my-speck » activities for kids

Sydney… yay… A zoo adventure.

rakster — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:47:57 +0000

We went to Sydney. It was great. Too busy doing stuff to actually post anything on the blog.

We saw friends, did a bit of work, saw more friends, ate great cheese, ate great bread, ate great stuff, saw some more friends.

And went to the zoo. Fun…

Lots of excitement.

elephant spotting at Sydney's Taronga Zoo

The monkeys were a hit. Baby monkeys playing.

I personally like the chimps. The fact that a school excursion group was throwing a banana or two into the enclosure made them (I suspect) somewhat more active than they might have been at that time of day otherwise… mmm..

elegant necks

It was a very windy day too, so the bird show had an added dimension of, “oh my god, do you think it will really miss my head” to it. We survived!

Love mum

Camping. Well, glamping. In a new tent. Hurrah.

rakster — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:38:03 +0000

One of the first things we did after meeting (nearly 12 years ago now) was to go camping.

And one of our first purchases together was a tent. We spent hours choosing a tent together.

I remember the occasion like it was yesterday.

I wanted a tent that would have enough room in the front vestibule that you could cook a meal, sit on the ground and hang-out if it just poured for the days you were camping. Chris wanted a tent that you could almost/mostly stand up in. We had very limited funds. And no car: so whatever camping we were doing was by public transport or the generosity of friends.

Our first trip we lugged the new tent across to Stradbroke Island from our house: walk, train, bus, ferry, bus, walk. It was a brilliant trip.

And it has been a brilliant tent that has served us really well. For almost 12 years. In rain, it was big enough to hang out in the front and cook and play cards. I think we even managed to squeeze 6 of us in for a card game one rainy trip. Without getting wet bums. You could mostly stand up inside.

And it has stood the test of innumerable camping trips: beaches, mountains, raining, really raining, sunny, torrentially raining, sandy, muddy, festival-ly, across the harbour in choppy water in a very overcrowded boat…

old tent - camping with friends NY 2008-2009

the old tent in action on cockatoo island, new year 2008-2009

But last time we went camping it seemed that for a growing family of four, things were a little tight. Tight like waking up with a sleep-moving toddler draped across your face.

So we’ve upgraded. After a lot of thought, we decided we wanted a tent with lots of room, that would still fit a standard national park / camping ground campsite size, and that would have a separate sleeping/eating-playing-whatever-when-it-is-raining area in…

the new tent.

And the test-drive was good. Nice trip for a few days, “glamping” at Lake Moogerah with a Grandma and a Barry close by in a shed. Good relaxing.

relaxing out front of the new tent.

Not sure that it will stand up that well in a really wet camp (we opted for size and configuration over our second-choice tent which was much better quality).. But hey, that just makes for a better camping story. Right?

P.S. If you are looking for a new family tent, I’ve done my research… For reference, we got the oztrail sportiva lodge combo but there were a few more we really liked too

Reading… an interpretative adventure. Especially when you’re 2.5

rakster — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:43:42 +0000

family reading

We read a lot of books. Every morning little Poogie (2.5 years now) typically brings a bunch into the bed with me, we get little Sister Boona (6 months now!) and have a bit of a read. Then there are more during the day, at bedtime etc.

We have a relatively large number of books, and are constant library users, but Poogie still seems to know most of them by heart. Which I think is pretty impressive. It is to me anyway, still breastfeeding with now non-existent short-term memory.

So last week I was reading one of our favourites, Australian Author Pamella Allen‘s “A Lion in the Night“, and we were up to this page:

When I asked,

“And what is the little dog saying?”

And the answer, in a “mum, this is so obvious I can’t believe you’re even asking me” voice:

“The little dog is spitting jelly-beans at the lion.”

Right. Of course. I should have known.

Love Mum

P.S. So. It’s been a very busy few weeks. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year… I may get around to posting some of the highlights. I may not. Things are hot (31degrees Celsius) and sticky around here.

Christmas cooking (with kids): gingerman bread

rakster — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:04:33 +0000

Yep, that is how we say it around our house: Gingerman Bread.

