Liam's Life as A Big Brother and his Cuddly Little Brother

Liam is a laugh. Today over at Annie's house Liam came out with some funny things. We were sitting around the kitchen table - eating and drinking tea, while Ewan amused himself by plopping grapes into his glass of water before eating them or spitting them whole out of his mouth. Liam, in his usual way, with his serious face says,

"I'm only a little bit cheeky.
Ewan is much more cheeky than me.
Sometimes he says he wants to play with me,
I go and play with him and he just walks away.
He annoys me sometimes and talks too much so
I have to go to my room to have a break."

Ewan meanwhile worked his charm and sweetness over Annie and Matt. He'd already won them over long ago but today probably took 1st Prize. Ewan gives the best cuddles - he wraps his little arms all the way around your neck and squeezes, pushing his cheek against you. It is such an amazing feeling and you just feel so much love. So Annie had a special cuddle and then asked if he would give Matt one. He said yes and she took him over to Matt. Ewan just wrapped his arms around Matt's neck and rested his head against his chest. The look on Matt's face was priceless and you could see how happy it made him. It was such a special moment.

Sleeping Arrangements

We've been having a bit of musical beds around here. Ewan still likes to sleep with me and Liam is now wanting to sleep with someone again too.

We have had a bit of success with Liam and Ewan sleeping in a double bed together - they have actually both slept through the night a couple of times together which has been great! Trouble is getting them to sleep together because Liam wants Ben beside him and Ewan wants me - the four of us squished in a double bed doesn't really work!!

Sometimes we start off with Ewan in his own bed and then he comes to me (or usually I go and get him) during the night. The other night he was pretty tired and when he woke in the middle of the night was in a bit of a funny mood. So I took him to the toilet and then said that he could come to my bed - it is pretty uncomfortable sleeping in the single bed with him. He sat down in the doorway to my room and said "No mummy, me no sleep with mummy. No sleep with mummy" again and again. During this he laid down on the floor, and after a moment there was silence. I look down and he's dead to the world, fast asleep on the floor.

Drought

It looks so green at the farm in all those pictures I posted!

It's actually not really that lush there. They are in a drought - just that they irrigate lucerne crops. Mum also keeps her garden quite green - without it their house would be choking with all the dust. Not to mention how much hotter it is without the trees and plants surrounding the house.

Farm Visit - Part Two!

Here are some pics of our water fight! The BIG boys are Uncle Peter and Uncle Andrew. The little boys are Liam (in the red hat) and his cousins, Alastair and Joseph - Ewan slept through the whole thing! Even my mum and I got soaked!

Farm Visit - Part One!

We had a great time out at my parent's farm between Christmas and New Year. My brother and sister-in-law were visiting with their three kids as well so the boys had a ball together. They have two boys the same age as Liam and Ewan and also a daughter who is 7 months old.

We went down to the river a few times - the boys loved throwing rocks in. We threw in bark "boats" for them to bomb with the rocks which was a big hit!

They fed a couple of lambs that mum put in a special yard for the kids to see. Picked all of my mum's strawberries and ate them straight out of the garden. She also has a good climbing tree that they spent ages in.

We had a big BBQ brunch one morning too and had a bunch of my cousins and aunt and uncle plus a huge tribe of my second cousins. Was great catching up with everyone and we ended the visit with a huge water fight! It was so much fun - especially considering that we are on very tight water restrictions where we live so water play is non-existent! My brothers were the main instigators and the kids were happy to play along!

Liam and Ewan had such a good time that they didn't want to leave! We will have to go out more often this year - though being 4 hours away it does get hard to fit in with all the others things that we have going on.

I have more photos to put up so will do another post for them!

A New Year - 2007 is Here!

Happy New Year!

We started the new year off with colds and being over tired from our trip out to my parent's farm. Not a great way to start it but not much you can do about it. We have a tradition where we go for a picnic breakfast each New Year's Day - we usually go early and are the only ones in the park. I take photos of everyone and we play together. We tried to do it this year but with all of us a bit grumpy and sick it wasn't quite as fun as usual! Still we did have a nice time once we got over the tears and arguments! We went to a park near the river and had fruit salad and yogurt. Then spent the rest of the day at home relaxing and trying to get over our colds!

Ben went back to work on the 2nd and life returned to normal for us. Ben had 3 weeks off for Christmas. It was lovely and we all had a great time but were so busy with everything that we really needed to settle back into our usual routine. The boys and I have had a great first week and I'm hoping that my motivation, patience and energy will see me through the new year.

I have a few things I want to do this year and I'm on track so far but it is early days!

** To get into more of a routine with the boys and be more organised so that we have activities planned and materials at hand.

