Its getting harder and harder to find time to get on and update lately as we count down to baby day! We havent been doing to much either. Mostly just getting on and trying to keep a very basic but normal routine going and spending a lot of time at home resting.

This is the weather we moved to Melbourne for!!!!

The kids have been great, they are getting very good at entertaining themselves and playing games which involve Mummy laying on the couch. Miss Boo has very recently become super independent and very good at going off and playing by herself or with Monkey in the playroom. Its so lovely to see the kids playing "together" without any intervention from us. Miss Boo has also become very keen on drawing, so as long as there are crayons, pencils or the such around she will sit and draw. I am a firm believer that children should be allowed to get bored and not have everything planned for them as it inspires more creativity and independence, but I have had to put this into practice more than usual these last few months and boy has it payed off. I hope it continues when bubs is here.

We did make a trip out to see Santa and the Myer windows a couple of weeks ago. I love going to see Santa very early in the season as there is verually no waiting so no grumpy kids and it usually starts me getting ready for Christmas. I love everything about Christmas; the music, the wrapping of presents, the smell of the tree, organizing the gifts for everyone. This year I have had to be more organized than usual. So as soon as Santa was in residence off we went. We drove to our old apartment, picked up J and J, then tramed the rest of the way to town (parking is just too expensive in town). The Myer windows were lovely, much better than last years. The theme being "Santa Clause is Coming to Town". Both Monkey and Miss Boo were fascinated with all the little characters dancing around, and again no real queues to speak of so we could take the time to actually look at them. I might add at this point that baby brain has well and truly kicked in and resulted in me forgetting my camera so the pics aren't to great!

Santa this year was a bit different as they didn't have any real activities of the kids to do other than see santa and the train. It was a shame, but Monkey wasn't too worried. We went into see Santa first which was pretty funny. Monkey went straight up to him and started talking full speed about what he wanted for Christmas, what Miss Boo wanted, and reminding him not to forget the new baby. Miss Boo however was only interested in the Reindeer curled up breathing on the rug and the tree. Considering how open both my children are with strangers it was quite amusing to see that Miss Boo was not at all keen on Santa, in fact even with me sitting next to him she was trying to climb out of my arms and kept pointing and saying "door, door". We didn't get a particularly good picture this year, Oh well she will have cottoned on to the whole Santa thing by next year Im sure.

Once we'd seen Santa, we had to go on the train. Miss Boo had no fear when it came to talking to the train people I can tell you. She had been watching it go round while we waited for Santa and boy was she happy to have a ride. She was bouncing in her seat and waving to everyone as she went passed. I think if given a chance my kids would ride the train all day. All in all it was fun to go out to Santa, but next year when I can walk instead of waddle it might be a bit easier!

As for the other Christmas things, I think Im sorted I have gotten all my shopping and 90% of the wrapping done, made the gifts for Monkeys friends and organized my decorations for people. I am doing a similar thing as last year and having a activity advent for the kids where each day there is a christmas related activity for them to do. This as year Im going to be a little busy and for the first few days in Hospital leaving Granny to do a lot of it, I have it all organized and the activities sorted into envelopes, numbered and ready. The teacher in me also meant Ive made a little booklet for Monkey with quiet christmas actives for those moments he just needs a little wind down. Its got dot-to-dots, mazes and a couple of simple activities in.

Here is our plan for our activity advent...

1 Write a letter to Santa

2 Make a Santa Hat Garland

3 Put up the Tree

4 Make Christmas Play dough

5 Make Christmas Cards for friends

6 Make gingerbread men

7 Make Paper chains to decorate the house

8 Make a Reindeer Mask

9 Do a Holly collage

10 Play Stocking Memory and Santa dominos

11 Make Candy cane Reindeers for the teachers

12 Make Christmas Cards for Teachers

13 Go to Kindy Party

14 Make and paint popsicle stick trees

15 make stained glass stars

16 Make Jingle Bell Dancing Rings and dance to christmas songs

17 Make a snow globe

18 Make a sand snowman on the beach

19 Make stacking Santas

20 Make a pinecone elf and santa set

21 Watch a christmas Movie

22 Make cone angels

23 Make a magic Santa key

24 Put out Santas’ Treats and Stockings

I have tried to only do a few snow related things as we don't get any of that at Christmas here, so I feel the kids don't really relate to it. 

 

Now with our last Obstrician appointment over I really need to get on and pack my hospital bags ready for Tuesday. i can't wait to meet the little one kicking me as I type. Im really excited to find out if its a boy or girl so Watch This Space....

STOP...... Police!!!

The local police station had an open day yesterday....This is not something we could pass up, not with our police nutty son. So He-Man and Monkey headed off in the glorious sunshine for a morning with the cops.

As usual Monkey had lots and lots of questions. When looking at the lockers he even thought to ask how many policemen there were at the station.. apparently there are 50!

He got to have his hands fingerprinted

 
Getting a turn in the Police car was a highlight especially he was able to turn the lights and siren on!

Asking more tricky questions about the laser.

There was even a fantastic police pipe band.

And SES was there so I think we might have another career possibility.. we do do a lot of rescuing in this house!

