Tomas at 4 loves:

• cutting anything (now that he has mastered scissors). We have containers filled with paper, cardboard, ribbon, tape, stickers, you name it, all cut up into bits.
• remote control anything. His fav is a laser sensor remote control car, it’s amazing. Thanks Baka, Dida and uncle Mark for that one!
• ice cream, cake, lollies, chocolate – he’s discovered his sweet tooth and I think it happened over Christmas!
• video games. You could poke and prod him while he played and he wouldn’t even notice. It’s a great tool when getting his hair cut!
• mysteries. And yes, we have to solve them. Thanks to Blues Clues – a show which started his interest in mysteries, he likes to look for clues and piece together a puzzle. It doesn’t always make sense; I think it’s more the process that he likes.
• anything NEW

For his party this year, we held it at home as it was a torrential downpour of rain outside. This was our first large party at the apartment and I admit I was more than nervous. I managed to put together a few indoor games (as I had prepared for outdoor ones, like water balloons!). With some help from my friend Amanda, who brought a “pin the nose on Paco” game and gave me a CD with a great children’s song for the statue game, we had two great games. And I also threw in a “pass the parcel” game.

This year Tomas requested a rocket cake (although I had hoped to make a robot one) and a rocket cake he received! If you look carefully at the photo, you can see a window on the rocket with a picture of a little boy looking out. Yes, that’s a photo of Tomas taking his first rocket ride! The cake turned out quite well. It tasted great and looked pretty good too!

We had 15 kids at the party, ranging from 1 year (Ethan) to 8 years old.  There were 10 boys and 5 girls. We also invited our surrogate nana here in Sydney: our lovely neighbour Jean who lives above us and whom Tomas adores. See the photo of him sitting on her lab eating cake or rather sneaking in a second piece of cake!!

Mike made delicious breakfast sandwiches of egg, bacon and sausage on buns. We also had fruit and fairy bread – the kids favs.

Enjoy the photos!

Every year, we have a Chris-kringle with a few families. Emma, Mike’s colleague and dear friend of ours hosts this event every year, which is super nice of her and her hubby, Sam. This year, Tomas was really into it and enjoyed the gift exchange and was thrilled to playi with all the kids. The kids ages range from 1 to 8, the eldest being, Tomas’ favourite pseudo big brother, Ben. (See photos)

We spent Christmas morning at home opening gifts from Santa. Tomas was especially excited this year! He opened gift after gift with growing excitement! And he helped his little brother open his gifts as well! Ethan got into the unwrapping near the end by pulling at the paper. And he was excited to play with his new toys.

Later that morning we went for a swim in the ocean as it was a beautiful hot and sunny day. (No I’m not trying to make you Canuks jealous, it’s just a fact!). Afterwards, we went to our friends’ (Sally and Scott, and their sons, Alex (3) and Euan (4 months))  for lunch at 1pm, which strethed on until 5:30pm! They have a lovely yard in their small building that was shared between the 4 units and as it happened, the neighbours below were also having an outdoor lunch. The neighbours’ teenaged son must have been bored because he entertained Tomas and Alex for most of the day! When the boys weren’t wrestling with the teen, they found lots of things to do, like jump on the trampoline, wash the trees with paint rollers (using water only!) or play with the walky-talky that Tomas received as a Christmas gift.  Ethan also enjoyed being outside and was happy to explore the backyard. This all went well until Ethan discovered the rather steep staircase up to our friends’ apartment and headed for them whenever he was out of our sight! It meant for lots of sprinting to the stairs to catch him before he started climbing!

In general, us adults had quite a a relaxing afternoon with few interuptions from the kids – amazing! By the time 5:30 came around, we had to scramble out of there as we were late for our dinner date! We arrived at Kate and Matt’s just after they had eated with their family, but that was ok as we weren’t super hungry anyway. A few of the kids and aunties were having a dance party in the living room when we arrived and Tomas and Ethan quickly joined in. Their family members slowly fiiltered out and we sat down to a late dinner as it seemed everyone was hungry again. This time we had a more traditional Aussie bbq with loads of shrimp -yum!

