Learning to Thank God for the Little Things

This evening, just as we were praying before sleep-time, Noah interrupted me to add this to our prayer.

Dear God, thankyou for apples. And thankyou for cheese. And thankyou for vegemite [pronounced: 'begemite']. And thankyou for peanut butter. Amen.

After tucking the little bloke in for sleep, I went downstairs for a consultation with Doctor Lil'.




Her ears are so little it's very tricky to balance the glasses properly. Adorable ears.

Da Boyz Hit the City: In Pictures

Last weekend Kate and Lily were at Equip, which meant we boys had the day together. We took the opportunity to head into the city.

Like any manly outing, it began with a detailed list of the tasks involved.


We trained it in. Trackwork impeded our progress a little.


But eventually we were on our way, and into the city we went.



Our first stop was a café, of course, Mecca Espresso in this case.


We picked up a treat and some gifts for mummy and the other ladies at Haigh's. The man gave us some 'samples'. Noah was stoked (as was I).


We read some stories in Kinokuniya. Books about monsters, dragons, foxes.


Finally, and after buying a new backpack to replace daddy's decrepit old number, we jumped on a train back to the car. (Trackwork never sleeps!)


It was a pretty big journey, all told.


After a snooze, we capped off our day with salad sandwiches.


Happy times for da boyz.

Learning is for Chocolate, Treats, and Games

Noah is fascinating us at the moment with some of the little things he does.

• He's recently (re-)discovered where the cooking chocolate lives. He acts like it's a new discovery every time: 'Hey, what's this hiding in here?'. The other day he raided the stash, emptying a packet of choc-buds into a monstrous mixing bowl and adding some more from another packet. He proceeded to sit down in the lounge room to enjoy his meal. Thereafter, his strategy was twofold: (a) act casual when caught, and (b) call it a 'picnic'.
• Longer sentences. Perhaps my favourite recently was, 'You're supposed to be getting me a treat'. He was quite right; I was on my way :)
  
• Noah's imaginative play is getting pretty powerful. Here's a game he invented. Notice that there's one puzzle piece per coloured square. You have to tread on each one, and when you do your foot goes in the water... or were they lily-pads? I can't remember.

On the sickness-front, Lily has nearly shaken her cold. (I've been sick with the same thing this week.)

Two Sick Buttons

A yucky cough has been haunting out family for the last week or so. It began with Noah coughing like mad late one night, more than a week ago. A couple of days later I feared I'd caught the plague, too. It hasn't yet come to anything.

But dear little Lily has succumbed to it. It's the kind of cough that makes you sound older than you are, and takes your voice away a bit. So its effects sound especially pathetic in the cries of our little girl.

(Noah's better now, and the doctor is confident it'll just clear up of its own accord with Lily)

Sickness doesn't interrupt the tellie.

King Noah for a Day

Birthday parties happen pretty frequently around our place, since there are so many college families around us, each with a horde of kiddies.

But they aren't all dress-up parties, no sir. Not all rise to the dizzying costume heights of Josh's party this weekend, just gone.

Kate constructed a King Solomon costume for our little man. Here he is getting into it.


And here's his majesty in all his regal glory.

Count Lil'ula

A vampire. That's what we think we might be dealing with here. Cute, yes. Innocent-looking, sure. And it's not just the pale skin and the aversion to garlic that's got us thinking - ok, we haven't actually tried garlic. Two things have our alarm bells ringing.

First, Lily has just become a Lily-four-teeth (but they're not visible in this picture, sorry). She has the two regular ol' ones at the bottom. But, notably, the new teeth - the top two - are not the middle incisors, but the neighbouring ones! Fangs, I tell you!

Second, Lily regularly lunges at Mummy's neck and face with mouth agape... and bites! Thankfully, Daddy has prickles to deter such strikes.

Soldiers and Sitting

Noah is has recently entered a whole new world of play, dragging us into a whole new world of parenting. Pretending to be soldiers is all the rage among his mates at the moment. As you can imagine, soldiers don't just bounce on trampolines. They carry swords, chop things, put people in jail... and, memorably, it was soldiers who hurt Jesus and killed him. Complicated times.


Lily is now sufficiently stable to sit in the bath, unassisted, without much trouble. Noah tried to help her swim in the bath today, however, which didn't go terribly well :)


They really do get on like a house on fire. Noah gets smiles at least as readily as I do - perhaps more so! But he also elicits some pretty distressed sounds when, for example, cuddling Lily around her neck or driving toy cars around on her head.

Nick and Bron baby-sat Noah and Lily recently while Kate and I had a dinner thing on in Newtown. Both kids had a ball. Thanks Nick and Bron :)