A quiet day at home

After the chaos that is Christmas, we spent the day at home doing, well, not a lot really. I've posted a few random bits and pieces below.



For a while Elissa wandered out the back and had a bit of a climb on the new monkey bars. Often though she was just sitting or standing there, looking around and thinking to herself. Some of the nicest shots are when they're not aware you're watching.


This much furious pedalling can only lead to one thing . . . . .




Victory!




Here Isaac is going for some more old fashioned hide-and-seek fun.




This "treat" was bartered for. 10 pieces of rock melon was the exchange rate at the time. Elissa seems happy with the deal.




This looks like a peaceful scene. In reality it includes far more elbows, knees and complaints than may be apparent at first. The kids love climbing over Susanne or myself, but it can get somewhat competitive.



I'm currently way behind with posting stuff here. I've got a bunch of posts half done or more. This one was pretty simple, so I thought I'd at least put something up. My intention is to get the old stuff done over the next week or so, and then not get behind again. What could possibly go wrong?

They're still growing

I took some more pictures of the kids for the continuing collage I've been doing. I'm going to have to come up with a better way of displaying them soon, as they're getting too wide to view at a reasonable resolution.


Elissa has certainly grown. You've got to love the "Princess Liar" T-shirt. Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with the purchase of that shirt. One day soon enough she'll understand the reference. She already knows who R2-D2 and C3-PO are. Not because they're my favourite characters, (they're not), but I do have two large figurines of these two (the 20-30 cm size) which she has played with.


Isaac has probably had more of a spurt, which is probably not surprising considering his age. It's a little hard to tell what's a real spurt, and what's simply the variation in time periods between photo's. I'm simply too lazybusy to make them exactly the same time apart each time, but in hindsight, I've been reasonably consistent.

Blast off

We made a rocket. Well, technically it's not a rocket, but it is a ballistic missile, of sorts. To see a successful launch, have a look at the movie below.



The original inspiration was Lego. We were playing with the Lego as normal, when Elissa asked if we could build a "real" rocket for people to go up in. I explained that we couldn't build one that big, but that we could probably build a little one. I meant to do it last weekend, but never got around to it. This weekend, when Elissa requested we "make sumfing" I thought we'd give it a go. Below is a complete launch, including countdown.


You'll notice just before launch, the second-to-last "engine" breaks, which is why the rocket didn't get much height.


To the right is the rocket itself. It's just 2½ toilet rolls and some duct tape. As the saying goes; "when the going gets tough, the tough get duct tape."




To the Left is the propulsion system, shown running at 17% of maximum power.


The breakage problem is caused by the fact that there is a sharp lip on a reinforcing ring inside the tube which the rubber bands are stretched over on each launch, resulting in a fairly limited lifetime. I have plans for a spring-driven replacement, which will be more durable, and lend itself to further enhancements, including the addition of a parachute.

A couple of quotes from footage not shown above:

"Everyone will see that rocket won't they? Wow, that was quick! "

"Everyone will think it is a real rocket."

Who says you need explosives to have fun?

Books and boards

Isaac seems to have become rather particular about what he's reading. He typically has 10 - 15 minutes worth of books before going to bed. With Elissa, it used to be a cup of milk with her books, but that's not possible with Isaac. I have to give him his milk in between his bath and reading, as he just bats the cup away once we're in the seat next the books. I try putting it away and bringing it back once we're settled and have read a couple of books, he still swipes it away and points at the next book.

He also knows exactly when he's had enough of a particular title and is ready to move on. There are a couple of books at the moment which I can only get about 60-80% through before he closes it and pushes it away, pointing to it's intended replacement. Attempting to re-open it and finish only results in more grunting and pointing. Occasionally he'll feign interest, grab it again, only to throw/drop it aside and again point at the one he wants now.

It's funny to think that it was only a few weeks ago we were discussing that it seemed to us that Isaac may not have been as interested in reading as we remembered Elissa being at the same age. Apart from the fact that my memory cannot be trusted at the best of times, our concern was unfounded. He'll now regularly trot forwards and back from us to a book shelf/pile (of which there are now a few to choose from around the house) with book after book.

We took the kids for a quick trip up to a new shopping centre not far from home. Outside one of the play areas they've got a large wall set up as a blackboard with buckets of chalk and dusters for the kids to use as they see fit. They both seemed to enjoy it.