** To spend more time looking after myself and doing things for me - i.e. lose weight and excersise more!

** To go exploring as a family - bushwalking, camping, day trips to new towns etc

I am going to start doing a weekly post recording our activities for the week. I think it will be good to look back on and a nice record of our year. Might also help to keep me motivated! Fingers Crossed!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas for Yesterday!

We had a great day - how could you not with two energetic, excited boys and lots of new toys and things to play with???

Liam bounded out of bed as soon as his eyes opened. I was already up, when he ran out of his room yelling, "It's Christmas!". So much joy and excitement in his voice and I'm sure the whole neighbourhood heard him - Liam wasn't born with a volume control unfortunately! Poor Ewan was jumped on until he woke from his deep sleep - once the word "presents" was mentioned it didn't take him long to run out to the tree.

The boys scored well and were very happy with everything they got. There were watering cans, books, an ant farm, water pistols, an art easle and paints, a rocket launcher, and cuddly horse cushions among other things.

The morning was spent trying out new toys. Then we headed to my grandparents house for an Italian style feast. With lasagne, glazed ham and salads no one went hungry - especially once we'd had dessert and then afternoon tea! We stayed there the whole afternoon and by the time we left for home the boys were exhausted! They fell asleep in the car on the way home and didn't wake till this morning! Ben and I enjoyed a nice quiet night for a change.

Today we've been shopping at the sales. Ben needed new work clothes. Liam has been full of questions about Santa. How did he get in our house? Is he real? Is he a real man? I told him that Santa is real if he believes he's real. He kept asking again and again. I finally said to him - Do you want to know the truth? How will you feel if he's not real? Liam's reply - But he IS real mum! Needless to say I didn't come out with it! Ewan, meanwhile, started taunting Liam saying - Santa's not real! Over and over again! Cheeky monkey! Liam just kept yelling back at him - He is real!! Funny boys!

Twas the night before Christmas......

The boys are tucked into their beds fast asleep and probably dreaming delicious dreams about Santa and all things Christmas!

They are so excited about Christmas this year! Liam has been talking about it for weeks. Today they were playing and singing together (see the video below) - their song went like this -
"Christmas Time, Christmas Time, Open presents from Santa and Mummy and Daddy, Christmas Time, Christmas Time"

They were singing it over and over again at the top of their voices! I couldn't help but smile, thinking of how great it was to have so much excitement and joy in the house - you just don't feel it on such a grand scale when you don't have little children in your life. Not sure if the neighbours appreciated it though!!!

We've had a busy couple of days but it has been great. We got to catch up with Aunty Nadia and Uncle Anthony yesterday. The boys had a ball seeing them. We went to the fireworks with Anthony and his girlfriend Jess last night. The boys had been out most of the day yesterday, had no sleeps (despite their late night the night before) but were still full of energy at the fireworks - running around with their glow sticks, jumping on Jess, and wrestling with Anthony. It was great seeing them play together! Liam began Star Wars education for Jess while she was here too - he brought out his book about it and took Jess through the whole story. She's never seen Star Wars (neither has he but he knows all about it!!) so Liam felt it was his duty to introduce her to it!! Was so funny listening to him preaching to her. Ewan was just content to cuddle and smile and run around getting them to chase him - always the little charmer - he knows that a cute smile goes a long way!!

Well our Christmas presents are all wrapped, gingerbread, carrots and a drink have been left out for Santa, and the stockings are filled (Santa is very efficient this year!!) so I am off to bed - I think it will be an early start tomorrow morning!

Sleep tight and will have lots of news tomorrow evening I'm sure!

Christmas Song

Liam and Ewan made up a Christmas song today - here they are singing it for you!

Ewan's Evil Eyes

Ewan has this face he pulls at odd moments followed by lots of giggles! He usually does it while we're eating dinner. Taking a mouthfull of food, then going quiet, he looks over at me and makes eye, then the Evil Eyes come out.

I tried to catch it with the camera the other day. This is pretty close to how it looks - so funny! At the rate we're going, Ewan will be the entertainer/performer and Liam will be the crazy inventor - Definately makes for some interesting times at our place!!

Christmas Tree!

We put our Christmas Tree up today. The boys are so excited about Christmas! It's so much fun with them and being able to experience Christmas through the eyes of a child again is so precious.

Fire Station Visit

Our homeschooling playgroup went to a fire station yesterday. It was fantastic! Very interesting and we even got to see a real call-out! About 5 minutes into our tour the alarm went off - just a digital beeping noise, not a huge clanging bell! So we all had to move out of the way and off they went, sirens blaring. We thought the tour was over then and started making plans. We'd just decided to head to a local park, when the fire truck pulled back in to the station. It was a false alarm so we got to check out the truck a bit more and everyone got to get in too. The kids were crawling all through the cabin and sitting up on the drivers seat playing with the steering wheel. I even jumped in with Ewan - it was great - very comfortable!

