Archive for the ‘Nathan’s third year’ Category

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Nathan turns 3


11 Feb

Posted in Birthday, Camping, Nathan's third year | No Comments »

It has been very exciting for a 2-year-old to be nearly 3. Nathan has been “nearly 3” for quite a while now. In December he was ‘3 next year’. In January he was ‘3 next month’, and once February hit it has practically been a count-down to today. Funnily enough he seems to think that he isn’t 3 today until after we have cake.

Several months ago we bought a crane that we planned to give Nathan one day. We were thinking that it could wait until he turned 4 years old, but we decided recently that he was probably old enough for it now. I just hope he is old enough now to be careful not to damage it. He loves the crane….but so does Toby!

He got a bit of other birthday loot too. I will post photos later when we have faster internet than we have at our campsite at Wilsons Prom.

Happy birthday Nathan.

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Oohhh, look at all the presents!

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Magnetic words

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New overalls and t-shirt

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A new book


Looking behind the curtain…what’s there?


Oohhh, the crane (he remembers us buying it all those months ago)


The smile says it all

S.O.U.P


06 Feb

Posted in Development, Nathan's third year | No Comments »

Nathan has been able to recognize all the letters of the alphabet for a long time now. The last couple of months we have been teaching him the sounds that each letter makes, and some simple letter combinations as well, like ‘sh’, ‘ar’ and ‘oy’. We spell our simple words and then sound them out, and I think he is slowly getting the hang of sounding out the words. Some words he knows how to spell just from the repetition of spelling them regularly. He can spell ‘Nathan’, ‘Daddy’, ‘Toby’ and ‘stop’. Stop is mostly because of the book ‘Hop on Pop’ where it goes ‘STOP, you must not hop on pop’.

Tonight we went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. On the way I asked Nathan if he wanted to have Vietnamese soup for dinner, which he was quite excited about. We chose a restaurant, sat down at a table and looked at our menus. Nathan pointed to one of the soups and told us he wanted that one. I asked him what it was and he told me it was soup. I asked him how he knew it was soup….he pointed to the last word of the menu item (the menu item was something like beef and noodle soup) and slowly spelled out the word ‘soup’.

Tonight, just before he went to sleep, I asked Nathan if he could spell ‘soup’, and he did. So I’m pretty sure that he really can read the word. It has blown me away, as I don’t think that soup is a word that we have spelled out much, if at all. What else can the boy read that I am unaware of?

The kids really really need a……


27 Jan

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

…sandpit.

Pity we don’t have the space in our backyard, because the garden is suffering at the hands of two small boys. Eh, who am I kidding. Even if we had a sandpit, the garden and dirt relocation would still be an attraction for the kids. At least the relocated dirt in the shell can be easily transferred back to the garden. And if we did have a sandpit, it probably wouldn’t have any sand in it because it would have been moved to the garden. still, I can dream.

Back on the bike


25 Jan

Posted in Nathan's third year, Toby's second year | No Comments »

Andrew and I recently had our poor, neglected (12 months or more living on a balcony and unsheltered from the weather) bicycles serviced, and we got 3 new helmets on the weekend. Today I took Toby on his first bike ride and Nathan rode his bike. We didn’t go very far, just to a couple of local parks. I think we all had fun though.

Slime


23 Jan

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Slime

I have the book ‘Toddler Tactics’ by Pinky McKay. In it she gives some ideas of activities for toddlers and preschool children, and ages ago I was inspired by the idea of making slime. To make it I needed Lux Flakes, and it took me ages to find any since none of the supermarkets I frequented at the time seemed to stock it. We are probably almost a year on now and I finally got around to trying it out.

The recipe for slime is 1 cup of Lux Flakes and 3 cups of warm water. I didn’t put any coloring into it. I used hot water from the kettle and stirred the soap until it seemed to be dissolved (in the book it says to stir vigorously) and then leave overnight to set. This morning there was a soft but solid white substance at the bottom of the bucket I made it in.

The book states that the slime is a soothing treat best enjoyed outdoors. It also says: a wonderful gooey, tactile experience, forgo artistic aspirations and plonked the slime into the baby bath, add funnels and cups, and let your toddler pour, squeeze and squelch the ooze. What she neglected to instruct was how to clean up what is basically thick liquid soap that is as slimy as anything you could possibly imagine. I didn’t really want to add so much soap to the grass in the back yard by hosing it off the child and out of the shell we put it in, but it was difficult to find another solution. I ended up mixing it with water and bucketing it down the drain. Toby also missed out because he was asleep, but Nathan had a ball in the slimy ooze, painting it all over himself, sliding around the shell and alternating between the shell half with the slime and the other half into which I put some water.

