The World Of Jarvis Tahi

The Last Post On The World Of Jarvis Tahi

2009-01-26T14:29:00.003+11:00

It's been a few weeks since I last posted on The World Of Jarvis Tahi. I started this blog back in December 2004, when Jarvis was just six-months old and I was in my first days of being a full-time House Dad. Now 1, 140 posts later and with 48, 749 visitors to date, I've decided that it is time to finish. It's been a wonderful four-years, which has seen me make heaps of new friends via this blog and helped keep family and friends, both overseas and Australia updated about the happenings of one very happy and confident wee boy. The blog has recorded all of Jarvis landmarks, both at home in New Zealand and in our new home of Australia, from six-months old to four and a half-years of age. However, over the last few months I felt that rather than poke a camera in Jarvis face 30 to 40-times a day (something I sensed was beginning to get on his nerves), I would rather put that time and effort into the boy himself, which I know is the right thing to do.

But, it's not the end, as I've become somewhat addicted to blogging, with both The World Of Jarvis Tahi and the much under updated The World Of Felix Rua, that I just have to continue. Our new blog won't be updated nearly daily, as was the case with Jarvis blog, but it will feature both Jarvis and Felix and their beautiful beloved Mumma Adrienne. Plus, I'm sure I can squeeze in the odd bit about their running crazy Father and Husband.

So firstly, 'Thank You' to YOU for visiting this site so often and the feedback and encouragement you've given. Secondly to Jarvis, who I hope when reading this in years to come, does not object to me stopping at 4 and a half years of his life. I feel somewhat guilty about this, but hopefully my beautiful Son, you would have enjoyed our time together much more. And thirdly, get your butts over to The World Of The Bakers and see what we have been up to.

Lee xox

Taking It Easy - Part Two

2009-01-08T19:23:00.003+11:00

I have to confess to be actually enjoying not blogging at the moment, instead, using my time to relax and savor having the whole whanua together for two whole weeks. Adrienne has often mentioned, that I tend to miss out on too much of the boys fun, as I'm so obsessed with getting pictures for the blog. So yeah, here are the few pictures we've taken over the last week.

Last weekend, while I recovered from two back to back 30k runs, Adrienne took the boys to the Thomas The Tank Engine rides at The Train Shed. Adrienne told me that they all had a wonderful time, spending about 4-hours riding around on the various miniature trains from the TV series.

Then from Monday to Tuesday we spent three wonderful days on a wee break. We took the boys to Jamberoo Action Park. They had a fantastic time and spent hours upon hours playing in the water parks. It was very hot too, so everyone was plastered in heaps of sunscreen, which was very much needed in the heat.

We stayed at quite a nice hotel in Wollongong. Jarvis really enjoys staying in hotels, which is funny, as both his parents probably never got to stay in a hotel until our late teens. Kids today, eh! Wollongong itself was a VERY strange place and I've never been hit up so much by drunks and druggies, trying to scrounge money before. The beach front was pleasant though, and in the evenings the whole whanau enjoyed digging fro treasure and chasing seagulls on the beach.

So yeah, that's a brief update of what we have been up to this week. Sorry I'm not updating daily through this holiday period, but I thought I'd give the whanau some of my attention, as opposed to my normal activity of sticking a camera in their faces all day long LOL.

House Dad.

Taking It Easy

2008-12-31T22:35:00.001+11:00

As it's the holiday season, I've kind of fallen into the relaxed mode and not been blogging very much, as some of you may have noticed. Instead, I've put the camera down and spent my time playing and enjoying family time, as Adrienne is off work for the next two-weeks. This is in part due to my new approach of the summer holidays to pace myself and slow things down heaps. The down side being that I've not kept up my regular blogging, but I'm sure we'll get back to it soon.

Anyway, over the last week Jarvis has been up to all sorts of things. Here's some of the bit and pieces he's been doing:

The boys had a really simple trip into the city, as it was nice and sunny. Rather than spend all over city time going into toy shops, we spent a fair portion of our time in Hyde Park. As it was sunny, Jarvis got to wear his new stylish hat, which he adores wearing.

On one of our easy days we walked to some local shops, where Jarvis bought a pack of trick flies. The intention was to trick his beloved Mumma, by putting them on her food. He did this when she came home, by placing them in bowl of strawberries, which he then gave his beloved Mumma.

I got bored of pulling an old piece of plastic over the garden table and chairs, in order to make a camp for the boys. So bright and early we set off for a walk to a local camping shop, who were having a sale. I purchased a really simple and easy to erect two-man tent for Jarvis and Felix. And how much did I pay for the tent? Just $22 - how good is that? Anyway, Jarvis set himself up inside with chairs, sleeping bag and Scooby Doo magazines and proclaimed himself to be Barry The Life Guard!

It was VERY hot on Adrienne's last day of work, meaning that she had to cycle home in the midday sun. It took her a lot longer than normal and as soon as she arrived, she plonked her whole body into one of the boys paddling pool. Jarvis thought it was hysterical, but Felix was a bit stunned!

And today, being Saturday 3rd January, the whanau had a wonderful trip to Sydney Zoo, which was packed to the rafters when we left at about noon. Sensibly, we arrived at 9am and enjoyed a fabulous day out. Jarvis was stoked to have his beloved Mumma along, as it's normally just Felix and myself, on weekday trips. Jarvis showed his beloved Mumma all the animals and never once let her out of his sight.

So yeah, the updates may be a bit few and far between over the next couple of weeks, as I'm going to be enjoying my beautiful family, and I'm sure no one will begrudge me that aye.

Happy New Year and lots of love from Jarvis, Adrienne, Felix and Lee xox

The City Farm

2008-12-28T18:59:00.002+11:00

Adrienne and the boys headed west today to visit The City Farm, a place Adrienne has wanted to go to for ages. I stayed behind to do chores, as I've been a bit grumpy over the last few days, so wasn't allowed to go.

It was only a 40-minute drive from the Inner West, so not major trek for them. They arrived by 9.30am with the heat already in the mid-twenties. Thankfully, Adrienne had covered the boys with sunscreen, hats and sunnies.

Jarvis was the leader for the day and opted to visit the baby animal section first, where they saw baby piglets, lambs, chicks, calves and kids, which I think is the correct term for a baby goat? Apparently Felix spent the whole time in the baby animal barn trying to catch a chicken!

Then it was off for a pony ride, with Jarvis telling anyone who would listen that he was a cowboy. Talking of cowboys, he was VERY impressed with the cowboys on site, who gave an amazing demonstration of their lasso skills.