It’s very funny to watch kids try to wrap their tongues and heads around funny phrases and words. Especially when they are your own kids and you can just laugh out loud…

Last year when we went to Canada to celebrate Christmas with our Canadian family in the snow, we visited some friends in Vancouver on the way through who had the MOST amazing gingerbread house and scene ever made. Let me tell you. It was amazing. (Note I’m having to tell you rather than show you as I’m such a numpty I forgot to take a photo of the wonderful creation.)

They make one each year, and keep it up on display without snacking or nibbling for a few weeks over Christmas, and when the kids go back to school in early Jan they take it in as a treat for all the kids to eat together. And I was inspired – I’ve always wanted to do one.

So last week I emailed them and got the recipe for the gingerbread and icing, and started to think about making it… Then realised that although it would be fun for me, the two year old in our family would LOVE to help and the house construction and decoration is just a little bit beyond his decorating ability, patience-level and possibly balancing skills. I could forsee typhoon-struck ginger-house with icing dripping from gables aligned with the floor… (I’ve also been wondering about how a gingerbread house would ‘hold up’ here in humid Brisbane… In Canada the humidity is so low you have to have a humidifier on. Here you can almost drink the air some days. I’m not sure that any gingerbread house would have a long-life without ‘growing’ some of it’s own extra-special green decorations.. Anyone have experience with this is Australia??)

So I embraced the idea of just having fun with it and opted for gingerbread christmas shapes.

We invited O’s little cousins and grandma from Canada over and away we cooked. There was lots of mixing, measuring and then cutting.

rolling out the dough. Lots of helpers..

Then baking.

Then decorating. I put a sheet of baking paper out for each child, in front of them at the kitchen table, and three bowls each for the toppings: smarties, sprinkles and heart decorations. Then a big smear of royal icing on their baking paper and a small palette knife each, and they were off.

	gathered around the table...
Little Miss L's lady..	little miss p's star

We were planning on gifting some that O had decorated himself to O’s teachers and a few other people. On reflection, after witnessing the licking of palette knife, fingers and smarties that went into putting his together, I decorated a few myself to give on his behalf…

But I still love the creations, licks and all!

mmm. a reindeer!

O's creations. Lots of licking when into these beauties....

….

love mum

P.S. Oh, I forgot. They are absolutely DELICIOUS… Thank-you Mickey for the recipe! Yum Yum Yum…..

P.P.S. I am now planning on making the making of these (and a gingerbread house when the kids are bigger) a Christmas tradition in our house.

P.P.P.S. And you may ask – where was the little baby during all of this? Alternately happily rolling around on the floor, breastfeeding and sleeping. She really is a dream child…. !

luna-baby watching the gingerbread-making process

End of year art show: toddler style. Love it!

rakster — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:00:23 +0000

Dear Poogie,

we went to your end of year Kindy (daycare but we call it kindy) art show last week. And it rocked. I unfortunately didn’t manage to get any photos on the day in the rooms as when we went there was literally a tropical thunderstorm absolute downpour in progress and we got soaked legging it from the house to the car to the show and thus didn’t drag the camera along though the sheets of water falling from the sky.

It was a fundraiser for the kindy, so we had to bid on the items we wanted. Not surprisingly, we bought a bunch of the pieces of art you have down throughout the year at the wonderful daycare you go to for three days a week.. I thought I’d take a few photos of some of your pieces to share.

Purple dot painting	"boat" sculpture.. named by you!
threaded and wound mobile	blue

My favourite is the sculpture. I had it beside my bed so that I could see it when I woke up, but you wanted to play with “my boats” so I had to hide it a bit higher (as selfishly I want to keep it for myself)..

Love mum

christmas preparation – the advent calendar

rakster — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:35:02 +0000

we have been doing a lot of preparation for Christmas around our house for the past few weeks…

Lots of making decorations (two-year old fashion).. With pipe cleaners and coloured popsicle sticks. Gorgeous.

And putting them on the tree.

(which suddenly grew a lot more ‘bling’ the weekend I went away when only daddy and little O were home)…

the advent calendar being enjoyed

The simplest and one of the best things we did was make a ‘leaf’ advent calendar (with thanks to the inspiration from little eco footprints. O loves pulling a new leaf off each day, it was fun and easy to make, and it looks good.

the advent calendar

What have you been doing?

camping – yay!

rakster — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:50:46 +0000

We had a lovely weekend away at Lake Cootharaba – camping at Boreen Point.

