More Christmas photos

Christmas 2011

Here are some photos of Brendon opening his Christmas presents. He loved everything he got. There were lots of ooohhhhs, wows and "I love it" coming from him as he opened them. I had to take down all the Christmas decorations today as he thinks that each night Father Christmas will come and leave some more presents and that we will have crackers to pop at each meal.

Brendon's sandpit and my new pjs.

Here are some photos of Brenon's Christmas present from us...his new sandpit. I have written more about it on my other blog (Pauline's Tips). I also just finished making these pyjamas yesterday. My sewing is improving.

Christmas is coming...

There hasn't been much to update lately, although Brendon has now got all his teeth. His last two teeth came through within a week of each other. I measured him this morning and he is now 93cm tall...he has only grown 1cm in the last 4 months, but seems so much taller than that! He is going to be taller than his Dad by the time he stops growing.
Brendon decorated the Christmas tree and really enjoyed it. We are going to build him a sandpit as his Christmas present this year, as it seems to be something he really wants. Each day he asks if he can go out and dig in the sandy patch where we used to have some plants growing between the patio and where the old shed used to be.
The next few months should be good fun. We have family visiting in both February and March, and somewhere in between that Mathew will take some annual leave so we can go on a camping holiday which I am really looking forward to.
We are having our Mini Club Xmas lunch in the park tomorrow with a visit from Santa. It will be interesting to see what Brendon thinks of that. Next weekend we are thinking of going into the city and perhaps having Brendon's photo taken with Santa at Harvey Norman's again like we have for the past two Christmas's.
Brendon knows his left from his right and gets it correct most of the time.

Brendon has a new tooth

Only one more to go after this one! His right upper second molar has just come through.

My new dress

Here is a (not so flattering) photo of the dress I finished making yesterday. It was from a pattern and material that Mum and Ron sent me for my birthday years ago. I finally gave it a go and it has worked out well. There are a few mistakes in it, but hopefully no-one will look that closely. I will be wearing it to Neil and Char's wedding.

Just can't stay awake

Last night I made pizza for dinner. Brendon is still adjusting to not having daytime sleeps...some days he has one, not others. Yesterday he didn't have one, and with a mouthful of pizza it finally hit him.

Moke Club 40th birthday

This is the cake I did for the Moke Club's 40th Birthday on Saturday.

The skills you learn as a mother

Well, apart from the expected, like how to look after your child, I could add "can fix matchbox cars" to my resume the next time I update it. However, as of yesterday I can now add "basic hair cutting" to my list of skills. I have been cutting Mathew's hair for 12 years and Brendon has recently watched me cutting Mathew's hair and asked if I could cut his too. Although the hairdresser has been doing it since he was 7 months old, he now refuses to let her anywhere near him with the scissors. We only have a No. 2 comb for our clippers, and it's the only haircut I know how to do. Brendon sat very still on Mathew's lap, much better than he ever did for the hairdresser, and didn't get too stressed by the sound of the clippers on his head. His new hair cut has taken Mathew and I a little getting used to, but it looks ok now.

Like father like son

Yesterday I couldn't help laughing every time I looked out the window and saw this...Mathew and Brendon mowing the lawn together. Everywhere Mathew went with his lawn mower, Brendon was right behind him with his.

Check out my pyjamas

Here they are...I made them myself. Check out paulinestips.blogspot.com for more on how I made these.

New blog

I've joined the frugality movement! I'm trying to live more simply, waste less, etc. Follow my journey on my new blog...paulinestips.blogspot.com

Bay to Birdwood and Brendon's birthday

On Brendon's birthday we went on the Bay to Birdwood in our Mini. It was great fun, as we congregated with 1800 other cars at West Beach, before heading off towards Birdwood. As it was the 50th year of minis in Australia, the minis headed off first. I was surprised at how many people were out and about, lining the streets of Adelaide and on the way up the hill. There must have been hundreds of thousands of people waving and cheering us on. What a blast! There was about 50 minis in the parade and most of them parked together at the Birdwood Motor Museum at the end.
At the end of the day we came home and Brendon got to open the last of his birthday presents and have his third and final birthday cake...a Bay to Birdwood cake, complete with toy cars relevant to the period of the cars in the event (pre 1977). Thanks to the Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book my cake decorating skills has vastly improved!

New roof, camping and birthday cake

Here are some photos taken recently. They include photos of our old roof coming off, new roof going on, camping at Burra Gorge and the first of Brendon's birthday cakes (Bananas in Pyjamas).