This was just a trip to the shops, do we didn't take the "proper" camera. It's times like this that the phone camera is quite handy, and for a quick snap it does a reasonable job. I didn't get any pictures of them in the playground, as we were too buys playing and such. Not taking enough pictures isn't something I lose a lot of sleep over.

Surf's up!

Well, it might have been, although I admit it's a little hard to tell from here, about 30 km from the nearest beach*. Regardless, this weekend was the first time there's been proper swimming in the pool this year. I believe feet may have been dangled earlier in the week. The water is about 23 degrees at the moment, fine for Elissa, but a couple of degrees short of Susanne's target temperature.

We kind of have our own mini beach, what with me being so efficient at getting all the work in the yard completed so promptly. Ours has more rocks, gravel and pavers than most beaches, but that's just more interesting terrain for Isaac to go "driving" in. Do we really need to intrude on all this with a clothes line? OK, yes.

I'm still not sure on whether or not we'll have an actual (planned) sand pit in the future. Something has got to go underneath the cubby. It could be just softfall, or a sandpit, or some combination of the two. I don't think a garden or grassed area would be as appreciated or successful. The kids both love playing in the sand, I guess we'll just need to cover it to keep cats and other wildlife out if we decide to go down that route.

Isaac about to re-enact a scene from "Thelma and Louise". Elissa wasn't keen to provide the dolls at this particular point, but Isaac was prepared to make do anyway.

"Her arms come-ed off!" The sad result of not applying enough sunscreen. A lesson in every tragedy.

Any street-cred Isaac may have achieved with the T-Rex T-shirt may be somewhat offset by the beads and Elissa's sunglasses, in my opinion.


* As it turns out, it's almost just over 30 km directly East to Narrabeen beach. While this may be the closest as-the-crow-flies , I'm not sure it'd be the quickest to get to.

Observe this

I was listening to an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson (Director of the Hayden Planetarium, it was a SETI podcast) on the way home from work. In it he describes kids as little scientists constantly doing experiments. An example he gives is seeing his daughter pour some milk onto the table, watching it intently as it pools and moves off the table and onto the floor. He let her go as she seemed genuinely interested in what she was observing. He then had to clean up before his wife could see. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

I'd like to think I'm a little like that, although I honestly don't think I'd go with the milk thing, at least not inside. There is something great about watching them in R&D mode, be it pure ("what does this thing do?") or applied ("If I can open this door, I'm pretty sure there's food to be had"). As long as there are no limbs in immediate danger of being detached, or imminent irreparable damage to property, it makes sense to let 'em go. A little. Sometimes. Hypocrisy much?

Actually, Isaac was having fun experimenting with the shower hose attachment in the bath tonight. He'd have great fun waving it around, but then drop it in his lap, with the water jet coming upwards. The water pressure wasn't particularly high, so it didn't reach his face until he pulled it out of the water straight up for another play. He'd then drop it while he blinked and shook his head to recover. I think this exact situation is what the phrase "rinse, repeat" was invented for. He did this half a dozen times before deciding that just waving it around the bath walls was a much better idea after all. He could've gone either way on the cry/laugh choice a couple of times, I think, but something kept him going back for more. Maybe it was the fact that it was self inflicted, or just the potential for discovery.

I just realised this was almost my first post without an image. This is mostly because I've been slack about posting stuff and am doing some fixing retrospectively. While on this topic, I'm currently posting some drafts and editing a few things, so anything between the August 18th and this post may well change, or new posts may appear without warning) Rather than leave it image-free, I decided I'd find an older, or at least pre-blog image. Here's one of my favourite pictures of Isaac. It's from about 9 months ago, when he was not almost 6 months old.



For those of you still reading, Neil De Grass Tyson is a great speaker. This podcast wasn't a great example though. The SETI podcast is interesting, but the advertisements really get up my nose. They're just interstitials, but there seems to be too many of them by far, or maybe it's just the American accents. Anyway, this interview on the Point Of Inquiry podcast is much better. The POI podcast is also one of my favourites.

1000 kg of sumfin'

This picture was taken earlier in the week. I believe the girls preparing some cakes/muffins for playgroup the next day.

I'd like to think that Elissa really enjoys cooking, but her repetition of "Can I lick the spoon yet?" every 45 seconds or so makes me think that her heart really wasn't in the mixing.

