Sick Day and Bot Gardens

On Monday mom, dad and I (and Rowan) were slowly getting ready to go for a walk somewhere. I heard my phone ring - odd as no one usually calls me. It was Ellis's teacher Sam (as in Samantha). "How was Ellis today?" she asked.

"Fine - I think, he didn't want to go to school as Grandpa and Grandma are visiting."

"Oh - well, he's fairly pale and he keeps saying he's hungry....oh - Mi Young says he's just thrown up."

"ok - I'll come and get him."

So off I went. I left Rowan with G & G and apparently he didn't even notice I'd gone. That's a miracle.

I collected Ellis (and his bunny basket) and we headed home. On the way he said:

"I will get rid of my sick germs tomorrow." Hmm - I thought - can he barf at will now? Is this all a ploy to get out of school? I set him up in front of the TV and G & G made alternate plans. They took the bus to the city and wandered around.

Ellis lay on the couch looking pretty forlorn and it appeared he had a fever so I carted him to his bed where he stayed. He actually napped so I know he was sick. Rowan and I napped too - next thing I knew it was 3 pm - Ellis had woken up and seemed a bit better. Yay for drugs.

G & G got back - they had had a good day wandering around the CBD and the art gallery. Good exhibit on hats and it's all free! They liked that - I know where I get it from. G. Doreen had a pumpkin sandwich for lunch at the Sanitarium restaurant in the CBC (Sanitarium is the cereal company here and pumpkin is squash - still weird in a sandwich).

After dinner (which Ellis ate a lot of for once) we watched pictures of Sydney on our TV. G. Doreen secretly wants a bigger TV I think. I think Cyp secretly wishes he could unload ours on them so we could get an even bigger one. I must admit I have gotten used to it and no longer think it's obscene.

This morning (Tuesday) Ellis woke up and seemed to be fine. I wish I could remember his exact phrasing, but it was essentially - "I can control my sick germs." I asked him if perhaps he felt sick yesterday as he didn't want to be left out of the G & G visit and he said "yes" I don't know how he willed a fever on himself. Anyway - he ate fairly well all day and seemed fine.

We decided to walk (ok, I did) to the Botanical Gardens - it's actually not too far from our house. We had to go on the overpass over the highway (spider alley as I will now refer to it) and they were quite nice. Ellis ran around the entire place.

G & G tried planning a trip after lunch and me being a terrible planner hung out in the playroom with Ellis and Rowan. G. Neil prefers calling and asking questions at potential accommodation locales - I hate doing that! and so does Cyp so this is good that G. Neil likes to ask questions.

After we had sort of ironed out a trip, we went to Dick Smith (kinda like Future Shop) to look for a Sim card for a phone. They didn't have one so we had to go to the dreaded Indooroopilly Mall where they did. I then took G & G for a drive on the other side of the river while the boys napped in the car. G. Neil baffled our babysitters by sending them unintelligible messages on my phone (he's new at texting). He likes the iphone though and it may be the next electronic purchase when he gets home.

Our last stop before getting home was to our new city cousin. Cyp and I have joined Food Connect. We are now getting our fruit and veg direct from the farm. The food seems good, but there is not a lot of it. Last week we got one beet, one carrot and one corn of cob in our box (plus other things). I can't really see the point of putting one beet into a box, but who knows - maybe other people would be annoyed to miss out on that one beet. The box is supposed to last us a week - hard to tell right now as there are four adults instead of two so we'll have to wait until G & G have gone home to get a real idea of whether it works or not.

Toowoomba Part 2

As it was Sunday, Cyp was home - we asked him what he wanted to do. "Toowoomba."

We were out the door by 9:30 (our regular time - doesn't seem to vary) and on our two car road trip.

I decided not to take the scenic route this time as the highway route is just as scenic - there was one leg we didn't take last time - about 11 km from Towoomba, so I quickly turned right (like a left turn at home) across the highway to take it.

Dad decided this was a good time for mom to learn to drive on the other side of the road.

The funny thing about non highway driving is that the speed limit is the same (100 km) but it is way more windy with lots of hidden driveways. I decided to go 80 - but we had a few cars chasing us.

Dad also noted that the highway had cross streets - kinda scary to be batting along at 100 to see a car suddenly cross the street in front of you...

