Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope yours was as great as ours. Ben and Ethan had a great day and were very spoilt by Santa.

Unfortunately our laptop has a virus, (we let the virus software run out of date....... oops) so I can't upload any of the pictures we took of the special day. We're hoping it will be fixed soon.... So stay tuned, pictures are coming.

I'll leave you with the only iPhone photo I took this Christmas, my present!!!
Tracie bought a big photo frame and filled it with pictures of me and the boys from birth till now. It's fantastic and I love it so much!! Thank you my darling!!!!




Bit hard to see here I think, but I'll take a better picture with the good camera and upload it soon :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sickness and painting

Not much to say this weekend. My poor little boys aren't feeling too well, so we've had a quiet weekend.

Apart from 2 mildly sick boys life is pretty good. We are all ready for Christmas, except for some last minute food shopping and wrapping all the presents. Christmas will be quiet this year. Just us 4 on christmas day, and we will catch up with Sal's family the following week. Sal is working her usual Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday shifts over the Christmas weekend.

We have started the preparations for painting our bedrooms in the new year. We plan to paint the 3 upstairs bedrooms, bathroom, toilet, ensuite and hallway/ stairway.
We are in the early stages of planning and currently have far too many colour cards stuck on our walls. We are having fun choosing which colours to paint where... So far, most of the walls will be a neutral off white, the boys will have a sky blue feature wall, we are having a grey/purple feature wall and the bathroom will be a blue/grey or light grey I think. Not sure yet on all this plan.... It's still in early stages. We also plan to paint all the ceilings, skirting boards, doors and frames.

We have started filling holes and sanding some walls. It's going to be a big job, but the house defiantly needs it and we are looking forward to the finished result.

Hopefully I can do another big post soon. All these afternoon shifts at work and boys not napping mean I hardly get on the laptop at all! Sorry.

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Puzzles

Ben LOVES puzzles! He’s getting very good at them too. Ethan joins in, but mostly because Ben’s doing it first. Below are some videos (taken from my phone, sorry about the quality) of the boys doing puzzles

Ben doing a puzzle

 

 

Ethan doing a puzzle (and Ben in the background saying “video me, video me!”

 

Ben does a shape puzzle

 

 

Ben and Ethan both do a body/clothes puzzle

Out of the mouthes of babes.

Ahhh, toddlers have some wonderful ideas!
At breakfast this morning Ethan was drinking milk, which had a picture of a cow on the packet. Ethan commented on the cow, and the conversation went like this:
Mumma(m)- Ethan, do you know where milk comes from?
Ethan(e)- ummm, shopping!
M - (laughs) yeah, but it also comes from cows.
E- ohhh yeah, I remember!
M- do you know where eggs come from?
Ben(b) - shopping!
M- (laughs again) yeah, but the kind we eat also comes from chickens.
B- (clucks like a chicken)
M- where do tomatoes come from?
E- I don't know
M- they grow on a plant, do you remember the tomato plant we had outside?
B- I don't see it
M- it's not there anymore.
M- do you know where basil comes from ? (we currently have a basil plant outside that the boys helped plant and are enjoying watching it grow and eating the leaves!)
E- bunnings!
(for my American readers, bunnings is a big hardware and plant shop - and E is right, that is where we bought the basil plant!)



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Swimming lessons

The boys were in swimming lessons for about 8 months this year. They progressed from the baby class where we were in the water, to the toddler class where we could get out of the water. Unfortunatly, as this change occured, so did a few staffing changes at the swim school, which meant for a about 6 weeks in a row, they had a different teacher, who had a different style, and the boys did not cope. They hated swimming lessons, and would scream and cry and not go in the pool without us at all. We went back in the pool after only 2 weeks out, and haven't been able to get out since!
We were not really happy with the swim school changing instructors on us all the time, so before we went on our camping trip we cancelled their lessons.

We've been back about a month now, and we have found a new swim school. We took the boys for their first lesson last week. They did better than we both expected. Ben was keen to get straight in, and did so with much enthusiasm. Ethan was a little unsure, but after watching Ben and the other 2 boys for less than 5 mins, he said he was ready to get in, and did so very well.
They had a great lesson, and the instructor gave us some "homework" to practice in the bath.

Ben and Ethan have to practice laying on they back in shallow water to get used to the sensation of water in their ears and the sensation of back floating in the water. They have done this at their other swim school, but not in the bath before. They think it's great fun!






They also practice pouring water on their face with the cue,
Ethan ready go!



Benny ready go!



And putting their faces in the water and getting very wet! Again to the cue
Benny ready go






Ethan ready go





And ears in




They had a great time, and I'm much happier with this new swim school, and hope for some big improvements over the summer.



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Benny

Look who's awake






yes, my (not so baby) baby still has a dummy (paci) when he naps. It's going to be a tough habit to break!

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Ethan

Ethan is awake with me now, while Ben sleeps. Here's a few iPhone pictures of Ethan

Sitting crossed legged. Such a big boy


Got his car


Looking for more toys


Smelling the garbage bin as it smells like the lollies(candy) that used to be in there


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From my iphone

Life has changed recently. I am using my iPhone more and more, and the laptop less and less. Consequently, my blogging has suffered. Until now... I have found an iPhone app for blogging.
This is actually my 2nd attempt, and the first froze and crashed my phone while trying to upload a 5min long video. Won't be trying that again, but hopefully for quick updates this will prove useful :)

Today we went to our twins playgroup. Boys had a blast running around like mad men, playing with the other kids while I had a nice relaxing chat with the other mums, and got to nurse 3month old Juliette. It was a nice morning.

