The boys always love a trip to the park. We try to go every Wednesday morning with Leni, a friend we’ve made who has a 2yr old son named Cead (pronounced Cade). We always have a great time. Today Ben worked out how to climb the stairs and go down the slide all by him self. He must have gone down about 50 times. He was very proud of himself!!
Ben (red jacket) and Ethan (blue jacket)
Ben
Ethan
Ethan
Ethan and Ben standing on the slide
Ben climbing up the stairs
Ben
Ben
Ethan and Ben
Ethan
As promised, here are the pictures of our new house since we’ve moved in. We’re not finished decorating yet. We still need to put up most of our pictures and buy some small furnishings and finishing touches.
Here’s most of the house. I took these while the boys were sleeping, so I don’t have a picture of their room yet.
Entry way
Lounge Room with boys play area in the corner.
Lounge room
Lounge room and play area
Kitchen, Dining and Living room.
Living room
Living room 
Living and dining area
Dining area and view of the garden
Kitchen
Kitchen
Kitchen
Our room
Our room
Guest room
Pictures of the boys room to come . . . . . . .
Hello all. Sorry we haven’t updated in a few week. Moving house has made it a crazy few weeks!
We found the camera the other day, so I’m going to try and take some pics of the house while the boys are napping today.
In the mean time, here’s a couple of short videos of the boys playing in the living room. We propped the rubber mats up against the couch, and the boys had a great time climbing up and sliding down.
Here’s both boys. Notice when we count to three, Ben says three. Both boys are starting to learn some numbers. They say two, three and six!
Below is Ethan playing on the “slide”.
Sorry to all who read this blog. We have been so busy with packing and sorting and cleaning lately that I have not had a chance to update the blog.
We will be moving into our new house next week. We’ve managed to pack about half the house. We had a garage sale and sold about $200 worth of stuff we don’t want anymore. We were pretty happy with the results. We’re excited to be moving next week, but dreading all the processes that actually go along with moving. I’ll be happier in about 2 weeks when it’s all over!
It was very windy on the morning of the garage sale. This video is of Tracie and Ethan in the wind. Ethan had not experienced wind like that before. He thought it was funny.
The boys have been very helpful at packing (in their own way). They like to be the centre of attention. They climb in boxes, steal your tape, unpack boxes you’ve just packed. Whinge when you pack their toys. Like I said – very helpful!!
Life is good other than packing. The boys are growing well. We went to Nana’s for lunch a few weeks ago. Here’s some pictures of the boys playing at Nana’s (Sal’s Mum)
Ethan – later in the day, looking very tired
Meal times are becoming my most hated time of the day lately. Ethan is a great eater, and is not a problem. Benjamin on the other hand is driving everyone nuts. He is very fussy, and will only eat a decent meal if he’s given risotto! Risotto is his favourite food of all time. Most foods he squashes, then throws on the floor. We are struggling to deal with this behaviour. I don’t want to give him attention, so I try to ignore it, but then Ethan copies him (Monkey see, Monkey do!). I also don’t like to ignore him too much as I don’t want him to make too much mess, and I actually want him to eat some food. He’s still a skinny boy. Anyone with any ideas?!?!? Please tell me!
Below is a pic of both boys who decided it was a good idea to squash blue berries on their heads!
We’ve also decided it’s time to let the boys teach them selves to self-feed with a spoon. They (mostly Ethan) are getting good at self feeding off a plate with a fork, so it’s time for a spoon. Probably should have done this a while ago, but it’s such a messy procedure, we’ve been putting it off until the weather warmed up. Below is some pics of today’s efforts. They are eating pureed fruit and yoghurt. For those who still can’t remember who’s who……Ben is wearing a green bib, Ethan is wearing a yellow bib.
Benjamin has been babbling for months, with the occasional few random words. In the last 2 days he has made a HUGE leap in his talking. He now says teddy, kitty and car while pointing to the appropriate objects. He’s said these 3 words close to 100 times in the last 2 days.
Yesterday we were doing the grocery shopping and we bought a packet of kitty little tray plastic liners. The box had a cartoon picture of a cat on it, and he picked it up and pointed to the cat and said “kitty”.
There have been several other small incidences like this when he’s used words appropriately and in ways i didn’t expect him to be able to do. He will also attempt to say a greater variety of words if we ask him to. He’s very proud of him self and smiles a lot when we praise him for talking.
Ethan is still our quiet thinker and observer. We get the impression Ethan understands more than Ben, while Ben talks more than Ethan. It’s interesting to watch them develop.
Our little men still aren’t talking much, but they sure do understand so much of what is said around them. We have to be careful of what we say. We’ve even started spelling words!
