Workday morning...

On days we both work it's rush, rush, rush to get out the house.

Except for some people (pictured) who were snapped this morning looking distinctly unrushed despite being hurried along several times...!

Six.

Today is E's birthday - six. This age really feels like the beginning of a new stage. I guess the 0-5 years are 'little' so that makes 6 the start of the 'bit bigger kid' years. Or something like that.

We celebrated his birthday with a small gathering in the park. A handful of his mates from school came along and played, ate and played some more. The sun shone for the whole day (as tends to happen on this boy's birthday, remarkably for mid-winter) and it really was pleasant for everyone.




I had my first crack at a 'kiddie' cake. It turned out OK, I suppose, so long as no-one looked too closely at the bodgy icing. Somehow I don't think I'll be giving up the day job for cake decorating any time soon...!

Logic?

Doesn't the logic of little kids just floor you sometimes?

Take today, for example. At 22 months T only has limited reserves of logic. Clearly this is the case because this morning, having brushed her teeth, she decided to pop her toothbrush into the toilet.

This was after me warning her to not do precisely that.

She has deposited THREE toothbrushes in the loo in the space of a week. That's about $12 down the toilet... (sorry!)

The boy, at nearly 6, then displayed his rather more advanced powers of logic. While his sister did a stint in time-out for her willful disobedience he was busily making something...



It's a bag. Made from paper and staples.

His thinking was that instead of T putting her toothbrush into the toilet we could retrain her to place it into said bag.

I like that he did diagrams explaining the steps of the process for her.

Here's hoping his approach is more successful than mine has been...!

A break - away!

So being school holidays and all, time was ripe for a road trip. Not far, mind you - there's nothing I hate more than being stuck in a car - just to Canberra and surrounds. Oh it was refreshing. Chilly, granted, but then you do expect that in the middle of winter.

On the first day we stopped at the village where Shaun's dad is buried. My view of the (gorgeous) surrounds looked a bit like this...




The boy? Well, it's so quiet there we could let him scoot to his heart's content.




We stopped to throw rocks in the water. Apparently this is totally ace when you're 22 months old. Boy did she not want to move on...






Ooh, look - more rocks!




The next day we meandered into Canberra. So it seems did everyone else - there wasn't a room to be had. Not to worry, we headed back out to the 'hinterland' (if you can call it that, it's all kind of hinterland, isn't it?) after we'd visited Questacon.

Questacon! Whoa. So good! I don't think E learnt anything at all but he sure liked touching all the stuff (gastric alert - ick). He had soooo much fun.





Emboldened, we headed back into The Nation's Capital the next day and checked out the zoo. After almost fainting at the entry cost we did indeed have a marvellous time and declared it worth the (exorbitant amount of) money.

This is the lad in front of a giraffe (apparently).



I liked the otters!



And with an aquarium onsite what more could you want?!



It may have only been a couple of days but, wow, it was amazingly good to get away. Already I am casting my mind forward to next school holidays. And yes, next time we will book...

My Lovely

The past few weeks have knocked the wind of me a bit.

So in the face of unspeakable sadness for those around me I need to stop and note a little beautifulness.




~ the pram-pushing, dolly-cuddling beautifulness

~ the beautifulness that is a toddler with outstretched arms calling 'cuggle!'

~ the beautifulness of a tiny third bottom tooth poking through and ending the 'hippo teeth' look!




~ the beautifulness of her 'Wow!' and 'Ooh!' at every little thing.



~ the wonder of a little person learning to count, recognise colours and know more and more words each day.



~ the beautifulness of an emerging personality.




~ the beautifulness of last night, when I was giving her her bottle and telling her I loved her. That baby took the bottle out of her mouth leaned up and kissed me gently on the lips. I need nothing more.

Wet (long) weekend

It's raining, it's pouring. Etc.

But hey, that's no barrier to a bit of fun, is it?

Light

There has been so much going on of late that it was only this morning that I realised I was going to post some pictures of last Sunday evening, when I took the little lad into the city - leaving Daddy and daughter at home - to check out the Vivid light festival.



At this time of year it's getting dark pretty early, so I did think 'what am I doing going out in the cold late on a Sunday night?' Then I looked at my watch at it said 5.30. (Clearly I don't get out enough.)



Anyhow, we jumped on the train, headed into Circular Quay, oohed and aahed at all the amazingly clever and gorgeous lighting effects.



It was cool to see the Opera House all lit up, for sure. But, really, the best thing about our evening was that it was a chance for me and my 'big boy' to grab some rare one-on-one time.



We held hands, ate chips and an icecream and just enjoyed each other's company.

My shining boy.