marc.vic.max.elliot

Not much news to tell really…..

I had my first pre-season game of football/soccer yesterday and am sore, but not as sore as I thought I would be! We won two-nil which is always nice

Vic has started up her own blog at quickly vickly which I think is her “mommy blog” and will definitely tell you a lot more about what’s going on during the day than this one does…. Pay her a visit.

I also found a lomo script and thought softy (who is now a chrysalis btw) would look good.

I can’t believe it’s been over a week since my last entry – we must have been having fun!
We had a nice quiet day on Wednesday followed by dinner at my windows professional key friend Anna’s house with her children Zach and Stella. Thanks so much for a lovely time (and meal) – we all enjoyed it.

Thursday morning we went to music and took along Zoe from down the road, while her mum was helping out with swimming at school. She is a lovely little girl who behaved beautifully, but I’m glad I don’t have three children to keep an eye on all the time!

Friday morning Marc surprised us by arriving home earlier than expected – he’d managed to catch an earlier flight from Auckland, so was home at 7.30am. The boys jumped all over him, followed him around everywhere and Elliot kept walking up to him, holding up his arms and saying ‘cuddle’. So I think I can honestly say we were all pleased to see him come home 🙂

Saturday we had a lovely time with Marc’s old boss Pete (not that he’s old), his wife Jan and their little boy Finn, who came to us for lunch. The boys all played really nicely together (Elliot and Finn are about the same age) – it’s just a shame they live over in Australia as it would be nice to spend more time with them.

Saturday night the clocks went back so the boys were up at 5am instead of 6am! After our nice early start on Sunday we dropped the boys off at Marc’s mums house (Grannie) for a few hours while we went round the shops looking for a new watch for me. I’ve lost the winder off the side of my old watch so I can’t change the time. I didn’t find anything I liked there, but have since found (and bought) a lovely Tissot watch.

This week has also been busy. It’s gone something like this …
– Monday morning playgroup, Monday afternoon kindy for Max and nap for Elliot, then in the evening I went to the kindy committee meeting (I’m the secretary on this committee)
– Tuesday morning Max went to play at a friend’s house and while Elliot had his nap in the afternoon I did a second coat of paint on the fence out the front
– Had a playdate with my friend Siobhan and her children Tyler and Mikayla on Wednesday morning and in the afternoon Elliot had his nap while Max and I did some painting, drawing, coloring and reading.

It’s Thursday once again – we had music this morning, Max is now at kindy, Elliot is asleep and I’ve been typing this instead of doing the housework and folding the laundry! Had better get a move on to get something done before I have to go and collect Max.

Yay – it’s great to be home again!

Let’s see, what went on since we last spoke.  I had a Sunday afternoon drinking in a bar in Palo Alto called Antonio’s Nut House which was full of great people and friendly staff.  The end of the afternoon and the train ride home is slightly blurred but hey, they made me feel welcome

Monday to Wednesday was spent training and after the previous week it felt like a part time course with 9 to 5 hours every day!

Wednesday to Friday was spent traveling home and there isn’t really much to say except that was uneventful (which is what you want from air travel right?) I was greeted into Wellington by a great sunrise and the picture below taken through an iced up window on a bumpy flight just doesn’t come anywhere near doing it justice.

It’s been absolutely fantastic to see Vic and the boys after two weeks away and all I’ve done for the two days since getting back is enjoying them as well as I can.  Elliot specially has been very huggy

Another couple of things (and because I took pics )

Yesterday (St Patrick’s Day) my Dad shaved his head down at his local Irish pub for charity.  He raised almost 600 dollars for Child Cancer and, although it was a bit of a shock, it looks better than the bright green hair that he had dyed especially for the occasion!

And today we went and visited my Mum and left the boys with her for a couple of hours while Vic and I went shopping.  After the visit Max bought a Monarch caterpillar home to put on our swan plant.  He named him/her/it “Mr Softy” because he feels all soft when you touch him……

Yesterday afternoon I put a stick-on pirate tattoo on Max’s arm and he is so proud of it. (I couldn’t get the flash to not wash him out, and when I turned it off the pictures came out blurry.)

It came inside his latest Matchbox car, brought for being a good boy while out at the shops during the weekend. He won’t let me put soap anywhere near it during bath time in case it comes off, c_hanaimp151 pdfand insisted I take a photo to email through to Daddy and Uncle Jason (Marc’s brother is a tattoo artist).

Max and Brianna spent all afternoon playing 200-310 together at kindy again today. As soon as she got there she ran around until she found him outside, and Max was most impressed that she also had a fake tattoo on her arm. I hope she’s not going to be too heartbroken when Max moves to morning kindy at the beginning of next term.300-101 practice test

When I dropped Max off at kindy today, I left him happily sticking things onto a box chatting away to little Brianna beside him. One of the kindy teachers Linda later told me she had had a conversation with Brianna which went something like this – “I’m helping Max stick Sony VGP-AC19V75 AC Adapter things on. I love this 210-260 boy – we’re on a date”. Linda and I both thought this was hilarious – but you have to wonder how does a three year old know about dating?

We have been busy busy busy this past week (just like every week!) We’ve managed to fit in the following:
Monday – Playgroup and the Fire Station visit in the morning and kindy for Max in the afternoon
Tuesday – house work and then kindy for Max. He learned to flip over holding onto the swinging rings and also helped a lot at clean-up time so the teachers gave him the ‘well done’ badge for that day.