Anyway, this weekend we successfully took the kids to the playground we'd previously failed to deliver on due to poor planning. (see here) What is it with bad spelling in advertising. Is "tunzofun" really that much more appealing than "TonsOfFun"? It actually made it harder to find their website, in my humble (but correct) opinion. Yes, I called and made sure they were open before this trip.

Elissa really loves it there, and Isaac had a great time too. The padded shapes and floor allow him to walk and fall with no real risk of injury.

The whole walking think is still novel enough to Isaac that walking in between us, a couple of metres apart, is great fun. His favourite, I believe, were the window shutters on the plastic cubby house. Below is a short clip of him opening them, with a cameo from Elissa at the end. (Click on the play icon in the centre of the picture to play)

"Did someone get the licence plate of that passing juggler?"

Elissa enjoyed playing hide and seek, as well as riding on the two-seater-rocking-horse-or-giant-chicken-see-saw-whatsit, pictured below.

"Higher please!"

When we weren't around to rock her, she was happy to recruit other kids she'd never met before. There is also a jumping castle, which is a little beyond Isaac just yet. Elissa likes the jumping castle, but wanted it to herself today and kept telling me that "the other children aren't sharing!".

There are a few more pictures in the set (flickr account required), but we didn't really take a huge number of photo's, as we were pretty busy just playing with the kids. I'm pretty sure that this is the right way to prioritise, and there's certainly no imminent danger of a lack of pictures of the kids.

"You start the engine, I'll just check the tires."

Play time

Another case of writing this a few days after the fact. Details may be sketchy, as my memory isn't what it used to be. I don't think it used to be that great either, but my memory of that may also be failing.

We caught up with some friends for yum cha on Sunday, over at Rhodes. The kids were all well behaved, and managed to consume a reasonable amount of food, not that this was their first attempt at yum cha by a long shot. Elissa told us she was going to have a custard tart before we got there, although now that I think about it, I don't think she actually did. Apparently it's the same chain of restaurants as the one we have near us at Castle Hill. Cathy and Craig have two kids, Ella and Jack, who are of very similar ages to Elissa and Isaac. The boys are too young to interact very much, but the girls get a long very well.

Just for the hell of it, here's a video of Elissa and Ella from June 2006. I've uploaded this one to YouTube, all the ones I've done previously have been hosted on Google Video. I haven't been particularly impressed with the quality of Google Video, so this is a bit of an experiment. I think YouTube is doing a better job of the rendering. With Google now owning YouTube, you'd think they'd consolidate the engines. Anyway....


(Click on the triangle in the centre to play the video)

After lunch, went downstairs to a playground inside the shopping centre. Craig and I hung about with the kids while Susanne and Cathy went in to Ikea. Actually, Isaac was asleep in the pram with Susanne, but you get the idea. The play area was quite small, and rather crowded, but the girls had a pretty good time anyway. For the photos (taken on my phone, so the quality is sub par) Ella was quite co-operative. It's getting harder and harder however, to get photos of Elissa with anything other than the silly grimace shown at the top of the post.

After that, we went to Katrina and Doug's for a couple of hours. Elissa got to see Bob (pictured) but wanted to check that he was friendly first. She's careful to determine whether animals fall into the friendly/naughty category before contact these days, after a minor run in with Possum, my parents' somewhat cantankerous feline, a little while back. Bob soaks up the abuse/attention quite amicably though, and just wanders off when he's had enough.

Later that afternoon it was off to Susanne's parents' place for dinner. With all the attention they'd received in a day, it's no wonder the kids think they can get away with anything. Unfortunately, for the most part they can. I suppose that's just part of the aunties / uncles / grandparents package deal. At least Elissa is aware of it. She actually says "I'm spoilt from Nan and Nanny and Santa and the Easter bunny, aren't I!" Well, at least two out of four will continue the tradition for the foreseeable future.

Access all areas

Isaac is all but walking now. He's quite fond of walking forward and backward between objects (or parents) multiple times. He can still only manage half a dozen continuous steps before overbalancing or sitting down, but he can and still indefinitely and change direction deliberately now. He's made a few voluntary forays into open space, so far with no serious consequences, but considering that his enthusiasm seems to exceed his ability, tears and bruises are inevitable.

