Sunday 29 January 2012

Sunday Walk

We love going for walks at the weekend - well I do and I convince the rest of the household they do too!

From our doorstep there are a number of options we have.

Today was glorious! Blue skies and a crisp -1c.

Tim has a new bike and wanted to try it out. On the basis that Tim was taking his bike, Tae insisted on having his scooter (any chance he gets he wants to copy his brother;)




So we decided on a quick walk around the nearest lake to feed the ducks.




It was quite tricky walking on some parts as there was quite a bit of ice and it was very slippy:) Good job Tim's new bike has fancy pants disc brakes!



Tae chose to walk and slide down the hill!


Tae loves the ducks and especially enjoys shouting and pointing to them where the food is!







Meanwhile Tim tried to see how thick the ice was by trying to break it with heavy rocks.




It was quite cold - so it was good to head back and warm up on some yummy hot chocolate:)





Friday 27 January 2012

First School Disco!!



Tim was very excited today. He put music on his laptop and hummed around the living room after school.

Tonight is his FIRST school disco.


Where did my baby go???

Even though he was excited, he still tried to be cool about it;)  When asked if he thought he'd dance to the song in question, I was met with a quick and very serious 'Im not dancing tonight'! (fyi- he loves dancing;)

I suggested he might want to wear his new blue shirt. No - he wanted his old favourite purple check one.

Then we get to the hair. He couldn't locate his hair wax. I diverted a crisis by convincing him that Pappa's hair gel would be just as good. He had already refused the offer of my hair wax with the statement that 'it smells like old ladies' :0  EXCUSE me, it was lavander!! Luckily Im not easily offended, lol!

So, dressed, hair spiked, he was ready to go....


Lock up your daughters - My little boy is growing up!


He had a BLAST - he came home beaming and very hot. Apparently he danced to OVER 20 songs.

First Dentist Visit



Mr Tae had his first dentist visit this week.

We have been training him to open wide and say 'aarrhhhh'!!

He could do it perfectly.

So off we went. Tig and I both accompanied him for his first. (thereafter its Tig's job - fyi, I hate dentists)

He was very happy waiting to go in!


The dentist was lovely. He sat down in the big chair and she showed him the light, how the chair went up and down and the mirror she would use to look at his teeth.




Tae was very chatty with her throughout this process. Nothing to do with his teeth, but the fact the dentist office is next to the harbour and there are boats in the harbour and he wanted to go and look at the boats;)

This was emphasised further when the chair was raised as he kept trying to look out the window!

So after lots of looking at things and chatting came the time to actually look his teeth.

It started very promising. His sat back and made the sound "aarrhhh" Yay!!!

But then as soon as she put the mirror in, he bit down on it and closed his mouth... erm, forgot the training on keeping the mouth open ALL the time.

He just sat there, teeth gripped together, looking at her with his 'look'. She asked him a few times to open up so she could look at his teeth. No go, he was not upset at all, just looked at her with the 'why would I want to do that' expression.

 She may at this point have mentioned "he is rather stubborn/determined isnt he?" Ermm just a bit!!

With a lot of coaching (OK, head holding;) she managed to check out his teeth.




Although he was not his most cooperative, there was no tantrums screaming or tears and she did get to glance at his teeth enough to state that they all seem absolutely fine.

He even got to choose a toy car as a treat from her drawer.

I therefore deem this first trip a success and will happily leave all the rest to Tig:))

Monday 23 January 2012

Snow and Salt Time!

Its been snowing for a few days, wet, slushy snow that has not really stuck.

However last night we entered Ice Time. 

Once the temperature dropped below zero the slushy wet snow turned to bumpy and slippy ice!

You can imagine the fun that means for our steep drive way!

River on one side and trees on the other.

After work today I parked at the bottom and walked (OK, slipped and wobbled) up with Tae. I then grabbed Tim!


It was salting time! The boy has a skill, so I sent him out with 2 bags to sort out the driveway!




He did a fabulous job and Tig drove the car up an hour later:)

Love having helpful sons!


I can see Tae becoming his trainee next year;)


Saturday 21 January 2012

Flat packs = Lego for grown ups!



