Christmas Photo 2007

Well who ever said you need to go to the Magic Cave to get a good photo of your child with Santa??

After the Wiggles concert I ventured into the city with Harrison in the hope to let him see the wonders of the Magic Cave in David Jones - well what a joke that idea was! I take my hat off to those parents who choose to brave the trials and tribulations on what can only be the craziest place on earth! Hundreds of children lining up for about two hours to have their short time with Santa - Well we went, saw the Que, turned around and went and saw Santa in the Harris Scarf department store and had this lovely photo taken instead!

I love this photo - it is so natural and one of the better ones we have managed to get in awhile!

Christmas this year is so exciting now that Harrison kind of has an idea what it is! 8 more sleeps till the big day, then it is all over and we will all be saving for it again next year!

Get Ready to Wiggle!!!!!!

Well what an adventure it is when you spend your Sunday morning in the company of a very excited 2 year old and his idols the 'Wiggles'.

Yes today Harrison and I ventured to the Entertainment Centre to see the Wiggles perform their Christmas 'Pop Goes The Wiggles' concert.

The concert started at 10am, which was a perfect time considering my little Mr Magoo (AKA Harrison) still has a lovely huge sleep in the afternoon (allelulah for the afternoon nap!).

As you can see from the following photos we had some wicked seats - we were in the 'Hot Potato' section not far from the stage. It is kind of my motto for shows that unless we get good seats I don't even bother! Here are a few highlights from the show:

This is Anthony Wiggles being distinguished gentleman in an English garden

mu mu music with Murray

Ballet with Dorothy - oh poor Dorothy sorry we forgot to bring some roses!!!

Quack Quack Quack Quack - Cocka Doodle Doo - Yes it is Captain Feathersword

Hi there it is the new Wiggle "Sam"

And what is a Christmas show without the big man in red? Don't you just love the reindeer costumes!!

And finally 'Toot toot chugga chugga big red car' with Jeff asleep in the rear!

And when you are all wiggled out and just can not take it anymore what do you do - you lay on the lovely filthy floor of the Entertainment Centre for a snooze - got to love my sweet little boy!!

(Don't worry he was only there for a few seconds, I am not that bad a mum!)

Naomi and Ryans Wedding - 30/11/2007

On the weekend I got the privilege of attending the wedding of my cousin Naomi and her partner Ryan in Melbourne.

It was a wonderful ceremony and reception and they both looked so happy. Naomi who took a striking resemblance to Kylie Minogue on the day, looked stunning and surprisingly relaxed!!!

Congratulations guys - may your lives together be long, happy and full of daily surprises!
xox

Childcare Pictures

Well I just got back some photos of Harrison from childcare and they are quite cute. On the day he had them taken, I took a half day off work to make sure Harrison got in the group photo (it was not his normal childcare day so he would have missed out), and well basically he cried the whole time we were there.

They took his individual photos first and we got a kind of forced smile out of him:

But his group photo - forget about it, he cried the whole time! Got to love my little angel!!!!

Yep that is him in the top right corner being held and screaming in the poor child care workers ears!!!!

I guess when I show him this photo in later years, it will come with a story - do you remember when........

Subscribe to our blog......

Howdy - I am finally working out the technology associated with this blog! Just a quick post to let anyone who is interested know, that if you want to subscribe to my blog and get an email every time I update it, rather than having to check it regularly, please put your email address in the box in the right hand column of my blog (above the page counter), confirm your details, and emails will be automatically sent!

NO SPAM I PROMISE!!!!!

Harrison does the Symphony!

On Sunday we took Harrison to the city to see the Adelaide Youth Orchestra perform in a children's concert called "Babies Proms!". It was a concert aimed at 0-5 year olds and performed at the Grainger Studio on Hindley Street.

Since Harrison's surgery he has been really hearing so much more and is already saying quite a few more words! We thought that an outing such as this would be great to help him interact with other children and to really hear new sounds - and hey a trip into town on a Sunday morning is always a good experience!

The orchestra performed music such as 'Row Row Your Boat', 'Mission Impossible', 'Wild' and 'March' from Carmen

The orchestra really did a wonderful job and it was great to see that they were able to keep their composure with so many toddlers running around!

Harrison and the other children followed around the host whose name was Bronwen. She encouraged all the children to stomp, crawl, and dance to the music - she did a great job and Harrison thoroughly enjoyed the day out!

We stopped at Macca's on the way home for an icecream, then it was on to Harrisons little friend Dylans house for his 2nd birthday party!

Harrison's Surgery

Thought I would give a quick update - Harrison had minor surgery today and had grommets put in his ears.

