Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Almost Two
The Ante-Natal Class organised a catch up party to celebrate two years of age 'on average' of all the children. Guy is actually the youngest of the group, and won't be two until January but that didn't stop him from having a wonderful time at the party. He put away a serious quantity of party food and shared the rest with his whole face. Here he is devouring iced muffins. Then he discovered fairy bread (Ti-angle bread he calls it!) and ate about 5 slices. The cafe where the party was held provided a cake, (Pooh Bear! as Guy shouted out). 
Boppers and Hoppers
Guy's confidence and co-ordination is contiuing to grow as you can see here during his Monday session at 'Bopper and Hoppers' which is an organised movement and music session at the local recreation centre. He found the horizontal ladder and then just continued up the wall bars with a determined look on his face. I was hovering ready to catch him if he slipped, but he didn't, little monkey.
After the running and jumping and music the have a bit of a calm down session with the bubble machines. Guy absolutely loves the bubbles and runs about squealing in delight and trying to catch them. So much for the calm down idea but he usually sleeps well on
M
onday afternoons.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
I love my Granny
While Granny was here she made Guy a tray of nice little 'healthy' biscuits. He was very pleased with these, particularly the "Gin-ger manns"
Granny Comes to Stay
A few weekends ago Margaret came to stay with us. She looked after Guy and we went out for dinner and planned to stay at a hotel in Oriental bay so that we could have a sleep in. Great idea, worked well, Guy was completely relaxed with his Granny, we were looking good for the first sleepin for nearly two years, when the hotel fire alarm went off, yes properly, not a drill ,everyone outside on the road in their pyjamas at 07:15 on a brisk spring morning. Unbelievable! Anyway here are some pictures from the previous afternoon, Guy wrapped up against the southerly and exploring the waterfront park on his trusty motorbike.
Ice-cream in Martinborough
While Guy was snoozing in the back of the car we drove through the lovely hills east of Martinborough. It was almost ridiculoulsy green at this time of year, bright sun but not yet hot. We drove up to see the wind farm which was busy in the steady breeze over the ridge. There has been much talk here about the noise of the wind turbines that are planned for Makara. To test this out we drove past the public viewing area onto an access road until we were directly downwind of the turbines, about 200m from them. Even with the window open I couldn't hear them over the noise of the car idling so I turned it off. Then we could just hear the swishh-swishh-swishh, although it kept getting drowned out by the wind rustling though the grass on the roadside. Maybe they are more noisy overseas, where the wind itself is gentler and quieter?
Anyway Guy slept through all this and didn't stir until about an hour later as we were driving very slowly along a road that became a gravel surface. We soon arrived back in Martinborough and went about finding an Icecream shop. Guy rode his motorbike around but all we could find was lattes and wine for tasting. Guy did find a group of Harley riders suiting up outside a Cafe, he rode right in amongst their bikes on his little motorbike, looking at himself in the chrome mufflers and getting lots of smiles and thumbs up from the big bikers. Finally we found an indian dairy with a Tip Top sign and got a cone icecream each. Yep Guys' 1st whole icecream to himself. We took him back to town square and he sat on his motorbike solemnly eating his Icecream and watching the bikes go by. He didn't say a word or waver in his attention until he had finished. Then he said, 'more.. Daddy's cream" and gestured for me to hand over the remnants of mine!
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Wairarapa Wanderings
On Labour weeked we went for a drive over to the Wairarapa, just to get out of the Valley really. It was a beautiful spring day even in the Rimutaka ranges so we took the chance to stop near the pass and walk up the steep track to the summit. Most times I've driven over the Rimutakas all you can see of the track is a flight of steps dissappearing into the gale swept mist. This day was so nice that Guy walked the first part of the trake himself in his gumboots. He is a good little walker and negotiate dthe rocky bits of the track although progress was slowed by a small boys need to investigate the many drainage channels and trickling streams. From there went down to Featherston for Lunch where Guyhad a lovley time in the Sandpit. (I think the constuction of a Sandpit has just been moved up on our project list!) While at Featherston we
achieved another one of our 'must do someday' items and went to the Fell Engine Museum. They have done a great job of restoring one of the little steam engines that hauled trains over the Rimutaka incline before the tunnel was built. Guy was quite taken with the black engine although he kept calling it 'Diesel', as it was black with slab sides. He was very taken with the brake van ( or a 'boose, as he called it). Not really supposed to climb on the exhibit but we were the only ones there at the time.
By then it was after lunch and we drove to Martinborough, maybe 15 minutes driving when we noticed things suddenly go quiet in the back seat. Guy had falled asleep in the middle of eating a marmite sandwich!
Friday, November 02, 2007
Sliding and Flying
Although Guy wasn't feeling flash at times in October, one fine but chilly afternoon we went down to the playground at Island Bay. Guy is developing really good skills and independance on playgrounds, climbing up the ladder and launching himself down the slide. From the way he is looking into the turn, don't you think he'll be a good motorcyclist or pilot, (or maybe a dancer?)
"Golly" said Guy, "that looks just like the Rita Angus painting I've always liked!"
No Trains Allowed
A few months ago there was a sad incident when Guy put Thomas into the Speaker, and couldn't get him out. Jack couldn't get his hand in and the speaker was glued together not meant to come apart. It was all very sad for a week until Jack found away to get the speaker apart. All was fine for a few days until Thomas ended up in the speaker again! This time we decide to leave him in there for a few days until Guy learnt not to keep doing it. To our exasparation he didn't learn, instead he kept on feeding two coaches, Diesel, Henry and James into the speaker one after the other.
I was wondering how he could be so silly when a few days later I watched him playing with his last remaining few engines on the blue tracks. I had made him a tunnel out of the wooden box that wine bottle came in. Unfortunately it is just a bit more than twice as long as Guys arm so when he pushes a train into one end he can't quite reach it from the other end. As I watched he solved this problem by pushing another engine in after the one that was stuck and thus shunting the first engine within reach. Then it would do a lap and shunt the other engine. Suddenly I realised that's why he was systematically feeding engines into the speaker, to rescue Thomas!
Luckily by this time we'd discovered the little girls across the road had small enough hands to reach inside the speaker and retrieve all the engines, to Guys delight. Now we have bricked up the Tunnel and erected a little notice. No Engines Beyond this Sign!
Sick At Home
This Photo was taken early in October where Guy was unwell for a bit and couldn't go to creche. Nothing serious just a virus but it made him quite miserable for a while. Oddly enough he seemed to cheer up quite a bit when he found a pair of little underpants in his drawer. 'Knic-kers' he said and tied to pull them on over his nappies. Then Katrina put them on his head but he decided he quite liked that, so there they stayed for the rest of the morning !