Learning to remove fingerprints from glass!

Dusting for prints again!

Here comes the sun!

We are in full on countdown mode here...All the aches and pains front his pregnancy are really beginning to intensify so we are celebrating the end of every day and week. Only 24 days left now till bubs in due for arrival. Im hoping that it decides to cooperate and be in the right position and everything for the induction otherwise we will have to wait. Something I'm not sure I'll find to easy to do. So fingers crossed. 

All that aside today has been a beautiful day here in Melbourne. Perfect for paddling pools and bike rides.  Unfortunately I have an uncharged camera so photos were not taken. I must have left it on after my last upload (blame baby brain), or a mini monkey turned it on to look at some photos and forgot to turn it off. Either way its on the charger now and will be already for tomorrows adventures. 

It looks to be another beautiful day here and Monkey is super excited about the local police station open day. He-man is taking him in the morning so we should have some good picks to share tomorrow. We will also have the paddling pool out again I might even have to dip my toes in if it gets to hot. 

I have also started nesting in my own way. I don't tend to go mad cleaning the house or the baby clothes but instead I come up with wonderful organisational systems for random things. So far I have managed to write and send all my christmas cards and have started reorganising how I store the alphabet activities and craft ideas I use for the kids (I figure with two more kids to do them there is no point in reinventing the wheel each time, so it is better to have a record of what has worked for Nicholas and what I still want to try). I have also made my plan for the christmas activity advent, much like I did last year and am getting all the bits and bobs ready and filled into pockets for each day so they can be done by Granny or I without any fuss. When it is all done I will share with you what our daily activities are going to be this year in the lead up to Christmas. 

Have a good night where ever you are. 

Getting better...

Right so after two and a half almost three weeks of illness we are back! It has been a lot harder than before as it was both He-Man and myself who were sick. We ended up using the tried and true stack of DVDs for the kids and Take-aways for dinner a lot more often than we wanted, but we got there in the end. Now we are out the other side of the worst of it we are trying to catch up on sleep and return some normality to the kids lives. This is easier said than done as I'm now finding getting around even harder. (I will not end up on crutches!!!!) We are also counting down to the arrival of Granny and then baby.. Only 5 weeks to go!!!!

 

Miss Boos new favorite piece of playground equipment - see-saw!

While today started badly in terms of how I felt, but it has definitely picked up. The sun is shinning and its not too hot and so the kids have been outside almost all day.

Monkey has been wanting to do more of his alphabet learning stuff with me so while Miss Boo was down for a nap we pulled out some of the activities we had stored for a while. I am going to keep doing a bit of the alphabet stuff but to be honest Monkey knows all the sounds pretty well now so I am starting to little mini themes as well. As it is spring we started today on some spring activities. Talking about plants groaning and doing some line tracing. This follows on nicely from what he has been doing at kindy where he sprouted some pea seeds which are now groaning apply in our garden.

I have been wanting to done of these sensory tubs for a while. Now is the perfect opportunity as Miss Boo is needing to feel like she is just like her brother and wants to be doing "work" to.

First to dye the pasta shapes, using hand sanitizer and food coloring - they are really green and pink, I promise!

Ready for Miss Boo

So using stuff I had around the house I made a mini version of one. I hope I'll be able to get a bigger container soon as that one is just not big enough. Especially as I have two sets of hands trying to get to everything. Monkey was more taken with this activity than I expected. He did love helping to put it together and was so excited it was al he could do to wait until Miss Boo woke up from her nap.
Dying the pasta was super easy, Im going to us the same pasta (even though its pink and green, not red and green) for a christmas box.

Filling the cups

Picking the flowers

Both have loved scooping and pouring the pasta more than anything else today but we will see what else they do as time goes on. Monkey is already talking about using it to tell stories.

Now its time for more play outside and a little nana nap for me I think....

"Hey baby you in there?"

Cloud spotting!

Another first..

Monday was Miss Boos first swimming lesson. I think I have breed two little fish. She took to it like a duck to water to say the least.

On our way... 

all dressed and ready to get going in her cool togs from Granny and Pop!

Hurry up and let me get in!

Monkey playing while waiting for his lesson after Miss Boos.

Such clever and big girl!

Oh those summer nights...

Since daylight savings started here just over a week ago we have been fortunate enough to enjoy some balmy (20+ degree days) evenings. Warm evenings/afternoons combined with school holidays have meant spending lots of time outside for the kids and I.

He-Man was late home one evening so after dinner we decided to have a little play outside while we waited for his return. It was a wonderful relaxing time together.

Time spent climbing...

Removing more sand from our sand pit...

And playing with the sand no longer in the sandpit.. I think there is now so little in there I dont think it can be classed as a sand pit but rather a sand puddle.

We also took time one day to work on our treasure boxes. Sequins, glitter, buttons and glue what more can I say!

I might add that this activity was followed by a dip in our paddling pool (filled with warm water, its not that warm yet!) to remove most of the glitter and things stuck to hands and feet.

I am longing for more evenings and afternoons like these, they have lovely side effect of rejuvenating us all by allowing us the time, or space to slow down and just enjoy each other -

BRING ON SUMMER!!!