Gymnastics & Pool Noodles....

This morning was the morning to sign Jade up for KindyGym...  so we headed to the local PCYC and signed her up, they had play time there so that the kids could check out the various aparatus... Jade thought this was fantastic...

She walked on the "floor" balance beam - ie. the balance beam that is right on the floor - as if she was just walking on the floor...  it didn't seem to phase her too much... she even got to go on the normal balance beam - with the assistance of one of the gymnastics girls....  they had trampolines and climbing ropes.... I think Jade's favourite thing was the foam pit...

She got upset when it was time to leave crying out for me to let her stay and she was trying to reach back into the building on the way out.... other parents went "well - I guess that's a good sign..."  and here's hoping that it is... her first class is next saturday - so I'll endeavour to get some photos... Xander will be in the class with her as well as Edward who's in her Kindy class at daycare...  I'm sure there'll be more kids that she knows there....  *fingers crossed she enjoys it*

While I'd taken Jade to the KindyGym signup - I'd left Blake with Mom and Dad - so we headed to their place to pick him up and have a cup of tea...  when it was time to leave, Jade decided she had to stay there so that she could have a sleep and then swim when she woke up... Mom was ok with this - so I left Jade there and took Blake home for a sleep (he'd only power napped through the morning)...

We went to Mom and Dad's this afternoon to pick up Jade and she was in the pool playing with the new Pool Noodles that Mom bought... in swimming classes they've just started swimming with the pool noodles - I think it's more a fun thing than really teaching them anything because she can already swim the length of Mom and Dad's pool without any assistance....  but she enjoys them - and pool time at Mom and Dad's place is fun time - not lessons....

This is "Jade the Elephant"

Swimming with the Noodle....

((Video))

Jade jumping to the pool noodle....

((Video))

Pool Noodle - the swing....

After all of the swimming was finished (once Mom got too cold - Rob got in - Jade was in the pool about an hour and a half before we finally managed to get her out)...  we told Jade that it was time to go home... but no, she decided she was going to stay with Gran and Grandpa...  so we confirmed that this was ok with Mom and Dad and off we went....  

It was really weird without Jade at home for the evening.. but at 8:15pm I got a phonecall... "I think you're going to have to come and get her".... it's never been a problem her staying with Mom and Dad overnight before - but that's always because there's been a reason for it... but tonight was her choice - and I guess she changed her mind...  lucky we're only 5 blocks away isn't it?

When we got home she went straight to bed...  so here's hoping she sleeps in in the morning...  

and finally.... today in the Thomas Household......

When we got home from picking Jade up from school, she decided to get onto the floor gym with Blake to show him how it's all supposed to work... just incase he couldn't work it out for himself.... I'd put the mat of the floor gym over Jade's dora couch base and then put a pillow under the top half of blake so get him a bit closer to these toys (they aren't as easy to reach as the ones over his rocker).

He's always so interested in what Jade is doing... or showing him

Kisses for Blake.... (I'm sure she does it just for the camera...)

and this is how you kick the toys.....

or you can bop them!

"I'm the teacher!!!"

Blake has taken to the Bumbo really quickly, I thought at first he'd only want to be in there for a minute or so at a time, but no.... he's happy to be in there while there's something to entertain him..... (or until he fills a nappy and wants it changed... but that's another story)

I love Bonds....!!!

Bonds has recently come out with the "EasySuit" - - - or the "not so easy" suit as it really should be renamed....  Anyway, once I worked out that these suits were a nightmare to use, I started looking out for normal bonds suits...

There's something so nice about the material that Bonds uses, no one else comes close....

So, while I was in at Big-W the other day looking for nappy covers (there apparently just isn't enough people using cloth nappies for people to bother stocking decent nappy covers - which I did manage to find when we had Jade... so people are less inclined to use cloth nappies in the last 3 years apparently....)  - - anyway, enough on that rant.... (although - I'm sure to complain about it again at some point)

So, after giving up on the nappy cover - I still had time to kill (I was waiting for photos to print out at Harvey Norman - and there were 360 of them - so I had a lot of time to waste) - so I went to have a look at the boys rompers (I'm always good for new cute rompers) - and I found some bonds suits with buttons in the crotch!!! you wouldn't believe how excited I was... unfortunately the smallest size they had was O and Blake is still OO - but  - another great thing about Bonds... not only do they stretch - but they seem to be able to fit the smaller sizes too...  BARGAIN!!!  unfortunately they only had two O's - and then some 2's.... so I bought both the O's - there's thisone - and a blue/grey striped one....

I managed to find some long sleeved bonds suits on ebay - so I'm all set for winter too - but I needed the short sleeved ones - and I couldn't find any.... so I'm super happy!!!

Oh, and in the last week, Blake has finally started paying attention to things other than people... he's worked out how to use his boppy hand.... and loves to bop the toys that hang over the floor gym as well as his rocker.....  He's even worked out how to grab onto his elephant ring thing....

Do you HAVE to watch me play with my toys???

Just a little closer.... a little closer.....

Got it!!!

Blake's haircolour is still confusing everyone.... we've got votes for White Blonde like Rob was....  but we're also seeing the tinge of Red like Gran.....  I'm sure we'll be able to tell in the next 9 months once he has a bit more hair.... each photo seems to point in different directions....

Blake's first bath in the big bath.....

We've given up on the baby bath now, so the photos from the other night was of his last bath in the baby bath...   

After taking a photo of Blake in his Bumbo - and then looking back at the photo of Jade in the Bumbo... I then started flicking through Jade's photos at the same age (yeah yeah - don't compare the kids yada yada......) - but then I realised that once Jade was 3 months - I was bathing her in the big bath... 