Afterwards we all went to the park for lunch and the boys (we have about 6 boys aged between 2 and 4 that come!) were all excited and going crazy! They had a great time though once they settled down!

Liam The Creator

Liam is always busy creating things. Give him a roll of sticky tape, some toilet rolls, old boxes, any bits of rubbish really - and he's in heaven! He wakes at around 4:30/5am every morning and gets straight into it. He's been making some interesting things lately.

Here's his space helmet:



And his oxygen tank:

Afternoon Entertainment: Cardboard Boxes and A Hill

This is the boys' favourite afternoon entertainment! It's just out the front of our house - we have an extremely steep front yard - perfect for sliding down! Certainly puts all our packing boxes to good use!

Ewan's Vehicle of Choice:




Crash!




Liam Rolling Down:

Visit to Pop's House

We went up to see Pop and Heather's new house. It's not finished yet but they have certainly come a long way - it's looking great and we all loved it!

Heather's grandchildren, Candice and Memphis, were visiting too so the kids had a great time playing and exploring together. They also got to help decorate the Christmas Tree!

Sleeping Buddies

Ben was out last night so I put the boys to sleep in my bed. I lay in between them until they went to sleep. Later when we went to go to bed the boys were all snuggled up together.

Chef Liam

We had lunch at Nonna Lucy's house today. Chef Liam decided to create his own recipe. He was very proud of it and we all had to have a taste. He told Nonna Lucy that now she knew how to make it, she could cook it for dinner!

Here's the recipe -

Bread Pasta

Ingredients:
Cooked Pasta
Bread Rolls


Method:

1. Pull bread roll apart making lots of bread crumbs.

2. Mix bread crumbs through pasta.

3. Enjoy!

My Big Boy is Growing Up

This is Liam's 2nd night away from us. He went home with Nonna and Dida on Wednesday afternoon to stay with them for a few days on the farm. He was very excited and couldn't wait to go. I was nervous and didn't want to let go.

On Tuesday night, we had a bit of a talk - had some making up to do after a few angry episodes from both of us.

I said to Liam - "I'm going to miss you so much when you go to Nonna's." (I started crying)

Liam, very matter of fact - "I'll call you mum. You'll get to talk to me on the phone you know."

Me - Sobbing and laughing at the same time

He just sounded so grown up. Something you think of a teenager saying - not your 4 year old!

So Wednesday came and we spent most of the day together. It was really nice. Ewan conveniently went to sleep early, so Liam and I had some special time together doing craft and having morning tea. I made sure I talked to him and really listened to him. My heart was so full of love. Sometimes you forget how much you love them when they get older and so much more assertive. You have to look harder for the warm wonderful side when there have been days of being grumpy and both of us wanting different things. Liam and I are very much alike - both stubborn and like things a particular way - certainly makes life interesting! But he is also wonderfully warm and caring. Creative and funny. Clever and innovative - the things he can make out of a toilet roll and a cereal box amaze me!!

Saying goodbye was hard. I tried to hold back the tears but I couldn't. I told him how much I loved him and said goodbye. He said "I love you mummy" in his sweet, sincere little voice.

The house is so quiet without Liam. I knew that he talks a lot but it's only now without his constant questions that I realise just how much! Ewan asks about Liam a lot and has been saying things like "Here's a balloon for Lee (that's how he says Liam!)" forgetting that he's not here. He is enjoying it though and is getting in as much talk as he can while he has the chance! Ewan's been running around and loving the freedom to do what he wants instead of what Liam wants.

We've talked to Liam and he is having a great time too. Keeping busy with all the action of the farm work - lots of tractors and driving in trucks - all things he loves. I'm sure we'll be hearing about it for weeks afterwards!

We are going to pick him up tomorrow night. I can't wait to see him!

Melbourne Cup Luncheon!

We have our Homeschool Playgroup every fortnight and today was a playgroup day. So to celebrate the Melbourne Cup we had our own luncheon complete with hat making and our very own stick horse race!

It was a great day and everyone had a ball.

How 'Bout Nonna!

How 'bout Nonna - has become a common phrase around here thanks to Ewan.

Goes something like this........

Me: Who's bed do you want to sleep in?

Ewan: Nonna's bed. Me like sleeping with Nonna.

Me: What about Mummy?

Ewan: How 'bout Nonna.


or


Me: Guess who loves you? (meaning me!)

Ewan: Nonna!

Me: What about Mummy?

Ewan: How 'bout Nonna.


He knows how funny I think it is now so he says it all the time. Cheeky monkey!