Archive for the ‘Nathan the preschooler’ Category

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Public transport tickets


10 Mar

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, Travel | 4 Comments »

A few months ago I asked at the ticket office to find out at what age you had to start paying for kids. I was told 4-years-old. So, when the kids and I went to the zoo yesterday by train and tram, I bought Nathan a 2-hour concession ticket to tide us over until I could sort out a MyKi card for him.

I went to the MyKi office at Flinders Street Station, stood in line for 15 minutes with two crazy kids, but I still had enough time to study a sign telling me that kids 3 and under were free on public transport, and kids under 17 could purchase a concession ticket as long as they had a concession card….primary concession, secondary concession or tertiary concession. You were not entitled to buy a concession ticket without one of these cards. Hmmmm…..seemed to me that technically I was supposed to have bought Nathan a full price ticket that morning.

When I got to ask about the MyKi card, the person In the ticket booth just waved away my question and told me not to worry about a ticket for him. I said that he had turned 4 already, and was basically told not to worry about tickets until he is 4.5…..or so. So we went back to all of us using the one ticket for the trip home. I do wonder what would happen if a ticket inspector asked to check tickets…..and asked me how old Nathan is. He happily tells everyone he is 4-years-old……

Unless….


01 Feb

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, Sewing, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

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….someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.
Dr. Seuss from The Lorax

The Lorax has to be one of our favourite Dr. Seuss books (there are many that we love). It is a tale of greed, non-sustainability, and lack of concern for our environment, with the beautiful lilting rhymes that Dr. Seuss can do (and it doesn’t have tooooo many made up words that an make some of his books a hard read). So I guess it was inevitable that when we saw a bolt of Lorax fabric a couple of months ago, Nathan snatched it up and took it to the counter for cutting. He was adamant that I make him a hat out of it, and it had to have the Lorax fabric on the outside AND inside.

I made the boy a hat…almost to his specifications. There is a contrasting fabric inside but not on the brim. I also made him a matching backpack for kinder (preschool), because his old backpack is too small to fit all the things he needs to take. I was rewarded with huge smiles when I unveiled the hat and backpack, and they had to be tested out immediately. In fact, they have barely been off him, and he has been practicing putting his lunch in it using the wooden and felt foods that the kids have.

We took some photos in our overgrown garden with the tomatoes we had picked that day. Don’t ask me why some of the poses were necessary, I was just told to photograph them. There seems to be some excitement about starting kinder now, whereas until now I think he has been a little scared. 0nly a few days to go.

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Playing in the car


26 Jan

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, Toby's third year | 1 Comment »

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I don’t like the kids playing in the car, but as always they have their own ideas on that and generally ignore my cries of “get out of the car”. I took some shopping into the house recently, came back for the next load and I saw two boys trying to program the GPS. I had to laugh and photograph….before yelling “out of the car!”.

Gingerbread Men


22 Jan

Posted in Food, Nathan the preschooler, Toby's third year | 1 Comment »

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Nathan had been asking to make gingerbread men for several days, and then we got a belated Christmas gift from friends…..and it was a mixing bowl with a packet mix for gingerbread men (including cutter) and decorations, and two wooden mixing spoons. The very next day we HAD to try out the mix.

It was certainly easy and, unlike the gingerbread men we normally make, they rose nicely and were a lot like the gingerbread men you buy in shops. Flavour-wise, they weren’t as gingery as we are used to, but they still tasted nice.

The mix came with a small packet of 100’s and 1000’s, so we had to make some icing so that we could use them. We aren’t exactly expert decorators, but we had fun. 🙂

Thanks Kate and co, for a fun morning of baking.

