Day 60 - Breakfast with the Birds

Every morning, Henry and I sit down to breakfast and we count the birds. Henry always looks out for them on the telegraph wires and usually it is a bunch of galahs, just as it was this morning. As soon as one flies away, he calls out "bye!" in his little sing song voice with a little wave.

Day 59 - Marking and Other Evils

It's funny how it still feels like the beginning of the year and you can already feel like you are behind. The eternal beast called 'marking' creeps up on you slowly and builds up quickly and heavily. Besides marking books, there are other tasks such as covering 120 workbooks, programming, designing worksheets, finding equipment, printing and photocopying, attending meetings and oh, did I mention programming?

Day 58 - A Room of One's Own?

I was very excited to come home this afternoon and put my car into the garage, using my brand new remote! It has been a long term project getting the garage to this state, where we can fit 2 cars, a very big trailer and a couple of motorbikes and now it is done. Dale had organised for someone to come and fit an automatic contraption to the existing roller door, so that it is complete! Now this winter, I won't have to put up with iced over windows, which is a bonus.

Day 57 - Hello Mr Snail!

After a bit of rain today, the snails all came out of the woodworks. As I have mentioned before, Henry loves all of his animal books and one of them does have a snail photo in it. When this one caught his interest and I couldn't find his book with a snail to show him, we googled a few pics on the iPad. The one he inspected didn't have his antennae out and I wanted to show him what it actually was! I was glad to have the iPad handy with its camera because I somehow managed to get this cute shot, just by chance. With Henry's eyes on him though, the snail did not feel like coming out and getting to know us!

Day 56 - A Day at the Show!

I have only been to the Canberra show once before and somehow I had in my head that it was pretty small (I even had it aligned with the Blacktown Show in my head somehow). Turns out I was wrong, as I found out later, that about 90 000 people had gone over the weekend. Henry loved the baby animal farm. I was looking forward to taking him in there and as all of his favourite books are animal ones I thought he would like it! I have to say that I was impressed by his animal noises! He knows all the animal sounds, even though he has only seen farm animals in pictures and he matched them all up to the real life ones, only stopping with a bit of a pause when we saw the alpacas who got a bit of a baa baa, neigh neigh. No, he wasn't quite sure what they were!

Day 55 - Father Daughter Bonding

As we cooked a later than usual dinner tonight with Mum and Dad visiting, everyone seemed to end up in the kitchen. Yes, we do still have to paint the outside wall of the pantry! Dale and Jenna were bonding in this picture over some Maths. Jenna always likes a bit of a challenge in the area of Maths when she is bored and with 4 available adults to provide some challenging questions, she turned to her Dad for a few explanations. If you know Dale and his Maths skills well, you may think that is kind of ironic... considering that there were 3 other available adults!

Day 54 - The Chair of Nails

Our kids had their second 'incursion' today, which was a visit from Questacon. Any sort of change to routine does tend to send school kids a little loopy, so you can imagine what having an African Drumming session on Tuesday, followed by Questacon visit on Thursday has left them like. Oh, perhaps add in a bit of rain to top that off! With a bit of luck I somehow got out of sitting on the chair of nails, during the show, my excuse being that my dress was made of a filmy kind of fabric. Lucky Kylie had on jeans and so she braved it to the children's delight. Check out the Questacon guy's face in the photo... obviously an amazing feat - well done Kylie!

Day 53 - Hungry Mum?

After an extremely washed out Teachers' Federation bbq in Queanbeyan Park this afternoon, I accepted a left over loaf of bread to take home. Little did I know that it would be Henry's entertainment in the car for the trip home. Arriving home about 20 minutes later, I turned to see Henry with an open bag and about 5 slices of bread in his lap. He was quite willing to share!

Day 52 - Bug Invasion!

Out in the backyard today I panicked for a split second when I thought Henry was heading towards a swarm of bees. It turned out to be a plague or invasion of these beetles! The kids at school call them banana bugs, but I don't know what they really are. There were hundreds of them all happily mating away. After taking a couple of pics though, I started feeling squeamish purely because of their sheer numbers. Anyone know what they are?

Day 51 - Ring, Ring, the Happiest Sound of Them All

This is one of the two rings that Dale gave me for Valentines Day on Sunday, after I got home from a morning at work! I really think that we should delay Valentines Day more often as this year it meant flowers, jewellery, a beautiful card, cooking dinner together and sharing some great wine. So until next year!

Day 50 - A Love of Reading

My photo today is courtesy of a photo competition Jenna is entering at school, which I think is being run by the school librarian. From what I could gather, the theme was families and a love of reading, so Jenna set up the shot today and this is one that I snapped of her, Dale and Henry reading together. I don't think Henry was 100% sure of his role here, as he did roll away a couple of times, but he did have many giggles! Jenna is a great reader and I hope that Henry will be too some day - the signs are very good so far. 

Day 49 - Look at that Mum!

