Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Alternative to a Hills Hoyst

We no longer own a Hills Hoist clothesline - we sold it on ebay for $30 a while ago - so our children will never know the thrill of swinging freely from its metal arms. However our children - being the clever, creative souls they are - have already found an alternative. The automatic garage door!! Yes our just turned two year old was found the other morning by Daddy hanging from the garage door 4 foot in the air. He was happily having a ride with Caleb at the helm. Daddy quickly 'rescued' Seth and chastised Caleb for operating the door. Caleb's response...... "But Dad, he liked it the last time we did it!!!" Both Bren and I found it very difficult to keep a straight face - all we both wanted to do was laugh out loud. Seriously though it was quite a dangerous thing for the boys to do and we are certainly going to be vigilant about locking the garage door so that they can't get into any more mischief. I'm just wondering how many times they have actually had a 'ride' on the garage door!!! Perhaps I don't want to know!!!!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Seth Turns Two


Where has the time gone. Our little guy has officially journeyed into the land of the terrible two's!! Oh dear. Lucky he's cute - otherwise at times I think we'd all want to send him back. Seriously though Seth is a happy little boy - full of energy and enthusiasm for life. He makes us all smile and remember that the important things aren't the material but the love of family and friends.
We celebrated his day with a small party - a teddy cake , presents and pin the tail on the donkey (sans blindfold). He enjoyed the cake most of all - and ripping apart the gifts. I guess you know your children are growing up when they enjoy the gift inside more than the box or paper it came in.
Happy Birthday little man - we love you so much.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Winter in Australia

So we don't have much (well none actually) snow in Queensland, nor does mother nature herald the seasons quite so dramatically as in other states or countries in the world, nor do we have to buy huge jackets, toques, mittens, boots etc etc to keep us warm (damn!!) but I tell you what I absolutley love winter on the Gold Coast. I can walk outside without shoes on, I can take the boys to the beach and they can swim and play near the water without getting too cold, we can still feel the warmth of the sun on our faces.
I am reflecting on this as I think about my day. It was a magnificent 24+c today and I took the boys down to the beach where we played by the water, dug holes looking for soldier crabs, ate fish and chips, fed the seagulls and just had a really great day together. I really love winter in Australia.

Monday, July 23, 2007

I Built This





Call me crazy but I recently had this bee in my bonnet about re-landscaping parts of our front yard. Was tired of mowing the lawn and poisoning the clover and dragging the mower up the stairs. So I got a brainstorm in the shower one night - that's where all good ideas are formed for me I find - and decided to build a pond - a frog pond to be exact. I did a bit of research - made a plan - started imagining it in its final form - and wha-la! Here it is. It took three weeks of digging, shovelling, carting dirt, sand, rocks, mixing cement, digging holes - shopping for plants but it is finally finished (well almost - except for the growing and a few ambient lights). The kids love it - especially Caleb who calls it 'his pond'. We are just waiting for the locals (frogs that is) to find the pond and fall in love with it too. We do have to keep a keen eye out for toads however (the warty - very unfriendly variety) and dispose of their tadpoles.


I had a lot of fun doing this project - it gave me a great sense of satisfaction - I loved the artistic side to landscaping as well as the physical aspect - nothing like getting ones hands dirty (as long as I get a manicure in the next few weeks that is!!!) There is also nothing like creating a bit of peace and tranquility in ones yard either - I love how this area makes me feel. Can't wait till summer when the plants really start to grow and the area starts to look more lush and tropical - it will be hard to keep me away.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Are We There Yet?

I didn't think almost two year olds were supposed to use that phrase. I thought that it was reserved only for much much older children. But they were the words (or to be exact, "there yet?") that came from the mouth of our beautiful baby (can I still call him that?) boy the other morning when I was driving to Bunnings to buy some plants for the garden.
He is too too clever and I am enjoying every bit of his development (well almost everything - the tantrums I could live without!!!).

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Splashing Good Fun





I love puddles - and so do the boys. It rained ALL day today (gotta love that - our tank is filling up yey!) and plenty of deep puddles formed on the golf course. So the kid in me asked the kids themselves if they wanted to go for a splash in the puddles. I didn't have to ask twice. Bren got some snaps of us playing. Being a little cool out we only splashed around for about 1/2 an hour then came inside for a warm shower. It was great fun and a good reminder to make the most of every situation and that fun can be really cheap too!!!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Autumn Colours




Officially we are in winter - it's only turned cool within the last week or so. Before this we experienced the warmest autumn in many years (some days it was reaching 30c which is mighty hot for this time of year).

The tree pictured is still in autumn mode. It would have to be one of my favourite trees (no its not in our front yard) because it reminds me of Canada and because it is just soooo beautiful. We all went for a short walk this morning to the house that is lucky enough to have it in their front yard. Bren knocked on the door (I was too shy!) to ask if we could take a photo of it. The guy who answered the door (thanks David) was quite amused and said by all means we could do so. I snapped a few quick shots of the boys in front of the tree (before Seth could run off and before Caleb made too many funny faces) and then a close up of the leaves.