Updates

I just realised it's been a while since I updated the blog. What can Brendon do now...he can count to 10, identify all numbers up to 10, can tell you that if you have 2 and 1 more make 3 and 3 and 1 more make 4, sing the alphabet song, knows M is for Mum, D is for Dad, G is for Granddad or Grandma, N is for Nanna. He had a chest infection and ear infection, it went away but then his cough came back again. Then he shared his virus with his Dad! He can also tell you that he will be 2 "in September" and that he wants a party! He is now only having a breast feed two or three times per week. He is going down for his daytime sleep in his cot without needing a breast feed to get him off to sleep. He can sing lots of songs and loves to sing all day long. As I type this he is singing "Roads Will Take You There" which is a Playschool song. He also loves making up songs and tends to change words of songs he knows to make them about Mokes and Mini's. For example, the song We're Going On a Bear Hunt he sings as We're Going On a Mini Hunt. Brendon loves building things with his Lego, just like Mum and Dad. He is 92cm tall and no longer fits under the overhand of the breakfast bar without banging his head. He has gone up the next level at Gymbaroo as the instructor thought he needed a bit more challenge, and he seems to enjoy it so far. Brendon is learning to say our address, which I think is important in case of emergency. He loves numbers so much these days that his favourite passtime is to tell us the numbers on the mail boxes when we go for a walk.

Our weekend away

We have just returned from a lovely weekend away at Clayton Bay. We stayed at a holiday house which was rather nice. We spent two nights there, arriving on Friday night. On Saturday we went to Strathalbyn for the morning. In the afternoon we relaxed and had dinner at the cafe over the road. It was a shame to come back today, another day would have been nice. Here is a photo of Mathew and Brendon at a cafe in Strathalbyn.
There is also a photo of Brendon with Mr Bear, just after I had finished knitting him and sewing him together.

Some photos

One photo of Brendon and Tyson at the Moke Club AGM dinner and another of Brendon with the cow statue at Alexandrina Cheese Company during Mini Club's Wine, Cheese and Olives tour.

Last Scars Clinic Visit

Today I took Brendon to the Scars Clinic at the Women's and Children's hospital and was told he doesn't need to come back anymore. This is quite a change from what we have been told previously, when they said he would need to come back every year until his hand stops growing. He doesn't need the bandages on at night time anymore but still needs to massage moisturiser into his finger tips everyday.

National Short Course Swimming competition

Friday, Saturday and Sunday I spent watching my niece, Taylor Green, swim in the short course championships. She did well considering she was competing with others much older than her. There were some high profile competitors there including Libby Trickett and Liesel Jones. Here are some photos taken with Taylor, also one of Nanna, Granddad and Brendon when they were here to visit in May.

Spread it around

The cold I caught from Brendon turned into sinubrachiaitis, but I'm over it now.
Today Brendon and I went to watch my niece, Taylor Green, swim in the National Short Course Championships here in Adelaide. She came 3rd in her heat for the 400m Women's medley. She was the youngest in the heat so I think she did very well. She also knocked 5 seconds off her time that was recorded in the official program. I will be going to watch her again tomorrow.

Tonsilitis

Brendon's cold developed into tonsilitis. Fortunately he responds quickly to penicillin. Unfortunately he has given his cold to me! Just when I was looking forward to getting him out and about this week!

Being sick is not much fun.

Brendon seems to have a cold. He came down with a temperature on Monday which lasted two days. He also developed a bit of a cough, with which he found it hard to get his breath when he would cough and would get into a bit of a panic. I took him to the doctor yesterday and she said he may have croup. He is worse today, but the panic breathing has gone away and it is just a typical 'cold' style cough and sounding snuffly. Nonetheless I am taking him back to the doctor this afternoon. So the poor little boy has missed out on all his usual activities this week; kindergym, swimming, mother's group, toddler tunes at the library and playgroup.
Prior to Brendon getting sick we had a great time camping with friends on the long weekend. We bush camped at Lock 9 on the Murray River just over the border in Victoria. The weather was cool but nice and no rain.

Where's my shadow gone?

Brendon has discovered his shadow, and likes to try and find it all over the house at night when the lights are on.
His potty training is on and off at the moment. Some days he is happy to give it a go and on other days he isn't interested.
Last night he could identify Granddad, Nanna and Uncle Tom written on flashcards.
His sentences are getting longer, now saying 6 and 7 word sentences, sometimes even longer. His words are getting clearer, "Unc Mar" is now "Uncle Mark" and "Aunt Orna" is now "Aunty Orna" - the "L" in front of Lorna is still to come. Brendon also loves to count, although a few numbers are missing. He goes "1,2,3,4,5,6,9,10,12,14,15,18."
It is a bit hard to write this, as Brendon keeps stopping me wanting to throw the ball to me!
We are off to Kindergym this morning, so I had better get ready.

Sleeping is for babies...apparently

Well it seems that suddenly Brendon has decided he doesn't need a daytime sleep...at all! He tells me he is sleepy and shows all the signs, including falling asleep at the breast, but won't transfer to the cot. I am hoping this is only temporary and he will go back to having afternoon sleeps soon!

Our trip away

Just before Easter we headed off for the National Moke Muster in Wagga Wagga. We travelled over in a convoy with other SA Moke Club members and had a great time there. After that was over, we headed off to Canberra for a brief visit with Lorna and Mark. We had a great time there as well, going to see the old Parliament House and all the flags of the countries that have representation in Australia. In fact, Brendon loved the flags so much that is all we have heard since! Brendon had a feast on the strawberries in Lorna and Mark's garden.
In the lead up to our Easter holiday, we got to watch my niece, Taylor, swim in a competition here in Adelaide. It was great to catch up with her, even if it was only for a few minutes. She did really well with one bronze, three silver and three gold. Keep an eye out for her in the future Olympics!
My mum and step dad also came over to watch Taylor compete. It was great to see them again. Ron hadn't seen Brendon since he was three weeks old, and Mum hadn't seen him since he was 7 months old. He sure kept them entertained!
Brendon has his 18 month check up tomorrow. Now that holidays are over, it is back into the swing of things with Kindergym, swimming lessons, etc. The holiday was nice but it will be nice to get back into our routine.