Now, bathing Jade in the big bath wasn't an issue....  she was the only one in there... make the water an inch deep and put her in...  easy!   

Not so easy with Blake... as soon as I ran the bath and said that I was putting Blake in... Jade stripped off... 

"Yay.... Blake's a big boy now and can play in the bath with me....." umm.... ok.... 

Then I remembered that Jaime had given me a baby bathing hammock kinda thing - it's hard to explain... it's a wire frame with a cloth covering that you can lay the baby on so that you don't worry so much about them sliding around....  well this works really well... until you have a baby who can't lay still....  

I think both Jade and Blake have ants in their pants - even when they aren't wearing pants...  I had to keep propping Blake up on it as he kept wiggling his way down.....

At least it's now really easy to get Jade into the bath without any issues....  (AND!!! she's willing to have bubble bath again..... - well - Blake's Johnson's Baby Bedtime Bath.....  and I think she must have added some more of it when I went to get Blake to put him in the bath - cause there were more bubbles in there than I've ever seen in the bath!)

(And just after I'd bathed these two - I saw an email from Claudine who'd just put pics of her Granddaughters in the bath together - Amelia is 3 weeks older than Blake - and just 100% cuteness!)

Aww.. bye bye dirt mounds.....

Got a call from Pete yesterday to say that he was going to come and start filling the yard...  and all I could think was... Jade is going to be so disappointed - as she left for school yesterday all she was planning on doing was putting on her dirt boots when she got home and playing in the dirt... (so much for a girly girl!!)

Pete was nice though - he brought another load of dirt (this is mainly topsoil though) - so Jade's got that to play in this weekend....

It's going to be strange once we've got a yard that's actually practical for kids etc...  I can't wait til it's all finished.. .and by then Jade will be graduating from University most likely! :)  (I'm still just happy to do the renovations when we can - rather than having to stress about how much it's all going to end up costing...)

Bath Time Fun.......

It's fun now to have a bath....  nice change from when we had to bath him in hospital....

Hold on... this pic looks familiar.......

Jade - 6 weeks....

Blake's first time in the Bumbo

We got the Bumbo back today from a friend who was borrowing it, I wasn't too sure how Blake would take to it, but he's been wanting to be sitting up all the time lately - you lay him down and he's doing crunches to pull himself up...  not content to just lay there and look at the ceiling....

Unfortunately with using Cloth nappies it's a bit of a squeeze getting his little bum into the bumbo.... but once in there - he was quite happy to stay....  he can move himself around in there quite easily and was happily rocking side to side and stopping to look at the cats walking past or whatever else was going on....

Blake's currently 12.5wks old...

Trying to work out how far back he can lay....

Stretch to the left.....

and here he's trying to see if he can sit even further forward.... 

And here's Jade at 15 weeks or so in the Bumbo.... (she could have gone in it sooner - but we only bought it on that day....  a friend Sarah bought one for her son and it looked like an interesting concept....)

Such a chubby bubby she was :)

More Renovations.....

Well, it seems that it's all systems go for the shed...  

the washing line was broken down last week - so you can see the pole sticking out - it'll be knocked over when the guy comes to level the block...

There's the top of the washing line... just waiting to be cut up into pieces...

And two truck loads of dirt......

Of course Jade wanted to play in the dirt as soon as we got home from school today...  So we went upstairs to get her "dirt boots" and off she went.... a little unsure at first (she's a very careful kid - so she was being careful to not fall over....  at first)

As cute as the hair is down... it's highly impractical for a dirt climbing little girl.....

Check out the calf muscles!

On top of the dirt mound...

Cuddles for Daddy.... or should that be "from" Daddy :)

And Rob getting off the dirt.....

Plans have gone into council for the shed, so in about two weeks we'll have the all clear to start laying the slab... then there'll be more update photos...  unless Pete comes back to level the block in the meantime... not sure what his workload is like at the moment... but - we're not in a rush - as long as it happens....

Once the shed is up - then we can get the rest of downstairs cleared out and finally get the underside of the house tiled... yay!!!  I'm so over the orange floors down there!  Poor Greg isn't going to enjoy that week as he will have to sleep up in the lounge at night because he wont be able to access his room at all.... or even the guest room.... 

Greg's Shorts.....

And there we go.... these are the shorts Greg wears to school... you've seen the shirt so I didn't need another photo of it ;)

(This was how Greg came upstairs - I didn't make him strip off so that I didn't get another pic of the shirt.. hehe)

Greg was upstairs at 7am this morning to get ready for school.... so he can't hate it too much! We used to have to drag him out of bed to head to State... so hopefully this is a good sign...

Greg's first day as an ATC student...

Greg started ATC today (Australian Technical College) - and just to make him feel extra special - the first day he had to go back to State High for the first part of their orientation week...

I think it was a bit of a shock to his system having to get up so early, Rob went in at 8:15 and woke him up ...  luckily we didn't trust him to wake to his alarm, because he'd turned the sound off apparently, so hadn't been woken....

He's already had his first lot of work experience lined up, he'll be trying out the Fitter & Turner trade, he seems excited about it all (that is according to Rob - I haven't seen him yet because when I got home from picking up Jade he'd already come home and gone to work...)

I can't believe I stupidly didn't take a full length photo so that you can see the shorts...  khaki cargo shorts.... apart from the colour of the shorts, the uniform is great - there isn't much you can do to ruin this uniform....  (and not being able to play Rugby at lunch time may mean that he wont rip through shirts like he did at State!)

This should be his student ID photo!