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Bear Outting


10 Jan

Posted in Nathan the preschooler | No Comments »

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Nathan wanted to take Arthur Bear when we went out today. He had Arthur ready to go and waiting at the door before anyone else was ready. 🙂

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Bike ride with Daddy


07 Jan

Posted in Andrew, At the park, Nathan the preschooler | 2 Comments »

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Nathan and Andrew went for a bike ride today to a nearby park. It was too far for Toby, and I needed a few things from a supermarket, so Toby and I drove to the playground. The playground is pretty new, and is fabulous. Andrew measured the distance by bike to be around 4.2 km, so that means Nathan rode about 8.5 km today!

I took a couple of photos in the playground, but I missed the heart-in-the-throat ones where Toby climbed a vertical wall where the holes and hand supports were almost too far for him to reach and he was too high for me to help him, and Nathan climbed over a rope structure also in spots where he could barely reach the next rope.

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Andrew Used a Fancy iPhone app to track the ride.

And a time-lapse movie.

Aqua nails


06 Jan

Posted in Friends, Nathan the preschooler | 1 Comment »

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Today we met up with a friend from Sydney, Kristie, who is visiting Melbourne for a few days. We met at the cafe at CERES in Brunswick where the kids had a ball in the playground (with the exception of a couple of mishaps, one being that Toby was stuck upside down in one of the structures while I was chatting, and another being a boy with a stick told Nathan and others to leave an area they were playing in or he would kill them).

Nathan was fascinated with Kristie’s purple fingernails, and Kristie asked him if he would like a blue nail. He said yes, she got some nail polish out of her bag and Nathan was all serious with his fascination. Once one nail was done he held his others out for painting. He was excited about his blue nails all afternoon!

It was great to catch up with Kristie, and her friends I met were lovely too.

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Getting ready to paint.

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Blowing to dry the nail polish.

Little Lego


04 Jan

Posted in Nathan the preschooler | 1 Comment »

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Nathan adores little Lego (so-called because we are used to the Duplo which is big Lego). For Christmas he was given a fire engine and fire station kit to make up. The age range suggestion is for 5-12 years old, but Nathan will spend hours fiddling with the little blocks trying to put them together as he wants to.

Nathan put together most of the engines and fire station on his own. He had a few pointers along the way, help finding some of the pieces (probably not needed), help making everything secure (pressing all the blocks down tightly because Nathan doesn’t always get them together firmly enough), some reminders not to jump ahead to the next bit when he hasn’t finished the previous step, and some help with the very fiddle bits. But in general he can look at the instructions and follow them, find the pieces and put it all together. And both kids love the finished items, though Toby (in particular) isn’t always as gentle with them as needed to keep them together.

Some photos of the finished kit (complete with operational roller doors on the garages, opening doors, living quarters, and cat stuck up a tree.

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Too hot to sleep


02 Jan

Posted in Melbourne, Nathan the preschooler, Toby's third year, Weather | No Comments »

Yep, definitely too hot. The kids have both stayed up late the last couple of nights because they just wouldn’t go to sleep….and even then it was a battle to get them to sleep! It took us all night to get them to sleep and it was the same last night too. Anyway, it’s midnight now, kids are in bed, it is still 32 degrees in the house and not much cooler outside. Blah. But time for me to sleep now.

Charlotte Pass


22 Dec

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, NSW, Toby's third year, Travel | No Comments »

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Today we decided to drive to Charlotte Pass and walk the circuit track as far as the Snowy River crossing. When we got to Charlotte Pass the sky was looking quite ominous in the distance, and though there was an almost constant rumble of thunder we decided to do the short walk. It may have been short, but it was quite steep. Toby walked down but was carried up, Nathan walked both ways, and Andrew took our food, water and rain coats. It was a lovely spot, and we found some rocks to eat lunch on. The sky and thunder prompted us to return to the car park.

We went on the short walk to the lookout, and Nathan climbed on the rocks around the start of the lookout walk. We then went to Jindabyne for a few items, and then came back to the campground. It started raining quite heavily in Jindabyne, and it was very wet at the campground when we got back. I think we were quite lucky to not get a drop of rain at Charlotte Pass.

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