Then the whanau took the tractor ride around the grounds, so that they could check out some more animals, which also included some native ones too, such as kangaroos and koala. From the tractor ride, it was straight into the cafe for a cooling ice block, before heading home. All in all, they spent about 4-hours at The City Farm and Adrienne says that anyone with Little People should go check it out.

House Dad.

Christmas Day 2008

2008-12-25T21:43:00.003+11:00

Jarvis had a lovely Christmas Day and was really well behaved and polite. There was no ripping open presents, throwing them aside and moving onto the next one. As he opened each one, he'd inspect it and then play with that toy for ages, before moving onto the next one. I think he opened his first present at about 7am and the final one at about 11am. And to be honest, we were very good with our present buying this year and the boys only got about 6-presents each. I was VERY impressed with Jarvis today and proud too.

Without doubt his favourite presents where the Hot Wheels Trick Tracks, that he's been asking for, for ages. He got three different sets, that all connect up and as each one was opened, he'd raise the box above his head and scream "Hot Wheels Trick Tracks, I love 'em."

Christmas lunch went well too, with Jarvis, helped at the end by his beloved Mumma, eating all of his food. He's still not a great eater, but I'm sure that will come with time. He even sat with wee Felix at their table with no bickering or fighting.

The last thing he did in the evening before going to bed, was to enjoy a glass of warm milk and honey and chat to his Nanny Ronnie in the U.K. He told Nanny all about his Trick Tracks and other presents, before heading off to bed, to no doubt dream about his cars :o)

House Dad.

Christmas Eve 2008

2008-12-24T20:14:00.002+11:00

We drove into Adrienne's work about mid-morning, so that we could pick up a few last minute things for Christmas and then give Jarvis beloved Mumma a ride home. Adrienne works in North Sydney, which is mainly office blocks, with little else for little people to do, hence our arrival into the office an hour early. I don't think Adrienne's co-workers were too fussed, as a bubbly wee curly haired boy running around added to the festive spirit. As we know, Jarvis certainly does not hold back when it comes to being confident and had the whole office entertained within minutes of his arrival.

I had bought some lunch for the whanau, so we moved out into the kitchen to eat it and keep the noise levels down. Jarvis was overjoyed to be joined by Carmen, Shelley and Christine, who are part of Adrienne's team. He told them jokes, pulled his best dance moves and had them in fits of laughter.

On the drive home we spotted a large plastic troll and decorative garden that has appeared underneath the local light railway bridge. We just had to pull over and check it out. Apparently, it's been set up as either a publicity stunt for a new TV show or by a group of people who reclaim boring wasted land and beautify it. Either way, we loved it. Here's some info that another local wrote: floating world views

Jarvis and I had a heap of jobs to do on Christmas Eve, such as put out carrots and water for Santa's reindeer, put up the Christmas stockings, leave out some milk and cookies for Santa and make sure the outside Christmas lights were on, so that Santa could land safely. It was such fun to do with him.

Jarvis also had a surprise visitor in the afternoon, his big sister Claire, who has just returned from China. Claire is such a sweetie and bought her little Brother's some presents. Jarvis was delighted to see Claire and talked about his big Sister all night long.

Then it was off to bed nice and early, with no fuss, for a lovely sleep to recharge the batteries for The Big Day!

House Dad.

A Group Of 'Beached As' Bros

2008-12-22T15:25:00.003+11:00

Jarvis reminded me first thing that we still had to get one last present for his beloved Mumma. So off we set to The Supa Centre to pick up a wee surprise for Adrienne. While we were in Dick Smith we got talking to some other shoppers, who I knew by their accents were Kiwi's too. It was so nice to talk with fellow Kiwi's about home and stuff. Who else would know about 'Beached As Bro'. Anyway, we hung with them for a while and even persuaded them to have their picture taken with us. It's a bugger, as I never got their names, so sorry if you guys are reading this. Plus, the eldest Daughter knew where you could buy the 'Beached As' t-shirts in Sydney, as Jarvis and I spotted them, but can we find the shop again! We wanted to get one for Adrienne.

After what seemed like an eternity in Toys R Us, the boys enjoyed a greasy rissole sandwich. I was chuffed, as both Felix and Jarvis sat at a table and ate half a sandwich each. This would be a first for me, as we always seem to be racing here and there and popping food in our mouths as we go along. To have both boys on their bums and eating was amazing.

Once back at home and with the two paddling pools nicely warmed up in the sun, we all put on our togs for a play in the water and sun. Again, it was nice to have the gazebo to play in, as the heat was really intense.

After a couple of hours we came inside to some quiet time, as Felix was due a sleep. After the boys were dried off and into their grundies, I gave them a bowl of fruit each, so that they could sit back and enjoy a movie. It got me to thinking about how good the boys lives are, having me as their servant all day long. It's a tough life for them aye!

House Dad.

Weekend Wrap 20 - 21 December 2008

2008-12-21T20:48:00.002+11:00

I'm starting to feel a bit bad about my Six Foot Track Marathon training on Saturday's now, as it's eating into our family time at weekends. For example, I left home at 5.00am on Saturday morning to run a 25k off road trail, that saw me return home at 10.00am. After the run, I'm so tired, that I need a couple of hours sleep. Adrienne is wonderful, as this is when she takes the boys out to give me some peace, but I just feel that I'm neglecting my boys. Last Saturday Jarvis would let go of me, as he's missed me so much.

Anyway, Saturday was pretty much the same for Jarvis and everyone else, as we just chilled out and caught up on sleep. Though Jarvis sleep was a little late in coming, as he'd begged me, with puppy dog eyes, for some Coke in his lemonade. I think I put too much in, as he went crazy!!!

No long 30k plus runs for me on Sundays for a while, as I want to spend time with the whanau. So with me around, we drove to the mall to do the last of our Christmas shopping. While I did the groceries, Adrienne and the boys filled up their baskets with toys in KMart. I came along an hour later, complained and put most of it back on the shelves. I was wasting my time, as they only put them back in their baskets when I wasn't looking!

One of the things that Adrienne bought for Jarvis was some ice-block makers. So while Adrienne and Felix had a nana nap, Jarvis and I made some ice-blocks. It was pretty cool too, as the molds were in the shape of space rockets.

As I put the ice-blocks into the freezer, Jarvis went on to open and survey the fridge for food, as is his want these days. He's never been a great eater, instead tending to be a grazer and eating here and there through the day. Funny that, as it's just like Adrienne and I. But yeah, I had a vision of him when he was at the fridge, of the teenager to come, along with his Brother emptying our fridge out daily.