Anyway - the scenic route took us in the back way to Toowoomba and we got to see it is rather a large town. Second largest inland city in Australia according to Wikipediea.

Mom noted that it had nice gardens (it's also the garden city) and her other comment upon getting out of the car was - yup - I kept hitting the windshield wipers instead of the turn indicator. Other than that, I think she did ok.

We went to picnic point and had our picnic and then did a bit of a walk down to a lookout point. It is a very pretty place - I kinda felt like skipping through the grassy fields (but was lugging Rowan in a backpack so didn't have the energy - also was worried about snakes in the tall grass). We can't walk far with the kids so we got back into our cars and headed across town to another park (near the city gardens). We hung out in the park while G & G checked out the gardens. Not the best time - September is flower season here. Another mom there originally from Minnesota (now here 9 years) detected my accent and gave me her email address if I ever needed help or someone to talk to. People are just so friendly here.

We then hopped in the car and headed home. This time I stopped at the farm stands on the way home (again - right on the highway). We needed zucchini and leaks for our smoked cod pasta that we were going to have for dinner. I also pulled off the highway at the Meat Tavern and Big Dad's Pies. Cyp ran in and got his steak and cheese pie and mom checked out the Meat Tavern. It was a big meat store - she said it was interesting. Poor Cyp couldn't check it out as Rowan was melting down and I wanted to get going. At least he got his pie.

Even though the driving was only about 90 minutes - we all felt pretty bleary when we got home... we had a quick swim and then dinner and bed. Ellis was exhausted and today at school he voneted again, so I had to go get him.

G & G took the bus to town, Ellis is watching Dumbo and Rowan is napping.

The Beach

Today we had a birthday party at Lil Tigers so we sent G & G to the West End Market. They left before Ellis got up - poor little guy is tuckered out. I had to finally go in and get him up at 9 by saying "we have a birthday party at Little Tigers." This prevented the morning freak out.

He was oddly subdued at the party (as compared to the hordes of other kids - it was a madhouse) although he sent his socks into the ball vacuum again so he had some fun.

Fortunately he wanted to leave early. We met up at home, had lunch and then headed to the beach. I chose the wrong route and we did a tour of the strip mall. We found it though, or we found the swimming pool at the edge of the ocean. Ellis and Rowan loved it (I liked it to) and after we were done we decided to look around the other side and there was the beach. Heh. Well - now we know where the closest beach is. We stopped for fish and chips and then headed home where I tried my darndest to lose dad, but he managed to follow me on the circuitous route home.

At one point we were waiting at one of those extra special long Brizzy lights when it finally turned green. The cars in front of us took their sweet time starting up and Ellis piped up from the back

"they're taking Forever.... what are they waiting for Christmas?"

yah - I must learn to be more patient.

It's good G & G are here - it's helping us to get out and explore a bit more. The beach looked nice.

Car Rental

On Friday Ellis has school so after dropping him off, I came back and got G & G so we could go to New Farm. We parked near the river (we checked the area extensively for no parking signs and figured we were safe and we headed out on a river walk. We had to pack Rowan's car seat as we were picking up mom and dad's car downtown at the end of our walk.

We hiked along the floating walkway that I had often looked at from our apartment in Kangaroo Point - thankfully, it has cooled off a bit, so though the sun was out - it wasn't too bad. We hiked all along into the city and out to Gardens Point (the city is on a bump - sure i've mentioned this before - at the tip is the City Botanical Gardens). We stopped for a bit in the playground - Rowan can now stand and reach the yellow balls... and he went down the slide a few times. He's very clever - he just scoots his way backwards and goes down - he also has taught himself to go down the stairs (as no G. Anita here to help him and his mummy doesn't have much patience). I guess he also got the self preservation (aka chicken) gene from his mummy.

We had planned on going to the cafe in the gardens but it was closed (the sign going into the park says it's open 7 days a week all year) so we hiked back out and went to the Coffee Club downtown. Hiked down the Queen Street Mall and I pointed out the hordes of people - everyday it's like that? Don't they have to work? :)

We got the car and managed to cram ourselves into it - then we had a bit of an adventure finding my car again. We only got honked at twice and I thought Cyp tried to take the passenger side of the car off!