We're almost certainly going to have to "Child proof" the place more seriously in the not too distant future. Elissa was always curious about her environment, but either learnt to respond to "no" more quickly, or simply preferred her toys. Isaac responds to "no" also, but generally by looking at you, smiling, and then doing exactly what he intended anyway. I regularly follow him as he traverses the entire kitchen, pulling on every door and drawer handle along the way. I wasn't here at the time, but I believe he's already sent one bowl to the great kiln in the sky.

It's not as though he doesn't understand "no" either. I've seen him crawl towards Elissa while she's playing with something that she feels isn't appropriate for sharing, only to have her put up a palm and say "no" in a stern voice when he's still half way across the room. He'll stop crawling, sit up and complain/cry as if he's been physically restrained. I don't know where she learnt that, although it's not entirely unlike the command(s) she gives to Lisa's dog(s), so maybe it's a derivative of that. It's not a 100% effective tactic however, as I've seen her hold a toy above her head, out of Isaac's reach, only to have him happily stand and attempt climb over her to get it. That's when Elissa becomes the source of the complaints.

All that aside, they quite often to play together quite well. This picture shows Elissa offering Isaac one of the fridge magnet shaped cookies she "baked" in the bar fridge.

Frogs and Bears

Elissa's first "tattoo". Yes that is Freddo Frog. No, this blog isn't sponsored by Cadbury, but if the money is right, my journalistic integrity is, shall we say, negotiable.


I was listening to a podcast (Jumping Monkeys , episode 8) today in which Leo Laporte described his 15 year old daughter giving him a power point presentation on why she should be allowed to get a nose piercing. Fortunately, this still is a long way away, but I can imagine this situation without too much difficulty.

While I'm on a slightly animal theme (Frog's and monkey's have both got a mention so far), I might as well go for the hat trick and try explain "The Bear Game". Actually, it's recently split, there are now two variants of the bear game, one upstairs and one downstairs.

The upstairs version involves a cave, which consists of the space between the spare bed and the wall, improved with a couple of flat mattresses. Essentially, someone has to be the bear (usually me, at least first go) and wait in the cave, generally asleep. The person then comes around and wakes the bear up, asking whether or not the bear is a "friendly one". If not, and I'm usually instructed to not be friendly, but rather "hungry" then growling and chasing are usually all that's required. Occasionally the bear is allowed to be friendly, which generally requires allowing Elissa to crawl over the top of me to get into the cave after which I'm allowed to turn around, so that the two of us are facing each other in the cave, with my legs hanging out the entrance. At this point various fictional people/animals/toys come past and ask if they too, can enter the cave. I've no idea what the criteria is for entry, but very few are allowed in.

The downstairs version is completely different. Elissa makes a house by lining up a row of toys in a line across one end of the "toy room" downstairs, with Isaac's door toy as the means of entry. Other toys and furniture are dragged in to make the rest of the wall, quite effectively dividing the room into two parts. We both have to get into the house by Isaac's door. Once inside Elissa says that there are three (or four or five, or ten, depending on what she thinks she can get away with) bears asleep in the house, and that we have to get them out. I then have to come up with "tricks" to get them out, one at a time. This is usually things like leaving a trail of honey going through the door, pretending to be the bears parents and calling on the phone to ask the bear to come to dinner, or hiding and making dinosaur noises to scare the bears away. The usual stuff.

A quick trip away

We made a quick trip up to my parents' place this weekend. We left Friday evening, only about 40 minutes after we'd intended, after feeding and bathing both of the the kids. We went via Bells line of road, about a 110 km, which we did in about an hour and 45 minutes. Isaac slept most of the way.

Elissa had a combination things to keep her amused. Firstly, she had a few stories that I downloaded to Susanne's portable music player. I gave them a quick preview, and trimmed a bit of extra stuff off the intro/end that I thought would be confusing. I also learnt that apparently, the original version of "Little Red Riding Hood" does not have the woodcutter cutting open the wolf and retrieving grandma at the end. I suppose it reduces the violence, but isn't quite the happy ending kids are used to. The three stories she had were Goldilocks, The Frog Prince (which I later read more carefully and found a little lame) and "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". This last one is pretty similar to the book version we've been reading on and off reasonably regularly lately.

