Naughty cow & gorilla kisses

There are so many things I'm loving about Turbo's age and about Smiley's age, different as they are. Turbo is 2 years and 5 months to be exact.

I'm loving how his vocabulary is increasing daily. And words like 'dinosaur' and 'butterfly' are coming out of his mouth. He understands way more and is starting to speak in short sentences. The other evening, we were reading a book and he came to a page where the animals had a made a big mess with some paint cans. He said, "Naughty cow! Made mess! Time out! Stay there!" Yikes. That could be a recording of me. Yes, the words are coming thick and fast and I better be careful about what I say!

He LOVES robots and we discovered a trick to make him sit down for 15 minutes while we have a coffee. We buy him these $3 pack of robots and play shooting games with him (what can I do, he has older boy cousins). Up until now all we had time for was to order the takeaway cup of coffee before he was pulling on our sleeves to get going. Here's a picture of Turbo bathing with his robots...and his pink nails which he asked to be painted at kindy. Apparently this is normal for little boys? 

Smiley is now 7 months old. He has been sitting for a while now but is starting to scoot around on his bum. I'll leave him in one spot and he'll be another when I return. Only thing is he falls over frequently and bangs his head because he's moved away from the cushions I had placed behind him. He grabs everything and has a fetish for phones and remotes. Is it the buttons? Or maybe because he sees us with them a lot so thinks they must be desirable objects!

His two bottom teeth are coming through which meant a rough couple of weeks but hopefully we're in the clear now...until the next ones. And he kisses us (with an open mouth) and also kisses soft toys. We put two big stuffed gorillas next to him, one on each side, and he will turn to kiss each of them again and again, kicking his legs in delight in between each 'kiss'.

And here he is practising another new skill: pulling himself up to standing. What next? Love the chubby legs, too.

I want to enjoy these little things and not wish my boys' lives away. There are, however, a few things I am looking forward to:

1. Leaving both the boys with family overnight
2. More sleep
3. Doing really cool family stuff like going to Rainbow's End (Theme Park) or Waiwera (Hot & cold pools) and all being able to participate together
4. Sleeping in
5. Sitting down for a coffee or dinner out all together
6. Both of them being at school or kindy so I can work/study more easily
7. Cool chats about school or other topics
8. Seeing what they're good at emerge
9. More dates with Mr Samoa, just the two of us
10. Being less tired

I feel so blessed to be able to see these awesome little beings become teenage boys! I just can't imagine how that will be. They will probably tower over me. I'll just have to wait and see.

What's your flavour?

Mr Samoa and I have a very sweet tooth. My tooth has got even sweeter since marrying him but let's not do the blame game. It's his fault! So often he goes off to the supermarket or dairy to get us some treats. One particular night I sent him to get some Rolos, one of my favourites. He came back with a bar of Cadbury Dairymilk. I couldn't believe he thought I would like it! To me, chocolate is only yummy when it has something in it - nuts, caramel, raisens, shortbread....anything rather than plain. Anyway.

Rather than moaning at Mr Samoa, (I mean he did actually make a special trip to get it for me) I thought about what I could do with the chocolate. Earlier that day I'd baked some banana muffins so I melted the offending chocolate bar and dipped the tops of the muffins into it. Instant, real chocolate icing! Don't they look good? Mmmm.

I'm interested though: what is your favourite chocolate?

At my house

The weather is warming up - yay! No more winter woolies, cute as Smiley does look in this photo.

We spent the morning at Rocket Park, a really cool, heaps to do park in Mount Albert, Auckland. Only thing is there was a holiday program there with much bigger kids - about 60 of them! Totally took over the swings and equipment and Turbo looked a little lost. But not for that long. Soon he was right in there with them.

And now peace has descended on the house as they both take their afternoon naps. I love this time of the day! Don't you?

Find out what's happening at other houses here

Added later:

The peace didn't last long at all. Smiley woke up early and wouldn't go back to sleep. He then woke Turbo up who was VERY unhappy at being woken. So we decided to enjoy the sunshine some more and Turbo got a little treat as consolation for being so rudely awakened.

The kind of day I love

I am a very task-focused person and today was the kind of day I love: a productive one! Bet you were thinking I'd say I spent it with my kids, and, well, I do love doing that too, but I can't change who I am.


It's only on Thursdays and Fridays that I get to have these kind of days. Because on these days, Turbo is at day care. And I breathe a sigh of relief. I can actually DO stuff.