Slime 2

Slime 3

Free ride


22 Jan

Posted in Nathan's third year, Toby's second year | No Comments »

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This isn’t a common scene any more now that Toby is a confident walker. Nathan used to carry Toby to where Nathan wanted him, or away from where he didn’t want Toby. No more free rides for Toby, he is just too independent now.

Fresh Pasta


20 Jan

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

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We have made fresh pasta twice lately, and Nathan loves making and eating it. We get the bread maker to do the mixing and kneeding, and then we roll it and cut it. Jamie Oliver (in one of his cook books) makes it sound easy to make without any automated equipment, but I’m happy for the bread maker to do the hard work for us.

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Campsite


02 Jan

Posted in Camping, Nathan's third year, Toby's second year | No Comments »

Just three photos from our campsite in the mountains.


500 km from home, the bush to explore, and the boys play with the cooking implements,
just like at home


This duck had 12 ducklings. Usually the ducks come around at about the same time every day, but the following day Andrew saw what looked like a very distressed duck looking around all the tents. We never saw the ducklings again.


Keeping warm in the tent on a cold and wet day.

Arthur lost


26 Dec

Posted in Nathan's third year, Travel | No Comments »

One of my biggest fears is that we will lose Arthur Bear one day. Arthur is Nathan’s
best friend. He alternates between being the same age as Nathan, or the same age as Toby at which times he is Nathan’s baby. Nathan goes through periods when he wants to take Arthur everywhere with him. We try hard to discourage Arthur leaving the house, but at times it is easier (and less effort, less screaming to cope with, and less arguing) just to let him take the bear. I once lost him for a day, and frantically searched everywhere I could think of, including rather obscure places, in the flat before I finally found him underneath a blanket on Nathan’s bed.

Today we packed up our campsite and started the trek to Albury where we planned to spend the night before finishing the trip home tomorrow. Arthur got out at Scammel Lookout where we had morning tea, and he also got out of the car at the Murray 1 Power Station where we had a quick look at the museum and used the toilets. Back in the car the two boys fell asleep for a bit and didn’t get out of the car again until a SES Driver Reviver stop some 80 km on the Albury side of Corrying. We got back into the car and we just driving off when Nathan asked for Arthur. Well, we couldn’t find him, went back to the Driver Reviver place and checked that he want left there, when I suddenly wondered if we had left Arthur in the toilets at the Power Station.

With hearts in our throats we turned the car around and headed back towards the power station and kept checking the phone to see if we had any signal so we could try to call the Power Station to see if Arthur had been found there. Some 70 km later we finally managed to make the call to discover that a Teddy bear had been handed in, but the lady who had him finished work in 10 minutes and we were still a long way from the Power Station. She said she lived not far from Corryong, so she would meet us at the Post Office to give Arthur back to us. We had to wait about an hour after we got there, but it all ended happily with Arthur being returned to Nathan. Our little detour took us an extra 3 hours, but it was worth it.

An hour later and Nathan is still saying…

I’ll never leave Arthur again. Never,never, never. Never. Never.

Sunny days


25 Dec

Posted in Camping, Nathan's third year, NSW, Toby's second year, Weather | No Comments »

Thankfully the bitterly cold winds have gone, as well as the rain and the cold. Tuesday was our first sunny day. We went for a walk along the Bullocks Track, with Nathan riding his bike. It was about a 4 km return trip, but Nathan got tired and wanted to be carried some of
the way back from the hut.

Wednesday was a very sunny day, so we went in the chairlift from Thredbo to
the Thredbo Top Station. Nathan had fun on it, and then he walked the entire 2 km to Kosciuszko Lookout and back again. I have done the walk many times, but the snow that was lying around really made it different. There were still a couple of snow drifts across the
path as well. It really was spectacular.

Thursday we dropped in at Charlottes Pass again to see if there was any snow left there, but there wasn’t. We had planned to walk a bit along one of the walking tracks there, but since the day started off quite windy we aborted and went for a swim at the pool in Jindabyne instead. We were really feeling the need for a wash, but the Thredbo River, which runs through the campsite, is a lot too cold to be appealing.

Yesterday was another perfect day for walking, so we took the kids on the Porcupine Track. It was nearly 3 km to Porcupine Rocks where there’d is a lovely view of the Thredbo valley. Nathan walked the entire way there and back again, carrying his backpack which contained his water bottle, a sandwich, his jumper, Toby’s jumper (Nathan insisted he carry it), and some sultanas and popcorn that we popped yesterday. Toby, on the other hand, slept on my back almost the entire way.


On the Bullocks Track


Carrying both Nathan and Toby on the Bullocks track


Andrew and Nathan walking to Kosciuszko lookout from the chairlift


Nathan modifying a snowman someone made at Kosciuszko lookout. He decided it needed boobies and 4 ears.


Nathan at Porcupine Rocks


Too tired to sit up to eat sultanas at Porcupine Rocks


There are lots of flowers around

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