Food glorious food! (or not!)

Bax is on a hunger strike. Not quite sure what he's protesting about but he's barely eating anything. he's never eaten veges, he likes fruit a lot but doesn't seem keen on eating any of it at the moment. "My body is a temple" , he seems to say when we offer any food to him.

He's even off his usual weetbix, skippys and yoghurt breakfast choice.

Today G took him to the supermarket and for the first time Bax made his own shopping decisions. When G got to the checkout he realised he had 'extras' on board. A tin of pineapple, a jar of peanut butter, and four rolls of tin foil - either Bax is expressing his nouvo taste in cuisine or he's preparing for an alien invasion.

Meanwhile, in the other highchair, izzie is eating everything and anything - doesn't matter what it is as long as there's lots of it! Even brocolli! What a relief!!

We haven't yet resorted to "Izzie's eating so well, why can't you be more like her?!" But never say never!

Ready in Red!

Here we are all dressed up to vote!

Happy Birthday Miss O

Six weeks after Bax Miss O celebrates turning two tomorrow.
She threw a one-girl party for herself this afternoon. G went to pick up Bax from their place this avo and he and H stood outside chatting for about five minutes. Apparently, Miss O quietly excused herself and snuck inside to look longingly at the cake her mother had just removed from the oven - a bus! Not yet iced but still very attractive.
Miss O closed the front door behind her leaving H outside, then she attacked the beautiful cake with scissors in one hand and tongs in the other.
I just spoke to H on the phone. She tells me that she's sure that it will be a funny story one day but not just yet.
I suggested that the bus cake could be a mini instead.

The magic word

We are beginning to instill manners into Bax (and assorted helpful tricks when taking child out in public). G has very cleverly taught him "Please" and he says it now with only a minor reminder. We have also taught him to put his hands on the car when we are getting Izzie from her car seat or groceries out of the boot, so that he doesn't get bowled in the car park. He is very good at putting things in the rubbish and last night as I took my shoes off whilst on the phone he picked them up and put them away for me.

However, he has also picked up the word Shit from somewhere - no idea where!

This morning he was trying to get the broken beach umbrella to obey him and it kept blowing away and I could hear him running across the garden in the rain shouting Shit Shit Shit . When he was standing closer to me and said it again I said What did you say? he looked impishly up at me and said nothing. I said, What was the word? He smiled and whispered Please?

G and I have said that when we do get a dog finally we may have to call it Shep so that we can palm Bax' new magic word off as an attempt at calling the dog. So far we don't have to consider Fug as a name, which is a relief.

On another matter, G and Bax and Izzie picked me up from work last night. they had to wait for a few minutes and it was raining so when I got down G was in the back seat feeding Iz her bottle and Bax was sitting in the drviers seat holding onto the wheel. i got in. Bax began turning the wheel dramatically and bouncing up and down as if the car was going, "Okay!" he said in excatly the same tone as I use when we are about to head off on an adventrue.

We have a funny game we play when driving, he says a word then I say a word and they sort of match - knee, ear, eye, hand, or car, bike, plane etc etc. But now Bax will play tricks on me: knee, ear, eye, hand, apple (he'll say). or banana, apple, pear, orange, elephant. Or sometimes even trickier, spoon, pen, peg (and he'll say:) pig and then snort like one. It's exactly like the elbow-knee tennis game Mum and I used to play when I was a kid.

In other nostalgia news: I read him Bad Jelly the Witch the whole way through the other night and he loved it.

It's the small things

Saturday was the Big Day so i got up and dressed both kids in red from head to toe. No screts who we support in Government.

Before the polls opened there was a jumble sale on at Plunket. bax and i went along to donate the big bag of lollipops left over from the party.

I had a five dollar note so Bax and I hunted through all the toys looking for cars that had all their whells. We found four and a plane, as well as two baby toys and a pair of shorts for Izzie and a lift the flaps book with all its flaps still intact.

Bax carefully put all his treasures into a plastic bag and paid the lady. he was very proud and wouldn't let me help him carry the bag along the road to the polling booth, preffering to drag it along the ground (it was so big.)

At the school hall come voting centre, he sat quietly in a corner and carefully got all the toys out and played with them while G and I queued then voted. He looked a little nervous when we disappeard behind the screens but was very happy really. I watched him be approached by a little kid with his eyes on the toys. Bax quickly gathered all his treasures around him protectively!

When it was time to go G helped him put all the things back into the bag and he carried them to the car. Later that evening we went to Poppa and Granny Rob's (Bax says Rob-rob) and we put the toys into his little back pack - he took them to show his cousins H and J - "Treasures!" he told them.

