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

Weekend Report Part 2

Welcome back and sorry for keeping you all in suspense. Firstly just an administrative matter: For those who are constantly checking the internet for the latest update to this blog we don’t normally update until after the kids go to bed around 8PM Australian Eastern Standard Time.

Today was my day off. Don’t worry I won’t bore you with the details of my day. I will stick to news about the children. It was raining most of the day and Busy Lizzie (aka “The craft nanny”) took Ben and Smiling Ella off to Softplay. Simon went to preschool where they had to spend the whole day inside. The teachers brought out a new train set that had been donated and this was a big hit. There was some controversy – it was a Thomas the tank engine set. This sort of TV character based toy is frowned upon at Steiner schools.

This afternoon we went for our first parent teacher meeting ever to discuss Simon’s preschool performance. Some may say this big news should have a posting of its own. All we had was good news. Simon has settled in well. He gets on well with the other children. For those that know the true Simon we also had some surprising news – Simon has a good sense of humour and often laughs off most of life’s hiccups. He obviously has some special toys but he is quite happy to share.

Well that’s all for this extended weekend report. The next update will (hopefully) be provided by the mother. Also stay tuned for more photos.

Weekend Report Part 1

Hi and welcome to the weekend report – This week it is a two parter since I am having a four day weekend. I am taking Monday off to enjoy the day with Sarah while Lizzie looks after Ben and Ella. You will have to wait for the second part of the report to find out what happens on Monday.

The weather has turned cold over the last week. Yes temperatures are hanging below 20 degrees C. We have had the fire going and the wood stockpile will need to be replenished.

On Friday with the threat of rain hanging over us we decided to to have a swim at Lane Cove Pool. Everyone had a good time and then in the afternoon we headed across the road to visit Louise, Charlotte and Isabella. Due to age differences, the boys don’t always play with their neighbours but they did have a fantastic time playing with the girls’ toys. Ben had a great time pushing the prams around. Simon of course had to fully load a pram with all the treasures he had found and secured. There was an unfortunate incident when Ben was caught playing in the doll’s house out of sight of his father.

Oops I missed out the news that all grandmothers want to hear – the rice cereal has been purchased. No we haven’t given any to Ella yet. We are just showing her the box for now so that she becomes familiar with the idea of the food. I think she should be ready by next week.

On Saturday I went to the gym and got a haircut. Sarah took the kids to visit Hala, her mother and grandmother. They were all delightful. I can’t really say more since I wasn’t there. In the afternoon our friends Christian and Megan from Wollongong and their little boy Sebastian came for afternoon tea. Boy, when you read this it would appear that we do have a social life.

Now it is Sunday afternoon and I am just going to chop some wood. We walked down to the Artarmon Reserve this morning. Well actually Simon rode his new bike – purchased at the fair last week. He isn’t bad on the new bike although he is not the keen on going down steep hills.

A night at the movies and a time for reflection.

Warning – no real kids news in this posting just premature onset of mid life crisis. On Thursday night we went out to the movies (thanks to next door neighbour Megan for babysitting). Every year we go to see the latest Warren Miller movie when it comes to Sydney (normally for only a few days). We probably have been going for the last ten years and used to take people with us. This time we were so happy just to be going, we went by ourselves, not having the energy to organise tickets for anyone else.

For those that don’t know, Warren Miller movies are about skiing and every year he brings out a new one. Warren is quite an old guy; he has been making movies for 56 years. When we started going I think he had already given up most of the actual film making but he narrated the movies with his corny dry wit. We knew that his company had been sold to Time Warner a few years ago and the production was certainly becoming much slicker. This year there was a new co-narrator and there was very little of Warren’s voice. You could feel the end of the real Warren Miller experience. I looked up on the internet later on and found out yes it was the end. Warren didn’t have anything at all to do with the latest movie and they just used old recordings of him. A bit sad really.

At the movie I think Sarah and I both felt a bit older. Who would have thought five years ago that we would be going to a Warren Miller movie with three kids at home? I don’t know when our next ski holiday will be or if we will ever be able to go heli-skiing -- the ultimate ski experience. We both said we would like to one day take the children to a Warren Miller movie. Sadly there won’t be any real Warren Miller in the movie by the time we can take them. I hope they still at least keep making them.

Don’t worry, for those hanging out for “kids news”, normal programming will resume shortly.

I have a rare spare moment in the middle of the day. All 3 children are asleep. So a quick blog entry.

This morning I went to mother's group at my friend Kate's. I got some feedback on my blog which was that pictures are good. So even though I haven't taken any pictures today I'll post some old ones.

Ella has really been enjoying the jolly jumper. Apparently, Rosemary, the local early childhood nurse doesn't approve.

Ben fancies himself as a bit of a rapper. He especially loves rapping to "move it, move it" from Madagascar (one of the shows he did watch on TV last week).

Some of the other mothers in my mother's group are trying my experiment of limiting TV. We are all finding it quite successful. Much to our surprise the kids mostly seem to find something else to do and don't really fight anymore than usual.

Pa (my Dad) came for dinner last week by himself as his wife abandoned him to go away with 'the girls' to Bathurst. He enjoyed getting a hold of Ella as everyone does.

The name of this blog is inspired by the coincidence of my grandfather's owning a tailoring business called Harris and Boyd. this is a coincidence because Michael's surname is Harris.Unfortunately grandfather Boyd had to buy out Mr Harris as he went bankrupt!