Once Adrienne and Felix woke up we went out into the yard and put up the gazebo, that we bought last year. It was such a wonderful investment, as it means that the boys can play outside, even when it gets too hot. And the compliment our 'Tacky Trash' backyard, we added fairy lights to the gazebo, to go along with the plastics fantastic lawn.

Sunday nights dinner was a new experience for Jarvis, as we made Tacos. Why did I buy tacos and expect a four-year-old and sixteen-month-old to be able to eat them? They were yummy, but OMG, what a mess!

Dinner was concluded with Jarvis taking the last two pictures you'll see below, capping off a wonderfully relaxed weekend.

House Dad.

Friday Funday

2008-12-19T21:16:00.002+11:00

Jarvis was delighted to find a package on the front doorstep this morning. It was a present from Nanny Ronny and Granddad Steve in the UK. Along with some socks, where two Next hoodies for the boys, which despite the heat being in the mid-twenties, they insisted on wearing for a while. So thanks guys, they'll be a perfect fit come winter.

The summer holiday strategy of having a day at home then a day out seems to be working well and has kept me from burning out so far. Today was a day out day, which we spent at Little Dynamo's. As it was a sunny day, the place was pretty empty, which suited us just fine. It does tend to get a bit hot and stuffy in there on warm days, but keeping the boys hydrated fixes that, as boy do they sweat after 4-hours of non-stop playing.

Luckily we were all burnt out on our return and the boys both managed a three-hour sleep, which was perfect, as it was Adrienne's last Christmas function later that night, so I got in a wee nap too.

Two wonderful things happened for Jarvis at 6pm. The pizza arrived, which is a favorite thing for Jarvis AND his best buddy Becs came to play. Jarvis ADORES Becs, which is understandable, as she is one very cool woman. Becs always has a great yarn and it one of those non drama type people, who always seems to be happy and positive. So yeah, Jarvis was in heaven with pizza and Becs. And to make things even better, he got to show Becs his MarioKart skills.

So all in all, the day worked out perfectly an now we are in countdown mode until Christmas - Bring it on :o)

House Dad.

So Much For Pacing!

2008-12-17T14:27:00.002+11:00

Adrienne is out again tonight, so today should have been an easy one, as I'd planned to pace myself over the holidays if Adrienne was out late. However, we stayed at home yesterday and it drove me wild, staying inside with two constantly bickering boys. So I decided that we'd do a city day, which although quite tiring, is lots of fun and generally keep the boys entertained.

I'm a stickler for never breaking laws, choosing to set a good example to my boys. Today was one such instance where I asked for a train ticket for myself and one for Jarvis, as I was sure that he'd need one. He did and I'm glad I asked. It was his first ever train ticket and he got a buzz from holding it.

Jarvis instantly made a new buddy on the train called Layla, who was very nice. I'm always conscious of how loud and confident Jarvis is and sometimes hold him back from getting in peoples faces. Luckily though, I could spot that Layla was up for a hug and play with Jarvis. Layla was very taken with Jarvis hair and I think could have teased it all day long. It's always nice when Jarvis finds a friend on the train, as it starts the day off nicely.

We did all the general stuff that we do when in the city, with the majority of time being spent in Myers toys department. The boys had a great time checking out all the toys, while I enjoyed a coffee - bliss!

After Myers, wee Felix fell asleep, so Jarvis and I enjoyed a picnic in Hyde Park. It's not very often that I get Jarvis on my own during the day, but when I do, I really savor it.

So that was my day, which I'm adding to the blog at 2.39pm, as there's no way I'll have the energy tonight after looking after the boys all day.

House Dad.

The Boys Go Topless To Bondi

2008-12-15T18:41:00.002+11:00

We've seen the Hop On - Hop Off bus driving around Sydney since we moved here and have always thought that it would be a great idea for a day trip. So I called Sydney buses this morning and found out some details, such as fares, pick up points and times of departures. The easiest option for us was to get the Light Rail to Sky City Casino and pick it up from there, which is exactly what we did.

Jarvis was very excited about going on the buses from the moment I mentioned the idea yesterday. He frantically waved it down and jumped on full of excitement. The fare wasn't too bad either, just $30 for a 24-hour pass for me and nothing for the boys, as they are both under five.

It was great to sit up the front and see all the sights of Sydney from a different angle. Plus there was an audio commentary the whole way, that was packed with loads of interesting snippets of history.

At William Street we jumped off for the Sydney leg of the Hop On - Hop Off bus and waited about 15-minutes for the Bondi one to come along. This one took us all through the Eastern Suburbs and passed many of the places we played when we first moved to Sydney.

At Bondi Beach we alighted and spent 45-windy minutes on the beach. The surf was extremely high, with rightly so, no swimmers or surfers, as it was just awash with massive walls of foaming water. It looked very dangerous indeed.

Once back on the bus we made our way back, via a different route to the city, for our drop off at Sky City Casino. While we waited for Light Rail to take us back home, the boys played in the water feature, running in and out, seconds before the water came bursting out. Jarvis was very daring and escaped being drench by fractions of seconds.

It was a great day out, but to be honest, a little too much for one parent to look after two boys, as I was forever on my guard, holding both boys up to see stuff and making sure they were safe getting on and off the buses. Next time, I think I'll either get some help or do it with Adrienne.

House Dad.

Weekend Wrap 13th - 14th December 2008

2008-12-14T18:44:00.004+11:00

I drove back from a training run on Saturday morning, to arrive just in time to hand over the car to Adrienne and the boys, who were off for play date at The Powerhouse Museum. They were meeting up with Richard, one of Adrienne's workmates and his family, to go and check out the Star Wars exhibition. Adrienne has always been a big fan of Star Wars and it's rubbed off on Jarvis a wee bit too, as he knew who most of the characters were. After seeing the pictures, I'm a bit jealous and may have to take the boys back for a second look.

In the afternoon, while I was at the movies with some buddies, Adrienne and the boys chilled out and watched TV until I came home at 6pm. Jarvis really missed having me around and insisted on giving me heaps of cuddles, which I just soaked up. Come bedtime, he didn't want to sleep with his beloved Mumma, but with his Dah. This was most unusual, but greatly appreciated by me. I was only messing around on my PC, so turned it off and hopped into bed with my Jarvie. As I lay there, he clamped onto me so tight and kept telling me how much he'd missed me through the day, it was very touching.

