Appearances

Isaac is such a boy these days. He's starting to like boy things, he's starting to get rough in a playful way. He also couldn't care less how he looked. Present him with clothes and shoes, and he'll put them on without a care.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, cares. Not only does she care, but she knows exactly how she wants to look. Heaven forbid if you suggest something she doesn't want to wear. However, when it comes to shoes she is very particular. She knows the shoes she wants to wear, and they must be clean.

As we were putting on her fairly new shoes yesterday morning, she starting saying "No, no no! I need new shoes."

"But Lizzy, these shoes are new."

"No - they are old. I need new shoes."

At this point I turned to Ben and said "I think we have a cronic shoe shopper on our hands."

Ben rolls his eyes and Lizzy says very seriously "Yes, I think so too."

Leatherback Sea Turtles

Our bed has somehow become an "imagination" spot in our house. It often is a boat, although sometimes it is a train or even a plane. Sometimes, when nobody can agree, it is both a boat and a train at the same time.

The other day it was a rescue boat. Elizabeth had tossed all our pillows off our bed and they were Leatherback Sea Turtles. She would then swim out and rescue the turtles and bring them safely back to the boat.

It's fun to see how a child's imgaination can grow - and it constantly amazes me how much they pickup about the world around us without us even knowing.

What is a Friend?

The other day, Isaac and I were talking about preschool. I asked him if Jackson was his friend. The answer was "No". I then asked him "What about Joshua?".

"No, but I like playing with Joshua. Can he come over and play with Daddy and I?"

After a quick shake of my head I had to announce the news: "Isaac if you like playing with someone, they are your friend."

"Ohhh." And the light comes on.

Doggie Update

Our old visitor has been claimed and will be spending the evening at home with her owner. I am very relieved, as I did not want her to have to be taken to the pound. However, I'm not sure how the reaction will be tomorrow morning from our two children. Hopefully the ground work we laid today will lessen any disappointment tomorrow.

Before and After

We are getting our house painted - it used to be pink and now it is brown.

Before....

After....

There are a few finishing touches to be done, but I'm sure you get the general idea.

Temporary Visitor

We had an unexpected visitor turn up today.

She is a very old dog, and appears to be blind. We walked around our neighbourhood and could not find an owner, and we took her to our vet to see if she was microchipped. No luck. So we've aquired a temporary visitor. I've stressed to the kids that she's only visiting and they seem content with that. Hopefully someone will claim her soon.

Walking

One thing I love about the weather warming (and drying) up is that we have more opportunities to get out to our local nature trails. Today, we headed out to the Redmond Watershed Preserve. It was about a 45 minute (child-paced) walk, filled with lots of exciting things to see. The highlight was seeing a snake slithering off the path into the wetlands. Isaac was thrilled and has told everyone about the black snake that looked like it was cut down the middle with a yellow line. As exciting as our walk was, I'm glad we didn't have the excitement of a jogger who came off one of the longer trails. He told us to be careful if using the trail he'd been on because had nearly run into a black bear.

Here are some photos of our walk.

Isaac is my trail blazer. Normally a boy who'd rather be sitting quietly, once he's on a walk he's wanting to take off ahead of everyone.

On the other hand, Lizzy, who seems to never stop moving, is constantly stopping to touch or admire something.

Going Up

Lizzy went tree climbing again. This time Daddy was home to be the rescuer.

Tree Climbing - Part II

We picked Ben up from the airport on Thursday afternoon. He had already read my blog, and started to ask Lizzy about her tree climbing experiences.

Another voice suddenly joins in...

"I'm going to climb a tree when I am seven!"

Ahhh. That's my little planner. He might not want to climb a tree at 5, but it appears that he somehow knows that it's something that a child should do and has a definate plan to achieve it.

My response...

"Jolly Good Isaac. On your seventh birthday I'll send you up the tree - rain or shine."

Spring Afternoons

Spring has finally arrived. The weather is warming up, marginally. It feels like an Australian winter right now. The flowers are blooming. The kids are playing outside. It's great.

This afternoon Isaac and I were around the side looking for bugs, when suddenly we hear Elizabeth, "Mummy, come and look at me!"

Isaac and I walk around the back, but I don't see anyone.

"Mummy, look at me!"

I look up. Half way up the Italian Prune tree is a girl in pink.

"Wow Lizzy, you have climbed high. Can you climb back down?"

"No. I need help."

She is just high enough that when I stretch out my arm I'm a few inches away from her foot.

"Lizzy. Can you see the branch below you? Can you put your foot on it?"

"No. I need help."

Oh dear. What do I do? I could climb up myself, or I could leave her there while I get the ladder.

"Wait there Lizzy. I'm going to get the ladder"

So there I am, on this lovely spring afternoon having images of rescuing kittens from trees. Luckily this little kitten of mine was quite willing to be rescued.

California

Ben is going to California today.

I think Isaac knows that he was born in California. However, I found out Lizzy's extent of knowledge on California while at the airport this morning.

"Where are you going Daddy?"

"I'm going to California for work"

"Oh. California! That's where the Cars went"

After a moment of confusion, Ben realised she was referring to the movie "Cars".

