Sorry for my very late Christmas Day entry, but I do have a very good excuse you see. After a week of a very sore throat I finally had to go to the After Hours Dr’s on Christmas Day, and as it turns out I had a temperature and Tonsillitis, after 2 days of antibiotics I feel almost human again, the pain was awful I tell you awful!


Alexander woke on Christmas Day at 12:01am would you believe, he came running into our room with a gift from Santa he had found at the end of his bed. He ripped it open alongside our bed in near darkness and he excitedly and happily went back to bed till the morning. He sat in our bed opening his Christmas stocking gifts; by the end our bed was full of paper and a very happy little boy.

Jayme and Sarah came over to watch shear the morning with us and watch Alexander open his gifts. While we were talking to Nanny and Granddad on Skype, we took him out side to have a look and see if there was anything in the back yard for him. (Last night and several of bottles of wine later David, our friends Karen and Phil and I had assembled the trampoline for him)

So the rest of the day was filled with jumping, more jumping. Lego assembling/playing and poor Mummy heading off to the Dr’s at 4pm after we had a lovely chat with Nan, Aunty Lesa, Kev, Dylan and Baby Noah in Australia on Skype. We all had to laugh as Alexander has always called Noah “Baby Noah” as he was a small baby when he first met him. He did remark that Noah isn’t a baby anymore he’s a bigger boy now!

Hope everyone had a lovely and an enjoyable day with family and friends as much as we did.

and as Alexander will tell you or anyone who will listen - 3 more sleeps till Santa!!!!!

Plus he has also informed us that if he wakes in the night should he go and check if Santa has been and then come and wake us!!!!!  I have informed him that if he wakes, HE will be sent back to bed till it is at least light outside.  Or maybe I might leave something at the end of his bed to take back to bed....or will that keep him awake!!! Ohhh what is one to do with children who are now so excited about Santa!

Hello Nanny in Australia, and Aunty Lesa, Dylan and Noah!!!




We went to visit Santa in the mall today much to Alexander’s delight, will post photos later of that. I had to chuckle though, I was talking to the lady in front of us in the queue and she told me her 10 year old son just asked Santa for a “hot babe and a Farahi sports car”!!!!!!

This is such a usual sight in our house, Scrufty really is Alexander’s buddy, they love to snuggle on the couch together like this, although Scrufty is ever hopeful he might get a little treat from the chippie bowl Alexander has. He would never just take one; he just waits and looks and waits. Must admit if he got up and left them, that would be too much for Scrufty and he would gobble them up as soon as your back is turned.

The look of concentration – you can tell he is going to be gaming well into the night when he is a teenager can’t you!!!

Only 4 days left for kindy this year.

I think Alexander is ready for a break as he has been getting a bit tearful when I leave him in the mornings! Plus he is so slow at getting ready in the mornings!



He has also been hunting round the house for Christmas presents, I didn’t think he’d see a bag from The Warehouse at the top of the office wardrobe, and he was so sure he had seen a Lego box through the bag!!!! Talk about x-ray eyes. I’ve moved the bags now as Dave caught him standing on the office chair trying to have a better look.



Lucky he can’t read yet – we have got him a trampoline for Christmas I have advised Dave to get the instructions out a good week before so he can read through them, it would be just our luck we would be up to midnight on Christmas Eve putting it together.

Alexander likes to call himself "Alexander Beetle" and even when he is asked his name he says "Alexander Beetle"
Well it comes from a song that we have on a cd in the car...called - Alexander Beetle
below are the words to the song.... :-)

On a little more investigation, (Google) I found out it is a poem by AA Milne sometimes also called forgiven!



I found a little beetle; so that Beetle was his name,


And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.

I put him in a match-box, and I kept him all the day ...

And Nanny let my beetle out -

Yes, Nanny let my beetle out -

She went and let my beetle out -

And Beetle ran away.



She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,

She said she wanted matches and she just took off the lid,

She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch

An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.



She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind,

As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find,

If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid -

And we'd get another match-box and write BEETLE on the lid.