This morning Adrienne had the great idea of driving out to Homebush for a swim. It was a pretty warm day too, so a wonderful idea, as Jarvis just loves water parks. The main fun area has a whirlpool, which the whole family had a wonderful time being dragged through. It was so nice to do something and share so many laughs as a family. Yet another touching moment for me.

After our swim we went outside to dry off in the sun and have a wee nibble. As we ate, I spotted what looked like some trapeze artists in the distance, so off we set to investigate. How cool, it was a complete trapeze set up, where you can train to swing and do all the tricks. We sat there for about 20-minutes and watched all the first timers go through their routines. It's something that I'll keep in mind for a fun activity for when the boys are a bit bigger.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing with heaps of sleeping and cuddles. Then in the early evening, there was a impromptu gathering of the neighbours, as we all sat down and had tea, glasses of wine and lemonade for the boys. It was so nice and so communal. Jarvis as ever, put on the entertainment for everyone.

Now it's Sunday night and my mind is starting to form ideas of some things we can do this week. So do check back over the next few days and see what we get up too.

House Dad.

Funday Friday

2008-12-12T21:24:00.001+11:00

At the start of the week, as I was driving along and chatting with Jarvis, I asked him about how he was enjoying his long summer holiday. He said it was fun, but also said 'I miss Olly, I'm broken hearted." It was so upsetting, that I just had to sms Jane and see if we could get together for a play. So it was that we paid Olly, Jane, Madison and Zach a visit first thing this morning.

Jarvis was stoked to see Olly, as he'd been talking all night and morning about the play date. No sooner were we at the gate, when Jarvis was shouting at the top of his voice "Olly, I'm here, I've missed you." Then the boys were into some serious playing with first the Wii and then outside to get good and dirty as only two four-year olds could!

Olly even had a Christmas present for Jarvis, which was wonderful. Jarvis especially liked the On The Go Caddy, which was a carry case full of pens, pencils and crayons. Believe me, since getting this present, it's been used hard out!

As with all good things though, they must come to an end and there were lots of tears when it was time to say goodbye to Olly. The tears where quelled though, when Jane promised Jarvis that he could come back again and again over the summer holidays. Woohoo :o)

Friday night was cool for Jarvis too, as Scott and Amy from next door came round to check out Jarvis Mario Kart game. Scott was a bit of a gamer 'back in the day' and really had fun playing. So much so, that I think he'll be back again and again. Boys and their toys eh!

House Dad.

New PJ's And Sunnies

2008-12-11T20:34:00.003+11:00

Jarvis started off his day dAncing, as he pronounces it, with his Aussie accent. It's not darnce as Ade and myself would say, but dance with a strong emphasis on the A. Funny. Anyway, he and Felix like to dance to Boogie Beebies in the morning, a programme that screens on Cbeebies, the network that caters for 0- 6-years old on Foxtel.

I had some domestic things to do at the mall this morning, but we took some time out to look at toys and buy some PJ's and sunnies for Jarvis. Jarvis sunnies are Transformer ones and he's convinced that they make him run faster, as he showed anyone who would listen at the mall. Felix also scored some Thomas sunnies.

I picked up a two pack of size 5 PJ's for Jarvis, for $29, with an additional 30% off. Jeez, I love a bargain :o) These ones have short sleeves...

...and these ones are sleeveless, which Jarvis just loves, as he's convinced that he has enormous muscles. He'll flex his arms at every possible opportunity, which is always funny.

Then it was onto some bed bouncing to burn off lunch. Felix was allowed to wear one of the PJ tops for a while. It was only for a while, as we didn't want him to get used to the feel of new clothing against his skin. The poor wee mite lives in hand-me-downs, and if he's lucky, his Mumma will update his blog once a month - poor forgotten second child!!!

House Dad.

Jarvis Thinks Jackson Is the Bizz

2008-12-10T19:07:00.002+11:00

After only owning Mario Kart for less than 24-hours, Jarvis is now an expert! From his initial dire first 19-minute lap, he is now doing somersaults, back flips and speeding around the courses, far faster than me. It just proves how well these Wii are set up for little people. Or is it that I'm getting slow and decrepit!

After Jarvis was wrenched away from his Wii, we drove over to see my friend Belinda and her wee ones Jackson (6), Evie Rose (4) and Cissy (18-months) Evie Rose is in the same year as Jarvis at school, but in the other class, while Jackson is a big guy and goes upstairs at I.G.S. Cissy and Felix are play buddies in the waiting room, while Belinda, Jane, Emma and myself, bitch and moan about our day :o)

Anyway, this morning was the first time that Jarvis had met Jackson and I think there was a bit of hero worship going on, as Jackson is very cool and a Big Fella. I was impressed too, as it's nice to know that at about 6, if we are on track with Jarvis, you get a very decent young man like Jackson come out the other end.

What impressed Jarvis most about Jackson was the cut he acquired on his elbow in the playground. It was a pretty decent graze and oozed plenty of blood. Now I just need Jarvis to be as stoic about injuries as Jackson.

After messing around in the playground, we went back to Belinda's for a cup of tea. Well, we would have, but Belinda didn't have any milk or tea bags, so yeah! Joking aside, it was great to have some adult time talking with Belinda and the wee ones all played pretty well together too. Felix also snuck in a crafty cuddle with Belinda, who along with Jane and Emma, are the only people outside of Adrienne and I, that he'll go to.

Just before we left, Jarvis got his final dose of big guy action, with some kung fu moves on the trampoline. However, as we left, Jarvis got all emotional and really didn't want to leave his buddies behind. Belinda calmed him down though, as she promised him that he could come back another day. he was stoked and now has an action figure named after Jackson!

House Dad.

Two-Days Down - Seven-Weeks To Go!

2008-12-09T22:01:00.003+11:00

Adrienne is out with clients tonight, so I've just put in a straight 13-hour day entertaining the boys. I hope that this update makes sense, as it's now after 10 and I'm stuffed.

Once the boys were bathed and dressed, I distracted them with some water melon, while I got the day bag ready for our trip to Bondi Mall, to buy Adrienne's Xmas present. It's great when they sit down together nice and quietly.

When we returned, we found that our delivery of nappies had arrived. The boys opened the boxes and played with the packets of plastic wrapped nappies for ages. They made walls, steeping stones and a bloody mess!

