Today He's Two ...

I can't believe my little baby boy is two today. Two years ago today when he was in such a rush to get here - I was cleaning like a crazy woman all morning, lay down for a rest in the afternoon and he kicked so much I couldn't sleep, my contractions (which I thought were just baby kicks/stretches) weren't bothering me but Marc was timing them nonetheless, then made me get into the car, took me to hospital and 36 minutes after leaving home and two pushes later Elliot arrived into the world!

Happy Birthday Elliot ...

Another month gone....

Bet you were wondering what we've been up to? I realise the last big update was a month ago - we've been pretty busy, so I'll just note the major things we've done:

Marc's football team had a pre-season game on Sunday 25 March which they won, and Marc's legs seem to be OK (he was out for most of last season with Achilles problems). He's played again a couple of times since then, and all's going well.

I did a turn at parent help at Max's kindy before end of term. It was nice to see what Max gets up to there and how much he's changed since he first started going. The younger kids now follow him around including three or four girls who always want to play with him. He's off to morning kindy at the beginning of next term (five mornings a week) so he'll be the youngest for a little while. It will be interesting to see which of the big kids he follows around!

We've also spent a lot of time with Ian and Ngahuia - who live down the road (both colleagues of Marc when he worked at Dell - and he now works with Ngahuia at NetApp). Ian's daughter Megan has been in New Zealand (visiting from the UK) so we took Ian and Megan along with us to playgroup, music, swimming, Junglerama, and the local park. Max and Megan are a couple of weeks apart in age and got on really well....

We also spent a lovely relaxing weekend with them at their holiday home over the hill in the Wairarapa. The weather was great and the kids (and I&N's dogs) spent most of the weekend running outside.

The following week was end of term for playgroup, music and kindy - with Max having a party at kindy on the last day - not because he is moving up to morning kindy - but because Linda (his favourite teacher) was leaving to move to another kindergarten. She has been fantastic with him and he (and the other children too) will really miss her.

My mum also had her birthday during that week, so the boys and I had lunch with her, and that night Marc and I, my sister Ali and her partner Clay took mum out for dinner to a fantastic Cambodian restaurant in town where we had a lovely meal - we'll be going back again I'm sure.

Easter was nice but busy. I attempted to make Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. I used the recipe in my breadmaker book and they turned out to be absolutely revolting - next year I'll do it the real way and knead everything by hand. Saturday the boys had a birthday party to go to for Max's friend James who was turning 4. His party was great and the kids enjoyed a treasure hunt, pass the parcel and playing musical statues (which was entertaining as it's pretty hard for 4 year olds to stand still!) After the party we went to Ian and Ngahuia's for a BBQ - the weather was pretty mild so we sat outside to eat dinner (possibly the last time for a little while though). Sunday the boys were excited to find the Easter bunny had left them an Easter egg each, and they also enjoyed running around outside finding the ones hidden there.

They were also given Easter treats by Ali and Clay, Nana Jan, Grannie Annie, Clay's little niece Emma (she's not even one yet!) and some money from Grandad Len and Ngaire - thank you to all of you. The rest of the weekend is a blur as it went past so quickly, but I know we enjoyed a really nice BBQ dinner at Grannie Annie's, we collected and put together bunk beds for Max, moved the boys bedrooms around, farwelled Megan, Marc played football, and I managed to do a little bit of gardening too!

We then had two weeks of school holidays to fill - so have had lunch on various days with Marc, Grannie and Nana, morning tea with Auntie Ali, various playdates with Max's kindy friends, a visit to the library, a birthday party for my friend Nickie's son Ryan who turned 2, and Max and I did lots of weeding and hacking of bushes on fine afternoons while Elliot slept. Marc is currently away (for the second week of the holidays) on a training course in Sydney so it's been pretty hard going entertaining both of them all day, everyday! Thankfully he gets back tonight.

I'm also busy setting up a little business so that should kick off in the next couple of weeks - I'll tell you more about that soon.

Not making any promises but I am going to try to update more often (more than once a month anyway) in the future!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! The boys had a great time this morning hunting around the garden for marshmallow easter eggs. We've had a busy couple of weeks so I'll try to update sometime over the Easter break with what we've been up to - a bit difficult at the moment with Elliot sitting on my knee!

Time Flies

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last entry - we must have been having fun!
We had a nice quiet day on Wednesday followed by dinner at my friend Anna's house with her children Zach and Stella. Thanks so much for a lovely time (and meal) - we all enjoyed it.

Thursday morning we went to music and took along Zoe from down the road, while her mum was helping out with swimming at school. She is a lovely little girl who behaved beautifully, but I'm glad I don't have three children to keep an eye on all the time!

Friday morning Marc surprised us by arriving home earlier than expected - he'd managed to catch an earlier flight from Auckland, so was home at 7.30am. The boys jumped all over him, followed him around everywhere and Elliot kept walking up to him, holding up his arms and saying 'cuddle'. So I think I can honestly say we were all pleased to see him come home :)

Saturday we had a lovely time with Marc's old boss Pete (not that he's old), his wife Jan and their little boy Finn, who came to us for lunch. The boys all played really nicely together (Elliot and Finn are about the same age) - it's just a shame they live over in Australia as it would be nice to spend more time with them.

Saturday night the clocks went back so the boys were up at 5am instead of 6am! After our nice early start on Sunday we dropped the boys off at Marc's mums house (Grannie) for a few hours while we went round the shops looking for a new watch for me. I've lost the winder off the side of my old watch so I can't change the time. I didn't find anything I liked there, but have since found (and bought) a lovely Tissot watch.

This week has also been busy. It's gone something like this ...
- Monday morning playgroup, Monday afternoon kindy for Max and nap for Elliot, then in the evening I went to the kindy committee meeting (I'm the secretary on this committee)
- Tuesday morning Max went to play at a friend's house and while Elliot had his nap in the afternoon I did a second coat of paint on the fence out the front
- Had a playdate with my friend Siobhan and her children Tyler and Mikayla on Wednesday morning and in the afternoon Elliot had his nap while Max and I did some painting, drawing, coloring and reading.

It's Thursday once again - we had music this morning, Max is now at kindy, Elliot is asleep and I've been typing this instead of doing the housework and folding the laundry! Had better get a move on to get something done before I have to go and collect Max.

Young Love Pt 2

Yesterday afternoon I put a stick-on pirate tattoo on Max's arm and he is so proud of it. (I couldn't get the flash to not wash him out, and when I turned it off the pictures came out blurry.)


It came inside his latest Matchbox car, brought for being a good boy while out at the shops during the weekend. He won't let me put soap anywhere near it during bath time in case it comes off, and insisted I take a photo to email through to Daddy and Uncle Jason (Marc's brother is a tattoo artist).

Max and Brianna spent all afternoon playing together at kindy again today. As soon as she got there she ran around until she found him outside, and Max was most impressed that she also had a fake tattoo on her arm. I hope she's not going to be too heartbroken when Max moves to morning kindy at the beginning of next term.