We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,

And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,

And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:

"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"



It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be,

And he had a sort of look as if he thought it must be Me,

And he had a sort of look as if he thought he ought to say:

"I'm very very sorry that I tried to run away."



And Nanny's very sorry too for you-know-what-she-did,

And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,

So Nan and Me are friends, because it's difficult to catch

An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match.

Often I come back from walking the dog to find this!

Mummy reads the first story and then I go out and walk the dog while Daddy settles Alexander, often with a made up story or he listens to his iPod with stories cuddled up to Daddy.

You wouldn’t know that it’s going to be the first day of summer tomorrow! We have the heater going again today, and it’s raining.


Alexander is home sick, I suspect another ear infection, the doctor will confirm this this afternoon. Scrufty and Alexander are resting on the couch under the umbrella of all things!!!

Looking forward to taking Alexander to the movies to see “Where the wild things are”, I loved that book as a child, and the movie look great! I didn’t know that the white sort of goat thing is called Alexander.

ACTUALLY HE LOOKS A BIT FREEKY IN THAT PHOTO!

Happy 2nd Birthday Baby Noah!!!!

Love and big hugs from Aunty Kim, Uncle Dave and Alexander

xxxx

not sure how keen he will be to do this when he is 13...hehe!

Alexander was less than keen to do this years Christmas hat photos.  Ill see if I can find one from the last 5 years :-)

Look at those freckles.... :-)

and that's a Scrufty scratch by his eye from this morning.....

Well at least I woke him to say I was going to bed!!!! This was only about 9pm. Last time I left him, and he woke in the middle of the night cold.

Just been out doing the weeding in the veggie patch, and turning the soil, and I dug up a worm that was as thick as my little finger, it looked like something out of a horror movie!!! It was huge! Got to be good for the garden I’m sure, but it was so jolly huge it gave me a fright! A bird would probably choke on it, it was that HUGE!


Not been able to do much else over the last few weeks as its been raining so much the grass is soft and squishy!

We are having beef, wine and coriander done in the slow cooker for tea tonight, the coriander is fresh from the garden wouldn’t you know. Alexander even eats it, he will even try a curry.

Bed time buddies!
This is a usual sight most nights, often Alexander is crampt up the end of the bed while Scrufty and Bobo spread themselves out happily.

Alexander was so pleased to be back at his kindy this morning.


There is a new girl just started this today called Alexandra plus my Alexander, and there is another little boy called Alex.

I never thought that when we named him as a baby that this would happen!

He got a bit miffed this morning as they look for their name on the board and pop it in a basket every day, he said to me that “Alexander is MY name, no one else’s.”

And true to form the weather has picked up, quite nice yesterday, and looking like the same today.



The little 2 year old girl who went missing in Auckland has still not been found, 8 days later. As a mother I can’t even begin to imagine how her parents are feeling. I know everyone is hoping and praying that little Ashling Symes is returned home very soon.

And the stinky weather continues....all the school holidays it has rained and or been to cold to play outside. Now as school and kindy goes back it will fine up.

Stinky weather!!!!


The whole 2 weeks of the school holidays have been raining, windy and cold! Alexander keeps on asking to go outside to play, but really in the 10 degrees and the wind, it really is far too cold.

We are off to the movies this morning to see G Force, I think it’s about 3 guinea pigs, kind of like a kids James Bond I hope...lol

It's where......

trying to get Alexander to look at the lens NOT the flash...lol

taken with my new fisheye lens!

One day.....!!!!!

Those of you who know me well enough are going to gasp and say OMG really!!!!!


I’ve been planting more veggies and today about to plant my 6 tomato plants, ready for summer salads.

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday, David was the first to use the new bread board and to my horror he has gouged big slice marks in it!!!! I nearly died much to the joy of our guests! I now have 2 boards, one for looking at (i.e.: buttering bread and toast only) and one for using! Mental I know.

Here are a few photos of the new house.....

Ok...so we are all moved in now! Thank goodness! A little bit of last minute tidying up to do at the old place.