As Jarvis is not doing his holiday programme, we are saving $70 a day. I thought that I'd use some of the saved money to by the boys (and me) and new Wii game (Adrienne won't know this until she reads the blog on the way home). I bought Mario Kart and Jarvis loves it. To be honest, he's pretty awful, but I'm sure with practice, he'll be whipping my butt in a days.

Another laboriously slow lap by Jarvis, who even stops during races for a rest, as apparently, Mario looks a bit worn out, so needs to stop for a while. This results in some laps taking about 12-minutes!

We found a packet of old sparklers in the cupboard, so as soon as the first bit of dusk fell, we were outside playing. Jarvis spelling is pretty good and he wrote HOT with one of his sparklers. Yet another hint form the wee guy that he wants Hot Wheels for Xmas!

House Dad - Off to bed :o)

The First Day Of The Summer Holidays

2008-12-08T20:20:00.002+11:00

Jarvis started off his day by being his beloved Mumma's hero, by squashing and flushing away a large cockroach, that had scampered into the house overnight. They are pretty yucky things, but all of our doorways are sprayed with killer, so they are pretty much buggered within minutes of entering the house. It still takes quite a brave person to pick a still squirming one up and dispose of it.

I had promised Adrienne that I would take things easy over the next seven-week school holiday period. With this in mind, we had no real plans to do much today, except for a few wee errands that needed doing. Our first was to drop the car off with the valet, as it was in dire need of a clean up. This meant that we had a spare hour, so with Felix asleep, Jarvis and I hung around the Italian Forum, where we bumped into a visiting group of Japanese school kids. They all wanted their picture taken with Jarvis, which was fun, but as there was about 200-hundred of them, Jarvis soon began to tire of the picture taking. He did impress them though, as he left by saying "Matane", which they were blown away with.

In the afternoon, we just hung around the house and sorted out the remaining toy boxes that we started sorting out yesterday. It was fun for the boys, as they got to have ALL their toys in the one room, but frustrating for me, as they kept mixing up the toys! In the end though, I got all the toys into their own boxes and up into the loft.

When Jarvis beloved Mumma came home, we spent a few minutes out in the backyard, as we needed to pick some of the vegetables that Jarvis Nanny Ronnie set up for him. Jarvis and Adrienne ate a couple of tomatoes and picked some zucchini and beans. Now I'll have to find some imaginative way to cook them, so that the boys will eat them. Not big veggie fans my boys!

House Dad.

The Big Toy Clean Out

2008-12-07T20:12:00.002+11:00

The toy rotation policy has always worked well for us, keeping toys up in the loft and changing them over when the boys get bored of the current ones. There has been a wee problem though, in that sometimes bits get put in the wrong box, and then you find you try and set something up, only to find that you are missing pieces. With this in mind, I thought that just before Christmas, we'd get ALL the toys down and sort them out.

So it was that Adrienne lowered the loft ladder for our assault on the Big Toy Clean Out. Adrienne, with the assistance of two eager boys, passed all the boxes down to me, where I tipped them out onto the playroom and kitchen floor. When they came down, the look on Adrienne's face was priceless, as I think Adrienne had no idea that they had that many toys.

So we set out lines of empty boxes, so that we could sort through the toy mountain and try and put the correct toys into the correct boxes. We had boxes for Lego, plastic building blocks, wooden blocks, Playmobil, Planet Protectors, Thomas The Tank Engine, Hot Wheels, Play Doh, Mr. Potato Head, toy soldiers, kitchen/food toys, Imaginext toys, pirate and knights, animals, action/superhero figurines, marbles, big cars, airplanes/space toys and dress up items.

Adrienne is not good at clearing items out, whereas I can be ruthless and have no qualms about throwing stuff into the recycling/charity boxes. I'm just not sentimental like that, which is strange for such a sensitive soul as me!

So yeah, we are about 80% of the way through sorting them out. We would have finished earlier, but Adrienne was too overwhelmed by my cold blooded approach, to help at the end. I'll finish the rest tomorrow, with the six boxes of recycled toys, reaching about eight full boxes hopefully. And Jarvis will be fine with it, as I've told him that the more toys we get rid of, the more new toys we can replace them with.

House Dad.

Thursday, Friday And Saturday

2008-12-06T19:09:00.005+11:00

Question: Before you read this update, can you guess what the picture below is? The answer and revealing picture is at the very bottom of this update

This has been Jarvis final week at pre-school at I.G.S. Like most parents, we can't believe that it's flown by so quickly. It's been a great year and all in all, Jarvis has adapted to life at school pretty well. There have been a couple of hiccups, but no more than any other little person. He's learned so much this last year, as we found out from the folder we were presented with on his last day, that outlined all his developments.

Friday was the big last day, that included the pre-school and transition year concert. As with last year, Jarvis was not at all happy to perform, which is amazing, when you consider that he's such a confident and outgoing lad. He did about half the songs, but much preferred to sit on his beloved Mummas lap and watch.

This morning I had a club run from Otford to Bundeena, which was very technical and just under 30ks in length. I left the house at 4.30am to catch the train to the start down on the South Coast. Sadly, I had to pull out at the half way stage, due to an ankle turn. If I had to scale the twist from 1 - 10, it was only about 4, but as I hobbled along, I kept thinking to myself, If this gets worse, how am I going to look after my boys? I could have finished in a lot of pain, but I have to remember that my priority is to my boys and support Adrienne in her career. So yeah, common sense prevailed and I'll just rest and run another day.

Anyway, Adrienne and the boys came down to meet me at Bundeena, which is a wee town in the Garrawarra National Park. It has a beautiful wee beach, so the boys put on their cozzies for a play on the sand. Jarvis even found a hermit crab, something none of us had seen before. He named it Frank and was very careful with it, until he released it back into the sea.

House Dad.

Answer: It's two wee boys wearing headlamps and sitting on the front porch, waiting for their beloved Mumma to come home.

It's All About Pace

2008-12-03T21:34:00.002+11:00

Jarvis must have had such a great time with his Dah over the last couple of days, as he didn't want me to leave him at pre-school this morning. He's only ever been that way once before, and that was when he was a bit under the weather. Anyway, I bargained with him and said that I'd bring him a wee gift after school. He asked for a Hot Wheels set, but hey, that would cost at least $60 and I'd only planned, and eventually did, only spend $3. I'm such a tight-arse!

Adrienne is working again tonight, so today has been all about pace. This meant that I wore Felix out until about 10am, then slept with him for a couple of hours. I've learned that it's no good me being tired and grumpy at night if the boys are fighting. It's far better that I'm fresh and patient.