We did the carseat shuffle and then mom and dad followed Rowan and me back home. I didn't lose them which is good. I gave them the GPS to use and then as I was driving along, I started to wonder if I was going the right way, but fortunately was.

G & G got introduced to Coles (the grocery store) after lunch and that was pretty much our day.

Busy Day 2

Today was swimming lesson day so we decided to go for a neighbourhood walk before the lessons. We made it the playground where we had to stop and play 10 minutes before we had to continue on. We were walking over a highway overpass when G. Neil called out and told us to walk down the middle - rather large spiders had taken over the sides of the overpass - we had forgotten to look up. Harmless ones - but it wouldn't have been good to walk through their webs and dislodge them! Midspan I said we had to turn back - couldn't be late for our swimming lesson. We crammed into the car again (Rowan and Ellis love having Grandma squished between them - there is almost continuous giggling from him now). We luckily found parking and had a great swim lesson. G & G. were dutifully impressed with the patience of the teachers. Only 2 kids in Ellis's class - he gets a lot of one on one time.

We came home for lunch and then headed out to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We had gone there before and it hadn't been a great day - Cyp wasn't feeling well, it was hot, Ellis was tired and I accidently crushed his finger - so today was really good! We saw some great shows - Ellis got to touch a koala, feed the kangaroos, lorikeets (birds). It was great.

Came home threw our lamb roast into the oven - took longer than expected, so we didn't eat till 7 - so that meant G & G stayed up till 9 tonight.

GOMA Again

Our first thing on the Ellis agenda was GOMA so off we went. I decided we should take the Citycat down to Southbank so we drove to one of the park and ride lots (it was full) so we parked on the street.

We only had to go two citycat stops (grandpa took pictures all the way) and we sat outside. It's actually cool enough to do this now.

The GOMA was packed full of schoolies, Ellis was probably one of the better behaved kids. He dutifully found things to look at so grandma and grandpa could see some of the art. G. Neil seemed to think the museum was great. After doing the art thing, we did a bit of the kid thing (crafts again- we are getting quite the collection of GOMA crafts) and then we went to have lunch. I thought I was taking us to a cheaper place, but nope - the food took a while, but it was good. The kids were very well behaved and we had a fairly leisurely lunch (it really took a while for the food and mom got hers a good 10 minutes before we did - so Rowan helped himself to her fish pakoras.

Afterwards we went to the waterpark where G. & G. got to see the changed Ellis run around like a maniac - jumping into the water, standing under the water buckets and getting drenched at every opportunity. Rowan was his usual water-loving self and practiced walking a bit (had a soft landing). We then took the ferry downtown for a quick tour and caught the citycat home where dad discovered we had a parking violation. Sigh. Try to do the right thing by taking transit! Put a bit of a damper on the day but really, it's nothing in the grand scheme of things. We had farmed Tasmanian Atlantic salmon for dinner and G. & G. crashed shortly thereafter. G. Doreen thought it was 10 Sydney time (her watch said 9) so it was 9 Sydney time which meant it was 8 Brizzy time. I managed a blog post and fell asleep shortly.

I need to go appeal a parking ticket now.....

Grandma and Grandpa Arrive

I remembered what I did last Friday - I moved the car seats further apart so we could squish grandma and grandpa into the car. Today was arrival day and we somehow had to kill time till 1:30 when their flight arrived. So I decided to take Ellis to the Powerhouse (cool old power station in New Farm that they have turned into a theatre venue) as they were having Playgroup Week. Let's just say - the mouse ears and the balloon were pretty much the highlight of the activities planned.

Imagine 200 small kids and their moms (and prams) piling into an old power station. Hand each kid a balloon upon entry and then just let them mill around. Oh right - project a 6 foot square light show on the floor of the theatre (with the object being to smoosh whatever is projected) and watch mayhem ensue. I had arranged to meet Tanya, Leah and Graham there and after about 10 minutes of watching a TV show on the big screen we went upstairs to see the live show which was one woman with a mike singing songs to about 5 kids who were paying attention with another 100 milling around trying to find somewhere to sit.

We left.

We played outside for a bit - went to the park that was mostly closed (the main part of the park is fenced off for a new dragon installation that is 4 weeks overdue) and soon overrun by other moms and kids that had gotten bored at the Powerhouse and then to the library where the kids ran around building pillow towers. We had to leave there too as the kids were getting too wound up.