Wednesday – a visit to the library, grocery shopping and lunch with my mum (the boys’ Nana). I later baked supper ready for the Playgroup Committee Meeting (I’m the treasurer on this committee). Very nicely they all came here for the meeting so I wouldn’t have to organise a babysitter to go out.
Thursday – music in the morning, a trip through the car wash (very entertaining as Elliot screamed the whole time we were in there!) and then kindy for Max. After that we popped in to see my sister Ali, who was flying out to Europe that evening for three weeks of work.
Friday – swimming with my friend Anna from up the road and her two littlies Zach and Stella (which the boys loved, so will try to do that more often). Our plans for dinner on Friday night unfortunately fell through as another friend Mary Jane’s little boy James was unwell – but the boys and I had takeaways instead.
Saturday – Our visit to Grannie (Marc’s mum) was postponed as she was also unwell, but the boys played outside most of the time until Max pulled a muscle in his neck jumping on the trampoline. He then spent most of the rest of the day with an icepack on his neck, or asleep. He was not a happy boy, and even opted out of going to his friend Neve’s 4th birthday party (very unlike Max).
Sunday – Max said he was feeling a bit better this morning although he was still holding onto his neck most of the time – but we went out (with my Mum) and visited a new clothes shop where I managed to find three new winter tops. We also stopped in to see Grandad and his partner Ngaire (that’s Marc’s dad). Ngaire has her own business doing Bowen Therapy – so while Max played she did a little bit on his neck and the difference is amazing. He could turn his head both ways and didn’t seem to be in anymore pain. We’ve just come back from a BBQ dinner at Nickie and Quintin’s house (a lady I met through playgroup) which was very nice.Somehow we’ve also managed to fit in eating, sleeping, showers, dishes, laundry, playing with and tidying up mountains of toys and 300-070 books, and also Elliot’s afternoon naps.

The only other thing I can think of to mention is that Elliot no longer sits in his highchair for meals – he’s been sitting at the little table with Max for breakfast and lunch, and at the dining room table for dinner. He’s been pretty good for the most part and doesn’t get up and walk around too much!

Just off to make playdough to take to playgroup in the morning, and then I will be collapsing into bed – all ready for the chaos to begin again tomorrow!

Hello from Sunny California!

What to say….hmmmmm…it’s sunny, not too warm and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road!

So far the trip has gone OK with the flight out here being uneventful but long (1 hour to Auckland and then 12.5 to San Francisco) I arrived in the early afternoon last Saturday and a colleague arrived just after me so we ended up having dinner together.  On Sunday the two of us went up into SF by train and did the usual things (Rode on the tram, saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz (both from the shore) and just pottered around.  The funny thing is we had our pre-course drinks that night and the Americans were amazed that we used public transport to get into SF.  Admittedly it took a while (10 minute walk to the light rail, 20 minute ride, 1:30 on the Caltrain into the city) but we had a great time and had fun talking to conductors and just generally chilling with the locals!

The New Hire training was very long and very tiring.  The whole week built toward a team presentation on Friday morning and the learning and planning was very taxing.  The days went like this:

Mon:  07:30 – 19:30

Tue:  08:00 – 24:00 (team dinner)

Wed: 08:00 – 23:00 (work through dinner on presentation)

Thur: 08:30 – 01:00 (same as the night before)

Fri:  08:00 – 14:00 (presentation in the morning)

As I said, a long week…….

Today (Saturday) it was really nice to lie in and all I’ve really done today is go the mall, go to the movies (saw 300 – it was OK if not a bit predictable)

Tomorrow it’s back into SF for lunch with a colleague and then Mon-Wed some more training.  I am so looking forward to getting home next week and I really miss Vic and the boys 🙁

Oh and one more thing – the print that I had in the exhibition mentioned the other day actually sold! yay!

Today our playgroup visited the local fire station. One of the dads that comes to playgroup is a volunteer fireman so he organised it all. It was fantastic – he showed the kids inside the station, put on all his gear (including mask and tanks – he honestly looked terrifying so I hope we never have a fire where they come in dressed like that),300-101 dumps let the kids climb inside the engine, turn on the siren, and best of all – they all got a turn squirting water from the hose.

300-075 dumps Back at home and the boys had had their lunch and were sitting at their table drawing pictures so I popped out of the room to put the washing machine on. I heard them laughing and thought “oh that’s good – they’re playing nicely together”, when really I should have thought “that’s strange – they’re laughing and not fighting with each other”. Max came through and said “Mummy – Elliot’s drawing”. Warning Sony Xperia SGP312U1/B AC Adapter lights went off in my head and I ran back through to the family room to discover Elliot standing with a whiteboard marker in his hand and black scribbles on the windows, floor, tv screen, Max’s new book, and on two of the three new rimu bar stools by the kitchen bench (the third luckily had a magazine on the top – but that was also covered with scribble). Elliot got put straight in the naughty corner while I tried to clean up – FYI whiteboard marker comes off glass and laminated flooring, but not books or bar stools (it’s just soaked right in). Max claimed he hadn’t seen Elliot do any of this – however I later found pen marks on the top of my laptop (kept on the breakfast bar) so knew Max had been involved too – there is no way Elliot could have reached that high. I’m guessing Max started it and then gave the pen to Elliot and told him where to draw. I hope we’re going to be able to sand the stools down, re-stain and oil them to get rid of the marks.
It’s going to be a long two weeks ….. at least it wasn’t a permanent marker pen!