Scooter park

On Sunday we met up with a mum and her daughter from mothers group and the kids had a scooter around the council car park as the skate park was occupied with two 6 year olds ‘things’ I didn’t realise 6 year olds were meant to know how to do on a skateboard!!  Ignorant I know….

We then heading to the park for a bit where they climbed over everything swung on the swings and slid down the slide.  We then realised the little kids had gone so it was our time to hit the skate bowl and see their scootering skills. It was very cute to watch as they both just went around and around the bottom with little rides up the incline, but hey they enjoyed it and that is all as a parent you can ask for.

Then as the weather seemed to get colder by the second we decided it was time to go home.  On the way out of the park this is the image we as mums were looking at.

Two beautiful children holding hands as they chatted on the walk home.  Too cute for words and melts your heart.

Family time

Sorry I have been off the blog for a bit lately and not really sure why?  I had made a pack with myself that I was going to write at least weekly and I was doing ok for a while there and then off the bandwagon I fell!!!

We have had my brother and his family over from Perth so that has been great for me and the little man to spend some time with my three nephews as well as brother and sister in law.  The little man was on the phone the other weekend to my aunt and he said to her “my brothers and cousins are coming to visit me”, they are his cousins but he refers to them as his brothers even though they aren’t.  He doesn’t even refer to his half siblings as siblings at all?!?!

 
When they arrived on Saturday night he was so excited to see them all he was squealing with delight and then I had to put him back to bed!  All went well though and the next morning there was lots of chatter amongst them all.  My eldest nephew is 12, then 10 and 4 so there is a big age gap with the older two and only 14 months between the youngest and the little man.

We got a photo of them all on the couch and they are a pretty spunky lot of boys – biased I know…..

We then had dinner with them last Thursday night and the little man was a bit feral as he’d been at his dad’s all day and over tired as well as getting dropped off 37 minutes late which all added up.  Anyway we all survived dinner and the younger two were lucky enough to score a smartie cookie for dessert.

I missed the cutest image but I wouldn’t have shown up in a photo of the two cheeky monkeys above shaking their tail feathers to the music playing in the café!  We were all in hysterics and they thought they were pretty good getting all the attention from us. 

I couldn’t ask for a better family and neither could the little man as they all get along so well considering three of them live on the other side of the country.

Werribee Zoo

The other day during the school holidays, well kinder in our case, we decided to go to the Werribee Zoo for the morning with a couple of mum’s from mother’s group.  As a friend of the Zoo we didn’t have to pay and we were driven there as well so no complaints from me at all for the cheap day out!!

We were on the first safari bus of the morning with four very excited children.  All hands inside whilst the doors were closed, seat belts secured and off we went for our 30 minute plus tour of the zoo.

First up were the camels.  Not much interest from the little man at all for them, for what reason I am unsure but they were being lazy and sitting down for the morning. 

Next we came across the Ostrich’s or Emu’s as he insisted on calling them.  There was a daddy ostrich guarding a lonely egg on the side of the road and further along there were many more eggs beside the road.  The photo below looks like he is trying to feed the ostrich his pretzel, which he wasn’t but my photo skills are not great!

 We then went into the big paddocks where there were giraffes and rhino’s.  We were so close it was fantastic, well to the giraffes as the rhino’s were snoozing in the autumn sun.  There are quite a few male giraffes only at Werribee and they seemed extremely friendly coming quite close to the bus.

 On the home stretch we passed the lazy hippo’s basking in the sun as well.  It was then the end of the bus ride and on foot to find the lions as the boys were desperate to see them.  We found them after creeping quietly through the walkways and saw a lioness and a lion (no photos as they were too far away).

 

 We had a great day and will definitely go back again and if you decide to head out there, sit on the right hand side of the bus as you tend to see more animals on that side!!

Growing up too quickly

We had to call into the doctors the other day for an asthma plan for the little man as his kinder now require an original not a photocopy. Whilst we were there he decided to jump on the scales so the doctor weighed him and said “20 kilos.” I said to him “well he has put on 1.5kg since January this year.”

We then went to Scienceworks on Sunday and they have the sport section where you can weigh and measure your height. I put him on the scales again and yes he was just over 20kg’s and then onto the height measure. I finally got him to stand still for a few seconds and measured him at 110cm.   Again since January this year he has grown 5cm!! No wonder all of his pants are too short that I purchased at the start of the year!

How quickly do your children grow and is mine a freak of nature for a 3 year old??

Below are some photos we took last night as he had ‘harry high pants’ and thought he was pretty funny!

Disaster avoided

I had to put the car in for its 15,000km service on Thursday last week. So to kill the time until it was ready we went across the road to Chadstone Shopping Centre for a bit of window shopping as well as purchasing. We hadn't been there long at all and I was wondering around Tiffany & Co, as I have a girlfriend’s 40th coming up, and had just given the little man a box of sultana's before entering the store. He was chatting away to me in the pram as normal when out of the blue he started screaming and I mean screaming.

