Piano Lessons

Elizabeth learnt a new song today, and wanted her grandparents to listen. So sit back, relax and pretend she's giving her concert.

Adjectives

Kai loves his adjectives. He'll often say things like "Can I have a juicy apple or can I have cheesey eggs?". However the new one tonight was one that we could do without. "Mummy - I have to do a brown poo!"

Ahh - what a delight he is!

Articulated Buses

I had to look up the word for an "articulated" bus today. I've always called a bus with a pivoting joint a banana bus. We used to catch a banana bus to school, and that name has stuck with me.

This all came about when I pointed out the banana bus to Kai yesterday.

His response was to giggle and say "No Mummy, it's a people bus".

Of course! Silly Me. That bus doesn't carry banana's. It carries people.

Two is such a fun age.

Line of the Night

The best line said during dinner tonight.

Ben: "Kai - you're such a character"
Kai: "No! I'm not a carrot"

Which then, of course, led to all sorts of silliness.

Al Naturale

When someone has a minor ailment in our household, I tend to explore natural options before I look for strong chemical/medical options.

Hence, when Elizabeth told me that her head was itching and I discovered large clumps of dry skin through her hair - I looked for a natural remedy as our first step.

Last night, we tried a honey & banana scalp mask. It certainly smelt good when we put it on, and she wore it for 30 minutes.

What I did not realise was how hard it would be to get banana out of her hair! We rinsed, and rinsed and then rinsed some more. Then we brushed and rinsed even more. Finally, I decided to try drying her hair - hoping that banana wasn't going to get cooked onto her hair. Luckily, that seemed to do the trick. Once the banana and hair was dry, it was much easier to brush out.

The good news - her scalp is definately looking better today. Although, if we do a natural remedy for dry scalp again, I think we might try the yogurt instead.

Mimic

Kai is our little mimic. If you say a new word, it's often repeated back very quickly.

Tonight our conversation went like this:
"Mummy, get out bath. Go see Daddy".
"OK, you can go see Daddy?"
"Yeah! Go play Daddy."
"You're such a little chatterbox."
"Datterbox?"
"Yes - a Chatterbox"
"Ooooh" (as if that explained everything).

Most of the time it's cute. It's not so good when you suddenly say "Darn it!" and it's repeated by a little voice.

Weekend Away

We went camping this weekend to South Whidbey Island. It was a great weekend, spent with some friends.

We played on the beach



went to the Loganberry Festival...

and on Sunday went to a Jazz concert at the Rhododendrum Gardens, where Lizzy found evidence of fairies.

In all, it was a great weekend and one we'd like to repeat this summer.

Alarm Clock

I have a great alarm clock. Every morning, without fail, it says "Hello Mommy! Out! Come on Mommy! Out!"

And I stagger out of bed, make breakfast, put on Dora the Explorer and fall asleep on the couch again. But like all good alarm clocks, 20 minutes pass and I'm woken by my alarm clock again when he says "Mommy, Dora all done. TV again?".

Family Resemblence

I got a wonderful photo in the mail the other day, which is now up on my fridge so the kids can see their cousin every day. However, the photo reminded so strongly of another photo I have in my collection that I couldn't help digging through my old photos.

Home Made

I recently decided to pull out my sewing machine again. As soon as Elizabeth saw this, she put in a request for a dress. She chose the material and the pattern. This is the end result...

And from the side...



And just to throw in a smile for you..

New Rose

The other day I bought a new rose for my garden. It's called Enchanted Evening and it's a lovely lavender rose with a beautiful scent.

As planting flowers involves digging, Kai wanted to be involved in the process. And of course, Lizzy just wanted to be outside.



I love this time of year!

Boasting

We are growing strawberries. I planted them last year, and this year they have returned with no effort on my behalf. I told Elizabeth that I'd have to call Granddad and boast to him about my bumper crop of strawberries. She very seriously told me "It's not good to boast Mum". To which I replied that sometimes it was appropriate.

So Dad, I just need to let you know that I have the most awesome crop of strawberries, and I think you'd be jealous :)

To Bring A Smile To Your Face

Today Kai & I went to the farm, and I took these videos. I can't help but smile when I see them.

Our Artist

Lizzy is our creator in the family. If she's not making a craft, she's writing something. This was her "creation" from the weekend.

Maybe it's them and not me...

Maybe I'm not as blind as I thought. I decided to take a photo of me getting the right or wrong answer on my logic game and look what decided to show up under the light of the flash.




Below it is what I'm seeing on my screen. If you play the medium difficulty, you get two logic rules to follow, like you see in the first image. I think it's them! I've been trying to get this game out for days so it's quite a relief.

Are you any good with Logic games?

Obviously I am not because I cannot work this one out for the life of me. This game is called Magic Rule. You are supposed to look for the pattern and select the correct piece from the 3 options down the bottom. I cannot work out the magic rule for this set.

These are some examples of the ones I get correct. I have put a box around the correct answer. The first one, the column on the right is blue and the column on the left is red, so I choose the red number one. The second example, the numbers have been twisted on their sides.

In these examples, it's all about the peg placement.

And these ones are all about the color.


If you can work out the answer - please tell me how you worked it out!

A Tissue

Kai has a cold and is feeling a little miserable. He comes up to me in his sad voice and says "A did-doo, a did-doo". I think he's practicing for having a man cold in years to come, as you would think that the need for a tissue was heartbreaking.

My Helper

After my shower this morning, I grabbed some clothes from my basket of clean clothes. I was about to start getting dressed when Kai walked over with a handful of folded clothes. "Away", he says and hands me the clothes. I put them away and go to get my undies out of the draw when Kai reappears. "Away".

Let's just say I got all my folded laundry away, while wearing only a towel. Isn't he so helpful.

Just a Spoonful of Sugar

Kai has been on antibiotics for the past week. He is not happy about this fact, however we have come to a compromise. After taking his medicine he gets a small chocolate easter egg. So now, twice a day, I say "Kai, it's time for your medicine" and he says "Treat?". And then he starts crying as he walks over to me, crys even more as he takes his medicine and then smiles and says "treat" again.

Ben has accused me of trying to give Kai an aversion to chocolate because he associates it with medicine. I can live with that.

A Collection of Poems

Lizzy just recently finished a segment on poetry at school. For giggles, here are some of her works.