Back pat

Tonight Zach yelled out "Back pat Dadda!" Then rolled over onto his tummy, propped his bottom in the air, and pulled down his shirt for a back tickle. Tony has no one but himself to blame as role model for this effort.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A quick update

A certain 20mth old dropped the MacBook (still getting fixed) and his parents left the camera at the coffee farm so blogging and photos has taken a slight pause. But stay tuned as there are some excellent ballet moves - by Zach - whose latest word is "tutu".


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Camping - carool style

This weekend we were supposed to be camping at Brunswick Heads with Ava, Finn and Melissa. However, the campsite was not in the best interest of us relaxing - with a 2.5m drop into the Brunswick river, and the pacific motorway in sight. So - we headed back for a spot of camping at Carool. Far more civilised. And with Zach having night terrors - I am fairly sure all the campers at Brunswick were happy we were not there either.

The pose

Bronte is funny about photos. In general - she is fine with them. For the school photos, she freaks out and refuses to take part until several deals have been struck. But then sometimes, she asks to have her photo taken (often when she thinks the light is nice). In this case, this is generally the pose she strikes - head resting on hands.

Cousin time

Chilling out with some of the Aunties and cousins in celebration of Dad's birthday

20 months

What - I am getting in trouble for this? The independence phase is well and truely happening, with screams of protest if you dare offer help or assistance. But this is also coupled with a flood of language and charm. His toilet training is going remarkably well (all driven by him) - but does include waking up throughout the night to wee. He has also been having night terrors - so it has been a bit of a rough patch (this boy is LOUD).

4 years 5 months

Beautiful girl. You know it has been a good month when you can't remember the last time out. Bronte has been shy at school - refusing to participate in activities even though she wants to join in. It seems to be mostly a school thing - so the teachers have been working on it, but it has also rolled over into ballet - where the dreaded "concert" term has stopped all in-class participation. At least she is still rocking it in gymnastics.

Good dry fun

Tramping it up with Ava and Finn.

B & Z

Game face on

Balance bike vs quad bike. It is game on.

It looks like Zach was the victor. He was not - well, not in the sense of coming first anyway. But he did manage to negotiate the driveway. Sort of.

Not that one, that one

As Zach's verbal language increases, his non-verbal language is getting poorer. That is, by means of pointing and "ugh" - it used to be pretty easy to understand what he wanted. Now he just tries to say the words without the point - and gets frustrated when we do not understand. Zach has also started to have a strong say over which clothes he wants to wear. For example, he picked his thomas undies (undies vs. nappy), board shorts (board shorts vs. swimming pants vs. normal shorts), and swimming top (swimming top vs. shirt) at the beach the other day, with very definite "NO" and "YES" when I picked the wrong/right clothes. This is the stage with Bronte where our house turned pink.

Her and him

Golf at the Mountain

After a great morning at the beach we headed out to the Mt Coolum golf course for dad to hit and the rest of us to walk (or if you are Bronte - run). Bronte walked / ran the 9 holes without a whinge, and only one interrupting question as a shot was taken. Bronte also took the middle photo of Zach and I.

Photo by Bronte

Hanging with Nanna

Both kids love their weekly Nanna day. They have the routine pretty down - start off with a hot chocolate, then a play in the yard, then some lunch and books, then a rest. Oh, and lots of giggle throughout.