa Boyd and love letting us know that you are awake. You don't quite understand that when its dark we are meant to sleep and when you are brought to snuggle in Mummy's bed that pulling hair and kicking do not count as snuggling. At the moment you are very naughty and testing us all the time. You have had quite a few 'time-outs' in your bedroom but unlike Simon at this age never seem very phased after your punishment and just quickly move on. You have inherited your mother's bad temper but also her sunny disposition. You have inherited your father's messiness and also his kindness. You are very caring and always looking out for others often sharing things with your brother contrary to the role model he provides you. We are very proud to be your parents.

Who knows what it means

Simon: Granny likes costing a too much

The Beanie Boys

Apparently beanies are trendy now.

The end of Saturday morning cartoons

On Saturday mornings when I was young my sister and I would sneak downstairs about 6:00, raid the chocolate biscuit cupboard and park ourselves in front of the cartoons for a few hours. Now thanks to the Steiner inspired limited TV regime Simon and Ben can be found quietly reading books on the couch. Do you believe me? Well just look at the photo.

The late edition of the weekend report

It was a very wet Saturday in Sydney. We had to empty the pool for the second time in the week because it was over flowing. Luckily Simon went to see the new animated movie “Cars”. He was very kindly taken by his friend Chris’s Aunt Lirie. He had a great time and is now requesting merchandising from the movie for his next birthday. As usual he was rebuffed with “yes…. maybe…. it’s a long time away you know”

In order to prevent the rest of us going stir crazy we decided to also head out. Michael Sarah, Ella and Ben went to Kids Central – “The shop that always ends in tears”. For those that don’t know Kids Central is a toy shop with a small café inside it and also a fenced play area. The play area is situated close to a large display of Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise. Ben does not like being confined and had a great time running around outside the fenced play area and finally settled in front of the Thomas stand. This was also a favourite haunt of Simon. When it was time to go he was not happy to be leaving without an expensive Thomas accessory. Well at least we got out of the house and had a bite to eat.

Sunday Lisa and Immie came to visit. This went better than expected as Lisa was worried about Imogen’s sharing issues. Happy to say there were no sharing ‘incidents’. In the afternoon we went to visit Arthur and Rhonda’s for a family BBQ and to show off Ella. As usual everybody loved her. Then Michael went off to the rugby with the Boyd boys. A very cold night and a bit of an uninspiring game. Sarah was helped out at home by Eliza, Francesca and Angela. They helped serve out the dinner and bath all 3 kids. Eliza also helped hang Simon’s artwork – several pictures of the main characters in Bob the builder in assorted poses.

Monday was another hectic day for the family. We caught up with uni friends in the morning at Lane Cove National Park. Most of us had kids so we congregated around the park and the café with complementary toys. Sensing a trend here? We managed to stay out for several hours with Ella having a short nap in the park. In the afternoon we went over to see some more cousins Leanne, Mark and Kayla. Kayla had plenty of toys to amuse Simon and Ben; the big hit with Simon was the baby with real bodily functions. However the nappy was missing so Leanne’s carpet got a bit wet. Gareth performed his usual impressive babysitting duties.

Later that night Lizzie (aka the Craft Nanny) came around to get her last Uni assignment typed – a sociology essay about youth subculture. Sarah quite enjoyed learning about it but was given a stern look by Michael about even considering anymore Uni study.

Coming up in later editions – An in depth investigation in children’s sleep habits – We blow the lid on some common theories.

Weekend Report

Good morning readers and welcome to another extended weekend report. Yes it is another 4 day weekend. These 4 day weekends are making me responsible for blogging on more days than Sarah, so I am sorry for the decline in quality. No I am not taking another day off work. Monday is the Queen’s Birthday and everyone gets the day off. WARNING: The next part of the blog contains political opinion.

As a republican I see this public holiday as the greatest obstacle to constitutional reform in Australia. Who is going to give up on Queen Lizzie and future King Chuck if they are going to have an extra day of work? To overcome this I suggest we that we create a Presidents day holiday on the birthday of our first president. This person will of course be former Australian opening batsmen – David Boon.

A Rainy Day Activity:

Looking for something to do on a rainy afternoon with two boys? Try firewood stacking.