Happy Snaps

Here are some photos taken at Melrose (while out camping) and at the Mini Club presentation night.

Brendon has man-flu

On Wednesday we had our mother's group get together at our house. One of the kids had just been getting over the sniffles, so I wasn't surprised to see Brendon with a runny nose on Friday. I really wish that people with sick kids wouldn't bring them to mother's group! Anyway, he has had a fever and runny nose since then. You can really tell when the panadol is wearing off, he deteriorates from a happy boy playing with his cars to a very quiet boy, wanting to just sit quietly, with a frown on his face, red eyes watering and looking very pale. Mathew and I have been joking that Brendon has Man-flu, as when he gets sick he gets "very, very sick." I will try to get him in to see the doctor today.
I hope he gets over it before all the fun and festivities we have happening around Easter time!

He's a real chatterbox

Seems to be a comment I hear quite frequently these days regarding Brendon's vocabulary. Now that he has moved on from single words to sentences, we often hear him say things like "He's all right", "Not today', "I suppose", "Cheeky boy", "Tired boy", "Cheese, toast", "Dad work", "Brush teeth", and so on. He can tell you his favourite books are "People do day" ('What do people do all day' by Richard Scarry), "Mister Dog" (a Golden book), "Bear" ('Goodnight Little Bear', another little golden book), "Train, car" ('The ABC book of Cars, Trains, Boats and Planes), "Baby dressed" ('Baby Gets Dressed').
And if you ask him what he would like for dinner, you will inevitably be told "SPAGHETTI".
One of Brendon's lower incisor teeth came through yesterday, so he now has 13 teeth.

Camping trip

Mathew, Brendon and I went camping for the long weekend to Deep Creek Conservation Park. We had a lovely time there (again). It was packed out but it is one of those camp sites that doesn't feel crowded even when it is. The morning we left we were covered in a blanket of thick fog.
Brendon has decided it is time to move onto using lots of two word sentences and complicated words. He learnt 'kookaburra' on the weekend as he got to see and hear some in the trees at our campsite.

Our weekend

Yesterday we went to the All British Day at Uraidla. Our moke was meant to be in the display, but still needs some work, so we didn't take it. Had a great day nonetheless. Here are some of the latest photos, including one of me with straight hair taken just moments ago. The photo of Brendon shows how we have to bandage his hand at night to keep the special scars treatment bandages on. During the day he doesn't wear any bandages, but we have to massage his fingertips several times per day.

Brendon's visit to the scars clinic

Yesterday Brendon went to the Scars Clinic at the Women's and Children's hospital. His fingers are improving, but we still need to keep up the massaging several times per day and the gel tip bandages at night. I was told that the massaging would go on for a while yet, and over time his appointments would be stretched out from monthly check ups to eventually being yearly while his hands are growing. Scar tissue doesn't grow at the same rate as normal skin, so they want to keep an eye on how his hand is growing to make sure the scar tissue doesn't cause him any discomfort. Before the appointment we went up to the play deck at the hospital where this photo was taken. Brendon was enjoying himself so much he didn't want to leave it to see the doctor.

Our new fridge

A very diplomatic one year old

The other night Brendon didn't want to eat anymore of his dinner. Instead of just saying 'no more', he very politely told us that perhaps the dog would like to eat it! He said "Yum Yum, dog, bowl." Unfortunately he has realised that anything he doesn't eat is fed to the dog!

Toilet training

We have commenced toilet training with Brendon.
Brendon now also understands the word "Home", how to say it and what it means. Latest words also include toilet, Chloe, bumped, shops, shoes and pyjamas.

Bye Bye

Last night Brendon amazed Mathew and I. We were all in the kitchen and I told Brendon that it was nearly time to change his nappy and put him to bed. He walked out of the kitchen, looked at his toys and said "Toys, Bye", waved at them and walked to his bedroom!

Happy Campers

We went camping on New Years Day. We went to the Deep Creek Conservation Park, Stringybark Campground on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Great campsite, friendly and informative camp host, fantastic weather, great facilities, plenty to see and do, lovely bush walks to go on, kangaroos hopping through campsite ... get the feeling we really enjoyed it? Driving home Mathew and I both felt like turning the car around and going straight back. Will certainly go back there for sure. We stayed two nights and spent one day doing a trip to Victor Harbour and Goolwa. We saw our friend Kathryn and her twins, Jasper and Cooper (from my mothers group) at Victor Harbour. We took our camper trailer which worked out well. Brendon learnt the baby sign for 'more' and says the word similtaneously, which is great. He can now let us know when he wants more to eat or drink, which we found very handy while we were camping. I stopped counting how many words he was saying when he reached 50, so would hazard a guess and say he is now saying about 70 words.