"Yes - Lightning McQueen went to California didn't he? But Daddy is going for work, he's not going to race in a car"

Tap Dancing

Yesterday was Sunday. We go to church on Sunday, and Elizabeth chose to wear a dress and her "dancing" shoes.

As she was walking down the steps she turned to me and said:

"I'm going tap dancing with Jesus!"

Wrapping Presents

Last week I finally made a craft drawer. It has been a hit, providing hours of entertainment.

Today Lizzy discovered that she could wrap presents with the colored paper. She has been collecting books, necklaces and other little odds and ends and wrapping them.

Some have been given to me, some to Isaac but the majority have been wrapped for her preschool friends.

Let's just hope that she forgets about this before Friday, as I'm sure that quite a number of things are actually Isaac's.

Australian Words - Part 2

Today, we went to Home Depot.

Lizzy, as usual, asked me "Where are we going, Mummy?"

"Home Depot"

Isaac pipes up and asks "How do you say Home Depot in Australian?"

Without a moments hesitation both Ben & I reply:

"Bunnings!"

And both grin at each other.

Australian Words

Today, Lizzy corrected me on how I said "Hurray!" I said "Hurrah" and she told me "It's not Hurrah, it's Hurray".

This all led to a discussion on how different words can be said in different ways - and that Mummy often says words the Australian way while they say them the American way.

This is where the confusion began. Lately Isaac has been asking "How do you say 'x' in Spanish?" We had been talking about tomato sauce being the same word as ketchup when suddenly Isaac pipes up and asks:

"Mummy, how do you say tomato sauce in Spanish in Australia?"

Questions could be asked forever at this age.

Daddies are amazing!

Daddies are amazing. Did you know they can make apple spaghetti? Well, according to Lizzy her daddy can make it.

We have an apple corer, which peels the skin off the apple as it cores. It becomes one long twisty piece of apple skin. The result is apple spaghetti and a very happy Lizzy.

We love...

We love lots of things, but maybe instead I should be calling this post "Wii Love".

Yes...we finally have our Wii. We've been trying to get one since prior to Christmas, and finally we managed to get our hands on one last week. It arrived late yesterday afternoon.

Last night Ben & I were playing, and this morning Lizzy was introduced to the Wii. Isaac will find out about the Wii today after preschool.

Both Lizzy & I love boxing. It's definately the easiest game for a 3 year old and the most active game for me. Lizzy loves to knock her opponent down and at the end yells "I won, I won!".

I can't wait to see Isaac play.

Blatant Advertising

Ben's book gets released today. Go on - I know you want to buy a copy.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Microsoft-Virtual-Server-2005/dp/0470109173/ref=sr_1_1/102-7077579-5168937?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176133589&sr=8-1

Just look at that smiling face...don't you want it to be on your shelf?

And if that doesn't convince you....I'll use "the force" in recognition of Isaac's milestone.

"You will buy the book".

Milestones

When our children are babies it seems like they hit milestones every week. As they grow, the milestones seem to space out. Therefore it was a big weekend for us as both Elizabeth & Isaac hit milestones that we just had to write about.

Lizzy's milestone is that she worked out how to swim! Yeah! It was quite funny to watch. She has always loved the water, but all she wanted to do was float on her back. She was flat out refusing to put her head under the water. However, last week at swimming lessons she suddenly discovered putting her head under was fun. This week she discovered that she could float on her belly, kick her legs and put her head under at the same time - and wala - she could move. You would think that she had found the cure for all the world's ills with the amount of excitement this caused her.

And Isaac's milestone.....

He watched Star Wars for the first time. Yes, I know some of you may not think of this as a milestone but Ben & I thought it was worthy of note. Our boy was entraced. We watched Episode 1. You could tell he was a little bored when there were serious or sappy moments, but his eyes were alight when ever there was action.

I've been trying to work out when Owen first watched Star Wars - I'm not sure which episode - but he must of been of a similar age. I remember that Mum took me to see Humphrey the Bear Live while Dad took Owen to the movies. I also remember feeling at little sad that my big brother was going to see Star Wars (although I have to admit that Humphrey was a pretty exciting alternative). I think Elizabeth felt much the same way when we told her she needed to wait until she was five too. She excepted with good grace - however, unlike me, she missed out on a fun alternative. Instead she went to bed.

Conversations

It is funny how sitting in the car seems to be the place for "deep and meaningful" conversations.

Yesterday, as we were driving along Isaac suddenly asked me "How many birthdays do you need to be dead?"

Wow....where did that one come from?

I responded somewhere along the lines of that we hope to have enough birthdays so that we can be mummies and daddies, then grandmas and grandad's and maybe even great grandparents.

That seemed to satisfy him, but then he started chatting about being a daddy one day. I explained that if he or Elizabeth had a baby, then I would be a grandma and grandma would be a great grandma.

At 5 years old, however, you are full of knowledge and know exactly how the world works. So when he told me that he was going to have 2 children, one a girl and one a boy, I decided that he really didn't need to know that he had no control over that. So I just replied "That's wonderful Isaac. I'm sure I'll love being their grandma."