Felix and I picked Jarvis up at 3pm and while we waited by the car for the air-con to kick in, I gave Jarvis his tiny gift. I told him that I was going to buy him Hot Wheels, but I bumped into Santa at the mall, and he said that he'd already bought if for Jarvis for Christmas. It didn't matter, as Jarvis was happy enough with his mini thumb wrestlers.

After dinner I ran the bath and let the boys put in the bubble bath. Both boys, thanks to their Dah, get eczema, so have never been able to have bubble baths, as the soaps would make their skin flare up. However, today I discovered some Sebamed bubble bath, that is perfect for their skin. It's the same brand as the shampoo they use, so perfect. They were stoked to have bubbles and had a great time playing in them.

After about 6.30pm, I give pointers that bedtime was coming up and by 7.30pm, both boys are keen to hit the bed. Adrienne has done a wonderful job of getting them to bed over the years, and there's never any drama. I got them into bed and both asleep in about 12-minutes. I was so happy with myself. Anyway, as you can see from the picture, they are both well asleep and I'm just about to enjoy my first non-disturbed cup of tea of the day - joy!

House Dad.

Long, Long Day

2008-12-02T18:51:00.001+11:00

At 5.45am I was running up a very steep 300-metre long hill in Lilyfield as part of my weekly hill training session. To take my mind off of the pain I decided to think about how I could entertain the boys today with all sorts of fantastic options. By the tenth and final hill climb, I was certain that I'd have no energy left for the boys and that we'd have an at home day. However, within being home for an hour, I just knew that we would need to get out for the day, or we'd all go mad.

So it was that we found ourselves heading into the city on the train. It may sound boring, but our city days are so much fun. There's no plan, just a case of wandering to see where we end up. We did have a wee mission on though to find Jarvis a new hat. However, after visiting a few shops, Jarvis lost interest and gave up on the task.

I had to grab a picture of the boys as we made our way down George Street, as it was so typical of the way we lead our lives. The three of us where all eating as we moved along. I had some kai in the hood of the stroller, Felix had some in a little stash to his side and Jarvis, sitting down on his skateboard at the rear, had his snacks on his lap. It's so us on our days out - too busy to stop and sit to eat!

We did all our normal haunts ending up on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. It's quite a fun place to play, though the security guards are always growling at us not to climb the slopes and to stop running around. Kill joys!

Before we jumped onto the train for the ride home, we stopped at an ice cream shop and bought two pots of ice-cream. Jarvis went for orange sorbet and I went for raspberry ripple, with the view of sharing mine with Felix. Totally out of the blue, Jarvis started feeding Felix his ice cream. I was stunned! What a nice thing to do. I think though, it may have had something to do with me mentioning only five-minutes earlier that Santa was watching his every move!

Anyway, it's now 8.45pm and Adrienne is out with clients until late. Both the boys are fast asleep after their hectic day and on reflection, I'm so glad that we went out and had so much fun.

House Dad.

House Dad The Geek

2008-12-01T19:13:00.007+11:00

Jarvis was very excited today, as being the first of December, meant that both he and Felix got to open day one of their advent calendars. What better way for a young man to start his day, than a nice chocolate rush to kick things off.

It's Jarvis first advent calendar that he's been aware of, that involves, as they do, opening one window a day. He's been really good and only asked once this afternoon if he could open another window.

It's no secret that I LOVE my Garmin Forerunner 305, the running watch that tells me how fast I'm running, how long for, the calories I burn, the rate of my heart and a gazillion other things. For ages now I've thought about wearing while on a day trip with the boys, so I can see just how far we travel. It's a GPS watch, so once home, I plugged it in and saw just how far we plodded on such a hot day.

The picture below is of a parrot, that we saw in the large rain forest cage. Jarvis insisted that I take a picture of it for his Granddad Steve. So here you go Steve, a picture of a parrot from Jarvis, enjoy.

Jarvis is getting pretty good at looking after wee Felix. They do fight often, but there are special moments like the one below, when he took Felix's hand and explained about the next bit of the zoo that we were about to visit. I think they'll be great buddies when they get older.

The boys are so lucky to have such an organised Dah, who packs not only lunch, but a full set of bathing cozzies, so they can have a swim in the water section of the zoo. I'm joking of course, but it is nice that they can cool down on such hot days, as today.

Jarvis taught Felix how to knock drink bottles together and say "cheers". Just look at the total admiration on Felix's face for his big Brother. Felix just thinks that Jarvis is the coolest guy ever.

And here it is, the satellite view of our trip to the zoo, from my GPS running watch. It's just over 4.5-kilometres, which on a hot stinking day like today, is quite a bit. What I did not get is a picture of the gradient before I deleted it. It's a mission of a climb pushing Felix in a pram, with Jarvis attached to the rear on the skateboard. Believe me, Sydney Zoo is on a very, very steep hillside and it's a major effort to climb. But hey, I'd do anything for my boys, as I love them so much.

Click on the image to see how far we (I) walked.

House Dad.

Another Mega Update

2008-11-30T16:50:00.003+11:00

I have to confess that I considered giving up blogging for late November and all of December, as we move into Adrienne's crazy season, which sees Adrienne out most nights with clients. This coupled with the increase in my training for the next big run, is making it hard to find the time to blog, so apologies or another bulk update.

Thursday

Our good friend Manal's husband Hector has was away on business, so we decided to have dinner out on Thursday night. Our family met up with Manal, Tyler and Cameron, plus another running buddy Danni and her little people came along, for what was a very noisy dinner date. It was delightful chaos at the table, with food being passed here and there and a noise level that was amazing.

After dinner we moved onto the park, so that the little people could burn off some energy, while the adults had a chat. It was such a nice feeling to be around friends and family and made Sydney feel a little bit more like home for us.

Friday

The weather was pretty awful in Sydney on Friday, so after school we just played around the house. At about 5pm a huge thunderstorm erupted over Sydney, bringing with it a fantastic hail storm. The boys and myself sat out on the front porch and watched the whole event unfold. It was so spectacular. On the downside, as we were enjoying the show, poor Adrienne was cycling home in it and got soaked.

Saturday

I did a massive cross country run on Saturday morning, so when I returned, Adrienne kindly took the boys out, so that I could have a catch up sleep, as I had to look after the boys on my own later that night. Adrienne took the boys to Toys R Us, as Jarvis wanted to start his Christmas list. It was basically Hot Wheels or Hot Wheels, as that is what he's into presently. Adrienne was amazed to see that Jarvis had written the word HOT on his list. What a clever wee guy.