Henry isn't too used to thunderstorms yet... he enjoyed looking at the rain, loves stomping in the puddle that always seems to form on the back patio but doesn't really know what to make of the loud claps of thunder. Earlier this evening he played outside after hearing thunder a couple of times, but at one point when he was standing at the top of the steps, a huge crack of thunder frightened him for sure. He burst into tears and stuck his arms in the air waiting for someone to come and rescue him! Luckily for Henry, as soon as Daddy managed to get the sliding door open, he was out there, rescuing the little man from the storm.

Day 48 - A Late Valentines Day

Many people that know me, would know that my favourite flowers are gerberas. As Dale doesn't usually 'do' flowers, I was very surprised to see him hop out of the car after his trip to Melbourne today with a big bunch of gorgeous, multicoloured gerberas for me in his hand. Due to a lack of organisation (as Dale put it) we were in agreeance when we decided to delay Valentines Day until Friday. This meant that we were able to enjoy a great dinner (at home) with some great wine influenced by Dale's dinner in Sydney last week. In other news, Dale's trip to Melbourne led to a deposit on a car for him... so a successful day in all!

Day 47 - Welcome Baby Cooper

On my way over to Vanessa's today to have my hair done, I stopped in briefly at Sarah's place to meet two week old, Cooper. Sadly he was asleep during my visit (I say sadly, but really he looked very happy and peaceful). Cooper is such a handsome little baby and I especially love his little red rosebud lips and gorgeous mop of dark hair! I am looking forward to a longer visit with Sarah another time so that we have more time to chat and catch up... and maybe I might get a little cuddle of this little man if he is awake! Congratulations Sarah and Brad!

Day 46 - A Fun Day at Daycare

Ever since the start of this year, since Henry has moved up to the Junior Toddlers' Room at daycare, he has been coming home much grubbier than he used to. The outdoor area that the children use, has a lot of bark chip on the ground where as when he was in the babies room, their outdoor area was on the deck area, which is much cleaner! It was a slightly wet day today and obviously by what I found when I took his shoes off at home, they had a great time playing outside today at some point. In fact I noticed most of the dirt on his legs when we were at the post office on the way home. He is such a grot, it is sometimes embarrassing, but I do believe that if he is all grubby then it probably means he had a fun day!

Day 45 - The Ongoing Battle... Dale Vs his MIL

Can you see in this picture of Dale, the very slight smirk on his face? Yes Dale is playing Words with Friends, with my Mum again... Mum thinks she will beat him one day, but clearly from this picture, Dale thinks otherwise. Dale is exceptionally good at word games, which doesn't surprise me, as he is a good writer as well. I often hear Dale let out an 'evil laugh' when he is busy with his iPad... It is always a fair indication that the game is going well on his side!

Day 44 - The Dancin' Man

If you watch 'How I Met Your Mother', you may remember the episode where everyone finds out that Robin, used to be a Canadian teen pop star with a hit single called, "Let's Go to the Mall". A repeat of this episode was on tv tonight and I was amused to see, that when they play what is apparently the full length video clip, full of bad 80s clothing and dance moves, there was Henry... really getting into it and dancing along in his own style!

Day 43 - Kinzie's Baptism and the Amazing Navigator

I left in such a rush this morning to get to Kinzie's baptism that my camera was not the only thing I left behind (thanks Jenna for the loan of your camera for this post church pic!). I also left behind my handwritten directions to get to the church in Evatt. I have trouble getting around Canberra without the sat nav and I still haven't gotten a replacement connection cable. Anyhow, without my directions or my street directory, I picked up Jenna and borrowed her mum's directory. From here on in, Jenna should be known as the Amazing Navigator. From the back seat she directed me without one wrong move to the other side of Canberra to a suburb I had never been to! A trip across town without the sat nav or Dale (who is an excellent alternative) could have been a disaster, but we were only 2 minutes late in the end.

Day 42 - Fancy Meeting You Here

It was one of those dreary days where from lack of sleep the previous night I did not feel like going anywhere. Luckily, it wasn't a work day. Dale had left fairly early for a weekend away on the bike and so Henry and I had had a very quiet day. Anyway at about quarter to 5, Henry and I dragged ourselves down to Calwell to buy something for dinner and while down there we spotted Jenna and her Mum, Sue. Sue gave Henry a couple of coins to toss into the money spinner and he was absolutely enthralled (yet raising money for vision impaired people at the same time... socially conscious huh?). After each coin he came looking for another... I think that we will be visiting that money spinner again, somehow...

Day 41 - My Homeless Orphan Dress Up Child

Apparently I need to send more spare clothes to daycare these days, as the children are learning to drink from cups with no lids! When I picked up Henry today he looked like some little orphan child in a set of size two clothes. He decided to improve on the look by accessorising when he came home. First up, he needed a knitted beanie. Yes, surely that helped. And what could look better than some black patent ballet flats with bows? Nothing; that's what. Now for the finishing touches... a green bracelet that Mum had worn to work and left on the coffee table. Later he even added my multicoloured resin beads. Yes, Henry you are very stylish...

Day 40 - The Other Family at our House

I noticed yesterday that there was a bunch of tiny black spots above our bathroom window frame and upon closer investigation found a big family of baby spiders! The macro lens makes them look much bigger than they actually are, in this photo. Now I need to think of a way to kindly move them outside and just hope that I don't bump into their parents in the meanwhile...