Saturday was a little cool in Lithgow, so we spent most of the day inside, the kids being mostly entertained by Nan & Pop and the never ending supply of stuff to play with. Isaac really liked standing up and pushing along a plastic roller coaster carriage. There's quite a long run,, so he'd get up quite a bit of speed and go for a relatively long time before he had to turn around and come back. The video below (from 10 months ago!) shows Elissa on the roller coaster outside. I'm not sure why, but I seem to have been pretty slack with the camera this weekend. Maybe it's because my eyes were in pretty poor shape. Susanne, Isaac and myself all seem to have had a bout of some sort of conjunctivitis.



Susanne managed a quick solo shopping trip to Bathurst without a pram, stroller or nappy bag, which must have been a nice change. A 125 km round trip is a bit further than the normal shopping trip, but such are the sacrifices demanded by the shopping gods. Besides, 125km on a Saturday between Lithgow and Bathurst probably takes about as long as it does me to go about 40km most days.

We came home after dinner Sunday night, as while the kids had a great time, Isaac was a little unsettled at night, and we figured a mostly-normal Sunday would probably be a good idea. I didn't think we'd have as good a trip home as we had up, but Isaac was asleep pretty quickly, and Elissa not that much longer afterwards.


This picture was taken when we stopped for petrol around Springwood. They were both pretty grumpy being moved into bed when we got home, but I'll take that over 2 hours of in-car screaming or crying anytime.

My eyes were about as bad as they got on the trip home. I had a choice between using both eyes, with oncoming headlights being transformed into lovely star bursts, or going for one eye, but next to no depth perception. I generally went with the former. I actually took some pictures of my eye when we got home, but I won't post them here, as they're a bit, "Gray's Anantomy" (no, not the TV show, the real Gray's Anatomy). I originally thought they might make a good substitute for the pictures on the wikipedia entry for conjunctivitis, but as I haven't had a proper diagnosis, I probably shouldn't post them, even if mine are more picturesque.

Sunday was pretty quiet from memory, although I've been a bit slack finishing off this post, so who knows what I've forgotten. I really should at least get my text written straight away, before my dementia has it's way with me. We did catch a skink inside, which originally had Elissa a bit squeamish. However, we caught it and took it outside, and I got her to happily hold it in her palm for a while before she released it into the garden.

I would've given Isaac a turn too, but I'm not sure that him eating it would have been a particularly favourable outcome for either Isaac or the skink.

Here there be dragons . . .

Well, a plastic allosaurus anyway. I know it looks a bit like the ever popular T-TRex, but it isn't.

I thought this toy, which we picked up today, was cute. Elissa thought it was a bit scary at first, but she thinks it's funny now. Isaac seems mostly nonplussed at this point. We have a couple of dinosaurs in the "little people" series somewhere, we'll probably get them back out and see what transpires. The picture links to a 45 second video, by the way.

Isaac opened some other presents today, those he didn't open on Sunday at or after the party. He really likes cars/trucks/anything you can push at the moment, so the dump truck we got him was quite a hit. This is fortunate, as we seem to have variations on this theme all over the place at the moment. I don't know if the story about the burglar suing his victims after he tripped on a skateboard is real or an urban myth, but if we're broken into, we'll almost certainly find out.

The sit-on bike he received was also popular. Although he's not big enough to sit on it properly and push just yet, he still managed to push Elissa around while she sat on it, much to her non-amusement.

I had the day off work so that we could do something all together for Isaac's birthday. Elissa had been keen to go to a playground at the local shopping centre that has a bunch of movable, stackable shapes (vinyl coated foam blocks, wedges, stairs, cylinders, that kind of thing), as well as a jumping castle. Isaac also enjoys it as he can climb and roll without the normal discomfort he gets when his nose meets our tiled floor.

Anyway, we thought it'd be nice to go up there and let them go nuts for an hour or so. As it turns out, the place was closed for some reason, making both Susanne and myself feel guilty as Elissa had been going on about it for days, and was rather excited. We went to a "conventional" park on the way home, one with swings, a slippery dip and that sort of thing. Both of the kids had fun, but somehow I think we still owe Elissa a trip to the other place.

Isaac's pretty close to walking. I've seen him take 4 or 5 deliberate steps with no support, and he's looking to "let go" more and more. He's also improved from simply pushing any of the wheeled toys into the nearest wall/object to now traversing around the toy and going back again the other way without a break. He also seems to be pointing at things a lot more while babbling.