Alexander loves his new room, not to mention playing outside! It’s a bit chilly today, but we sat outside in the sun yesterday afternoon, was bliss!



The day before yesterday, being that I was so tired and had been very busy all morning cleaning at the old place, I put a load of washing on and went out, only to my horror realised that I had put the top I had been wearing all morning along with my $400 cell phone into the wash!!!!! Needless to say it’s now not working....wahhhhh!



Ill add some photos as soon as I can.

Ohhh boy I’m buggered! 4 trips to the new house today with stuff!


David has the day off tomorrow to come and help, and have a little chill out time at the new place while Alexander is at kindy!



Off to chill out and watch Coro Street and have an early night.



Alexander and Scrufty had a ball running round this evening in the garden; we all had fish and chips on the floor.

Still packing and chucking rubbish!  We have a load of rubbish! 
David's not started on his packing yet, mind you he only has to do the computers and the TVs etc, but that's 4 computers, 1 home theather set up, 6 speakers, upstairs TV, sky, freeview, blah, blah blah!!!!  I think he is going to be busy!

After nine years at our current house we have finally found a lovely new house with a yard for Alexander and David’s requirement of 2 lounges. When we moved here we never thought we’d be having Alexander, let alone getting a dog!

Its just 2 streets over from our current house, and we know the family next door from kindy.


I’m just happy that I’ve got a toilet on both levels, not mention sun, sun, sun, a walk in wardrobe, on suite bathroom and all the outside entertaining you could ask for.

We will have to get a lawnmower or get someone in to do them. Plus there is a veggie patch round the side of the house, so I’m thinking ill see what we can grow for summer.

I’m so excited I’ve even be enjoying the packing up! After 9 years we do have a lot of rubbish/junk that had needing sorting through, even that has been fun!

Below are some photos of the house!
 

Scanning old photos


It’s a friend’s 70th birthday on Saturday, and over the last few weeks David and I have been scanning, editing and doing major photo work, it’s been fun and I’m going to do it with all our family photos.

It’s prudent I think now days to have another copy of your life in photos brought into the 20th century i.e.: scanned and then put onto DVD.

At least you can preserve 40 year old photos i.e. my childhood more orange colour Polaroid’s and bring them back to life.

We have collated all 70 years of Johns (Hoppy) life, family, jobs, children, graduations and grandchildren!  In a way I feel like I have known him all my life.

Only fair that I should post a few scanned photos of myself and Dave as a child. Photography differs greatly nowadays to say 40, 50 years ago as you can see!




I love how my mum missed most of the dolls pram I was pushing, but included the whole of the china cabinet, funnily enough still in the very same place 40 years on! And got a lovely flash reflection in the top corner. That sort of photo taken today would have been deleted before downloading and another 10 taken just to make sure.

Interesting how eight trees, four concrete ornaments and a whole load of grass feature most in this photo of David.

Alexander had a pirate day at kindy last week.

Alexander likes to use my old camera, just like his Mummy!

Ok rule number 1 - when your son asks you for a JI Joe hair cut, you don't try and do it yourself at 7pm (his bedtime)

rule number 2 - always listen to your hairdresser! She IS right, and she can do it better.

rule number 3 - follow rule number 2 always!

It's not all that often I get any sort of art work or collage that Alexander has made at Kindy. He prefers to play outside or with the cars etc than sit down and do anything arty, so I was thrilled with this helicopter he made using the hot glue gun of all things!!!!
The yellow picture in the background is of the transformers. (The red and blue one is Optimus prime, the black one is Blackout and I forget who the other one is)

It was not all that long ago that I could tell you most of the trains from Thomas and Friends, now I have to know and recite for Alexander who the Transformers are, and these rather odd ones from Ben 10 who I've got no idea about!

Been doing a little bit of photo editing this morning....

Don't kids say the funniest things.....






This photo we have in a frame on the bookcase (its one of my favourites, Alexander was 18 months old at the time)

He just looked at it now while talking to Daddy on the phone and said "that was me when I was a girl"

(I remember his lovely long blond wavy hair and I was often asked at the time if he was a girl)

6 weeks today....great going Daddy! Love Alexander xx

5 weeks, YES five weeks!!!!!

