Movie magic?

Is it just me, or does it seem that, as parents, the events you look forward to for ages and really get your kids excited over, are the very events that don't work out? And the spontaneous things we do with the kids, seem to turn out to be the most fun.

Such was today. The movie, a mums and bubs session, started at 11am. Quite late for kids I thought, as most of the kids were at an age where they'd still have a nap.

So we rocked up early. And had a few dramas over wanting the cars displayed behind the counter that went with the combo. But we got over that pretty quickly and a box of popcorn soothed Turbo's hurt feelings.

At 11am we excitedly took our seats, expecting the big screen to light up at any minute. It didn't. 20 minutes later we were moved to another theatre as the projector was having trouble. By then, Turbo was already asking to go home, not knowing exactly what he was waiting for!

So by 11.30am we had finally started. This would have been ok under normal circumstances, but Turbo had been up since 5.30am and has a cold. So by 12.20pm, his eyes were actually closing while sitting in his seat! And his cousin was asking to go home too. My sister and I were really enjoying the movie though : )

Excuse the mouth full of popcorn! It was the only decent shot in the bad lighting

So Cars 2, what we saw of it, was really cute with a good (but totally beyond small kids) storyline. And I got to have a coffee and hang out with my sister and nephew. I am glad, though, that we didn't actually pay for the kids' tickets...the beauty of a mums and bubs session (kids under 5 go free) and adult tickets are a reduced price too.

What IS a good age to start taking kids to movies? Is three too young? What do you think?

Ticking along

Gosh, has it really been that long?

Life is ticking along nicely, and every day, I am just so grateful.

It feels like a period of calm after a long, hard struggle.

I often find myself just staring out the window at the view or looking at our big kitchen or at our spacious car

(which we're paying off but I'm still so grateful for).

I guess I haven't had much motivation to blog or even take photos.

I am just being.

It's nice, actually.

Turbo is still a bit of a challenge at the moment. His language is not the best...and I have no one but myself to blame.

"Go away!" is one that I hear about a hundred times a day.

Good one, Penny.

And Smiley and I had a little trip to Starship Hospital on Friday for his cough that he's had since late March!

Yes, that long.

I have been to the doctor so many times and been told he's ok, but his day care lady insisted that he needed a chest x-ray (because she's a doctor!! not) and got me really worried.

Turns out mother's intuition is best.

Turbo's going to see his first ever movie tomorrow with his Aunty and cousin...and I'm going too. He's even missing kindy for it. And Smiley's spending the time with his much loved Nana.

Can't wait!

Hope you're all having a fab week so far

Two lunchboxes

Last night I packed not one, but two lunchboxes. And right now I am at home, kid free. Turbo is at kindy. And it's Smiley's first day at a home-based day care which he's going to attend for two mornings each week.

He didn't even cry when I said goodbye to him!

And so here I am with time on my hands. Lovely!

Well actually I'm supposed to be working. My friend and I have set up a small business contracting administrative support to other small businesses. But as we have only prospective clients at the moment, there is no work to do.

Plenty of packing and cleaning for next week's move though....which I'll get into soon. If you know me well, you'll know I can't do nothing for very long.

I'll leave you with some gorgeous pics of some family time we spent at the beach last weekend. New Zealand is truly beautiful!

Starting Christmas traditions

Up until now, when asked the question, "What's your family doing for Christmas?" my thoughts always extended to my Mom and Dad, sisters and Mr Samoa's family.

But this year, my thinking has shifted somewhat.

Because, actually, my family is me, Mr Samoa, Turbo and Smiley.

And we need some family traditions, just for our little family of four. Turbo is now 2 and a half and I think it's so important to start them this year.

 

As I wrote a couple of posts ago, we started by buying our first Christmas tree and decorations. And on Friday afternoon, we put on some Christmas carols and set up the tree as a family. Turbo was super excited. I didn't even know he knew what a Christmas tree was!

He was so eager to help and hang the decorations, and once it was completed, it was like he was on a serious high.

Who knew a tree could be so exciting?

And then on Saturday, we attended a Santa parade with 'Nanny and Gempa'. Turbo really enjoyed it, although he has no idea what it was all about and he

actually looked the other way when Santa came past! O well, plenty of time for that.

After the parade there was lots to do. Turbo visited the fire engine crew, watched a helicopter take off and went on a jumping castle. Fun fun fun!

And a little exhausting I must say.

I have a few other things up my sleeve like baking some Christmas biscuits and a special night on Christmas Eve....where one day we will read the story of Jesus' birth. 

Having kids certainly does make Christmas even more special I think.

I remember my childhood Christmasses fondly. My Mom and I always baked mince tarts (yuk!) in the weeks leading up to Christmas, put up the tree and decorated the house. Christmas morning we always awoke to a stocking from Santa then went to church and then as soon we were home, gathered with our mince tarts, tea and other goodies, and one of us put on the Santa hat and handed out the presents. The rest of the day was spent in the pool, playing board games with cousins and eating a big Christmas lunch.