Day 39 - A Rare Afternoon Shopping

This afternoon after work, I took Henry over to the Canberra Centre, to pick up the shoes that I had ordered at Diana Ferrari. When I discovered that they were doing a promotion with a 'buy two items get one free' offer, I took them up on it, which resulted in me getting a pair of red stretch 3/4 pants worth $100 for nothing! Buying a few things got me in a bit of a shopping mood, and it is rare for this to happen and actually find things that I like! I went on to find a few things I liked at Forever New and Jeanswest... Success!

Day 38 - Never Trust a Quiet Toddler

We were just saying the Henry had been quite happy occupying himself in his bedroom lately, as we listened to him on the monitor, reading and babbling away. Distracted by getting ready for work it took us maybe 5 mins to later say... "Hmmm, Henry has gone very quiet, hasn't he?"

You can see in the picture how fast Henry's hands were moving as he unpacked a brand new packet of baby wipes one by one!

Day 37 - Lemonade Scones

After telling myself all day to not forget to buy something for Tuesday morning tea, I promptly stopped at Woolies and forgot to buy something for morning tea! Lemonade scones are such a great back up and I have often made them for morning tea when I don't have a lot of time on my hands. In fact I even once made them in the morning before school. Of course that was pre-Henry.

The recipe is easy; One cup of lemonade, one of cream, 3 of SR flour. Mix together and roll out to 2cm thick. Have some extra flour on hand in case the mix is too sticky. Use a scone cutter to cut them out and place on a tray, brush with egg (I used milk since I had no eggs) and bake for 10 - 15 mins at 220C. Eat with lashings of jam and cream :)

Day 36 - Water Babies

With the lure of a trip to the Leisure Centre at Stanhope Gardens promised to Jenna, she was quite agreeable to yesterday's car shopping. Of course this morning, we were quite obliged to go swimming, even though I think we were both feeling a bit lazy! Henry hasn't been swimming a lot yet, but as you can see, he had quite a bit of fun today! It's interesting to compare to the photo on my blog last year that you can see here: Day 16, 2011. Although he didn't get into the wave pool, when it was going, he loved watching Jenna and his Daddy playing around in the waves. In fact, Henry rarely let Daddy out of sight at the pool today... I think he senses who is the strongest swimmer!

Day 35 - Car Shopping

So with the boat sold in the morning, the afternoon was left open for a bit of car shopping for Dale. With a bit of an idea of the car he wanted, we went and looked at two; one in Thornleigh and the other in Leichhardt. I enjoyed the drive from Thornleigh to Leichhardt, as we came into the city the opposite way that I am used to. Driving over the Harbour, we saw the Diamond Princess docked and waiting. I don't think I have ever actually seen such a huge ocean liner like that - absolutely huge, but I wasn't ready with my camera! I did take a bunch of interesting shots, however crossing the Anzac Bridge and this is one of them. Although we did not drive away with a new car, Dale did get a better idea of which car he wants and Henry had a great afternoon playing with Nanna and Opa at home!

Day 34 - Bye Bye Boat

I finished my first week back at work quickly this afternoon, and went down to the front of the school to wait for Dale with the orange duo! It seems that Dale has a pretty definite buyer lined up in Sydney for the boat and so we set off on this rainy afternoon, straight from Queanbeyan. Dale probably wouldn't be selling the boat if it wasn't for the fact that it hasn't been in the water for almost 2 years (too many hobbies involving motors?) and I bet he will have regrets when he sees it off. However, I am looking forward to getting the garage cleared a little more so that we can fit at least one car in there. Now I know that Dale will be thinking, "Belinda should do something about her piano" but I promise that there are plans on that count!

Day 33 - Freecycle Apple Sauce

We don't often have pork chops but we did tonight for something different. Since we have a stack of sage in the garden, I shallow fried some and then served the chops with the sage and some apple sauce given to me a little while ago.

The apple sauce was given to me by a man who I gave our old coffee table to. He was a mosaic artist from Bungendore, who accepted my offer of the table made on freecycle. I love using freecycle and I have given away a number of things lately including the coffee table, boxfuls of VHS tapes, 2 spare microwave plates and 5 huge bagfuls of plastic bags to a woman who fuses the plastic to make handbags! It really is a very friendly way to find new home for unwanted things without adding them to landfill. Not only did I receive apple sauce and plum jam, but I have also been promised photos of the mosaic coffee table and a photo of the handbag resulting from the plastic bags!

Day 32 - Apple Doesn't Fall Far

It is probably little wonder that Henry loves shoes. Dale has a huge boxful of them that I call the shoe coffin (maybe he doesn't really *love* his shoes) and there have been a number of times that we have gone shopping and he has come home with 2 or 3 pairs. Then of course I have a love of shoes and having worked in retail footwear for some time (although no longer) I have to say that it really increased my cravings to buy shoes! Henry loves all of our shoes... sneakers, thongs and even pink wedges which seem to be his latest shoe obsession...