A very wise friend of mine made the comment " Now I understand why Scandinavians created Lego - its to prepare the children for all the flat packs that are in their future!"

I had never thought of it this way before, pure genius:)

90% of furniture you buy in Norway is flatpack and not only from Ikea, all the stores!

That gave me an idea.

We had bought Tim a new laundry basket a few weeks ago and it has been sitting in its flatpack box cluttering up the hallway waiting for someone to assemble it.

Voila! When Tim came in from school on Friday I gave him a job.

He actually thought it was very cool to be able to do it on his own and refused all offers of help by me and Tae (last option - not so helpful).











Yes, half way through the process Tae decided to try to help. He also decided to put on his animal ears - thats how we roll in our house;)






 




They were both very proud of themselves when they'd finished.

A Bloggy Award!!

Very happy to get my first blog award:) How cool is that - Im still amazed people actually read our blog apart from our parents;)
 
 

 


So, here are the three rules:
1. thank the person who gave this award to you.
2. list 7 things that people may not know about you.
3. pass it on to other bloggers.
 
Thank you to April at  http://callanaudible.blogspot.com for this fun award!  

Wow, what to write..... more to the point what dare I admit to:), Ok here goes:
  1. I have never been to the gym in my life!! I have always tended to run, walk, ski or cycle outside instead. 
  2. I was very sporty when I was younger, tennis, gymnastics, hockey, netball, field and track, everything.
  3. Due to points above I am very intimidated by the thought of going to the gym.
  4. I have nearly been with Tig half of my life!!!
  5. I have a tattoo.
  6. I love chocolate.
  7. I love to travel and we have a list of destinations on our kitchen wall we made as a family of places we plan to visit.

So there you go, a little more about me that you may or may not know.

Now I get to nominate some fabulous bloggy friends. I know some have already recieved this award, but im including you because I still think you deserve it!

Sunday 15 January 2012

Putting on Pants!!

Tae CAN be very independant,
He can do most things without help.

However, there is a but...

It comes down to choice and if he want to!

He is very good at looking up with those big brown eyes and saying 'help peas'.

An example is the weekly slide shows we recieve from his daycare. They include photos of all the activities and trips they go on. Everytime there is a trip photo, there is a pattern. While the other children are walking - there is my Tae on someones hip!! He could out walk most of them, but as he is the youngest, he is seen as the baby of the group and treated as such.

Trust me I've been encouraging him to take off his coat and hang it up, etc for months and have been met with with very little enthusiasm or cooperation.

Suddenly, he has shifted his perspective and now wants to do EVERYTHING himself - no help allowed.

Yay - maybe it was the magic of turning 3 that did it!!

This includes getting dressed:)












No practice, one day decided to put his PJ's on with no help and did a great job:)

Here is to the way forward - we do like independance in this house;)

Saturday 14 January 2012

Raising Boys


Some may say that being a mother to boys can have its down side - toilet seats, the smell of wet football boots anyone???

However, the plus side reaches so close to the stars that the small things are often swiftly forgotton.

I LOVE being a mum to boys and never wished for anything else:))

But I do get to raise these gorgeous two;)


Today I had a couple of reminders what a blessing boys truely are.

Step forward TIM.


Today he has been an absolute star.

He dutifully found airplanes on the ipad for his brother to watch this morning allowing a certain mother a lie in:)


 
We arrived at the shops to discover a screw in our front tyre. He loved helping Tig change it whilst I went off (with Tae) and bought myself a new swimming costume;)




 
Then once home I really wanted a fire. So above mentioned son helped to fetch the wood from the basement, built and then lit a fire for his mother.



 
Just in case you thought I may be a little sexist with the roles he has played today, dont worry, after lighting the fire, he went into the kitchen to help Tig make fresh cheese bread rolls and then plaited a loaf of bread ready for the oven!!


Lest not I forget the other male in my house. After Tig finished baking the fresh bread, he cooked me dinner. An Aberdeen Angus steak cooked to perfection and served with a fabulous red wine - Amarone 2006.

Life is good:)

Raising boys is the best!