Archive for December, 2010

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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

Toby is 1!


21 Dec

Posted in Development, Toby's first year | 2 Comments »

I wasn’t always sure he would make it to his first birthday due to his big brother’s inability to be gentle at times. Toby was sat on, held in an upright position by the head and then dropped, squeezed around the neck (Nathan’s version of cuddles) and I’m sure the list goes on, I just can’t think of all the “Nathan STOP” heart-in-the-throat-type moments of Toby’s early days.

Now Toby walks, though he still crawls a lot and his walking is a bit on the wobbly side, is a bit of an explorer and is quite happy to roam quite a distance from Mummy or Daddy. He totally adores his brother and tries to follow him everywhere and giggles his head off at Nathan’s antics. He hates the shower but loves the bath and simply playing in any water he can find. He loves eating melon of any kind and gets very excited when he sees any, but he’ll have a go at any food.

Toby had six teeth for a very long time. I kept checking his mouth, wondering when the next one was going to come through. It seems that many of them decided to come through almost at once. About 3 weeks ago I noticed that he was getting two more teeth to make it four on both top and bottom, then a week later and just as the 8th tooth was coming through I saw that one of his molars was starting to come through the gum, then before it was through three more molars made an appearance, and they aren’t all through yet and it looks like his eye teeth are about to crack through the gum. There is certainly a lot of activity happening in Toby’s gums at the moment.

EC is certainly going a bit more slowly this time round, mostly due to not having enough time to focus on it as much as we did when Nathan was a baby, but it is still going well. The majority of poos end up in the potty, we catch several wees every day, and we are getting lots of dry nappies at night.

And finally, just so I can remember if I ever want to for some reason, Toby generally wakes around 6 am, has a nap around 9 and another one at around 2 pm, and goes to bed at 7:30ish pm. The times are all a bit rubbery depending on how well he sleeps both at night and during the day, but there is definitely a bit of a routine thing happening.

Happy birthday little man, your Daddy and I love you.

Snow


20 Dec

Posted in Nathan's third year, NSW, Toby's first year, Travel, Weather | No Comments »

All night we could hear rain on the tent, and this morning the peaks of the hills around the camp site were covered in snow. We made our second trip to Charlottes Pass in two days, but today we found ankle-deep snow, mid-calf deep in places, and more snow falling. Nathan had a ball. It was hard to get him back into the car and out of the cold. For Toby it was very serious business which became unbearable for him when the wind blew, even though he was warm in many layers of clothes and snuggled in the mei tei on Mummy’s front.

Camping holiday: rain, hail and sleet


19 Dec

Posted in Nathan's third year, NSW, Toby's first year, Travel, Weather | No Comments »

Before deciding to head to the mountains for our camping holiday, we did check the 28 day forecast and there was a low possibility of rain for yesterday and a medium possibility for today. Unfortunately the reality of the current weather and short term forecasts is that it is looking more like we may have 3 dry days out of the 8 we are in the mountains. It’s just a good thing that Andrew and I quite enjoy camping in the rain…at least now that we have the ‘taj mahal’ of tents….but two small kids are challenging in inclement weather. Still, it’s all good as long as we can keep Nathan from (literally) bouncing off the walls of the tent, waking Toby when asleep, keep him from playing with the torches so much that the batteries go flat, stop him from squirting sunscreen or toothpaste or lip balm all over himself and everything else in the tent (we just found that the tent has high pockets so that will help keep small things out of reach) amongst other things, then all is good. The only problem we have with Toby is that he doesn’t have a rain coat, so with the wind and cold it is hard to keep him warm outside the tent.

Eh, the weather could be better but it is still nice here.

Camping

The orange shovel


17 Dec

Posted in Toby's first year | No Comments »

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About a month ago, when we were setting up our veggie garden, we had one and a half cubic metres of soil delivered and dumped in the drive-way just outside our back gate. The two boys thought it was fantastic…it made a magnificent pile to play in and on. Nathan started helping me to move the soil by filling up buckets and dumping them into the veggie garden, but he soon lost interest and climbed to the top of the pile where he played for ages. Most of the time he moved soil into his bucket using his black gardening trowel. Toby also loved playing in the dirt and climbed up to the top. He used Nathan’s trowel to help fill up the bucket, but Nathan wanted it back and wouldn’t let Toby play with it any more.

I was busy moving soil but I did notice that Toby climbed down the dirt pile and took off crawling towards the house. A few minutes later I wondered what he was up to, so I went to the back door and found Toby on his way back out of the house. In his hand he held the orange shovel from the toys the boys have for playing in the sand.

I was amazed. I just didn’t know that an 11-month-old baby was able to determine that he wanted a trowel, realize that he knew where to find one and then set off on his own to get it. We all now refer to it as ‘Toby’s orange shovel’.

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Crossed wires


16 Dec

Posted in Nathan's third year | No Comments »

Nathan’s friend in Sydney, Sarah, moved house this week. She and her parents moved about 200 metres from their flat to their new house house. Nathan was excited about the news of their move….he thought Mel and Sarah were moving to Melbourne and they would come and visit us. It must be a world full of disappointments when you only have enough experience to understand part of the story.

Crushing garlic


11 Dec

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

Nathan puts a lot of effort into crushing pretend garlic!

Sewing


08 Dec

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

nathan was sewing some overalls.

Last week when we were in the city we visited Tessuti, a fancy fabric place that has three outlets in Sydney and one in Melbourne. I didn’t need anything, I just wanted to find them and have a look around. All the Tessuti shops have toys for kids to play with, but this was the first time Nathan had seen a toy sewing machine. Nathan loved it. I asked him what he was doing, and was told that he was sewing overalls.

Pegs


07 Dec

Posted in Funny things, Nathan's third year, Toby's first year | No Comments »

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Pegs are such a great toy. They get sucked on, counted, given to Mummy when she hangs up washing, collected off the ground when Mummy drops them, and the list probably goes on. I seem to constantly find pegs all around the house, inside and outside.

I was a bit confused, a couple of days ago, when Nathan ran up to me and excitedly told me that “we ‘ave begs on our ed”

Then he turned around and showed me his head and there was a peg attached to his hair, looking for all the world like a hair clip. Where does my boy get ideas like this? Has he seen someone with hair clips in when we’ve been out? Or does it just seem like a logical thing to do with pegs? Anyway, I laughed and went outside in search of Toby, and sure enough the 2-year-old hair stylist had been at him as well.

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