Christmas Colouring-In

Today Riley was home sick and so rather than sit in front of the TV all day we made a concious effort to do some other activities. Yesterday I had a quick meeting with his teacher for next year, Samia, she is a lovely lovely lady and tells me that she is really excited to have Riley in her class next year (I bet she says that to all the mums.....). Anyway she was telling me what sorts of things he will be learning next year (a much more structured learning syllabus) and I noticed on her wall some Christmas art that her class had done during the week (these are all 5 year olds). It is a colour by numbers activity so it reinforces number recognition (this is something that he will be learning next year). She told me that she had a spare copy of the santa if I wanted to take one for Riley to do, so I did. He was so excited and I think he did such a wonderful job too that we both thought we should post it here. This is the colouring-in that he was doing when he was talking to Uncle Dave, Aunty Mandy and Aunty Little Bec this afternoon. Watch out for more Christmas art here.......

8 Weeks Old Today!!

Our little girl is now 2 months old! What a milestone (not that each week is not a milestone in itself). She has been a little bit unwell the last couple of weeks following her 6 week vaccinations she has a nasty rash all over her pretty little face and on the back of her neck but she has been a real trooper and not let it get her down too much. I had her back and forth to the GP and then eventually to the Pediatrician who tells me that the rash is not contagious and 'should' go in another week or so. Emily has become quite the little chatter when she gets going, I think that I might be in for another early talker. I suppose with a big brother talking to her all day she really is going to have no choice but to talk back. We are getting so excited about bringing her home to meet all of you, we have been telling her (and warning her LOL) about all of you and showing her pictures (of course she understands fully what she is looking at - LOL). Not long now only about 22 more sleeps (as of writing this) or thereabouts, c'mon it's not like we're counting down or anything........

Birthday Thank - Yous

Thank you Granpa and Nana Yvonne for my motor bike. Mummy and I put some Spiderman stickers on it and so now we call it the Spider Bike. We put stickers on it so that we can tell which bike is mine when I take it out with me and there are lots of them around.

Thank you Uncle Dave and Aunty Mandy for my new threads! Mummy and I found a really nice kids clothing shop in a new shopping mall close to home today. We have been saving my birthday money from you so that we could find some nice clothes that I am not allowed to wear to school. I think that I look pretty cool in my new clothes but Mummy and Daddy think that I look far too old and that makes them feel old. Ha Ha Ha........

Pretty in Pink

I'M TOO SEXY FOR THIS COT.......

OR MAYBE NOT........

This is a few shots of Emily this afternoon just hanging out in her room. She really enjoys laying in her cot (so long as she doesn't work out that she is in there alone....) and just looking up at her mobile. She is really becomming so much more aware and interactive these days. Today she layed in her swing, looking at me in my eyes and just chatting away to me, it was so sweet but I just knew that if I turned away to get the video camera to capture it she would have stopped.

This is the closest I could get to her chatting this arvo. In this clip she is watching her mobile and Brad as he flicks each of the animals on her mobile above her. Granted not the best clip but it will have to do for now until I can get a better one to post for you all or until you all get to meet her for yourselves, whichever happens first.......

It runs in the family.......

I think that the love for doing up old cars may just run in the family.... We found a neat new toy at the toy shop today (I must look into frequent shopper discount there as we are there nearly every weekend these days). It is an old car that is all rusty and has no wheels on etc that you get to restore. It comes with a buffer that you use to buff all the rust off the car revealing a nicely painted underneath. You then choose your wheels and place artwork on. There are a few different cars to choose from, we chose the good old Woody! Riley did the majority of the buffing but had some help from Daddy to do the decals and the finer deatils of the buffing too. I think given Brad's love of doing up old cars (especially when we first met) this could be a much cheaper,not to mention, tidyer alternative. Think he'll go for it????

We have wheels!!

Finally after only 11 months of us being here we have ourselves a lease vehicle that not only is ours to keep whilst we are here but also fits all 4 of us in comfortable and most importantly SAFELY. As most of you would have heard through listening to me whinge, South African child restraint standards are nowhere near as high as we are used to in Australia. Not only are the seats not anchored down we also see all too often parents with their children both Riley and Emily's ages sitting on their laps in the front and or back seats or just letting the children loose in the car not only not properly restrained but with no seatbelts on and not even sitting with an adult. It is a common sight around our estate at least to see children's heads poking out the sunroof as they drive by also. This is the closest Riley will be getting to that feeling I can tell you now! So we plan in the new year to take full advantage of our little 4WD (a Hyundai Tucson by the way) and go touring around South Africa on our weekends.

Who's Lego is it anyway??

No Riley you can put the wheels on the truck when I finish building it........Who did we buy that truck for again????

What? I was just watching.......

I know if I can just get my tongue right the rest will fall into place.........

A view of the city so far....

A view of the city from behind.....

I think when any man has a son he soon remembers his own childhood and remembers all the things that he used to love doing and playing with and all the things that he might not have necessarily had but always wanted (ie a toy room full of Lego). Thankfully for this Dad his Son seems to share his love of creating with Lego. I wonder how many fights there will be when all of Brad's work mates (also all Engineers) come over for our Christmas party in a couple of weeks. I seem to remember that the last time they were all here (pre Lego days) they all lined up to take turns playing Riley's slot car set and radio controlled quad bike..........