Alexander and I wanted to tell Daddy/Dave how proud we are of him!!!!
Love you
K & A
xx

My poor Panda!!!

Alexander went to the Dr's this morning, his asthma is bad again over this winter, he was awake alot of the last few nights coughing and coughing.
The Dr has up'ed his dose, so it will be a few days before we see an improvement. Plus I got his 4/5 year old jabs done today, yikes he kicked the nurse. I so felt for him as he new as soon as he saw the needles what they were for.
He told the nurse she was stupid!!!!! and huffed at her when she offered him some stickers when she was done.

He gets a little treat tonight to stay up and watch a video with Daddy as I'm off to my friend Bernie's place to catch up with a dear friend down from Auckland whom I've not seen since Alexander was a baby. So a nice girly night with take aways and a little wine.

Tomorrow Nan and I are taking Alexander to the circus in the afternoon.

(click on the photo to get a larger view)

Four years on, look how he has changed, but still stayed the same.
Im not sure if that is a Ballett or a Day chin he has going on.
He must have wised up to me because when I got the blue blanket I use as a back ground, he said "do I get a treat for sitting on that" Hehehe!

I love his longer hair too, he has all those cute curls back he had from way back. Plus he won't let me go near him with the hair clippers, and I won't even try to get him to the hair dressers after last time! So its a quick snip, snip in the kitchen when I can just to tidy it up a bit!

What's your name?
I know this is a bit naughty, but it's ohhh so funny!
For a long time Alexander has been calling himself this, and its just to funny to not record!

Alexander asked me what I was doing today. (like just now) I told him i was updating the blog. What like "Sponge Blog" he said!!!!
He makes me laugh so hard sometimes.

Alexander is turning into a real little LEGO fan just as I was as a child. Although I did forget how absolutely tiny some of the bits can be. I was making him up his helicopter this afternoon and kept on getting the small bits stuck sorta under my fingernails. Not to mention their was a 40 page instruction book to go with it!!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Alexander

6:45pm and he is worn out totally and sound asleep! (so are we)

Alexander cutting his cake yesterday at his party. Sadly I didn't get many photos as I spent most of my time running round after a house full of 4 year olds. I know mum did though.


Sarah and Jayme came over to help us set up for his party, so thanks very much girls, I would have run out of time if I didn't have your help.

After his party we had Alexander's godmother Bernie and a few friends over for a few drinks.

Alexander spent the afternoon at this Nan's house today, playing with his new Lego, and his Ironman toys.

new photos of Alexander with my new lens/camera.... :-)

Photos from a birthday party last weekend Alexander attended, they had a magician to entertain the children :-)

Blahhhhh I'm going to be 39 in two days time!!!!!!
I feel so middle aged!

On the up side my little "panda" is going to be 4, 4!!! Its enough to make me cry! With happiness, he is such a wonderful little boy (most of the time) :-) I remember when he was just newborn, always wondering what he would look like and what sort of personality he wound have at this age!
He has an amazing sense of humor, and is very loving, offering his hugs and kisses to just about everyone, a far cry from when he was a baby he would cry if anyone would as much as look at him.
He has a birthday party to attend just about everyday of the weekends of June, I feel proud as a Mum that he is liked so much.

Oh how I hate the cold weather!!!! We have months of this left, the thing I miss is the sun shinning and the warmth on your skin.

Slowly getting better from the chickenpox, for those who don't know Ive had the chickenpox!!!!! Crazy at my age I know. Waiting to see if Alexander will get it. He has two birthday parties to go to next weekend, not to mention his own in just 3 weeks time. Id be gutted for him if he missed the parties hes been invited to, not to mention postponing his!

I picked out my own birthday present...lol, well I saw it on special and phoned David to tell him, and he let me get it a week early. He said he didn't get the choice. Ive had a little play with it so far.

Its this lens


and it goes on my new baby on the left (my old little Cannon is on the right)