So we went outside for our picnic lunch which was also interrupted by a sudden thunder storm.

We ran back to the car and then drove really slowly to the airport (Tanya had scared me about parking costs). We got there by 1:15 - not too early.

Found the carousel and waited. Cyp later told us that you can still walk to the gate here to meet people. That's kinda cool.

Soon Grandma and Grandpa arrived. Ellis saw them across the airport and started running and ran right into G. Doreen's arms. It was just like Bo Derek and Dudley Moore in Ten. I was very emotional too and couldn't help crying. How annoying.

Fortunately we fit in the car (although we didn't clear our driveway anymore, which we later discovered) and were on our way. We took the semi scenic route home and didn't use the Clem 7 tunnel - newly opened about a week ago.

Grandma and Grandpa did the tour of the house - we went for a swim and then it was dinner time. Oh - we had to go get our fruit and vegetables from Colette - our city cousin (we've joined a direct from the farmer produce thingy). I was a tad disappointed in our veg and fruit box - you really get used to perfect fruits and veg at the grocery store. But this is local and we all agreed it did taste better.

It was a rough night for me, Cyp and Ellis - I think I have mastitis and I couldn't sleep - I got up around midnight and woke Rowan up who wouldn't go back to sleep. We had to torture him again to get him to go back to sleep. We put him in the crib. It usually takes 3 goes before he figures out we mean business. We put him in - he screams for 5 minutes - we pull him out and say "GO TO SLEEP ROWAN." Repeat process - finally he gets it and whimpers quietly as he goes to sleep back in the nice warm mummy dadddy bed. I lay there till about 2 - calculating the hours of sleep I had left.

Dragging Cyp Along

On Saturday I decided to introduce Cyp to the idea of walking to the citycat stop. It was all good until we passed the Regatta pub - then we both wanted to ditch the kids and have a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs. Oh well - we continued on and ended up - surprise surprise.. at the GOMA. That is where Ellis wanted to go. I think we have one more trip there with mom and dad and then thankfully, there will be a new exhibition soon.

We saw this crazy bird on the way to the museum. Wish I had a zoom on the iphone - he almost looked fake. His beak seemed to be on a hinge.

We didn't go to the waterpark (Ellis did not want to) so we came home and got ready to go to a park for a birthday party. It was a group party - three babies turning 1. The park was fantastic - Ellis just went off and played and played and I got to meet some new people - A Cdn CA that lives nearby (named Tracey). She has started up her own practice (she had one of the one year olds) and said she would help me when I wanted to go back to work. I may be asking her tax questions! We had a great time but unfortunately had to go as we had to return our movie. We stopped on the way home and got banandos (Nando's - but Ellis calls it banandos).

I was tired on Sunday but Cyp had that crazed - gotta get out - look in his eye so I sent him away. Ellis, Rowan and I went for a swim and then made brownies. It was a low key day. The rest of the time, Ellis did reading eggs on my computer - he is addicted. It's pretty cute though hearing him read aloud.

I am a cat. I am Sam. Sam pats the bat.....

Today is Monday - my day off :) Mom and dad are coming tomorrow. Can't wait to see what they think of Brisbane.

I Must be Getting Old

Cause I can't for the life of me remember what I did on Friday. Oh yah - I think I caught up on my blog.

These pictures are from the weekend. I entered Rowan in a cutest baby in Australia contest - of course I didn't use these ones - it was hard to decide but I used one of him from his birthday.

The other memorable thing from Friday was that there was a fly in my wine again. Ugh. Sneaky little bugs.

More on Rowan - he is almost walking. He's been practicing - he gets up, takes a step - looks for approval and then falls over. Last night he was walking over to Cyp as we watched TV - he would crawl to me, stand up and sort of balance on me as he walked over to Cyp who was immersed in his computer.

Rowan has also been requesting his toothbrush a lot lately. If I happen to be in the bathroom, he comes along and holds out his hand - so I pass him a toothbrush. This is a far more successful way of getting him to brush his teeth than the method we tried with Ellis where I held one end and Cyp held the other and we pried his mouth open to brush his teeth. Rowan thinks it's a privilege to have a toothbrush - finally he gets to brush his teeth like big brother.