It's hard to believe it's been a year since Isaac was born, but on the other hand, it's getting harder to imagine the time before we had the kids, too. Some of the individual nights, like last night, where Isaac was up for most of it, do seem quite long, but on the whole, the time has really flown. I don't know if it a case of "time flies while you're having fun", time just passing quicker with age, or both. Regardless, I'm sure it was February when I got up this morning. Damn.

Footnote: The title phrase really ought to have been "Here be dragons", but I prefer it with the additional "they". Most non-gamers won't care. But don't take my word for it.

A birthday picnic

We had a party for Isaac's 1st birthday this Sunday. His actual birthday is Tuesday.


This was taken when Isaac had just come downstairs from a nap. While he's got a bit of a 'when does everyone else arrive?' look, everyone was pretty much already here when this was taken.

The weather looked a bit questionable, but while it was cool-ish outside, we didn't get any rain until much later, after we were done outside.

The food was all pre-prepared sandwiches and nibblies of various types. As Susanne (and her able assistants) had prepared everything beforehand, I didn't even have to perform my standard highly complex task of putting some meat on the BBQ and turning it over before it went black. Life is hard.

While the adults socialised and made their way through the various food on offer, the kids amused themselves with toys, bikes, the cubby, trampoline, Lisa'a new puppy and any food that was at least 50% sugar. Apparently, when Susanne asked Elissa later what her favourite part of the day was "the junkfood" was her response. She certainly didn't seem overly keen on the donuts though, at least not while hanging from a string.

Caitlin was the clear winner for this game. When I asked Elissa why she didn't want the donut, she said that she was just watching to see if Abbey or Chelsea would win. There was an adult version of this, but I won't inflict the photo's on you. I think Brendon won that one.

This was just the start of the sugar frenzie, with the cake cutting and desser on next. Anyone who went home hungry just wasn't trying.


After dessert we ran a treasure hunt for the kids, making them work a little harder for the bag of take-home goodies Susanne had put together. The clues were beyond the younger kids, but they enjoyed just running around after the leaders, helping where they could, even if it was only with popping the balloon which contained the next clue.

Chelsea or Caitlin would read the clue and then the whole group would race off searching for the next balloon. For those that weren't there, the clues were written on small pieces of paper inside deflated balloons. The kids had to find the balloon, inflate it, and pop it in order to get the next clue. After putting out all of the clues this morning, I almost forgot to put the actual prizes under the BBQ (the final spot). That was almost an interesting (if unintended) lesson in how unfair the world can be.



Caitlin did a great job (unprompted, I should add) of helping the others along without giving the game away completely.

I'm pretty sure the kids had a pretty good time, and I hope everyone else did too. Thanks to everyone who helped out with things, especially Norm, Lyn, Lisa and Michelle. If Isaac could speak, I'm sure he'd thank everyone for the great gifts.

Not 15 minutes after everyone left, Elissa was like this:


Isaac was out too. I guess the sugar high doesn't last for ever.

Cleaning up later, we had a nice reminder of the fact that Elissa is quite fond of her brother. (I do wonder sometimes, especially after having to stop Elissa from making a tent with Isaac as the pole once he started crying after being surrounded by pillows and covered up with a blanket for the 4th or 5th time.) I was telling someone how I had to stop Isaac from climbing up and getting into the kitchen bin. Elissa obviously misheard or misunderstood, as she nearly burst into tears, saying "Don't put him in the bin!". I had to assure her we were keeping him.

If you'd like to see all the photos from the day, well, at least all those from our camera, I've created a link here. All our flickr photo's are generally not publicly viewable, but I'll leave this link active for a few weeks and then it'll disappear again. You can view or download the full/original sized versions from the link.

PC addiction and assisted ambulation

No monumental news this weekend, pretty much business as usual. Everyone's more or less healthy for a change, which is nice. It seems like at least one of us has had a cold or flu for months. We pretty much hung around home, I managed to do the lawns and a couple of other minor things, so my todo list probably only slightly lengthened this weekend.

Here again!

At first I thought it was no big deal, but we're going to have to think seriously about how to limit Elissa's "computer time".

She'd sit there for hours if we let her. While it's better than TV (She's only interested in interactive stuff), she'll end up with RSI before she gets to primary school.