Sunday

This morning we met up with the majority of Jarvis school mates and parents for the annual Christmas picnic. It was nicely located for us too, as it was in our local park. After a few days of awful weather, it turned out to be a lovely day and we all enjoyed catching up with the other little people and parents, in a more relaxed atmosphere.

House Dad.

The Boys Meet Santa

2008-11-26T18:44:00.003+11:00

Here is the picture of the boys from yesterdays trip to see Santa at David Jones department store.

House Dad.

Same City, New Places

2008-11-25T19:13:00.003+11:00

I was keen to take the boys into the city today, but felt like we should see some new sites. So it was that we found ourselves in the main Catholic Church in the city centre. It was Jarvis first time in a Church (sorry Great Grandad Jack) and he wasn't that impressed (sorry again Great Grandad Jack) but brightened up when I told him that inside one of the casks was the bones of an old man. He was most impressed and insisted that they were the bones of a Pirate (sorry, sorry, sorry again)

From the Church we walked around the area known for all its outdoor and camping shops, as I'm training for a very long cross country run next year. The boys loved the shops that we went into, as they were full of climbing ropes, ice picks, tents and heaps of other cool things. I did not buy anything, but just looked and dreamed.

Our next stop was the Queen Victoria Building, as we wanted to go into HobbyCo for a play. Luckily for us, the ridiculously large Scalextric track they have was free, so all the boys played with it for ages.

Our final destination was David Jones department store, to check out their Christmas windows. It was either the festive windows or the trip to the Church, that softened me up, as within 20-minutes I found myself sitting next to Santa! How did that happen? I'm the most humbug and cynical person when it comes to Christinanity and Christmas, but when your boys get so excited about seeing Santa, I just caved in. So yeah, Santa it was and I'm glad I did, as Jarvis nearly peed himself with excitement waiting outside Santa's door, which just made my day.

House Dad.

Noise Noise Noise

2008-11-24T19:32:00.002+11:00

We had a trip out this morning to The Powerhouse Museum, which was, as ever, heaps of fun. On the way back though, Felix fell fast asleep, which was great, as I got to cuddle up with Jarvis for about and hour as we watched TV, trying to make as little noise as possible, so as not to wake Felix.

Once Felix was awake we decided to cross the road and visit Sarah our neighbour who is now on maternity leave. Sarah had been baking, so the boys scored some wonderful chocolate cup cakes. At the time I thought nothing of it, just two boys eating chocolate cup cakes, however when we returned from Sarah's, all hell was unleashed.

I went into the kitchen to prepare dinner and plonked Felix next to Jarvis, who was at the time reading his SpongeBob Squarepants magazine. Within minutes of me leaving the room, the noise level increased 100-fold. Normally the boys tend to get on each others nerves, but fueled by Sarah's chocolate cake, the boys were full of energy and eager to play with each other. The noise was so loud, I did think about going in and asking them to calm down, but the giggles were so beautiful, that I let them get on with it.

Twenty-minutes passed, which was enough time for me to fully prepare dinner, before I went back into the lounge. OH MY GOD! I found the room completely turned upside down, with two semi-naked boys standing on the corner arms of the sofa's screaming their heads off! It was so funny, but so dangerous at the same time. I just had to get Felix down straight away, as it would have been about a 60cm drop onto the wooden floor, had he fallen.

But yeah, I was delighted that they were playing so well, be it rather dangerously. I just hope that the years ahead are full of the giggles I heard today between the boys, as it was just magical.

House Dad.

It's Christmas Already In Our House!

2008-11-23T19:02:00.002+11:00

Christmas has come early to our house this year and I'm not too sure why? It might have something to do with the very unseasonal weather we are having at the moment. Gone are the late spring temperatures, replaced now by biting winds and rain. It really did feel like a northern hemisphere winter today.

So with this in mind, Adrienne and the boys set off to a local mall to buy some new Christmas tree decorations. I was having a sleep in, as I picked up a tummy bug, however I did have to pop up into the loft to get down the Christmas tree while they were out.

Adrienne had a wonderful time with the boys, who went on all the rides at the mall. They truly must have thought it was Christmas, as I refuse to waste $2 on a ride that last about 120-seconds - Bah Humbug!

On their return home they found the Christmas tree erected and ready to be decorated. I was still sleeping, but awoke to the commotion of two very excited boys. It was division of labor, at its best, as I put hooks on the decorations, which were then passed by Jarvis to his beloved Mumma, who hung them up. The final process was completed by Felix who then pulled them all off again. It's funny, as we had exactly the same problem with Jarvis a couple of years ago.

Oh, and there was some debate as to where the Christmas tree should stand. Adrienne and myself got our way, as Jarvis suggestion of putting it smack bang in the centre of our tiny lounge was ridiculous. When ask why he wanted it there, he replied 'So when we have people over, we can all dance and sing around it." How sweet.

House Dad.

Bumper Update Due To Adrienne's Crazy Season

2008-11-22T16:54:00.004+11:00

It's been very tricky to update the blog this week, as we've now moved into Adrienne's crazy season for work. On top of her already busy workday, Adrienne will have to attend lots of work functions in the lead up to Christmas. This means that I can't do my normal thing in the evening and let Adrienne take over with the boys, while I waste time kicking back on Facebook and the countless running forums I frequent. So yeah, below is a brief update of the last four-days.

On Wednesday, Jarvis painted the Christmas molds that he bought and made on Monday. They came out really well, but Jarvis decided that he'd disregard the traditional colour schemes, as shown on the box and go for earthy tones, namely brown and green!

Without a doubt the highlight of dropping Jarvis off at school for me, is chatting to the friends I've made there. The parents I chat with are Belinda, Emma and Jane, who are really cool and on days when I only get to chat to adults during drop off and pick up times, I hang out for these prized few minutes. Anyway, one of my chats with Belinda this week was over a table of Play Doh with Jarvis and Belinda's Daughter Evie-Rose. While Belinda and I chatted and regressed with handfuls of Play Doh, our youngest offspring Felix and Cissy also played together in the background.

Adrienne and myself were joking in the week about how good Jarvis packed lunches are, compared to the ones we had as kids. Adrienne used to be sent off to school with jam sandwiches and I had mint sauce ones. But yeah, I spend lots of time searching the shelves of the supermarket for fresh new ideas, so I can keep his lunch box entertaining.