I bent over him and said "what is the matter?" and he replied "it hurts." I'm thinking what hurts and why did you just throw the box of sultanas on the floor in this shop in particular!? I asked what was sore and he said his nose, still not understanding I said why is your nose sore and he said "I put a sultana up there as I didn't want it." By this stage the staff are looking down their noses at me and I'm thinking I have no car if I need to get to a hospital.

Outside in the couch area I get him to attempt to blow it out a few times with no success. All the while I'm saying why at the age of 3 did you decide to place something up your nose? Why my little man why???? A lady sitting nearby was laughing at my predicament (I don't blame her) and said there is a doctors surgery in the centre. We hot footed it towards the information counter to find out where when he says "I got it!!" He then shows me a sultana (of decent size) in his hand. He told me he did another big blow and it just came out!

Thank god it did as well as I was starting to envisage all sorts of scenarios not theleast the bad smell that would be coming from him as it broke down - ewwww

I texted my mum to tell her and she decided it was time to remind me of the time I swallowed a bobby pin! I told my brother and he told mum, she didn't believe me so off to the doctors for an x-ray and low and behold there it was in my tummy. Unfortunately for mum she had to wait for it to pass through me.....

Disaster was avoided by a few big blows of the nose, I think we were lucky this time and fingers crossed there is no next time.

Why oh why

Last Friday night my little man's dad came to get him as per usual, I gave the little man a hug & kiss and said have a great night and day. About 10 minutes later there was a knock at the door; my first thought was 'bloody marketers' but low and behold it was my little man with his dad. His dad said "he doesn't want to be with me so I'll see him next week." I must have looked dumbstruck as when we were together he always forced his children to see him on his weekends. I asked the little man if he was ok and why he didn't want to go to dads that night. He said "the other kids are there and don't want to go." He's three so I thought ok extra time for me on the weekend! Selfish I know but I'll take all the time I can.

Yesterday I thought I'd do the right thing and ask the ex what happened in the car so we could work on it together. Why oh why did I do that as I received an essay back saying everything I was doing wrong. I will give you a highlight from each paragraph.

 

• My farewell is a song and dance and clingy with hugs and kisses whilst his is quick and clean.
• Apparently it has happened before (never mentioned to me) and he didn't want to deal with it again. I give to many kisses which makes him not want to leave me as I'll be utterly miserable without him.
• Rare for me say goodbye once and then move away, apparently I hover and wave to the little man.
• The little man is always happy to see me at pick ups and not in tears (why this is my fault not sure).
• The ex has trouble engaging the little man in conversation, thinks his sullen & withdrawn. Ignores his new wife and the other five kids, again how is this my fault?
• I need to curtail my farewells reigning in my goodbyes so that the little man's head is in the "right" space and to enforce how good a time he'll have at his dads!
• Not allowed to empty the letterbox on the exes time as gives mixed messages to the little man??? A simple goodbye at the door and no hover in the future.
• Improve his self confidence so he doesn't cling to legs when he goes to school (two years away), and that separation is not a bad thing.
• The ex has an intolerance to his bad manners because he says 'I want' instead of 'may I please'.
• Appreciate my consideration on these points.

 

Why oh why did I ask the question???? I'd like to say that my little man is quite fine saying goodbye to me at daycare & kinder as well as any other time I might leave him. His manners are bloody good for a three year old and I'm sorry a mother is allowed to hug and kiss her child at goodbye and I don't hover at all I just show affection to my son. Yes I miss him when he's not with me and I tell him this occasionally, he now says 'I miss you mum'. I don't believe this is bad or detrimental to his development or impacts on him wanting to go to his dads house. As for ignoring your wife and kids who can blame him when there are five other kids there and by the sounds of it he is left to his own devices most of the time or dragged to their sporting events.

 

I could rant all night but won't. We went out for dinner tonight to Pinocchio's pizza and they had drawings around the restaurant. I hope my exes lies make his nose grow and to stop blaming me because he can't relate/deal with his son whilst in his care.

 

Chalking!

On a beautiful Melbourne Sunday morning we went outside to play with the neighbours two girls scootering, riding, fixing items and then getting the chalk out.  

We were instructed to draw sharks/fish/a mix of the two to represent members of the family.  I first drew my little man and then he wanted a Grandpa and Nanna shark to go next to him.  My neighbour asked him who else was missing from his family and he looked at her blankly, to which I replied "pooh bear."  I received a scowl from my neighbour as I am guessing I should have said myself but hey if my child doesn't want me to draw me then I am not going to suggest it; I'm just grateful he didn't say his dad and his half siblings!!  Naughty thought I know .......

Below are a couple of images of my attempts at drawing his family, sans pooh bear.

Coop is the blue one, grandpa is the green one and nanna is the pink one!