Model Train Riding

On the 2nd Sunday of each month, Galston hold a model train day which Daniel has been desperate to head back to. Dad also heard about it and asked if we'd like to go and the Howies too. Jenny had to work that morning but the rest of us were able to go and it was a fun morning!

Alexander fell asleep about 5 mins before we arrived so I stayed in the car with him so he could have a bit of a sleep while the others headed in.

As we entered the first train trip was happening for the others.

They had a great time! Daniel told me after that they had to stop so the driver could cut some branches off a tree.

We bumped into our friends Siobhan and Sam and their kids Dan and Eleanor. Dan wanted to go for a ride with Daniel so the next ride was with them! It was also Alexander's first trip on the trains. He liked them at the start but was struggling to stay seated for it. This surprised me because I thought he'd be really into it.

Alexander had a break from the trains and hung with Nana while the others went for another ride. The smiles tell the whole story.

We then enjoyed sausage sandwiches for lunch and the kids liked watching the trains go past and under the bridge.

Dan and Eleanor then headed back home with Sam and Siobhan and we went on one last train ride with Nana and Oscar too. Alexander did a bit better this time but was still very wriggly.

These train rides are such a great outing and so much fun to go on. We will have to come back again and try the ones in the mountains or at Gosford. Thanks for the idea Dad!

 

Peg Board

Last Thursday at Mum and Dad's place Alexander started to play with the peg board. I just loved watching him build towers, fit the pegs into the holes, persist, persist and persist with fitting them in. He's a clever little guy and I was amazed with his fine motor skills.

Alexander's First Clear Word

Today Alexander said his first clear word which really took me by surprise. Just before heading to preschool to pick up Daniel I said to Alexander that I needed to change his nappy and then we'd go in the... and Alexander said 'car'. I did a double take. I asked him again, and said 'We need to go to the...' and he said 'car'. Clever boy!

Alexander starts swimming

Today was Alexander's first swimming lesson. I really didn't know how he would go. He loves bath time so he could love it. He isn't the biggest fan of new experiences so he could hate it. Either way he looked mighty cute in his swimming costume!

As the lesson started I put Alexander down on the side of the pool and he burst into tears. He continued to cry even as I held him in the water. We started with the songs - 'Wheels on the bus' and 'If you're happy and you know it'. Alexander clung to me for dear life and continued to cry through it. He did settle when they started to swim to catch balls. He still held onto me but was happy to hold onto a ball too. I managed to swivel him around so he wasn't holding onto me so tightly and could use both arms to catch the balls. The next activity was swimming to catch a duck. He was ok doing this until Christine, the swimming teacher, spoke to us and Alexander started to cry again, probably thinking that he was going to be taken away from me. He did settle a little bit after as we kept swimming to the duck.

He was surprisingly ok with having water go over his head and was even ok with going under the water, staying with me though. He then went over to the edge to do Humpty Dumpty. I was amazed that he climbed out of the pool by himself, doing the correct technique. So clever! He was happy to do Humpty Dumpty 2 times. The 3rd time he wasn't so keen. That was then followed by monkey monkey along the side and he didn't want to let go of me for that! Next was kicking on his back and he was so relaxed with that which was nice. He liked swimming to find the little spaceships and put them back into the bucket. He even relaxed to do some paddling when swimming through the tunnel. He started to splash during the last song, the Hokey Pokey. It was nice that he settled. But then he cracked it again as I got out of the pool because I had to put him on the side and leave him to climb out. Poor little guy.

Fortunately he settled quickly when I dried him up and he was back to being all smiles. 

I hope he comes to enjoy swimming. I hope he settles and is ok with going with Christine for some parts. I'm sure he will, but it was hard to have him crying so much at the start!

I am proud of him for settling a bit. I am proud of him for getting into it. I am proud of him for persisting.

 

Story Time with Eliza

Eliza and Daniel love books! So does Alexander. He is starting to really enjoy reading them too. He stopped 'reading' out loud when I got my camera out but here he is looking at one of the Hungry Caterpillar books. I love his concentration tongue sticking out for it.

 
I just love listening to Eliza 'read' her fairy books in bed. She uses so much expression in her voice. There's drama, there's happiness, there are conversations. It's just so creative. Daniel has done this sometimes too but he tends to read in his head. Eliza is always vocal with her reading. This is a video I got of her reading to Alexander this morning after we dropped Daniel off at preschool. It's a bit long but I hope you enjoy it.

 
 

Excursion Time

Daniel had his first excursion today with preschool. It was lovely to be asked to be a parent helper. The kids were amazing as we headed to the shops and while we were there. It was great to see the kids contribute to the mural and can't wait to see the finished product. Here is the recount that preschool sent to the parents about the excursion.

With much excitement and enthusiasm we headed off for our excursion to the Local Shopping Centre. First we walked along the board-walk beside preschool, through the park and up onto road, opposite the station. We walked past the library, across the road at the traffic lights, and down into the carpark. We walked along the pedestrian crossing though the carpark and up the ramp into the shopping centre. We gathered together in the shopping centre Parent Room to wait while we took turns at placing our hand prints on the special Community Mural that is being painted on the wall. While we waited we could do some colouring-in or listen to a story. 