The last thing about Rowan - he is talking to us now. If I ask him "do you want some grapes?"

I hear "grup" If I ask if he is all done - he says "yup" It's kinda amazing. The sitters also noted that he seemed way bigger than two weeks ago - I think it's cause he is just so much more aware. He has a presence now - amazing.

Walking

So Wednesday had been so successful that I decided to walk to the City Cat stop again. Today I encouraged Ellis to take his Leapster. No more "how comes?" but I felt a bit bad as he didn't even notice our surroundings anymore.

Our city cat stop has a little man with a xxxx hat on (XXXX is a type of beer made here - everyone jokes it's called XXXX cause Queenslanders can't spell). Anyway - our stop is called Regatta after a pub across the street that we have yet to go to. It's a cool old building - about 4 stories I think. The other note about it is that during one of the big floods, the water reached the top balcony. Today I walked the right way to the stop and it only took 23 minutes. Not bad. In fact we got to our swim lesson by 10:30 - 30 min. early so we went to find Cyp at his office.

Fortunately, I had Ellis to remind me what floor Cyp's office is on, as I couldn't remember. Ellis immediately ran into Cyp's office and started to erase everything on the white board so he had room to draw. He loves that white board.

Swim lesson went great - Rowan had napped on our commute to the Uni, so he was in fine form. In fact, he laughed and seemed to actually enjoy the lesson today. Our instructor is fantastic - she's going to be on Australia's got Talent. Hope she does well, but not too well....

Afterwards as we were waiting for the citycat home, a gale started - was very worried about the walk home, but thankfully it had stopped by the time we got to Regatta.

I walked us all to Toowong Village as Rowan was getting his one year old jabs at 2:30 (that's shots in Aussie) but we were early so went to the library.

Ellis took a liking to a little Japanese girl - actually to her mom - although, maybe it was the book she was reading - a popup Mr. Men. He went over and started snuggling with her - it was kinda funny.

Ellis had to pee, so we had to go - we were early but headed to the Doctor's office. Again, the children were saints and waited about 45 min.

The doctor was a different one and she seemed a bit ineffectual, although maybe she was having an off day. Actually I remember when Ellis got his 1 year shots - I though Dr. McLachlan was a tad brutal, but I think that's the way you have to deal with one year olds. Kinda like I have to sit on Rowan when changing his poopy diaper, I had to essentially strangle him to get him to sit still for his jabs. Now that I think about it, Dr. McLachlan's brutal but efficient way of doing the shots meant they were over quickly. This doctor did not really know what she was doing - although we were holding Rowan in the prescribed method. I think I should import the Cdn prescribed method of handling a squirming one year old. I wonder if I could make money off of it. Actually, I could import the little round bandaids as it appears they don't have them here as she used the long ones which were completely useless. By the time she got them on, they were all twisted and she hadn't even managed to cover the jab hole.

Ellis meanwhile had been slowly creeping out the door when Rowan started screaming after his first shot.

"don't worry - you're not getting jabs today - you'll get them when you're 4."

"HOW COME?"

Just prior to that he was asking when he was going to be 4 - can bet he won't want it to come too quickly now. Rowan was screaming like we were killing him. Stoic he is not. Ellis was more so.

Walked home - Rowan passed out again. Left him in the garage to sleep it off. Ellis meanwhile commandeered my computer to do Reading Eggs. He can now spell am, Sam, pram, cat, bat, fat, nap, tap, cap and is working on r words now. I think he spent about 3 hours on it yesterday.

I then put Toy Story on (got it from the library) and the kids ate their dinner in front of the TV. Cyp and I were going out.

When the sitters got here, Rowan took one look and started crawling madly in the other direction. He grabbed Cyp and would not let go. He's good at screaming now. Ellis meanwhile was a mad man (too much TV and computer). We ran out the door as quick as we could.

We went to the 100 Acre Bar - which is part of the St. Lucia golf course. It was really good. I had duck pancakes (yummy). It was pretty reasonable considering the location and the food. We went with Cyp's boss and wife and discussed our impressions of Oz and Aussies.

We will have to take mom and dad there.

