Society

Harrison is loving his music at the moment. Simon taught him a bit of an Eddie Vedder song tonight - here he is...

Happy birthday Harrison

Harrison turned 7 and had his first "proper" birthday party last weekend. Coming sandwiched between my first function as our P&C fundraising organiser (barefoot bowls) and Mothers Day, as well as lots of work stuff going on (applying for my own job - successfully as it turned out) it was a pretty full on week or two. I was decorating the cake at 1:30am on Saturday morning after the barefoot bowls function! The kids all had the URL of a Flickr set on their party bags and we uploaded photos taken in front of the tent when we got home from the party. The tent was 5 bamboo poles from bunnings and some calico and safety pins. Not sure I'd want to spend the night in it!

We're now rationing birthday presents. He gets to open one a day, which means he's probably got 3 weeks of birthday love! We made a "tent" cake with a campfire (gluten free versions of jaffas as red coals, hard candies melted and used as fire, scorched almond rocks, Flake logs), and trees (gluten free icecream cones with disgusting green royal icing - a surprising hit with the kids, they all wanted to try a tree!).

Here's Eva with her god-sister Amy and Ryan.

What happens when...

Your mum goes outside to hang out washing...

Your brother does your hair...

Babysitting

Harrison loves little kids and babies. Here he is with 8 week old Amy - he couldn't get enough of holding her, and LOVED being able to give her a bottle. He's equally keen on playing big brother to Amy's brother Ryan - loves to hold his hand and make sure he keeps out of trouble. And Evie doesn't miss out either - he feeds her, keeps her out of mischief, teaches her things like blowing raspberries, and is most fond of pushing her head back out of awkward positions when she's fallen asleep in the car. Pity this last trick often results in her waking up.

Warehouse

We're staying temporarily in Richard's guest warehouse in Fremantle until we move into our new house. It's a gorgeous place to stay - convict built, with a wool lift glassed in, oodles of space, a full sized trampoline inside, metres from the sea, 2 minutes walk from fishing boat harbour, High St and all Freo's delights. Harrison is yet again living with another boy's fabulous toys - this time Jim's lego and Thomas train set. He'll have a hard time adjusting to moving into our new house with just his own toys, me thinks!
PS - no idea why this photo is round the wrong way!

Farewell to the west coast

We've now left the west coast and are in Quebec city. We exchanged gifts with Pamela (Harrison's nanny) last week. Harrison made her a book with his drawings and collage detailing a "crazy" day they spent together (various buses taking them to the wrong places, ending up going back in time, getting lunch pinched by a dinosaur, and finally walking home in the snow). Pamela gave us a collection of photos she'd taken of Harrison (and one I love of me feeding Evie). This one of Harrison being a totem pole was her favourite.

Wigglstim

Harrison went to my laptop today and managed to do a Google search for wigglstim (his spelling for Wiggles Time). This reading and writing thing has gone too far!

Halloween

We've loved our first real Halloween here in Canada. Started yesterday with a celebration at one of the shopping malls near us - bouncy castle, clowns, facepainting etc. This afternoon there was trick or treating in all the shops along Oak Bay Avenue. The village was awash with costumed kids.


Back home for a short time, and then off again with some friends to a huge (and I mean REALLY huge) bonfire up at the fire station a few blocks away. The kids got to use the fire hoses to help the firemen control the blaze, and there were free hot dogs, pop corn etc.


We did our trick or treating as we walked back home. The jack-o-lantern carving was truly amazing to see (ours was very basic!).


Everyone gets so into the spirit of it. The costumes are fabulous, and the decorations unbelievable. Harrison went as Zoro,

and we had a very cute lady bird outfit for Eva.

Only downside was that at 9:30 or so, thinking most of the trick or treaters had gone home, I blew out the candle in our jack-o-lantern and left the rest of the candy on the front porch - the very next group of trick or treaters took the lot! I guess there are a lot of teenagers who would do the same.

The age of contemplation

Stanley Park Playground, originally uploaded by CarmelandSimon.