We got the kids home by 8:30pm which was late for them as they ususally go to bed between 7-7:30. All in all, a fantastic Christmas! Thanks to all our dear friends for hosting this year! we’ll return the favour next year!

For New Year’s, we once again, went to Emma and Sam’s for a lovely dinner, followed by fireworks at Coogee Beach – our first time seeing the fireworks at the beach since we moved to Sydney! It was spectacular! And the kids stayed up until 9:30pm! A new record!

Happy holidays to all!

We

For 3 of the days we spent touring the City. We walked around Collingwood, trying various cafes. We spent a day at Saint Kilda – apparantly a real hot spot as it has a beach but we much prefer our beach here in Coogee. But the highlights for us were the Aquarium, which had many interactive stations where you could touch marine creatures and the Melbourne Museum, which had a superior children’s section and a great bug display that Mike took time to photograph!

The highlight of the trip for me was our mini road trip along the ocean road on day 4.  We enjoyed the gorgeous views of the ocean and stopped at a small town called Lorne which was super kid friendly as it had a large coastal park, beach and trampolines! That was our only stop along the 3 hour drive to see the 12 apostles – a series of rock formations that have broken away from the coastline, which was…..breathtaking.

All in all, the kids behaved rather well on the trip. They were crazy at our holiday apartment though. They found a new love – jumping on the fold out lounge and diving into pillows. It almost drove Mike and I mad. As a result, we didn’t spend much time there.

We’d be happy to return to Melbourne again! It was fantastic!

It was a beautiful hot day so we planned to stop at Bronti Beach for a swim and picnic (about 1/3 of the way to our end destination). And about half way along we met up with our good friend James (affectionally known as ‘Big James’ as Tomas has a 3 year old friend called James as well). Tomas adores Big James and exhausted himslef chasing him around and just being plain goofy.
Once we arrived at Bondi Beach we stopped for a super yummy lunch. Then we headed home as Tomas had reached a new level of tiredness. Poor little guy fell asleep in James’ car on the way.

Other areas of the park included a fountain splash pad, a mechanics area, where you could alter the path of water flow through troughs and pumps and faucets, a sand pit, a climbing web, and a sliding fox. Tomas and Ethan enjoyed every minute as you can see in the photos below.

The bottom line….we’re set to live in Sydney for the next 3-4 years!

Around his birthday he took a few steps on his own, which is a major breakthrough because he has been holding our hands for the past 3 months while walking! He’s now walking across the living room between Mike and I (which adds up to about 8 steps). It’s so cute! He has great balance and I know he’ll just take off at some point….perhaps soon!

Ethan has become very enthusiastic about EVERYTHING of late. He shrieks when he sees his brother and starts to chase him almost immediately. He loves watching the birds outside our apartment, especially  two kookaburra families that are a constant presence. He gets excited about who knows what and starts to run around in a circle at full tilt! It’s hilarious.

He’s also very coordinated. He can throw a ball  of any size with good direction.  And he can catch a beach ball or balloon with a big clap of his hands. Mike has fondly called Ethan  ”meat hooks’ because of his unique catching technique. It really is something to see!

Ethan is still a good eater and pretty much eats anything Mike and I eat (which is refreshing as Tomas is a picky eater), although just recently he’s decided he doesn’t like eating in the high chair, so he’ll scream until we get him out. The he’ll either eat while sitting on our lap or while walking around the living room. Looks like he won this battle.

His sleeping habits have changed and I think it’s because he’s processing so many new things at the moment. I’m hoping that’s all it is anyway. He used to only wake once and occasionally twice per night; now he wakes 3-4 times!

And finally, Ethan’s favourite thing aside from his big brother is his brother’s scooter. Ethan can’t get enough of it. He grabs it any chance he can like when Tomas isn’t using it at the park. He’ll hold onto the handle bar with one hand while holding my hand with the other, then he’ll jump on and actually start pushing himself along! I’m wondering when he’ll give this a go without me beside him to catch him when he falls. I perceive lots of bruises in his future. Note to self, get a helmet soon!