I want to make memories like that for our children. Starting this year!

Oh, and we recieved a package from South Africa from my Aunt with this beauty who has a place of honour on our tree. Gorgeous isn't she?

Thank you Aunt M!

Wordless Wednesday: Creative play & "I think I'm so clever!"

Cars in the shower with ice - compliments of our overactive freezer

Standing by myself!

Party time

My nephew turned 5 on Friday and due to the public holiday tomorrow, had his party on Saturday last week.

He's Lego mad so it was a Lego party, complete with a construction zone!

Here's a cute one of him with his 'girlfriend'

Stop! Turbo's in control

This poor bunny got roared at quite a bit by the kids

Great decorations

It's fun to balance Lego on my little cousin's head

Loving his cousin (who's not loving it at all)

 Forget Lego, we love cars

It was a great day! Well done, N, for all the organisation it took.

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.

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?

I heart grommets

We got the call we had been waiting for on Thursday the 28th July around 1pm. Turbo was booked for grommets and adenoid removal the very next day, book in time, 7.30am. After (stupidly!!) deferring on his last surgery booking, I put myself on the short notice list so that I would be called if people cancelled. Hence, hardly any notice.

The night before was a night full of packing bags and lunches, praying and worrying (on my behalf). What worried me the most was not the actual procedure but the fact that he was not allowed a thing to eat or drink, including water from 5am. How was I going to explain to my 2 year old that he couldn't have any breakfast, let alone a sip of water? And the waiting without food at the hospital? Eeek! We avoided the breakfast issue by only getting him out of his cot 15 minutes before we left the house. We put clothes on him and soon after, we were on our way to Starship Hospital.


I also heart Starship Hospital. It is so good at catering to children's needs. Toys and ride on cars and books and dolls houses in every room. Turbo was in his element and food was the last thing on his mind. They even have dedicated 'play specialists' who are trained early childhood teachers whose role is to play with and distract children during painful procedures or checkups. Thankfully Turbo hasn't needed this but I saw one lady in action with a crying child, blowing bubbles all over the room.

At 8am Turbo was checked by a nurse for his weight. Shortly after we met with the aneathetist surgeon, and then with the surgeon himself, a young, buff Asian man whose sense of humour must have left him when he entered medical school and who talked only to Mr Samoa as if I didn't exist at all. Anway. I knew Turbo was in safe hands and we understood all that was going to happen.

At about 8.50 we were ushered into the pre-op waiting room (complete with another whole new set of toys to keep Turbo busy) and Hubby changed into his cap and gown for the theatre. At 9.30 I watched my little boy walk hand in hand with his Daddy down the hall and turn left into the operating theatre. My heart was a little sore at that point.

Back to the first waiting room we went, after skoffing some food in the hallway...you can't eat in any of the waiting rooms for obvious reasons. Less than half an hour later it was finished and the surgeon reported that it had gone well. There was indeed think mucous sitting in his ear drum (glue ear) waiting to fester again and again. And his adenoids were a 'moderate size' but also contributing to his constant upper respiratory sickness.

Soon after he woke up, howling, but as soon as he was in his Daddy's arms, he dozed on and off for the next 2 hours as we made ourselves comfortable in a recovery room. We made friends with a Tongan family who knew our old pastor, ate lots of food, and before we knew it, we were home. Turbo was given an array of medicines and some ear drops. After a talking to from a nurse at Starship about not putting medicine in his milk (we've done this for ages because we could never get it down him) we gave it a go with a syringe straight into his mouth and he was fine! We were amazed. And he took several doses, several times a day by syringe for the next week or so. He is growing up and surprising us every day.

My sister whose son had grommets a year or so ago said the pain and crying would kick in on day 2. So we prepared for it with bated breath. It never came. Looking at Turbo, you would never have known he had just been in hospital. And darn it, I even kept him home from daycare.

So he is the healthiest he has been in a long, long time. I haven't used a tissue on his nose in about 5 days. It is bone dry. Amazing! I am so glad and thankful we had them done, and that the whole experience was a good one. We prayed and God answered. Isn't He good?

Purple

Today Benjamin said "purple" and then selected the purple piece of chalk from the bag. I was so impressed! I don't think I've ever even said the word purple to him. Must have picked it up from kindy or daycare.

He then pointed out the "kweh" (square) he had drawn! Before I know it he really will be able to fit these shoes!

The exit

So the season of uncontrollable, public tantrums has begun. I made my first exit from a cafe on Monday, screaming baby under one arm, pushing stroller with the other. I can rest assured this will not be the only one for my spirited little boy, but the first of many, many exits.



So I better get good at them. Should I wave and smile as I go?