Feb 25th - Day 55

Ok - missed a couple of days this week with moving and getting occ health clearance for my new job.  BUt this one was a real classic and I had to take it.  Please ignore Home and Away in the back ground - it is my only soap.

 

Lately Tyler has been working really hard on his toilet training and I have decided that I am brave enough for the next step - big boy undies.  The last couple of days he has worn undies to daycare and has managed only a couple of accidents a day (usually only 1/day at home) so I am very proud of him and he is very excited with his new undies......I have just been and gotten several packs undies and they are just sitting on the coffee table (clean!!) waiting for his name labels so he can take and wear them to school. 

Feb 22nd - Day 53

I will let this one speak for itself.

 

Feb 21st - Day 52

Not so long ago Tyler brought this one home from his daycare program.  The teachers make their own playdough once a week and save the left overs for doing things like this.  It is made with plant parts - seeds, leaves and sticks etc.  A playdough garden.

This was an activity planned as a lead into the planting and growing of their own sunflowers, beans and watermelon along with flowers.  Tyler loves the garden and will often sit smelling the roses - literally!

Feb 20th - Day 51

This is one of our family - he is the friendliest cuddliest and one of the most tollerant puss cats I know.  Simba was originally one of two brothers (we owned both) - he has survived being an SPCA animal, 7 (soon to be 8) moves including living in Motueka, Nelson, Dunedin, Motueka and Wellington.  He has enjoyed adventures which have given me heart palpatations - rats, ducks, frogs, birds and mice being some of his most loved play things.  Simba thinks he is a dog and will come when called, sit, stay and chase sticks.  While he is not a huge lover of loud children and parties, he defends his family with love and a claws (as the vet bill shows).  Simba loves Tyler - he followed me everywhere (incl morning sickness attacks) while pregnant and spent hours sitting watching Tyler as a newborn and would never be far away when he was growing.  Now days he puts up with Tyler's love and cuddles and kisses and attempts to play with him, has never bitten or scratched him and has only once hissed at him.  

So this is my handsome "man-cat" - aint he the best?

 

Feb 19th - Day 50

Before we display the shocking photo for this day I must appologies for the quality of this shot, the subject kept moving in the wind and the windows are smudged with builders fingerprints.  Tyler called it a "walking stick"

 

This is the side door of our new house (moving day Saturday 27th).  The stick insect was on the outside of the door but the door was open so technically it was inside.

Feb 18th - Day 49

Just to prove that I did in fact win something - again i might add.  Now we dont normally buy things like M&M's for house hold use - generally it is a movie sneak in (shhh!).  But it was an impulse buy on the dash around the shops for milk, bread and toilet paper and it paid for itself.  Now before everyone gets excited I did not win a "big" prize, but hey who's gonna turn down a $100 gift card?

 

Not the clearest photo, but as you can see these M&M's are definitely naked.

 

Feb 17th - Day 48

Lot slack with updating again.  But have been shooting.

So here is last weeks effort for Wednesday.  It was a beautiful day with an amazing sunset.  Tyler pointed out that the sky was hot and it was and my little point and shoot doesn't really do it much justice.

 

Feb 16th - Day 47.

Today I thought that the collection of leaves in the pool had been there long enough and it was time to tip it all out.  After picking out a collection of toys I found this.......

 

It is a fully grown and dead male Tree Weta.  These insects are in huge numbers around our area and I am often fishing them alive and dead out of the cats water bowl and buckets etc.  They hiss and loudly and honestly I DO NOT LIKE THEM!!!!  No Sam-I-Am I do not like them here or there!  But in the interests of nuturing a healthy active male child I am brave and collected it in a sieve (I am NOT touching it - ICK!) and bottled it in a jar we had in the pantry for pickle (the jar is a large watties baby food jar filled with 50:50 water:white vinegar) so it can be taken to "school"/daycare tomorrow morning.  This specimen's body is about 4-5cm long.

Feb 15th - Day 46

Busy weekend and a lot of phone calls to follow up on yesterday (Monday).  During one call I look up when I hear "Cheese Mummy!".  Tyler had not only climbed on a chair to reach up and get down the digital camera but figured out how to open it and managed to not get his fingers in the way.  This is the second shot has taken - ever (the first was just really unflattering to poor unsuspecting Mummy).

Not too bad for a 3yr old - while he did manage to cut my head off in the first shot every shot after was pretty good!  With a computer geek for a dad (IT tech) and all the gadgets in our house it wont be long until i will be asking him to fix my laptop!

Feb 14th - Day 45

Valentines Day - well not really a huge event in our house hold, for the main reason that for the past 4-5yrs one or the other of us has been working.  This year was DP's turn to work.  So i thought I would head out and collect something I had won after making a purchase from this site http://www.kidsclubhouse.co.nz/   This is a Wellington home based company and the sell lots of different disney themed products in NZ.  Earlier in Jan I had gotten a pair of winter PJ's and a T-shirt for our Little Einsteins mad child. Then also purchased his Birthday present (an interactive rocket ship) and a pair of PJ's with Lightening MacQueen for our friends 4th birthday. 
Anyway I ramble - they run a monthly competition and every purchase goes into the draw.....I won and Tyler got to enjoy the spoils.