Wishful thinking

Bax hasn't quite got used to the five day working week. Mon-thurs he is a very helpful in the mornings and happily boots me out the door at 7.30. But Friday mornings are different. This am we all slept very late and I woke up first (at 7.30!!). He heard me get up and said in a loud cheery voice from his cot "Hi!, Hi!" . I went in to him and he sprung out of bed, put his nummy in his top draw and said "Pool?" "Swimming?" which is what we often do together in the weekend. It took a while to explain that I still had one day of work before we could go swimming. He was very persistant but still happy enough to see me go. i promised I'd take him swimming in the weekend and he seemed happy with that.

Don't worry i wasn't late for work, I got an express bus luckily.

When I told the sad little tale to my work collegues, my friend C said that she hadn't got used to the idea of a five day working week either!

Saying Goodbye

Bax is getting a bit to used to me leaving for work in the morning.
Once i'm dressed, perfumed, made-up - he knows not to touch and often helps me finding the other shoe and bus money etc.
The other morning i dilly-dallied before leaving and must have said "Bye" 6 times. In the end he said a last very emphatic "Bye!" and then when i still didn't leave, "Go!"

In the evenings he is a real mate when i get home. He is so happy to see me. Now that he likes to hear a story when he's tucked up, my last time with him is him in his little bed in the dark and me sitting on the floor in the doorway reading a story from the hall light.

The other night i didn't come home til well after he was asleep and G told me how Bax had wondered around the house at 7pm saying night night Mummy to the genral atmosphere in a very sad little voice.

Gourmand

I met G and the kids down at the Viaduct Basin last night after work. We sat wharf side and had a drink and contemplated the menu. Bax clicked onto the whole restaurant thing pretty quickly. He picked up the menu and ran a finger down the choices saying Mmmmmm. Then he held the menu to his mouth and pretended to eat the air around it, smacking his lips. Very funny. (There were no pictures on the menu he just wanted to eat the words).

Bax is into the whole bed time story thing now too. He gets into bed and one of us sits in the big chair and reads. It's really cool. He's got me round his little finger though. Last night I was reading a story and half way through he said "SOng?" and so I sang a little bit, then he said "Read?" so I started into the story again, then "Song?" - it went on like that til I finally finished the book.

It's hard doing both the work thing and the home thing - but we're getting there.

Mizz Izz

Party part 2 - the come down

Ok so that is quite a lot of sugar for one small boy so here's the rest of the story. We got Bax home and got him to bed ok but at 11.30 he woke up and was beside himself . He wanted his balloons he wanted a drink he wanted his party bag. Izzie was awake too at this stage thanks to all the noise. After about ten minutes of this. We got Izzie into her bed and Bax decided he wanted to sleep with Mummy and he solemnly handed his bunch of balloons to Daddy and told them night-night and toddled off to bed exhausted.

This morning he was still pretty hyper and it's fathers day so we went out to brunch. Bax was bouncing off the walls. We managed to get himto eat quite alot of breakfast which was great but he was roaming around the cafe intimidating other kids. He has a shaved head and a black eye thanks to walking into a tree yesterday and he had a crazy look in his eye. A couple of 5 year olds looked quite scared.

We went home.

In one last effort to get rid of the sugar I put him in the bike kids seat and off we went for a big bike ride. We maybe went a bit far. Up on Carrington Road ( which is a main arterial road) he decided he wanted to walk and half way up the hill had had enough. He lay down on the footpath and told me bye bye and night night. And wouldn't get up. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - I sort of did both. It took me along time to get him back onto the seat and then I rode down the hill with him screaming at the to of his lungs. It took us about an hour to get home.

Bax is asleep now - he was well ready for bed when we got home.

Thank gawd birthdays only happen once a year!

Party part 1

We had a wonderful birthday party for Bax and Miss O. And it was very messy! THat was the idea of course but when told they may kids can REALLY make a MESS - who knew?! Auntie H and I took two days organising and getting stuff together and baking and then at 3pm on Saturday 25 kids descended and the fun began. There was mountains of playdo and gloop and paint and lots of space to create havoc. We had a huge lucky dip of green jelly with lots of plastic toys submerged. And the food was little plastic lunch boxes with a small ham and chicken pie - made by me - and a box of raisins and some cheese and juice. Pudding was tiny little jellies which Granny Di made and then a whole table full of condiments like choc hail, 100s and 1000s, coconut, choc sauce, passionfruit sauce and canned cream. And then the cake which H made - a giant choc 2 with bright 2s all over.
a few moments stand out - Bax with his face covered in face paint, his hand covered in 100s and 1000s and cream on his head. Miss O carefuly pouring choc sauce onto jelly. Bax going for all the parcels before the guests had even got in the door. Bax sitting on the grass eating fairy bread and cheerios with four eight year old girls sitting in a circle around him - he is quite the ladies man. And our lovely little mate Ethan who has very blond hair and is very beautiful with purple paint all over his hands and face.
Marvellous!