So - I Kinda Suck at Cinematography

On

Wednesday I was determined to get us out of the house and do something fun as I feel we are turning into slugs that drive everywhere. So I was skipping playgroup - it's at the wrong time (Rowan's nap) and Ellis doesn't seem to like it too much (aside from the cookies which is how I usually get him to go - "don't forget, you can have a cookie."

With the pressure off, I puttered around the house and let the kids do their thing - they are better in the morning and this made the entire getting ready to get out the door somehow less stressful. We'd go when we were ready - no playgroup start time was going to determine our day.

I decided to walk to the Regatta city cat terminal. The weather station on my iphone said it was going to be nice. I loaded up the double stroller and off we set. We got to the neighbours house when a tropical storm set in. I quickly rolled down their driveway and we hung out in their carport until the deluge stopped.

Fortunately, it seemed to be a rogue cloud and we were off again. I was trying to figure out the best way to get there - I seemed to pick the wrong way everytime. Not a pedestrian friendly city. I would get to one corner only to have to cross to the other side to cross the street. Plus the lights..... so slow. Was discussing it with Cyp's boss - they do not have car sensors in the pavement here like at home. The lights are fixed - it is a pain.

Ellis kept a running commentary the entire way. "Now which way are we going.... How come?"

"How come? How come? How come?" This has replaced why and he says it about 10 billion times a day. It doesn't matter what my response is - if I try to give a rational response, this leads to more "how comes?" So eventually I revert to "because" and that seems to satisfy him better.

We got to the Citycat stop just as a citycat was arriving, so that was great. Rowan was dutifully having his nap at this point. As we entered the city district, I thought Brisbane really is a lovely city from that angle - soaring bridges over the river with beautiful tropical trees and flowers and a great blue sky with those puffy white clouds that G. Anita has noticed in my pictures. It is a nice temperature now - still warm but has the fall feeling. Landlord/neighbour Sue said to me that I probably still thought this felt like summer - yup. Brr - she shuddered. It's about 25 still during the days.

We went to the State Library first ("How come?)" because I wanted them to play for a bit before we hit the waterpark. We went through the forest walk only to discover we couldn't go our usual way as there was a fence ("how come?") blocking the ramp so we had to turn around and go back - typical - no signs to let you know that it wasn't wheelchair/pram accessible anymore.

The corner (kids area) at the library had been revamped - they change it every 4 months- it is really good and I saw another mom from playgroup there. Yah - it's better than playgroup and it's free.

Ellis befriended a little girl with a wicked cough (sigh) and they ran around like maniacs. He seems to gravitate to girls and I think it was Tracey who pointed out (or actually maybe it was Cyp) that he gravitates to dark haired girls as they look like Dora.

He then glued himself to the computer there - I was on the other side of the room with Rowan when a little boy came screaming and wailing over to his mom who was sitting next to me.

"HE POKED ME!"

I had a sneaking suspicion it was Ellis - actually, I knew it was. This kid had been crowding Ellis on the computer. I decided to pretend I only had one kid. Rowan destroyed a few more displays and I decided it was time to go so went to get Ellis at the computer - all the waiting kids were keeping a respectable distance away from him now.

We managed to avoid the library cafe somehow and headed to the waterpark where there were two other kids playing. It was fantastic! We ate lunch on the "beach" and then I got the kids into their cozzies. They were being saint like really - Rowan didn't put sand in his mouth. Ellis waiting for me to dress Rowan. I felt like supermom the day was going so well (no - this is not leading to a disaster, it kept going well).

Ellis ran around all over - but I could see him as no one else was there. We're hardy Cdns I guess - but seriously, it was still warm. Rowan kept crawling full speed ahead into the deep water and eventually I got tired of having to rescue him from drowning himself. I think he was partially trying to figure out the walking thing. He realized that falling into water didn't hurt as much. He also kinda reminded me of a dog as he would go crawling so fast into the water, when he reached the deep part he would start four legged paddling. I think he almost floats.

Caught the citycat home and then had to hike the 2.3 km home (up hill). Was totally thrashed by the time I got home and so was Ellis. Meltdown city. I ignored him and he eventually stopped. He couldn't maintain sanity through dinner so went to bed halfway through (and fell asleep). It was fantastic.

Oh and to top it all off - it was Lost night and Rex was on. YAYAYAYAY! What a great day.