If you think I'm being dramatic, let me give you a quick example. Our freezer works a little too well and I frequently have to chip the ice off of it. This morning as I was doing just that, the pile of ice was rapidly building and it looked just like snow. So I piled it up on the shower floor and gave Benjamin a cup to build some snow castles. I showed him how and he was very keen to get going. I left him happily building, chuffed with my motherly creativeness. 30 seconds (I kid you not) later he was back. Bored and wanting my attention. That is life with Turbo.


A month or so ago, I made a few decisions and helped myself get focused on what I want to achieve in the next few years. One of these decicions was to learn the guitar and get back into music a bit more. So today I learned how to tune my guitar and learned two chords.

Another goal is to write more, because you only get better by practising. And what better way than to blog? With writing, it's good to also be able to take good photographs and use a program like Photoshop. I want to make myself a simple header with a photo for my blog. So I looked up an online tutorial and tried to teach myself. I got nowhere! It's really not very easy. But I learned what a layer is, for those of you who know what I'm talking about. At least that's something. I'm going to have to enlist the help of the awesome Sammy who knows a bit way more than me about the program.

I also called the university I did half my degree at (before unexpectedly falling pregnant with Turbo) and asked them to send some information out. I may start doing some papers soon because finishing my degree is another one of those goals. I was thinking about going back full time but the cost of two kids in day care might bankrupt us in the process.

On top of all the above, I folded washing, washed dishes, sent a few emails and managed to relax a bit. Sigh.

I am content.

Or does he?

Since having baby number two, Smiley, I have had a really mixed bunch of reactions. Some of "You look just like your brother!" and others, "Wow, he looks a bit more like you, doesn't he?" (as in different to brother,Turbo, because supposedly, Turbo is a mini Mr Samoa).

But I can see the glaring differences in the two. They don't really look alike at all. They even have different eye and hair colour. When Turbo was six months old, a friend did a photo shoot for us. So when Smiley turned six months old, we just had to do the same. But this friend had now made a business out of her photography and unforunately, we couldn't afford the fees. Lucky we have another awesome friend who 'dabbles' in photography and happy to help us out. I think he did an amazing job! I will post a few samples sometime soon.

So anyway, here are two similar photos of Turbo and Smiley at exactly the same age. What do you think? Do they look different or alike?

My first award!

Thanks Leesh for my One Lovely Blog Award! I am honoured, too, by being nominated

Now here are the rules:


1. Accept the award. (Post it on your blog along with the name and link of the person who has awarded it to you.


2. Pay it forward to between 5 and 15 other bloggers whom you've recently discovered.


3. Contact the bloggers and let them know that they have been chosen.


So now I get to nominate some blogs I'd like to give the award to:

1. Cherished

2. Becca4love

3. Delightfully Diva-ish
4.King Luke's Mamma
5. ByeByeBirdie
6. Greatfun4kids
7. Buttons by Lou Lou
8. My guide to surviving and enjoying life's mundane
9. Haven Space
10. M.e.


Ok so I kind of ignored the bit about 'recently discovered' blogs but I think that's ok?
I think I'm catching the blog fever! Finally. It's taken me a while to really get into blogging. But recently I have started taking photos thinking of blog posts that could go along with them, really enjoying reading other blogs and leaving comments, and I am trying to keep improving and adding to the design of my blog (big learning curve!).

It's really lovely 'meeting' other cool bloggers and reading about their lives

Read you next time!

This, too, shall pass

To say this bit of our lives has not turned out the way we thought it would is an understatement. Mr Samoa's study is not finished. We thought it would be finished in June. University politics prevented this and he still had one paper left hanging on. Which means, not fully qualified and unemployable. Great. And so much hinges on him getting work of course. Where we'll live, moving to a bigger house, where Turbo goes to kindergarten. After 4 and half years of just getting by, I am yearning for the security Mr Samoa's job will bring.  

In the midst of this all, you just have to choose to be thankful. The alternative is not very pretty. So here's a few things that have made me smile lately:

Dinner in the garden

Walks with the family

Beautiful weather

Watching the boys being boys and spending time with their Daddy

Enjoying my gorgeous sons. I'm so blessed to be able to be at home with them!

"This, too, shall pass", so why not enjoy it while I can?

At my house

What a day! Turbo stayed over his Auntie's house on Saturday, which was awesome, except that he came home with his feet covered in mosquito bites. Which by today, were swollen, oozing, bloody sores. I'm not going to post a photo. They actually look pretty gross. I've posted a photo of what ONE mosquito bite does to his foot. You can imagine what more looks like. He's inherited his Mummy's sensitive skin. I remember suffering the same fate when I was small and going to primary school with my legs covered in plasters. Hoping he won't have the same! I remember being so embarrassed.