 
After we did our hand print we washed our hands and could go back to listen to a story or do some more colouring-in. There were people helping us from the Shopping Centre Management Team. When we had all done our hand prints we walked through the shopping Centre to Harris Farm Markets to buy a piece of fruit each.

Children chose mandarins, green apples, red apples, a punnet of strawberries, pears, bananas an orange. Daniel chose a pear. The children put their piece of fruit in a paper bag and we then walked back towards preschool, stopping at the park to eat our fruit! 

This was a lovely experience for the children. Contributing to a community art project, and incorporating a visit to a real Fruit Shop, enabled us to link in with the learning that our pretend play Fruit Shop has provided. Making decisions and choices, and the process of using real money to purchase their chosen piece of fruit has all been part of a fun learning experience!

Mandarin Picking

We have decided that each month we're going to have a family adventure day. It's to be a day of fun, doing an activity or seeing a place together. Our main vision is to create memories for our family, memories for our kids, fun times together. A time to invest in our family, to chat together and experience things together.

This month we decided to head out to Wisemans Ferry to do some mandarin picking at the Watkins Family Farm. We arrived just after 10:30 which was early enough to beat the crowds. We bought 2 buckets (each adult needs to have a bucket to enter) one large bucket and one small one. We also bought some mandarin marmalade after trying it and it was delicious!

Then we were into the picking! The kids absolutely loved it. They had a great time running to the different trees, looking at the fruit and then calling Daddy over to cut it off the tree (better than pulling it off and making a hole on the fruit). Alexander even had a go. He loved pulling the mandarin off but didn't quite understand that you couldn't eat them all. He did try to eat one - through the skin. He then tried to pull the rest apart. We then shared that mandarin together. We were allowed to have 4 mandarins. Alexander then had to go back in the ergo because he wasn't happy that he couldn't eat the mandarins. Here are some photos from the day.

Daniel looking for his first mandarin

Choose a tree, any tree

Eliza trying to find a good mandarin

Cut off, leaves and all

Alexander trying to get a mandarin

Enjoying walking to the trees to find his own mandarin

About to eat the mandarin, skin and all

Daniel finding some more

Sharing one of the mandarins

Eliza found a huge one!

Looking up high

Eliza loved getting a cuddle from Daddy to help her down after picking mandarins up high

Kisses for Daddy

Enjoying the mandarin trees

Part way there.

 We then let the kids have a bit of a play between the trees. They had a great time running down the aisles, cuddling each other to the point of falling over. Many giggles!

We were very happy with our pickings! 8kg worth of mandarins and they are so sweet and juicy. 

It was hard carrying the buckets back without dropping any of our mandarins. Ha.

Definitely something we will do again in the future!

 

The last month...

We have been a bit busy the last month as you can see from the recent blog posts. There are a few more things that have been going on.

Daniel (and Eliza) have been enjoying his totem tennis from the Howies.

Daniel did a beautiful picture of our family at Preschool. I especially loved how he wrote our names next to the pictures. It made me smile so much!

Daniel has also really enjoyed playing one of his birthday present games - Operation. It brings back great memories from when I was little, playing it with my sister. 

Concentration tongue

 My boys love each other so much!

Alexander had his first bike ride. I took the kids to the park for a ride and a play but Eliza didn't feel like riding home. She wanted to go in the ergo. So I put the helmet on him and popped him on the bike. He loved it! We will need to go for some rides (and get Eliza a bigger bike).

We went and bought Eliza a new helmet and she was very happy to be wearing it. Works well so Alexander now has a helmet.

Alexander had fun watching Eliza and Daniel ride their bikes.

I love watching Alexander learn new things and new skills. He gets simple pleasure out of simple things, like spinning around part of Daniel's train tracks.

At dinner time the kids made me laugh. This night was a dance party. Eliza's dancing is especially awesome.

We have started reading bedtime stories to Alexander and his Bible. I love this time! He hasn't had the chance to read many books with us because of the other 2 kids so it's really precious to sit and read with him, just him. He seems to enjoy books too which is nice. It also seems to settle him at bedtime too which is nice.

We went to a birthday party at the same park where we had Daniel's party. As soon as we arrived Alexander went straight to the play equipment. I then watched him climb up the stairs, crawl over to the slide, sit on his bottom and slide down. All on his own! What a champ.

Eliza loves her baths. She loves relaxing in it once the boys are out. James and I feel she will be a bath lover as she grows up.

Alexander loves his baths. We ask him to walk to the bathroom for bath time and he goes straight there. He then loves sitting in the bath and playing with the toys.

I love how his whole face smiles

 Mum and Dad gave Daniel a lacing shoe for his birthday to learn how to do shoelaces. I did it with him a couple of times but really haven't had the time to sit and go through it with him a lot. During nap time Daniel did it on his own and was so proud of himself! He then accidentally undid it but was able to redo it again. Well done Daniel! You deserve to be very proud of yourself.

Alexander has been having fun playing the keyboard. He plays, dances and laughs. It's gorgeous.

Alexander has started to learn to nod his head. He's so cute when he does it! He doesn't fully understand when to nod and when to shake his head though. It's great fun chatting with him and seeing his responses. Here is one glimpse of a conversation with him.

I love these monkeys! I'm loving seeing them grow, develop and learn, each in their different ways.