We got to Central Districts at 7am - Harrison was stuck till 8:45am until we got the call to the operating room - (all morning without breakfast is not a pretty sight for my little boy - he was letting the nurses know loudly that he wanted some food!)

I had on the gown, hat and special shoes and carried him to the operating room. The anesthetist got me to hold him while he put a gas mask on him, and after about 20 seconds of crying he was out cold and went completely limp in my arms - I was a mess and in tears straight away, It was just a horrible feeling to leave him in a room with strangers in that state.

I waited for him in recovery, and he was bought back to me about a whole 20 minutes later. It took him about 20 minutes to get his orientation back, then he was wanting food and drink again!

He had a big nap at home afterwards, but woke up happy and you would have never known he had surgery or had been under anesthetic.

I am glad that this experience is over, I know it was only minor surgery and I probably over reacted (as per usual) but I cant help being over protective!!

A Quick September Update........

It is mid September so thought it was time for a photo update.

I thought since there are not too many photos when I can say that Harrison and I have great smiles in a photo that this one was a keeper. My little boy in his fireman's hat, giving his mum a cuddle - priceless!

Well Harrison is now in a big bed and absolutely loves his 'Wiggles Big Red Car Bed'! Only thing about being in a big bed instead of a cot is now he is up with the birds at around 5:30 to 6:00am. Considering I am a grumble bum in the mornings this is not doing much for keeping a big smile on my face!

Not sure what we will do when the Wiggles becomes too daggy for him, since everything in his room is Wiggles orientated in some way!!!!!!

Last weekend we went to the Adelaide Royal Show with Amanda and Tre. It was a lovely day and the sun shined for us! I don't know how it happened but I spent around $250 - that is outrageous!!!! Oh well it was a good day out, and everyone had a great day, here are a few photos:

We got to the show at about 10am and did not leave until 5pm, it was a very long long day but a good outing. The boys got some show bags, went on a few rides, ate some junk food, so I think they enjoyed it as well.

and finally.......

"Moooooo" yes Harrison it is a cow!

Family Photos Taken end of July 2007

Just after Harrison turned two and before we left for Malaysia, we had some family photos done, I am so happy with them, especially the one below, this is Harrison as the fifth Wiggle (a "Murray" wannabe) and the guitar that both of his nanna's got him for his birthday.

Despite the dribble forming on the t-shirt, still a good shot - he cracked it not long after this photo though!

And of course Graham and I got in on the action and had our first official family photographs done. It has only taken 2 years to get our butts in gear and get a good one done!

And again, this would have been better with a better colour shirt or different background colour

Malaysia August 2007

Back in December last year, I won a trip for two to Malaysia, all expenses paid with $1000 spending money, as you can imagine I was ecstatic! Only drama - What to do with my baby boy? Well I held out on taking the trip for as long as I could, I figured that after Harrison turned two would be a good time to go.

While Harrison stayed home with his Auntie Amanda, Graham and I jet setted abroad (and yes I did stress about him the whole trip, but we got through it!).

Day 1 - August 2nd - Well this was pretty much just a travel day, we arrived in Kuala Lumpar at about 11pm, then we caught the KL Express Train from the KLIA Airport to KL Central then caught a taxi to the JW Marriot Hotel. I must say the hotel was lovely it was a 4.5 star hotel - my theory is that if you get a robe and slippers in your room then it is classy!!!!

Day 2 - August 3rd - Today we pretty much trekked the entire city, 1st stop was Aquaria found below the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, it was good, but I kind of felt like if you have seen one Aquarium you have seen them all. One advantage though was that you could actively participate with the marine animals, they had small tanks were you could get your hands in and touch sting rays, star fish, cray fish, small sharks etc.

Here is a picture of Graham feeding some stingrays:

2nd stop was the Petronas Towers. Apparently they were previously the tallest buildings in the world until the 'Bamboo Shoot' in Taiping (Taiwan) took, over. I kept looking at them though and could only think of that scene in the movie 'Entrapment' where Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones walked on top of the bridge that divides the two buildings.

It is free to go to the observation deck, on the bridge on the 42nd floor but we didn't get there until after lunch time and apparently all tickets had already been allocated by 9am so we missed out, I am not bothered though because the bridge is only half way up the buildings and we would get a better view of Kuala Lumpur from the KL Telecommunication Tower. For some reason we took about a million pictures of the towers both day and night shots, here is a few of the better ones:

and next the view from our hotel room:

We then spent the rest of the day doing some shopping in the many shopping complexes and of course phoned home and spoke to Harrison before he went to bed - this was my daily ritual, I would not have been able to sleep without having a chat to my little boy.