So today has been spent....sitting. He can't walk! After the doctor's visit this morning, we spent the rest of the day on the couch watching TV or reading, in the highchair eating or in his pram when I took him for a walk. Turbo is aptly named for his high energy levels and non-stop movement. So it was quite strange seeing him still. He is very uncomfortable and cried on and off throughout the day at the same time asking for a 'culla' (cuddle). He also wanted to be carried a lot and at a solid 16kg, this was a little challenging.

Today was also filled with syringes of antibiotics, antihistamines and pain relief medicine. I was up about 8 times last night, applying cream or just comforting him. It's times like these that you wish you could take your child's sickness for them. I hate seeing him suffer.

But knowing Turbo, he will bounce back pretty fast. So that was my day. Hope yours was better!

Find out about what went on today at other houses here

Faithful steed

Faithful Steed has been with our family for a while. She started out with my sister and carried her eldest son (pictured right at 11 months old - he's now almost 5!) faithfully for a couple of years. Then she was passed onto me when I was pregnant with Turbo. What a blessing! My sister is extremely generous and this is not the first (or last) thing she has passed on to us.

Here is a picture of Faithful Steed when we were out on a walk with Turbo, just 11 weeks old, in 2008:

The best thing about her is that the infant car seat clips in, so no need to wake a sleeping baby when moving from the car. Love that feature! Smiley is still in the infant car seat but only just. We pick up Turbo's new seat next week and Smiley will graduate into Turbo's. Anyhoo.

Faithful Steed has been on many adventures with us like this one. He drives well in most terrains and, most importantly, is easy to steer one-handed so the other hand can hold a coffee!

In the last few days, Mr Samoa has mentioned that Faithful Steed is looking...well, erm, a bit shabby well-used. Now for Mr Samoa to notice, it has to have got quite bad. He is laid back and doesn't usually notice these things.

So instead of moaning about not being able to get a new one, I chose to let the Kiwi DIY/fix-it ingenuity rise up and I gave Faithful Steed some much needed TLC. A little expert (NOT!) stitching on two torn and frayed corners, a hard scrub where mould has sprung up (bless this bloomin' humid climate) and some good old Gaffa tape on a split handle bar.

Ok so there's not much I can do about the parts that are faded from the sun but at least Faithful Steed is looking a little less worn. And Mr Samoa was very happy with the result...which I only managed to accomplish, of course, when he had taken Turbo out to the park.

So thank you to my loyal Faithful Steed. Don't think you'll do another baby but I bet you'd still try.

Hindsight

Ok so the blog construction is going a little slowly. It seems sometimes you have time and then for days on end you don't have a moment to breathe. It's one of those 'don't have a moment to breathe' weeks.

I've been thinking about how when you fall pregnant, so many couples with kids tell you to enjoy your last months of sleeping in and coming and going as you please. I indulged them with a smile and didn't give their advice a second thought. I was thinking of the wonder of holding my bundle of joy in my arms. Or about staying fit and healthy during the pregnancy. In fact, I didn't give much thought to actually being a mother during my pregnancy and spent hours getting fit for the birth! Wrong focus completely. But hindsight is...well not good for much really.

And so it was when I fell pregnant with the second that again we were advised to enjoy our last months as a family of three, with just one child. This time I listened and the three of us spent hours together enjoying and appreciating each other. I thought having one child was hard. Turbo is actually quite a challenging model (and the inspiration for the title of this blog) and at times, I felt completely overwhelmed by him. But lately, quite a number of times, I've turned to Mr. Samoa and said "I can't believe we thought one was hard!".

I've heard the adjustment from one child to two is the hardest. I'm not sure if I believe that. I mean, the thought of adding another squealing, whining and demanding baby to the mix does my head in. Maybe it's that by the time people do add a third, the first is already quite independant...toilet trained, talking well, helping you out a bit with the other two and going to Kindy for a few mornings a week. And maybe it's that your house is already in chaos from the first two so an additional third doesn't make much difference.

All that said, I AM loving my time at home, especially with Smiley still being so little. I would rather be with my sons for this season than anywhere else.

Under Construction

Just to let you know that this blog is UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I'm still going to be posting things but making changes to the design of the blog as I learn how to.

So some things may look a little strange for a while...

Thanks for being patient with me