Recently we took the boys for their santa photos. They loved seeing Santa and asked him for some toy trains for Christmas.











Just a short post today to see if t works....

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Why?

Oh no…… we’ve entered the phase of “Why?” – Ethan LOVES to ask “why?”. This is how many many conversations go these days…

 

E: What you doing mummy?

M: I’m cleaning up darling

E: Why?

M: Because this house is messy

E: Why?

M: Because you made a mess

E: Why?

M: Because that’s what happens when you’re two

E: Why?

M: It just does darling…… (getting over this conversation now) – What are you doing Ethan?

E: talking to mummy! (smarty pants!)

 

or something like this….

 

E: What are you doing Mummy?

M: cooking dinner

E: why?

M: so we can have some dinner

E: why?

M: Because it’s dinner time

E: why?

M: that’s just what time it is E, aren’t you hungry?

E: Yeah

M: well, that’s why I’m cooking dinner!

 

I could go on….. there have been MANY MANY “why?” conversations, but you get the idea. This little man is curious about everything. I’ll try and video one soon. Ben likes to ask questions too, but doesn’t seem to do the same series of “why?” that Ethan enjoys.

 

Ben also has a few standard conversations that we “play out” every so often. Words in brackets are words they usually still leave out of their sentences.

Ben: I want something (to) eat

M: please Mummy

B: Please mummy

M: What would you like?

B: ummmmmmmmmm….. something in (the) cupboard

M: ok, what in the cupboard

B: ummmmmmmmmmmm

M: would you like this?

B: no, something else

M: what about this?

B: something else - (it becomes a game at this stage – Ben likes it, Mummy does not!)

M: what about this?

B: something else (now laughing)

M: what about this?

B: something else (still laughing)

M: no, not something else, would you like this or this? (two options because I’m getting over this game now!)

B: no, no no, something in (the) fridge – (tries to prolong the game)

'

And it can end there or go on…… depending on the day…..

 

Both boys have become real little chatterboxes, especially in the last month or two. They ask questions about everything, comment on different observations and even tell you how they feel (happy and sad). Their curiosity can be quite maddening at times, for some reason they enjoy asking the exact same question 5 times in one minute.. are they hoping for a different answer?!? They also ask questions I KNOW they know the answer to, so sometimes I give the wrong answer on purpose, and they always look at me funny and say “noooooo” – they are too smart!

 

I must admit, I am finding this incessant questioning phase a bit trying. I know they are learning, but I’ll be happy when this phase passes and I am not asked 100’s of questions all day long!

Camping Trip–Chapter 6–Coffs Harbour

Driving from Byron Bay to our home takes about 8-9hours, so we decided to spend 2 nights at a nice motel at Coffs Harbour on the way home – to break up the drive. The best part of this place was a heated swimming pool!

Sal and the boys swimming. During our trip we bought the boys a back float, as we saw a toddler about their age swimming with one, and doing really well. They love their “floatie” – Ben managed to work up the courage on his 3rd swim to let go of us/wall and swim independently. He was most proud of himself. He has an interesting vertical swimming technique, almost like running in the water. Ethan was a little more anxious, and would not let go.

The best part, and great little toddler pool!

Another fantastic part of Coffs Harbour was the “Pet Porpoise Pool” – A dolphin and seal park (with some other animals too). At the Pet Porpoise Pool, the boys were able to get kissed by a seal – Ben’s turn. Ethan’s turn (in the photo where the seal actually kisses Ethan, both E and Tracie shut their eyes!)

Ethan gets kissed by a dolphin

Ben gets kissed by a dolphin

Ethan feeds a seal

Ben feeds the seal too.

A few tricks the dolphins showed us during their show.

Tracie and the boys feed a little penguin.

Of course, a trip to the beach at sunset…. This beach had HEAPS of smooth pebbles and shells that the boys enjoyed exploring.

Tracie

My beautiful Ethan

 

Finally, a trip to Coffs wouldn't be the same without visiting the Big Banana!

This brings me to the end of our camping trip stories.

We had a WONDERFUL time, and look forward to planning our next trip in a few months.

Camping Trip–Chapter 5–Byron Bay

Byron Bay is a beautiful part of the northern NSW coastline. We stayed there for 2 nights, and had a great time seeing the sights.

 

Sitting down for breakfast, the ducks came to visit, and scored a couple of toast crusts off Tracie

Mummy (Sal) and Ethan feed the ducks. They were very tame, and took the bread right out of our hands.

Benjamin, pretending to sleep so I wouldn’t take his dummy (pacifier) away. He’s laying on his blankie, a small quilt Nana made for each boy for their first Christmas. Both boys still love their blankie, and take it to bed with them every naptime and bedtime, every single day! Click here for my initial post about blankies all those months ago

Ben, Mumma (Tracie) and Ethan at the Byron Bay lighthouse.

View from the lighthouse

Mumma (Tracie) and Ethan near the lighthouse, it was very windy, hence Ethan’s unimpressed expression.

(Beautiful beach behind, see picture below)

Benny and Mummy (Sal)

The amazing beach that we are standing in front of in the above photos

Beach at Bryon Bay

Ben, Tracie and Ethan on Byron Bay’s main beach.