I really do love this tree - maybe I should plant one in our front yard.........

Friday, June 15, 2007

Newest photo of us


Hey - it's not the best photo but it is the most recent one of all of us. Caleb's class is looking at families (and where each family is from) and we were asked to make a page describing our family and where we were born etc etc. We didn't have a very recent photo of all of us so out came the camera - we set it up for remote shooting and then we all piled on the couch hoping for the best - especially with a wiggly Seth. We didn't do too badly - considering we were all feeling a bit under the weather. We will have to try and get a better portrait done at some point.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

It's Beginning to Feel a Bit Like Winter


At long last!!

The temp during the day is a glorious 21c but at night it's been dipping down to about 9c (above zero that is!) which while not really really cold is still cold enough for us to bother stoking up the fireplace. Remember we don't have internal heating - so whatever it is outside it generally is about the same inside.

Seth is very keen on the fireplace - so keen that we have to really keep an eye on him. Thankfully he understands the concept of hot so keeps away from the fireplace when it is on. He loves helping bundle the kindling to get the fire started and then happily sits on his little step to watch as the flames build and dance their own merry dance.

The fireplace really helps to take the coldness out of the air and lends a very cosy atmosphere to our house. We don't use it very much but it is something that we have really enjoyed using - it means that winter really is here - and you've gotta love that.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Becoming Good Mates

Playing at Rainbow Beach

Blowing out Daddy's Candles

Playing "peek-a-boo"

I have noticed lately that Caleb and Seth are beginning to play with each other a lot more.

Seth loves his big brother to bits and is wanting to be around him more and more. He gets quite upset when Caleb shuts the door on him (so he can play trains in peace usually) - he comes to me and says 'La la (Caleb) door" in the saddest sweetest voice - as if to say "I really want to be in the room with Caleb." How do you negotiate with a georgeous, sweet (if not mile a minute) boy who really does not understand that his brother needs his own space and really does not like to have his things flung from here to there or have his train set so neatly and carefully constructed destroyed in two seconds flat. So I usually distract Seth with something else like cuddles or songs or drawing etc etc.

Caleb does however love to play with his mischeivous younger brother as well. In the past when Seth was not quite so robust I would always be on the alert - Caleb didn't understand that Seth was only a baby and therefore had to be treated gently. Now however our youngest is at times the instigator of rough and tumble play. Caleb loves it. Often they play hide and seek under the bed sheets or chasey down the hall way. Even better is jumping on top of daddy or daddy's favourite 'let's tickle mummy'!!
I love watching the two of them together. It makes my heart sing to not only see them together but WANT to play together.
May they always be each others best friend.


Saturday, June 9, 2007

A Hearty Scare

Well well well - our little Seth (3 days out from his final cardiologist appointment - we had hoped!) decided to give us a bit of a scare. He was running quite a high temp yesterday and with it came a racing heartbeat - we measured it around 180BPM!! Seth was feeling absolutely miserable - very drowsy, quiet and off his food - very much UNLIKE our mile a minute little boy. So we called the ambulance - they whipped us off to hospital where they did an ECG, took blood samples, gave him some hydrating fluid, etc etc and gave him another dose of paracetemol and iboprufen (to lower his temp). Thankfully this also helped to lower his heartrate - which meant that his tachycardia was due to fever and NOT SVT. Which was wonderful news to us as that meant that he would not have to endure awful vagal manouvers (holding his breath, gagging him, ice on his head) nor would he have to have adenosine injected into his bloodstream. You would not believe how releived we were to hear this news.

As a precaution however the dr's decided to admit him overnight for observation. The nurses were awesome - in fact he was assigned a one-on-one nurse just to make sure he was ok. Bren stayed with us until about 2 am in the morning - when there was not much else to do except try and get Seth to sleep. I stayed with Seth in a comfy(ish) lounge chair and tried to get snatches of sleep when Seth also slept (which by the way wasn't much - poor little guy felt terribly crappy and kept waking every half hour or so). I think we got about 2 hours of sleep - oh how I am waiting for him to go to sleep today so that I can get a really long power nap in.

So there you have our little adventure - and I was wondering what to write next in our blog - hmm I think I'd rather write about the mundane thank you very much!!!!

Here's to the simple things in life - celebrate the everyday - appreciate the small things -
be thankful for all that you have.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Yikes - I think I've started something!!

My Lovely Boys
This is three of the "We Four Mallyons"


This is my first blog- post - whatever you call it. Just checking to see how easy or hard this is to do. I give credit to my friend Laureen for getting me started - I also thought it would be a great idea to use something like this when we do another OS exchange - how cool would that be to post something EVERY DAY!! What a way to keep in touch with everyone.


I'll have to slot this blogging thing into my everyday routine. Will have to get up a few minutes earlier before the boys rise so that I can have some peace in which to write.