Lego Land

FIRE STATION

HOSPITAL

FIRE STATION WITH FIRE RESCUE HELICOPTER

HELICOPTER

NEW ADDITION - SEMI TRAILER DUMP TRUCK

For the last few months we have been buying Lego (or 'investing' in Lego as Brad tells it) for Riley (or so Brad says - LOL). We have been accumulating the Lego City collection and so far we have a Hospital, Fire Station, Hovercraft, Fire Engines, Police Motorbike, Helicopters and our most recent addition a Semi Trailer Dump Truck. Both boys seem to have loads of fun spending hours in the toy room constructing (and re-constructing). I have lost count of the number of times I have had to go mad at the both of them for still being in there at 8pm on a school night when Riley should have been in bed long ago.

More Fun in the Sun

This weekend just been we had Riley's birthday party (hoepfully some more pics of that to come). He was very spoilt, as always, and one of his friends, Chisomo I think, bought him a spiderman mini boat and spiderman goggles. So of course when we got home from the party he just had to try them out. Riley and Daddy had a great time horsing around in the pool again and even Emily came out for a look to see what all the fuss was about. I am sure it will not be long before she too will be joining in with all the fun in the pool - just as soon as we can find swimmers small enough for her. Riley also got the board game Guess Who so we spent quite a lot of time playing that on Sunday afternoon as well. He is getting quite good at asking appropriate questions but he tends to look at his card and if his person has white hair he will ask if your person has white hair and in no time, through his questioning, you know exactly what card he has. He knows he is doing it and keeps on saying "Oh sorry bout that" very funny and lots of fun.

Fun in the Sun

As the weather warms up the pool is looking more and more inviting. At 24degrees it is still a bit cool for my liking but Brad and Riley have been enjoying themselves. The weekend before last we went out and bought Riley some pool toys. We couldn't go past the spiderman jetski and what would a summer be without supersoakers..... The boys loved the big super soakers and particularly enjoyed trying to shoot Mummy as I was trying to take pics of them.

7 Weeks Old Today

Well I don't know how I've managed to get this done today (considering I had two kids awake twice each at different times during the night) but here it is. Emily is 7 Weeks old today! She has, as always, grown and changed so much in the last week. She had her 6 week check up, and shots, last week and since birth she has grown 8cm making her 54cm long now! She has also broken the 4kg mark and as of last week weighs 4.08kgs! My baby loves her mummy's milk! She has been a little bit sick for the last week or so with a contagious virus that I am not even going to attempt to spell on here. She broke out in a rash that pretty well covered her face, head and neck. Not at all pretty and no doubt very uncomfortable also. With the virus she was also constipated, no fun for anyone, this was from Friday until this morning when dam number 2 broke and there was poo everywhere. All over her, all over me and well let's just say that Paul's (the landlord) couch will never be the same again...... Seeing as how she had only been doing wet nappies Riley asked if he could help me to change her this morning. He has obviously, as always, been watching me closely for the last 7 weeks and I must say he did a great job. He held her legs up correctly, he gave her a wipe and then put a clean nappy on her. Very sweet, I only wish I had videoed it. I will have to next time.

Almost Famous

A few weeks ago we got a flyer at school to go and visit with a photographer who was just starting her own studio and was throwing a "Little Faces Party". I thought it might be fun to get some pics of the kids together and, seeing as how it was free, if they didn't work out I wasn't too worried. Well they turned out beautifully (pics to come later to support this statement). Yesterday we received another invitation to her second "Little Faces Party" and I thought I would give you all a look at the invitation. See if you can recognise the kid in the middle on the bottom......what a handsome fellow!

Tiring Work

OK so just to show what a fair sport I am here is a pic of me not totally at my best (or maybe Brad would argue otherwise.......). Fair's Fair, I would definitely have published this pic if it was of Brad so....

I was trying to figure out Emily's sleep patterns and make them a little more 'Mummy Friendly'. Seems she must have known I was reading up and pulled herself into line and she is now only waking once a night, feeding and going back to sleep.

It's tiring work, this business of sleeping....... (In case you can't see the title of the book I am reading it is The Complete Sleep Guide for Contented Babies and Toddlers)

6 Weeks Old Today

HA! Finally I have been able to update on the day! It's amazing what more than an hour or two sleep a night can do for a girl. Emily is growing and changing so fast it's hard to keep up. She continues to become more and more alert every day. It is so nice to watch her seeing the world for the first time. She is still facinated with the curtains and they still continue to receive her biggest smiles although her new mobile on her cot is starting to give the curtains a run for their money..... Tomorrow is her 6 week check up and she will be getting her 6 week shots too so I am not looking forward to that at all, let's just hope she manages to breathe through it this time instead of turning lots of different colours. Photos are going to have to wait this time because blogger seems to be having trouble......AGAIN...... Ok so it is now the day after and finally the pics have made it onto the post ENJOY!!

Thanks Ethan, Cailyn, Lucas, Axel, Kai Kai & Ike

The birthday fun continues...... On his actual birthday we had a little afternoon tea here at home with his friends. They all got together and bought him a Spiderman Survival kit for his birthday. It consists of a tent, sleeping bag, binoculars and a compass. He absolutley loves it and had Brad set it up for him in the front yard over the weekend. So far we are not allowed to disassemble it so it is in our lounge room for the time being......hmmm will have to work out a plan to get it put away.........