Tuesday - My Monday

Today we had a birthday party at Woolcock park in Red Hill. Whenever I look up a park or street in Brisbane it always sends me to the UK.
I have to add Australia or Brisbane to my map searches. Everything here is named after somewhere in the UK or it has some unpronounceable Aboriginal name. It's an odd mix.

This morning I told myself I wouldn't get into a grumpy panic trying to get out the door and I didn't. It all comes down to the Wii. I told Ellis he couldn't play until he had dressed, eaten and put sunscreen on. It's a miracle worker that Wii. We were done in about 5 minutes. Now if Rowan would only be so cooperative. I still have to sit on him to change his poopy nappy. Good thing he won't remember - it will just be some lingering thing he's buried in his subconscious that he will have to have therapy for later on in life.

So we got to the park and I introduced myself to a bunch of the moms - I was meeting up with a group I hadn't seen since Christmas. Turns out there were two groups gathering at the park that day and I was introducing myself to the wrong set. It was a good park and Ellis seemed to have a lot of fun.
We were done by noon and I did not really want to head home so we went to Little Tigers. It was great as most people had gone home for nap time. Naps - who needs those.

We stayed there for two hours and then came home where we started arguing after about 5 minutes and got to the point where I told Ellis I wouldn't take him to Little Tigers again.

"We'll go to Little Rats then." he said (he meant Rowdy Rascals but I think I should open one and call it Little Rats). Oddly, he gave up the fight and went to his room to play. He must have been tired. Rowan kept me company in the kitchen until Ellis built a train track out of his room into the kitchen. He then spent the next little while guarding it from Rowan.

More Ellis Comments

Today in the car he said:

"Emilie is going to be five next year."

"She will be a mummy when she is an adult."

"Well - it depends, not all people want or can have kids." said me.

"She will be a lady then."

TGIM

yes - TGIM - SCHOOL DAY - HOORAY!

ok, I'm going to write things down as Ellis says them as otherwise my brain forgets.

Today I told him that grandpa and grandma are coming in a week and he said:

"are they all packed to go?"

how does he think of these things?

We also found out what he did at school. They made superheroes. Ellis's superhero was Vancouver (or Canada) and Vancouver's superpower was a magic wand that gave other powers to other superheroes.

Long Weekend

I don't mean we got an extra day - it was just long. When I wake up in the morning I start looking forward to 7 pm. Not good.

On Saturday we had to entertain ourselves until 10:30 am as we had a birthday party to go to at 11 am. Of course by that point, Rowan was good and tired and promptly fell asleep for the 15 min. ride to the party. The weird thing is, that is pretty much enough to give him a second wind and keep him up for the rest of the day. Ellis had fun at the party - he got to do a craft and have cake (a banner day).

Cyp had banned the Wii - so we were wii free on the weekend - perhaps that is why it felt so long. We usually just plug Ellis in and then we can rest so when the wii is banned, we have a problem. On Saturday night I got my exercise by biking to the video store - i finally polished off Rowan's bday cake too - I was the only one eating it :)

We've been getting up early these days (as we've been putting Ellis to bed by about 6 - heh heh) so on Sunday we were actually out the door by 9 am. We went to Brisbane Forest Park which per Ellis was very far away (about 15km). They have a small animal area where we got to see a platypus (I think that's the first time I've seen one here) and a pademelon (which I'd never heard of before). We then walked for a bit - I was tempted to walk around the lake and then Cyp pulled up our location on his iphone - http://bit.ly/dopPMh

yes - quite a big lake - we'd probably walked 1/100th. So we turned around, which was a good thing as Ellis was done. It was pretty nice there - it felt like a fall day somehow - there was a nice breeze - the light had that autumn feel. Of course, we were done by 10:30 am at which point it was heating up. We came home and managed to make it to through the day (barely). Ellis was in bed by 6:30 - Cyp asked - "is Border Security on yet?" (we live for Lost on Wednesday and Border Security on Sundays). and I said - no we have to wait an hour! I made it through Border Security and Airways (equally cheezy show that follows about the things that happen when you are checking into your flight) so must have fallen asleep at 8:30.

The blog is becoming a struggle - I feel like I have funny stories but when it comes to write the blog a day later, they have vacated my brain. Gone.