Mind you she has graduated from mouse only activities to using the arrow and space keys for some of the games. Today she learnt how to double-click and use the "back" button on the browser.

While we're on mice, Elissa asked me tonight, after brushing her teeth:

"Do cats like mouses?"
"Sure, they like to eat them."
"But they're yucky!"
"Don't you want a mouse for breakfast?"
"No, I eat things from the pantry. Weet-bix and Nutri-grain and yummy things, not aminals." (That's how she usually says "animals" at the moment, not a typo, and it's dangerously contagious when talking to her about them.)

I've posted a couple of videos of Isaac walking (assisted) below. When you click on it it should open in a new window/tab, so just close it when you're done and you should be back here.

Method1: Using the trike or whatever it should be called. It's got four wheels, but more or less configured as a tricycle at the moment.

I've modified the bike slightly, using a couple of rubber bands, so the rear wheels don't rotate as freely, otherwise it would get away from him too easily and he'd end up flat on his face. With the mod, the rear wheels drag a bit, but there's enough friction to generally keep him upright.

Method 2: Using a chair, he's quite stable. While the chair doesn't slip away too easily, occasionally a leg gets stuck in the groove between tiles, resulting in him turning through some random angle until it gets out. This doesn't seem to bother him all that much. He's walking for the novelty, not the destination.

Method 3: This is how he generally does it. The amount of noise he makes is directly proportional to how much of a hurry he's in. This video is actually from a couple of weeks ago, but I thought it was appropriate.

Isaac's first haircut

After recently getting a few "What a pretty baby/little girl" comments I decided it was time for Isaac to get a haircut!

He was happy enough getting it done though the hairdresser certainly earnt her money as he wriggled and constantly tried to grab her scissors. I had thought how hard could it be to cut it myself but after witnessing a professional do it i'm glad I didn't attempt it. At best it would have been noticeably crooked, at worst I may have also cut Isaac's ears.

Before:

After

Height comparison pictures

A couple of weeks back I took more pics of the kids to track their heights, I haven't actually measured them yet, in terms of cm though.

I expected that Isaac would've made the most noticeable jump in the 3 months or so since I last took them, but it would seem that Elissa has grown more in this particular time period.

Based on other pictures of Elissa at the same age, she had more teeth, but Isaac has more hair.

It looks as though he's standing on his own, but he's using the wall for support, as he isn't really standing un-assisted at this point. He's happily cruising around furniture and that sort of thing, and will occasionally turn and attempt to lean towards something or someone of interest. I'd guess walking wont be far away (a few weeks?), but he's not quite there yet.

The photos are taken in front of the side panel beside the fridge, just to the left of the touchscreen. Providing we don't remodel downstairs too drastically (like that's going to happen), I should be able to do this for some time, or at least until the kids decide it's too uncool.

We haven't yet reached the point where I can put the pics of Elissa and Isaac at the same age side by side. I didn't start this series with Elissa until she was over 18 months old, so it'll be a little while yet. Where I have put them side by side, as below, the pair with Elissa on the left and Isaac on the right as you look at them, were taken on the same day.





If you click on any of the images, you'll be taken to our Flickr pages, where you can see larger versions, amongst other things. If you're using Firefox, and have a mouse with a wheel, clicking on a link with the wheel opens the link in a new tab automatically. Thankyou FireFox.

Elissa with blue tongue

Elissa with blue tongue
Originally uploaded by SusanneAndJohn

This blog will almost certainly not be a daily kind of deal, however, as it's new, and I'm messing around to see how it works, there may be a flurry of activity early on.

This photo was taken at George & Margaret's place, for Alex's naming, on 17/06/2007. Elissa had eaten the top off a blue cupcake.

This was taken on my phone camera , at Norm's request, as we didn't have regular cameras with us, so the quality is a little unspectacular.

Visits and costumes

Katrina & Doug came by today, bringing with them some loot from Mum & Dad (Kaye and John), namely a hat and scarf for Elissa, and a beanie for Isaac. There were also (of course) some lollies which Elissa spotted and consumed pretty quickly.

This is Elissa modelling the new gear. She seems pretty happy with it. I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that this was one of the few pictures in which she didn't have a huge ear to ear, fake grin.




Below is Isaac just before taking the hat off. We have enough trouble keping his socks on him, so regardless of how cute it does or doesn't look, I'm not sure this will be a heavily worn item.