Actually, it's a rare still moment for our very active 5 year old! Harrison was hamming it up for the camera at the Stanley Park playground when we spent the Thanksgiving Day weekend in Vancouver.

Visit from Ryan

Mel and Tim came over on Sunday, with 7 week old Ryan. Harrison was a bit nervous and shy at first, but was soon all over the baby, patting him, tickling him, coo-ing at him, and choosing books that Ryan might like to read. We lent Mel a few Mem Fox and Lynley Dodd books to try out on Ryan. After indulging in the gluten free jam drops Harrison had helped make for morning tea, we all went for a walk to the beach.

I've been getting into a bit of a fitness routine (for the past week, anyway) whereby I go for a walk up along the walking path beside the Boulevard and the dunes up beside the West Coast Highway.

Ryan Sercombe

Mel and Tim’s baby arrived yesterday (Ryan James 8 pound 2 oz, 50cm long), and Harrison and I went to see him when he was just 5 hours old. Needless to say he’s very, very cute. Looks like he’s going to have Mel’s lovely thick dark hair. Harrison was absolutely besotted with him, and very gentle. He spent the evening at home putting Pooh bear under his shirt, lying down on the couch and ‘delivering’ him through a cut in his tummy, then breast feeding him.

ANZAC day

We took Harrison into the city this morning to see the ANZAC day parade. He particularly enjoyed seeing all the marching bands.
This afternoon I killed a couple of hours with Harrison at Uni, and we discovered a "Nearer Nature" marquis on the foreshore at Matilda Bay. They had various animals - frogs, snakes, lizards and snails there for kids to hold and learn about. Harrison absolutely loved it. Didn't want the snake curled around his neck, and got a bit girly about having a frog jump on him, but he loved touching all the animals, so long as someone else was holding them. Snail are his all time favourite animal, so having a basket of snails to explore was heaven for him. Nearer Nature is a Dept of Conservation program. They do various fee based things like overnight camping trips, but this one was free.

Piano!

We made a major investment on the weekend.  Simon bought an electric piano (in a single visit to one shop – most unlike him!).  The boys are already making good use of it.  Harrison is able to turn it on and bash away whenever he likes, and he and Simon have a duet of “Froggy went a courtin’” going (Harrison’s role is to hit a single note in time with the music).  The box (literally the size of a coffin) is also being out to good use as a boat, a train, or a hiding place.

 

A couple of weekends ago we took Harrison to a WASO concert for under 5s, and Harrison had his first go on a violin.  He also tried out Simon’s violin at home.

 

Along with Simon’s recent discovery of ITunes, which has reignited his passion for making compilations, the piano is changing the tone of our household.

Shannon to the rescue

Shannon Lush’s Speed Cleaning bible came into its own on Sunday after I discovered Harrison had used a fabric marker to draw with, and not always on his paper!  The laminated top of his kids table appeared to be ruined forever.  Sugar soap had absolutely no effect, and seeing as fabric marker stays on clothes even when washed in Napisan I wasn’t confident.  But Shannon advised that perfume on a cotton ball removes permanent marker from a whiteboard, so I tried it on the table.  Felt a bit silly using Red Door to clean Harrison’s table, but it worked perfectly (and smells nice!).  Not a trace left.

 

Gold digging

We ventured into the wilds of Kalgoorlie over Easter.  We seemed to share the Great Eastern Highway with quite a lot of Gypsy Joker bikies, and even more police on Good Friday.  They were going to Kalgoorlie, and even turned up at the Super Pit lookout on Saturday (police escort in tow).   There were plain clothes police, uniformed officers, marked cars, unmarked cars – it seemed half the WA Police force were tagging along after the Jokers.   We assumed there must be some huge drug raid in progress, or a murder investigation, but there was nothing in the news about it.  Asking around at work it seems that this is just all in a day’s work for WA Police.  Where ever a group of Gypsy Jokers go, so do several patrol cars, just to make sure there’s no trouble.

