Over the weekend

We went to the beach.
Again.
Summer is almost over.
Ben went for his first real swim. Other times we just touched his toes in.

(kick, kick, kick)

Annmarie swam and pretended to be a mermaid in the sand.
She also ran into a kindy friend.
Good times

Pigs and Hearts

Valentine's Day was simple. Annmarie and I made some hearts over the weekend. We stayed in and had a pork roast for dinner. I probably make this pork roast once or twice a month. We get two good meals out of it. It makes for great tacos. I also cut out some watermelon hearts and Jamie brought home some flowers for us. And like every year we listened to the taping of The Pretenders concert we went to on our first date twelve years ago - aw.

Over the weekend

We blew bubbles.
Walked down to the beach on Saturday. Yes, Ben is wearing Annmarie's sunnies.

Attempted to see some dude play music at The Arms, but left because he didn't show on time. With two kids you can only wait so long.

Went to the rock pool on Sunday. Ben liked it. Annmarie was a little fish, she also insisted that she walk home with Dad. She made it all the way up the hill! I thought for sure she would start complaining, but no - she thought it was fun.
Finished the Hunger Games trilogy and made baby food.
And made an early Valentine dessert.
The End.

Lately

What is going on?

We've been settling into a good routine around here after summer break. Annmarie's in preschool three days a week. The other two days she is taking a dance class and swim lessons. Ben has a solid routine going on. Ben and I meet up with a great group of Mums and Bubs on Tuesdays. I'm trying to exercise a little bit more, even took a Mum and Bubs class and I try to walk down the beach when the weather permits. However the cappuccino that I get at the beach probably doesn't help the effort. The weather can't seem to make up it's mind. One moment it's sunny and beautiful, the next it's raining. Apparently it's one the wettest summers on record - it's been crazy. If we see the sun we head for the beach, because in a matter of moments it could change.

Here are just array of pictures that I have taken recently.

Australia Day. The sun finally came out late afternoon. So we headed down after naps and enjoyed some swimming and sunshine. I even got in the water. Ben took his last little evening nap.
Another sunshine moment at the beach.
We put Ben's little piggies in the water. He wasn't so sure. And look at those legs! He's all chunk.
Annmarie modeling my hat.
The other day I had to get Ben up from one of his naps because we needed to be somewhere. I took a couple of pictures before waking him up.
We call this - Annmarie's dance hair.
Annmarie's not so little piggies. Still pretty cute in this picture, but most of the time they are filthy dirty and frankly pretty stinky.
I made these Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Muffins - very good. I recommend you make them. Recipe - here.
That's it.

Tiny Dancer

Annmarie started a new dance class - disco kids. The ballet times didn't work, she's cool with the change. And I swear her legs grew like a foot over night.

Happy New Year

A little late. Oh well. Some fun pics from 2011.

/2010, 2009/

Ben :: Five Months

Our little bruiser is five months today. It's been a great month. He's at that perfect baby stage right now. He smiles and giggles, but is not into everything yet. He has really mellowed out and is a pretty chill little guy.

As soon as we got back from our trip we moved him into his own room and he has been sleeping great. He typically goes to bed around 8/8:30 pm wakes around 6 to eat and then goes back to sleep for a couple of more hours and is up at 8/8:30 am. He takes three naps a day. He is getting pretty use to sleeping in his cot, so it's been a little harder to get him to sleep when we are out. He typically sleeps on his tummy (rolls over on his own), while listening to ocean waves. We did do a bit of 'control comforting', but it didn't take long, he totally caught on quick. Good boy. And the white noise (ocean waves is our preference) works wonders. As soon as he hears it - he just knows. It also helps fade out Annmarie noise.

He tried some solid foods (rice cereal, sweet potato, avocado, banana, apple) this month, but he wasn't that into them. We're giving him a little break and will try again in a week or so. He's down to six feeds a day. He's sprouting his two bottom teeth.

He enjoys rolling, sucking on his hands, and watching his sister. His hair keeps getting lighter. He's our little Aussie and we love him to pieces.

Holiday Road - Part Seven - Phone and iPad Photos

Last but not least - a photo dump of our phones and iPad.
(L to R - T to B)
Ben sleeping in shuttle to airport.
AM and Jamie sleeping in shuttle to airpot
Ben in his Christmas jammies
Ben's awesome sleep suit
In front of the Christmas tree
Someone is having a happy dream
Playing lots and lots of Dora memory
TJ's mini chocolate chip cookies - oh I how I miss TJ's
Lincoln Logs

Annmarie gets a haircut
At Sports Basement - Ben's not all that impressed
Lunch at Chipotle
New Year fireworks
View from one of Jamie's runs
We made it - Back on Aussie soil*
Ben sleeping on the plane
Playing with photoboth on the iPad
Ben gummin Jamie's tea cup - whatever works

*The flight back was 100 times better than the flight there. AM is an excellent traveler. She is the only person I know that loves to fly. In economy. Ben slept really well and barely cried. I'm actually smiling in this picture. I actually let this picture happen. There was none of that happening on the flight there.

Holiday Road - Part Six - Other Stuff

Other fun stuff that happened on our trip included:

A trip to the playground in Po Hill that we use to take AM too.
Visiting Little Farm in Berkley to feed the animals.
A visit with her old buddy Colin.
And a visit to the Lindsey Museum with Papa Tom.
And just a cute cuddle between these two.
I've got one more post from our holiday. It's just a dump of all our phone and iPad pictures. Whew.

Holiday Road - Part Five - Party!

I had not one, not two, but THREE nights out sans kids. It was awesome.

Night One.

Twilight - Breaking Dawn Party! Oh Yeah.

Lauren hosted a fabulous fun party. She done me proud.

It was great spending the night with these girls.
We had a romantic sit down dinner with food inspired by Twilight.
We were also given awesome little honeymoon care packages in sparkling red boxes to take home. Love it.

We also played the Twilight Scene It game.
It was great fun. However, I'm itching to see the movie again!

Night Two.

Jamie and I got away for a night. A whole night. Like sleep over in a hotel night. We stayed at the Marriott. We had a awesome view.
We then dined at one of our favorite restaurants in the city - Aziza. We opted for doing the eight course tasting menu. It was excellent. When the waitress told us the whole process could take two hours - I was all "sign us up"! Jamie and I just don't get time like that anymore. They also make the best mixed drinks.
The following morning we hit up breakfast in Po Hill. We were gone a total of 20 hours. We didn't make it quite a whole day, but close enough.

Night Three!

New Years Eve.

We headed back to the city for an evening with friends. We had a great viewing of the fireworks.Good Times.

A big thank you to Nana, the Grandparents and Uncle Jon. Nana looked after baby Ben and my parents and Uncle Jon watched Annmarie. Thank you. Thank you!