 

Feb 13th - Day 44

Weekends during term time mean sleep-ins (yes 8am is a sleep in!) and swimming lessons.  Today was the first day of a new class, with a new time and a new teacher.....so rather than 11.20am we had to be organised a whole hour earlier (we where late) and so rather than getting to play outside or watch an episode of mickey mouse it was toys only - Mr Potato-head is a favorate and today it was decided that rather than dressing up the spuds he would dress himself.
Introducing Tyler-big-teeth.

 

Feb 12th - Day 43

Friday's - adults learn to love or hate them and I have decided that kids do too.  After a long day at daycare and with myself in the kitchen cooking dinner (yes i do cook), Tyler wanting to "help" I decided it was time for some technological interventions - I could have turned the TV and DVD on, but he would have stood at the kitchen gate calling me.  The computer means he gets to sit with daddies headphones on and watch.........In this case Handy Manny (thank you Playhouse Disney!)

Feb 11th - Day 42

In my attempts at packing this afternoon I noticed this on the wall next to DP's desk and computer. He has been working many hours since before Christmas and has been on-call for 3wks this year already. This shows how often we rely on this esential piece of paper in our house......
In case you are having trouble reading it - this is a calendar showing Dec 2009.

Feb 10th - Day 41

We have been lucky to have been able to grow some of our own veg this year again, we grew more last year but wasn't sure most of our weather would have killed off the young plants this year. Tyler gets involved and loves watering the plants and picking the fruits of his labour......green tomato, very lightly pink strawberries etc. But one of the most loved would be green beans - not string beans or broad beans but round green beans.....we are now watching our second crop of them grow in hope that we might get another few feeds of yummmy beans. As we dont have a lot of garden space most of our vege live in cubes we scored from the warehouse for $2 each due to damages.

Feb 9th - Day 40

I am proud of myself - I have stuck to taking a new photo now for 14 days in a row - little slack at putting them up but still taking them :D

This one is of our handsome boy Simba the puss cat - he is a SPCA cat and is now about 9yrs old. We have had him since he was 8wks old (or there abouts). He is a very layed back cat, not too keen on strangers but usually warms up quickly so long as there are not too many loud little people involved.
He is Tyler's shadow and learnt very early into Tyler's journey into solids to sit under the highchair and he would usually gain the best bits - unless mum was mean and shut him outside. So while he drives me insane at times and has cost us a fair amount he is a member of our family.

Feb 8th - Day 39

This afternoon after a productive morning house hunting and weeding of the horrid gravel path around our house. I settled into some bill paying, clothes folding and general house work to the gentle sounds of the latest Oz Idol winner - Stan Walker. He has a very soothing voice and he is often requested in the car by the youngest family member.
I am even allowed to sing along :)

Feb 7th - Day 38

With the birthday party being such a great success, Tyler has a fixation with all things pirate - treasure maps, pirate money (play money), water guns, "pirate hats" and boats. This yesterday afternoon, he was playing outside and decided that his Mummy needed to be the "naughty pirate" and be squirted with lots of water while cleaning the leaves out of his pool. He is shown here filling this little yellow gun that was in his treasure bag from the party.

Shortly after this he was determined that he swim with his hat on and no swim wear - my son the original nudist :)

Feb 6th - Day 37

What a beautiful Wellington summers day....today we celebrated a little friends 4th Birthday (was yesterday) with a wonderful pirates and faeries party - so dress up was in order. A hunt through the closet, toy box, Christmas decorations and a trip to the local equalivant to the $2 store later and the result?


We had to compromise on the wings and sword - Tyler wanted pink wings - the end. So to make Daddy happy we settled for blue wings a sword with tinsel and a pirate get up with a touch of make up and a canteen bandanna from the dress up box. The other photos where better focused but this is the only one where he is actually looking at the camera and smiling.

Feb 5th - Day 36

How I have spent any spare minutes I may have these days - sorting, de-junking, packing and attempting to find both a new home and enough space in boxes for 3 peoples stuff. When we moved in 2yrs ago it was 2 adults a 1yr old and a couple of cats. Now 2 years down the track and it seems that a single 3 year old can have as much stuff as 2 fully grown adults and 2 spoiled cats! But as it stands this is part of our "spare" room. For the record - I really DISLIKE packing!!! Next time we will pay someone to come and do it I think. Only 4 days into packing and I am OVER it.

Feb 4th - Day 35

Another project completed..... I started this when we moved to Wellington 2 years ago, now 4wks from moving to a new home I have completed it. Frogs, lily pads and flowers all hand made by yours truely.

Feb 3rd - Day 34

A little late - I am laying blame on DP who had my car and the camera cable (in my glove box) for the day yesterday.

Wednesday's photo is Tyler and Simba enjoying a cuddle in the late afternoon. Simba is the cat who spent every moment possible while I was pregnant following me around like a lost puppy. Was always around at nap time and seemingly enjoys Tyler's company.

Feb 2nd - Day33

While the weather held out today it wasn't too hot so not really hot enough for swimming in the paddling pool. While I was making a cup of tea Tyler was entertaining himself with the pruning off cuts beside the deck. He asked to play with the water and as I was watching this was not a problem. He was soon engaged with his play and was "fishing". He has never been fishing and to my knowledge has only ever seen people fish on TV.

Feb 1st - Day 32

First of the month and a new moon on it's way out. In a vain attempt to show the beauty of this event at 10pm from our deck here at home with a slight shadow of cloud passing - I didn't really achieve what I set out to show, but thought this was a pretty interesting shot anyway.