Required Equipment:

• 2 cubic metres firewood (mixture of iron bark and yellow box)
• 1 tarpaulin to cover firewood while in the rain
• 3 pairs of gloves (or 2 if you can get people to use a single glove)
• 2 or more children
• 1 wife to help out
• 1 wheel barrow.

Optional Equipment:

• 1 small blue tongue lizard

Instructions:

1. Arrange for firewood to be delivered in the morning and cover with tarpaulin – Wet firewood does not burn that well and is slippery to handle.
2. Wait for kids to wake from lunchtime sleep and then put on their warm clothes and shoes.
3. Open garage door and uncover wood
4. Load up wheelbarrow and take wood into garage to where it will be stacked.
5. Unload wheelbarrow and stack wood - Watch out for being hit with wood.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 about 20 times
   

Alternatives / Options

The following can be used to extend the activity:

• Chase 2 year old son around as he goes in the house and shuts the door and then shouts out because he cannt open the door.
• Try and retrieve gloves from 2 year old son
• Find blue tongue lizard in the wood pile and release him safely in the back yard
• Ensure 2 children do not harm lizard.

In order to assist anyone wanting to try out this activity I have included some helpful photos.

Empty garage. Prior to activity	wood with helpers ready to go.
Blue Tongue lizard	All finished.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Simon: Dad, when granny comes back from holiday maybe [pause] we can go and visit her and watch Nick Jr.

Conclusion: The kid is really missing TV!

Todays Parenting Tip

How do you make a child’s toy more attractive?

Give it to one of its siblings.

Ella and I are writing the blog together today so this will be a short entry.

Ella is now eating a few tablespoons of rice cereal and starting to get the hang of it.
Granny will be very pleased. And she is getting chubby as judged by the difficulty of
cleaning her neck (on the days she actually gets a bath that is).

We are buying some new furniture today. There was a special on at Myers for a combo of
3 seater + 2 seater + ottoman in a chocolate brown colour. We tried to spend the
minimum amount possible as the kids will probably wreck it.

We went to visit Grandma today and she and Pa looked after all 3 kids for an hour.
Michael was worried about them but he consoled himself with the thought that she did
bring up 6 of her own children.

This blog is a good record for the children when they're older so I've put a couple of
baby photos of the boys up today. (sorry about the wonky placement).
Can you tell which is which?

Happy Birthday Grandad!

Hi,

June 6 is Grandads birthday. We all missed you and hope you had great day with your new grand daughter.

Love Simon, Ben and Ella

Ben still fancies himself as a bit of a rapper. He stopped eating cereal months ago so I bought some American cheerios thinking he'd probably like them. They have good stuff in them along with lots of sugar. So is it better for them to have the good stuff and the sugar or nothing? I decided the former. He loves them and he especially likes eating them one by one with many making it to the floor before his mouth. Since he uses his fingers this is very good for his fine motor skills. A tick for school readiness already! Simon hasn't been having much of his healthy cereal lately either and as I suspected he loves cheerios too so I'll have to wait a while before I reintroduce the healthy stuff.

Simon decided Ella should introduce an eyewear range as well and while she was in the jolly jumper he put on her new glasses.

Simon quite likes blogging too. He has what Michael calls a spoken blog. Other parents call this talking all the time. He communicates this blog to everyone at preschool telling them anything he can think of about what happens at home like "Daddy ate the cooking chocolate."

Michael and I both need to wear watches when we sleep as the boys sometimes wake us up at the oddest hours and there's nothing worse than thinking its the middle of the night and realising that its already 5:30 -- a totally reasonable time for Ben to wake up.

Its still raining in Sydney -- everywhere except where the water catchment sites are. It makes it harder for parents, keeping the kids inside all the time. Its too wet even for the Steiner kindergarten to take them outside in their wet weather gear and our pool is overflowing. Speaking of Steiner, Simon is having a winter lantern festival to celebrate the dark or something. He's also having a fund-raising coffee shop afternoon. I'm under pressure now to cook something wholesome and nice tasting.

Photos from the weekend

Hi All,

Back again here are some photos from the weekend. You can see some more photos at our flickr website