Sunday, October 28, 2012

He sure keeps us on our toes!

 I am sure many parents will relate to this post and will have many of your own stories to share!

We affectionately call Ethan "Mischief Man" and often describe him as an "adventurer of the world". He, like his Daddy, is happy to put his body on the line and push the boundaries. As parents, Jason and I are pretty relaxed (as you will see, we often take photos of his "exploring" rather than telling him off). We let Ethan experiment and unless its dangerous or going to break something Ethan is allowed to try things out. Some may see us as a little too relaxed perhaps, but we are happy with how we are approaching things so far.

Here are some of Ethan's recent explorations/experimentations (excuse the quality of the photos, these are all iPhone photos).

...Hanging out on top of (or in) the toy storage units...
...Balancing on the flour and self raising flour jars on the bottom shelf of the cupboard in order to get to his muesli bars on the middle shelf...
 ...In the baking tin drawer...
 ...Able to reach ANYTHING on the bench!...
 ...Seeing what can float in the bath...
...Tasting anything and everything, dirt, sand, paint, play dough... 
So as you can see we, like all parents, need eyes in the back of our heads! Now that Ethan is running instead of walking we also need to be pretty quick to keep up with him!

Incidentally, the fire engine still worked after its bath!!!

Ice-cream on a hot summers day!

What's better than father and son sharing an ice-cream on a hot summer's afternoon! 

"So Dad, what do I do with this? Do I eat the cone first? Why does yours have more ice-cream?"
"Ohhh is that how you do it Dad!"
"Like this Daddy? I think I got it!"
"Yummy, I think I like ice-cream"

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Water play!

How much fun is it to play in the water and stamp in puddles! If you have forgotten what it is like, here is a reminder for you.



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More daycare injuries!

Ethan's daycare carers talk about him being a "real boy" and very willing to try things (and put his body on the line at the same time! Every time Ethan hurts himself at daycare we have to sign a form, and let me tell you we have to sign a lot of forms. They are generally for pretty mundane injuries, where the "first aid" listed is "kisses and cuddles". 

At daycare on Friday Ethan and 4 of his mates decided not to sleep at all... instead, while they were meant to be sleeping they were running from bed to bed, and generally playing up! This was the first day ever that Ethan had not had a day sleep! When Ethan gets tired he gets quite uncoordinated... so after no sleep at all he was very uncoordinated! Around 5 minutes before home time Ethan took a big fall and hurt his lip - his worst daycare injury to date! 

As you can see it didn't keep him down for long! He was back to his normal happy self this morning!
Here's hoping its the last form we have to sign for a while (although somehow I doubt it!)

Friday, October 12, 2012

Quarry Open Day

Last weekend we took Ethan out into the hills of Perth for a Quarry open day (one of Jason's canoe polo friends works there and let us know it was on). Ethan loves diggers and trucks so we thought he would enjoy the trip.

The open day itself was great, as well as bus tours around the quarry, there were lots of family activities - face painting, bouncy castle, and a sausage sizzle and drinks.

Ethan was very curious about the big trucks, although I think the sheer size was a little daunting for him.
 I know for sure that he wasn't that keen to be in the front of the digger! All he wanted was his mum after this photo!
We took the bus tour around the quarry. At this stage Ethan was more interested in his bottle of juice and his free balloon! 

It was a wet day, so taking reasonable photos from inside a bus was difficult! 
At the end of the bus tour we got our open day "show bags", including hats, drink bottles and stubbie holders.
We try to expose Ethan to lots of different activities and experiences, and this was a good outing for that!

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Home office revamp!

Ever since we moved into our new house the office/playroom has been a dumping ground for things that just didn't have a home. There were still a couple of unpacked boxes and the wire drawers that we had were just too easy for little fingers to find things that weren't that good for him.

After a few months of working from home in these conditions it just got a bit much for me, so we decided it was time to sort the office/playroom out! So after we measured the room out we started trekking round the furniture stores in WA, the more we visited the more despondent we got - office furniture is just so expensive.

So we went home and started rethinking our plans and it was off to trusty old IKEA!

The room itself is all whites and off whites so we wanted something to lift the room a little. Luckily IKEA had  some lovely green furniture - and it was the cheapest! I guess the colour is not that popular!

The only issue with IKEA furniture is that assembly... but Jason is a flatpack furniture assembly specialist! Jason also had his trusty apprentice to help out!
I really wish we had some before photos to show you, but unfortunately we didn't take any! But here is the finished product! Pretty awesome I think!
The room gets lovely morning sun as well, here a shot Jason took on his iPhone. As you can see we have heaps of storage space, and also two work stations (although only one chair at the moment).
As part of the room I got a little bit creative and made some artwork to match our new furniture (material staple gunned to a canvas). Its a cheap and easy way of getting the picture you want! The great thing is, when we want a change we can just buy more material!!!
All in all I am really, really pleased with our new office space. By tidying away all the cables etc we have also made it a safe space for Ethan. The office room is rather large and the new layout gives Ethan a dedicated play area as well. A job well done!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Visit to Naturescape

On the weekend just been we decided it was time to visit Naturescape at Kings Park. 

Naturescape has been designed to provide the children of Perth with a real WA "bush" experience in the middle of the city. It has been designed to retain as much of the natural bush setting as possible and allow children to connect with nature by exploring, climbing rocks, wading through creeks, building cubbies and getting dirty!

Both Jason and I think that it is a fantastic concept and we were not disappointed at all. We had a  great outing and I know we will be back many times over the years!

When we visited it was a 28 odd degree day so we decided to head straight for the creek to begin with. It was just fantastic. There were pool to wade in, waterfalls to clamber down, kids were building dams and having fun.  
We all enjoyed the opportunity to cool off.
 The park has been described as a health and safety nightmare :-) given the branches to climb, rock walls to explore and of course the water. But I think its a great idea. I have very fond memories of playing in the creek on our farm growing up and its nice to be able to give Ethan the same opportunity!
Ethan enjoyed "helping" the older boys try to build a dam.
Although they weren't that interested :-)
Jason took the opportunity for a rest and a chance to cool off.
While I took some photos of the great surroundings!

 After we played in the water for a good while, we decided to explore a bit further afield. Jason and Ethan checked out the cubbies previous kids had built.
 Then Ethan decided to take a closer look at some wildflowers (actually he was stalking a crow at this stage).
 All the water play and bird spotting soon tired our wee boy out, so it was time to leave... as we headed home I quickly snapped a couple more photos!
The visit pooped Ethan out and we headed home for an afternoon nap!

All in all a great place to visit, I highly recommend it for anyone in Perth!