 

Apart from trying not to inadvertently offend any outlaw bikie gangs, we had a good time in Kalgoorlie.  Harrison got to pan for gold (and picked up a sizable rock that he decided was his very own gold nugget (we wish!)), and go down an underground gold mine.  The Easter Bunny managed to find him at Kalgoorlie and left eggs scattered around the courtyard of our unit.  He also got a soft Peter Rabbit toy with a blue jacket that has barely left Harrison’s side since Easter morning. 

 

We stopped at York on the way to Kalgoorlie and discovered a lovely cafe that had gluten free bread, and a gorgeous home-made gluten free chocolate cake.  Apparently there are several places in York with gluten free food (but on Good Friday only one was open), so a weekend visit is in order.  Kalgoorlie wasn’t so strong on catering for his diet, and we had to take food for him everywhere we went.  I guess it’s just something we have to get used to.

Leaving home

Harrison has announced his intention to move in with Carla, one of his day-carers. Carla has looked after him for 2 years, and leaves today to go on maternity leave. Harrison has decided that the way to cope with her loss is to move in with her and her new baby. He would like the baby to be a boy, and to grow up very fast so that it becomes his big brother. He has also started asking me to pull my hair back in a pony tail like Carla (and when I do he sighs, looks lovingly at me, and says "Hi Carla").... I'm trying not to take it personally.

Buried in books

We took this photo of Harrison as a memento after we came home from the Writers Festival.

Return of the intrepid traveller

Simon had a week off to do some solo driving and camping (his favourite type of holiday). After to-ing and fro-ing about whether to drive north to Kalbarri and Exmouth to seek out good spots for us to holiday in July, or to escape the heat and go south, he decided Exmouth was too hot, and he would go south. He covered a good chunk of the south west – Margaret River, Pemberton, Augusta, Walpole, Denmark, Albany and the Stirling Ranges.

He did a very long driving day on Friday to get back early (he was expected on Saturday), stopping in at Bunbury to buy me a teeny tiny camera to thank me for letting him have this time off. I absolutely love it. It’s a Panasonic (like our other digital camera) except that whereas the other one looks and feels like a “real” camera and has a 10x optical zoom, this one will slip into a pocket or a small handbag and is easy to take out and about.

We went to Hillarys on Sunday morning for a swim (it was HOT!). We also went to Mel and Tim’s to meet their new puppy Coco on Sunday afternoon. H just LOVED the puppy. I think he totally exhausted her, as she’s only 6 weeks old and chasing a 3 year old around is hard work for her.

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Simon has another 2 days leave up his sleeve, so is thinking of taking a 4 day weekend. I’m wondering what kind of gadget I can wrangle out of him for that trip…. Better put my thinking cap on!

Kayley and Laura visiting

We have another set of visitors this week. Kayley and her friend Laura are visiting. Both 16, and lovely guests. The new Weber Q is getting a workout, and Harrison has developed a real 3 year old's crush on Kayley. Lots of hugs and hand holding... Laura is thinking of doing primary teaching when she gets to Uni. She is obviously on the right track, because she chose a lovely, age appropriate book as a gift for Harrison (Bob Graham's Let's Get a Pup). Here’s the Amazon record… I really must get going with Library Thing and catalogue H's books.

Decorations and Santa's schedule

We put our Christmas tree and nativity scene up on December 1^st.  Harrison was a great help ;-)  This year he is very aware of the approaching date (he tells us every day that December 24 is Christmas Eve, and checks which date it is today).  He has a wooden Advent calendar with a drawer for each day of December, containing a tiny wooden decoration that he hangs on a peg above the drawers.  I think this is making him very attuned to what day it is.  He’s already visited Santa and asked for a “big James” for Christmas.  It’s funny how for the past 2 years

• he’s had one main Christmas wish all year (last year it was Wags the dog),
• he really wants Santa to bring that for him (no one else), and
• he only has an expectation of one present from Santa (probably because he only ever gets one present from Santa)!  

He’s also trying to figure out the logistics of how Santa fits the toys in the back of the sleigh, and noticing that some images of Santa have lots of sacks, and some have only one.  He’s questioning, too, why so many pictures of Santa include snow, and asking whether we’ll get snow at Christmas.  Who knows, he may well experience a true white Christmas in Quebec city in the next couple of years.