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