Oscar ran wild through the bush around the campsite with the other two year old

Bush play - camping at Boreen Point

sparklers at dusk

and the two babes slept like the proverbial babes.

sleeping like babes in the bush

I enjoyed a swim and an unplug. Mmmmm.

Business at the front …. Party in the back!!!

rakster — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:57:59 +0000

I’m in love with the little curls at the back of my little boy’s head.

curls at two years

And his dad has a limited amount of hair, which seems to be decreasing in volume just ever so slightly over time (..ahem..). So we figured, let him grow it, it will be one of the only times in his life he can have nice long hair and not have a care / worry about it.

He has asked quite a few times when seeing me do my hair in the morning, if he could “please have a hair clip too?”. Which of course, I’m happy to oblige with. Issue is, he most definitely wants to be able to see it in the mirror when he inspects it, so it ends up front and centre. Which he doesn’t mind at all. But perhaps won’t go down too well when he is a little older.

wearing a hairclip

And it is getting towards summer, which here in Brisvegas, Australia, can be a pretty hot and sticky affair.

So we decided on a cut. Which was yesterday. We went as a family to the salon for the big affair. He sat in the chair and watched while his dad had his hair cut, drank his apple juice (special treat from the lady at the salon), and waited patiently. Then sat as still as a statue while she cut his, moving only his mouth to ask, “Mum, what she doing??” repeatedly.

the 'before' shot

I like the hairdresser. they have juice!

getting ready. this is serious business, you know.

"what she doing?"

cutting

I couldn’t bear to see too much cut off, so we opted for a trim to keep it out of the eyes at the front and just a little off at the back.

The result: a lovely Mullet. As my sister said, “Business at the front…. Party in the back!!”.

the 'after shot'

apple poppyseed cinnamon muffins

rakster — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:12:26 +0000

The muffins we made on Saturday are a staple around our house – simple, sugar-free (just honey), take about 5 minutes + cooking time, and can be done with pretty much any fruit you have about. The original recipe calls for blueberries, but we usually do apple. They are so simple, kids can help measure, mix, spoon and they are ready in a jiffy.

cupcakes! AKA apple cinnamon poppyseed muffins

apple poppyseed cinnamon muffins

1 banana, mashed

¼ cup vegetable oil

⅓ cup honey

¾ cup milk

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

1 cup white self-raising flour

½ cup poppyseeds

big dash ground cinnamon

finely grated zest 1 lemon

2 medium-large granny smith apples, diced 1cm or smaller cubes

method

Mix together banana, oil, honey and milk.
Add the flours, poppyseeds, cinnamon and zest and mix very lightly (remember that muffin batter should only be just mixed).
Stir in the apple.
Spoon into 12 lightly greased muffin pans. Bake in a preheated moderate (180°C) oven for about 20 minutes.

notes

serve warm! they don’t need butter that way
they freeze well
works fine with frozen/defrosted bananas (i always put my oops forgot about those bananas in the freezer for cooking. Just skinned and in a freezer bag/container.
you can substitute pretty much any fruit, or a combination, or put more or less to your tastes.

variations

blueberry

substitute 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) for the apple, and omit the poppyseeds, cinnamon and lemon zest.

source

the original blueberry recipe from: Creber, Ann. (1988) The Almost Healthy Cookbook p13

P.S. Always looking for new muffin recipes – let me know if you have a favourite!

Saturday morning breakfast…

rakster — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:02:57 +0000

“Mum, can we make cupcakes?”

Mmmm.. I don’t think he’ll know the difference between cupcakes and sugar-free apple and cinnamon and poppyseed muffins….

Let’s cook!

can I lick the spoon now??

We mixed the batter, licked the spoon and baked.

They turned out well:

cupcakes! AKA apple cinnamon poppyseed muffins

off to the garden for breakfast:

Eating the end result!

and she was listening…sleep…

rakster — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:49:13 +0000

So, after my last post where I complained about the lack of sleep…

My little darling slept right from 7pm to 3:30am last night. Woo hoo! I got more than 3 hours of sleep in a row!

Win for the weekend.

I however went to bed with another case of mild-mastitis, so not feeling 100%, so the lack of eating regularly made it slightly worse and I felt like total crap this morning . Have since made up for that by shoving poor little L on the boob at every available waking moment. A few panadols later, I’m feeling alright..

this is what I feel like when I wake up. thankfully there is no-one to take photos of me.