Day 3 - August 4th - Today we went to the Batu Caves, it is a short drive out of Kuala Lumpur, but Graham and I decided to attempt to catch the public transport for a locals view of travel. It wasn't too hard, we caught the KL Monorail to Titiwangsa station, then hoped on the number 6 bus out to the caves. The travel was fine, but our bus driver was a bit dodgey - he took a 15 minute smoke break half way through the journey - but we got to our destination in the end - even if it did take about 2 hours to get there!

The Batu Caves form part of a Hindu temple where the locals celebrate the Taipusam Festival. At the base of the caves are a whole heap of monkeys, they seemed quite tame, but there was no way in hell I was going to go near them, let alone touch them. To reach the caves you need to climb 272 steps - pretty much everyone stopped half way for a rest!

Here is the view of Kuala Lumpur city taken from the top highest accessible point of the caves:

After our trip to the caves we decided that it was too hard to bother with the buses again, and instead hoped in a taxi and headed back to the city.

We got the taxi driver to drop us of at the KL Tower, and we went to the top. It is apparently about 421 meters from bottom to top, it is not as tall as the Petronas Towers but appears to be because it has been built on a hill. The view from the top was very good and because it was a relatively clear day we could see for miles.

We then walked back from the tower to our hotel - yes today we literally did walk for miles. After a short rest we then hoped into a taxi to China Town and did some shopping in the Petaling Street markets!

How do these people get away with selling so many copy items, you could buy everything from cheap Gucci bags, to DVDs, to Billabong gear. I was in my element and loved haggling with the sellers to get a good price. Graham on the other hand hated it, and refused to buy anything that was a fake. I could see a small vein throbbing in his head by the end of the expedition! Here we ate traditional Malay food and it was really yummy - Graham was convinced that he was going to get food poisoning though, and I am happy to report that he didn't!

Day 4 - August 5th - Today once again we put on the comfy shoes and walked and walked and walked. We headed out to the Central Markets and did some souvenir shopping, this had quite a lot of lovely shops and was definately much less stressful then Petaling Street.

We then headed out to check out the National Mosque, when we got there it was closed to tourists for prayer so we looked around outside, and continued to explore the surrounding area.

After a quick trip back to China Town to get a few more bits and pieces (at my request) we headed back to the hotel to freshen up then to go out to dinner. We ended up going to dinner at Planet Hollywood - I guess going to a tourist trap like this is a bit disappointing, but I think we both just needed a bit of western food! On the plus side we were there during happy hour and I got 2 for 1 Long Island Iced teas and Graham of course got 2 for 1 Jim Beams.

Day 5 - August 6th - On our final day in Malaysia we took things fairly easy in the morning, had a sleep in and slowly packed our bags. We checked out of the hotel and then went to Zoo Negara to fill in the time before our flight. It was nothing fantastic, but it was something to do.

We then made our way to the airport for our journey home, it was a red eye flight and arrived in at Adelaide Airport at 6am on 7th August. As you can imagine I couldn't get home quick enough to my boy - and of course it didn't take long for tantrums to start and life got back to normal!

Harrison Turns 2 - Let the parties begin!

On Sunday my little Mr Harrison turned 2 - two years has just flown by so quickly, but they have honestly been the best and most rewarding couple of years of mine and Grahams lives.

Of course we did our best to spoil him (without going too overboard). Graham and I bought Harrison a train set, some Wiggles DVDs, some cars, some books and some other bits and pieces.

We spent the morning of his birthday having a bit of family time and playing with the new toys, Harrison was so distracted by his new toys that getting him to eat breakfast was a challenge in itself. As a result he threw his first tantrum as an official two year old!!!!

At lunch time we had some of the Grandparents and uncles and aunties up for a bit of a gathering, and Harrison was once again showered with gifts - he was a much loved but spoilt little boy!

I spent the night prior to his birthday making his birthday cake, it turned out well but took bloody ages, somethings are sometimes just easier to get someone else to do it for you!

The cake must have been good, because every one made sure there was only a little left over!

PARTY NUMBER 2

Well today Harrison had a little kids party at Snakes and Ladders in Gawler, I was unfortunately suffering from another cold, so I was glad that I didn't need to do a thing. We had a host who played pass the parcel with the kids, served their food and made sure things ran smoothly. I sat back had a hot chocolate and chatted with the rest of the mums.

And what is another party without another birthday cake.

In all we have had a great few days, we have so many new toys that I may have to put a few away in the spare room and bring them out gradually - Harrison just gets really worked up and focused on the new stuff that he is little bugger when you try to get him to do something!

Anyway Happy Birthday Mr Harrison - Mummy and Daddy love you very much XOX