They are still learning body parts. They can now point to:
We are trying to teach knees, arms and shoulders at the moment.
They have a book where “baby elmo” does various actions, and when we read it they try to follow the actions. They can copy baby elmo:
They also understand other simple commands/questions:
They are also starting to learn about their clothes. They know:
They are still learning shirt and haven’t started wearing shorts yet this season.
Amazingly, with all this comprehension, they have yet to listen to me when i tell them to get out of the cupboards, draws, cat food, store room, bathroom, nappy box etc!!!!! They truly are curious little toddlers who have an incessant need to explore, manipulate and learn about EVERYTHING!!!!!!!
I know it’s normal, i know it’s healthy, but after 12 hours of two toddlers getting into everything……. it’s FRUSTRATING and I love bedtime!!!
They are still sitting at the table eating their meals like big boys. Ethan, who’s always been the better eater, is getting very very good at eating all his dinner on a plate with fork. Benjamin prefers to squash his vegetables with the handle end of the fork, but will eat them if you hold his hand and the fork and help him. They both want to have the opportunity to try and feed them self from a bowl with a spoon (yoghurt or cereal etc), but we haven’t had the guts to let them have free reign at that one yet. Soon i suppose! I’m not looking forward to the mess! They haven’t quite got the idea of holding the bowl still with one hand, while the other uses the spoon. Last time we tried, they basically stabbed the yoghurt with the spoon until the bowl almost fell off the table.
Their allergies and diet restrictions are going quite well. We have slowly been introducing more foods. At the 12 month appointment we were given about 6-8 “challenges” to do, which tested certain additives. They have had a few very mild reactions, but nothing bad at all. I think we only have dried fruit and food colourings to go. We should do them soon, but it’s hard to find the right time. We must choose a 3 day period when Ben’s skin has been good, and his diet as been good, and try to keep it that way so we can test properly. Life seems to get in the way! For example, we were going to do it last week, but we had a BBQ chicken, chips and salad for lunch (from a chicken shop). We gave the boys some chicken, chips (fries) that had chicken salt on them and some of the salad (cucumber, fetta and olives) They had not had chicken salt, fetta or olives before, so we didn’t want to do a food challenge near that day in case they were reacting to the other new food. Today we went to the shops, and Sal had a fruit salad with yoghurt and muesli on top. Of course the boys wanted some, so they had some. These are all foods they are allowed to eat, but as it’s food from a food court and we can’t read the ingredients label, and we don't know for sure that the chopping board that they used to cut the fruit salad was clean, and didn’t have any allergy products on it – we take a small risk. The boys were fine with the fruit salad, it is a risk we’re willing to take occasionally, and I don't want to deprive them, but it makes it hard to fit in these challenges to make sure the results are accurate. Life just gets in the way!
Ethan seems to have had a growth spurt recently. He looks bigger. I’m sure he’s about 2-3cm (an inch) taller than Ben now. He feels heavier too. Ben is still a little skinny light weight. He feels very light when you pick him up compared to Ethan. We haven’t had them weighed and measured lately, I’d actually be curious to know what they weigh. I think Ben is a little skinny, but I don’t know how to fatten him up. He eats and drinks less than Ethan. I don’t think you can force a toddler to eat more. Can you?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, what else? There are so many things our little toddlers are learning and doing every day. I may complain about the toddler insanities, but I really am enjoying this age. Last week they discovered that the front tap was dripping. Such a simple thing that an adult wouldn’t think twice about provided so much enjoyment. They spent ages feeling the water drip on their hands, laughing, squealing in delight and running around the garden. It brings a smile to my face to watch them play, learn and just be happy.
I’m sure there are many more things that B&E are doing at the moment but that’ll have to be another entry….
Today, after 2 stressful weeks of waiting, the bank has finally given approval on our home loan. We are officially able to buy our first house!!!! We put down our 5% deposit and we are so excited about moving into our very own home :)
Below are a few pics of the house we’re planning to buy.
Front Entrance
Front living room
Second (back) living room, dining area and kitchen (also see combustion fire in the corner)
Kitchen
Kitchen (we love our new cook top and oven!!)
Different angle of the second living room.
Master bedroom (note it has a balcony, walk in robe and ensuite!)
Second bedroom (will become our spare room)
Third bedroom (will become the boys room)
Fourth bedroom (will be a study for us too)
Main bathroom
First part of the back yard just out the door from the dining area
Lower entertaining area (see the hot tub – we get to keep it!)
Grassy area of the back yard
Shed
Cubby house (we get to keep this too!)
We’re looking forward to moving into our new place in the second week of October :)