….
Spent the morning at O’s daycare, as he was feeling like he needed some more mummy time. I went in and read some books, playing in the garden with the kids, then went to his ‘body gumbo’ (or body bumbo as he says) class. A bit of a mix between dance/movement and yoga. It was fun. I think I enjoyed it more than he did. I can now do my salute to the sun with an animal impression at each different position. WIN! We will now be doing more yoga/play at home. It rocked.

….

now I am enjoying some me-time while little L sleeps and O is at daycare.

the sleeping babe - I got her cot out a week ago so she has her own space in our room.

sleepy-head Luna, 13 weeks old

…

Tonight I am going out with my amazing sisters, all four of us, for a drink. So perfect timing with the whole lots of sleep last night.

have a good weekend everyone!

Juggling a temper with an ear infection… and cuteness..

rakster — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 04:12:16 +0000

Day three of an ear-infected, cranky little boy. And a sleeping-a-lot-trying-to-fight-it-off little babe.

Mummy is going a bit stir crazy. She was seen stalking the neighbour’s cat with a squirt gun this afternoon through the back garden… By a workman who she didn’t notice in the other neighbour’s garden. Nice look. He waited until she had been down there for about 5 minutes acting like a dodgy commando-action-hero actor before he made his presence known by raucous laughter. She was a tad embarrased. But granted, she was doing it as the blasted cat was trying to eat her two new chickens. And for some light self-entertainment (she makes her own fun). The workman graciously pointed out where the chickens had gone and where the cat was hiding when his laughter subsided.

As you can see, fours days with two children at home all day, one of whom is on full whine/tantrum/attention-needing at all waking hours, with very little adult human interaction, has left her unable to speak in the first person anymore. She has reverted to full third-person child-speak. God-knows why.

The only saving grace was a few minutes last night when she was preparing dinner. Little O was very excited to be at the big table on his new grown-up big chair and was entertaining his sister with the gift she so carefully chose for him when she was born.

entertaining the little sister

cuteness.

drilling - hard work

Singing to my baby sister :) – Movie Monday

rakster — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:39:56 +0000

Finally managed to get the video camera going in time to capture this attempt to pacify the smaller sister

This almost compensates for the number of times I ‘mistakenly’ attempt to jump on her head each day….

Love mum

P.S. Rocky road to follow later this week

Follow-up: out and about with the new mountain buggy freerider scooter / pram combo

rakster — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:56:57 +0000

Hello,

Yes, playing with the scooter (mountain buggy freerider) and mountain buggy (mountain buggy urban jungle) combo has been fun so far. A few people have written asking how I found it overall, so a quick review:

the freerider - currently in use at our house to the tune of a lot of 'bloody hell' from the toddler learning to use it: oops

I love that the older one can attach and see out as we walk along – works really well with the baby cot/cocoon attached, though my little one is a bit short so when the normal stroller seat is attached he can only see out the sides at the moment, though that will change as he gets taller.
I found the scooter hard to attach/detach from the pram in the beginning. Now I’ve worked out a method that works, but it requires a little bit of getting down on the ground and pulling/pushing the clips.
Yes, the scooter does get in the way of walking a little. But only a little: you can attach it anywhere along the base of the pram, so I’ve got it to one side. Which means I just push on one side of the pram and it works ok – not as comfortable to push as without it, but not bad.
Steering/pushing the pram with the scooter and child attached is a bit harder / different than normal, you need two hands rather than the one I often use when there is no-one riding an attached scooter. It feels a bit like driving a car with a trailer and trying to turn corners. Just a bit heavier and more cumbersome.
The scooter works well when it isn’t attached to the pram, however the handle doesn’t turn to steer: you have to lean into it the same as a skateboard. So it’s a bit harder for Oscar to steer than other scooters he has tried.
Oscar loves being on the scooter and being able to see the baby in the pram.

Overall:

It’s a fun toy / scooter, I think it will get better and more convenient the older O gets (he is only just two, so it is still a bit hard for him to use)…
It feels really securely attached to the pram i.e. safe. I like that!
It is super convenient to be able to detach it for ‘freeriding’, attach it when a toddler is standing on it, and flip it up out of the way when it’s not in-use. Which is why we bought it: ie. it works as it says it does!

We’ve decided to buy a double pram anyway as we do go on a lot of long walks etc and when little legs get tired and my back gets sore after baby-wearing for a few hours it will be nice to have a break and be able to use a pram for both of them together.

yay.

-r

Monday morning tea

rakster — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 01:44:58 +0000

Morning tea on the deck overlooking the river at the state library after a play.

We are all going to need a nap today: exhausting for me, but fun!

Sunday afternoon

rakster — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 03:30:03 +0000

I just ate! Related posts on My-Speck you might also like to read: My little signer: mumma, I want to go sleepy! Hi Poogie, head to foot. That is how cov Learning to eat is a messy business Hello Poogie, Well, look out whomever ge Your first food: Avocado

Happy Birthday to us! .. Cake before and after…

rakster — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:32:38 +0000

We had a lovely relaxed party in the local park this morning with some friends and family to celebrate our birthdays…

I made you a tip-truck birthday cake:

the tip-truck birthday cake ...

Which was enjoyed by all present:

I had a lovely time chatting and watching all the kids run about in excitement.

thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone!

P.S. And unless the baby decides to come quickly in the next 3.5 hours, I’ve avoided a double birthday with myself. It just has to wait another 27.5 hours to avoid Poogie’s too!

I born a ….

rakster — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:16:21 +0000

From the mouth of a babe:

“I born a nana!”

"I born a nana"

I guess those books we have been reading every day to try to get used to the concept that a baby will soon arrive are really getting through . I wasn’t quite sure he understood that the baby would come out of my tummy through a ‘hole’ somewhere, but he told me yesterday the baby would come out soon through a ‘hole’, and today’s demonstration proves he really does get it…

This beauty was uttered not 5 minutes ago, spontaneously on the verandah to Aunty G. Imaginative play! I love it!

Love mum

P.S. Let’s hope the real baby gets better care than this poor nana a few minutes after birth:

Beach Escape: Bliss

rakster — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:07:50 +0000

Hello!

We had a wonderful getaway at the beach for the weekend – last getaway before the new baby arrives. Time to chill, play, dig in the sand, walk, swim and just relax.

The water was a little cold but the weather was perfect.

love mum

beach escape

Attack of the killer leeches: Bad Parent of the Day Award?

rakster — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:53:43 +0000

Hello!

We braved the rainy weather this weekend and headed out to a friend’s bush block – about 2 hours drive from Brisbane, he has a little basic wooden hut on a co-op property in Northern NSW. We figured that we had planned to get out of the city, and rain shouldn’t stop us as we had our wet weather gear.

So we suited up and ventured out into the wild:

Ready for exploring in the rain

…

Which you thoroughly enjoyed. On Saturday we stomped about for a while, you did a bit of naked swimming in the fresh-flowing creek, we walked and looked at the co-op vege gardens, and generally watched the rain fall, listened to the whip birds and had a great relaxing time.

And after breakfast this morning we did a bit more stomping through the rain. You were suited up in your Canadian-purchased Mountain Equipment Co-op full body rain suit and hand-me-down-galoshes (thanks M & B & Co)… So all good, we thought.

However, given that it was raining, the leech to human attack ratio was very high.

And you won the prize for best i.e. worst leech attachment position (or perhaps we both as parents should win bad parents of the day awards for letting you run wild in a rainforest-like setting whilst it was raining and there were lots of creepy crawlies about):

ready for it??

attached to your gum, INSIDE your MOUTH.

Oh yeah, you heard right. Gross!

thankfully your dad was the one in closest reach so found it and wrenched the darned thing out, after first having the thought process:

“Oh, O has a bit of spinach in his mouth…… Wait a minute! 1. O doesn’t generally eat spinach (we did have it for breakfast but I doubt he ate any) and 2. it’s moving!!”

ERKK!!!!!

Love mum

P.S. and yeah, I would have taken a photo except I would have had to drag you back up to the hut through the grass, leech still attached etc, in order to retrieve the camera. We figured it was a situation best dealt with immediately.

P.P.S. And for those of you who have never experienced the joyous experience that is having an Australian blood-sucking leech stuck to you and having to remove the darn thing by pulling it off, it’s something that is so gross that despite years of bushwalking and experiencing leeches I just can’t get over my feeling of digust over… So welcome to that world, O!