Jarvis is still a very tricky eater and dinner time for me can be somewhat of a nightmare. However, I struck gold this week with a dish called 'Volcano Island'. It's mashed potato and kumara (sweet potato) filled with a mince meat in pasta sauce. For effect, it's topped off with tomato sauce to represent lava. For the first time ever Jarvis said to me while eating "I love it Dah." OMG, I was so happy, as that's a first :o)

Still on the subject of food, Jarvis made dinner on Thursday night. Our wee man made pizza, with the ingredients that I'd prepared. I think getting Jarvis involved with the making of dinner is a great way to get him to eat it. Anyway, it was pretty tasty and he had a great time making them.

I left home at 5am this morning for a club run with Sydney Striders and returned to find an empty house! It was good, as I got to have a sleep, but I did really miss my babies. They were having a wonderful time though with their Mumma. Adrienne took them on the bus, something I never do, for a trip to see Santa at Myers department store. Adrienne said that Jarvis was wonderful and had a long and civilized chat with Santa, telling him how he's going to be a good boy and hopefully get some Hot Wheels sets for Christmas.

And here's my beautiful babies with Santa at Myer's. Don't they look fabulous.

House Dad.

Three-Hours To Wear Out The Boys

2008-11-18T13:18:00.004+11:00

I've pretty much given up on the weather forecasts here in Sydney, as they never seem to be right. At least back home in Auckland you know that it's going to rain, shine, snow, thunder and shine again, all within a couple of hours. Anyway, today's forecast that I checked at 8am was for showers, so I decided on an inside activity for the morning. I asked Jarvis what sort of wet weather thing he'd like to do and of course he said Little Dynamo's. So it was.

It's quite a pricey morning out, as it costs $28 for the three of us, plus at least another $15 for food and drinks. Not good for a tight arse like myself, but the boys love it, so yeah. Plus, this morning they played for over 3-hours, so we got our monies worth. I think we were first in and left well after all the people that came in at opening time with us left.

Jarvis being Jarvis was very social and was off most of the time playing with his new buddies. He really is into people and makes friends so well. I think it's a combination of Adrienne's confidence and my love of making friends, that has turned him out this way. Anyway, he rocks up to people without a care and introduces himself and says "C'mon, let's play."

So yeah, not much else to report, except to say that we had a wonderful time at Little Dynamo's and all three boys were exhausted after three-hours of non-stop playing.

House Dad.

Catching Up With Siggy

2008-11-17T20:07:00.002+11:00

Last night I was just wasting time on Facebook, when I noticed that our friend Siggy came online. We started chatting and decided that Monday would be a great day to catch up, as the boys and I had not seen Siggy for a long, long time.

We drove over nice and early and arrived at Siggy's place, where the boys made the most of her springy bed and had lots of fun bouncing around on it. Then, as it was a pretty dull day, we thought we'd go to a local mall to avoid any rain that might be coming our way.

I don't like using malls as an entertainment option for my boys, however this was a new mall to us and luckily had quite a good play area. It was also a great opportunity for Siggy and I to catch up on all the gossip on how Betty and Evie, our old neighbours and the girls Siggy looked after, were doing.

It was a wonderful morning and all the boys loved seeing Siggy again, as she had been a major part of our home life over the past year. Fingers crossed, we should see more of Siggy in the future.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the yard, as the rain that was predicted, failed to materialise. We went searching for and found some creepy bugs, played catch and running races and generally had a wonderful boy time. The boys also enjoyed an outside bath with lots and lots of bubbles.

The final act of the day was to make some plaster molds of Christmas decorations, from a kit that I picked up at the mall in the morning. Jarvis had been pestering me all afternoon to make them, however, I had to wait for Adrienne to get home to look after Felix, as the wee guy would have wanted to help out and that would have been a shocker.

House Dad.

Weekend Wrap 15th - 16th November 2008

2008-11-16T19:44:00.003+11:00

The weather has been pretty lousy in Sydney this weekend, so Saturday was an at home day for the boys. Adrienne had to go into work, so we missed her heaps, but did our best to keep ourselves occupied. We pretty much spent the day chilling, with a late bath and then lots of playing with toys and each other. It's not something I'm particularly good at, but I did quite enjoy just being with the boys and playing it by ear.

Jarvis and I sneaked out early on Sunday morning to McDonald's, as the wee guy has developed a taste for their pancakes covered in maple syrup. Jarvis was stoked that the girls at McDonald's remembered him from last week and that the pancakes where his favorite. I think we've established a bit of a routine there now.

After his bath, Jarvis spent ages with this weekends obsession, his Hot Wheel motorbike set. He got the set from Jane, the twins Mom for his birthday and after a few weeks, it got put aside, as toys do. However, yesterday he asked if he could go into the loft to find it. We did, and Jarvis set about building ramps, jumps and obstacles for the motorbikes to jump. He spent ages playing with it on his own and it reminded me of the fun boys can have playing cars/motorbikes.

In the afternoon the weather picked up, so Adrienne took the boys to a local school play ground to get some fresh air. The boys had a wonderful time, with Jarvis taking over the camera for a while and taking some wonderful pictures. Sadly, he was not holding the camera when Felix came out of the bushes dragging a dead crow! Adrienne in her shocked state didn't either, which is a shame, as it would have been the first thing I would have done ha ha.

Once they returned (without the dead crow) I started cooking dinner, which tonight was enchiladas. Tonight's enchiladas where to be special ones, as they included the zucchini that Jarvis had grown in the veggie plot that his Nannie Ronnie set up for him when she was over from the UK. Jarvis ate all his dinner, which is quite a feat, helped mostly by our enthusiasm to be eating something that our little man had grown.

House Dad.

Plaster Cast - Brothers - Fruits Of Labour

2008-11-12T19:51:00.003+11:00

Felix and myself were passing one of those shops today where you can go in and paint the plaster cast figures. Well it got me to thinking that we could do that at home and fortunately, later on I passed a shop that sold plaster and bought a 3-kilogram bag. After picking up Jarvis from school, we rushed home to test it out. We didn't have much of an idea what to do, so experimented with pushing a Lightning McQueen car into some Play Doh. Once into the mold, it was put up out of Felix's reach and left until Jarvis beloved Mumma came home.

It was after this that I saw the most tender moment between Jarvis and Felix. Ninety percent of the time they get on each others nerves, but while Jarvis was having some quiet time watching TV, Felix climbed up onto the sofa and laid with him. I really expected Jarvis to cry out 'Dah, Felix is annoying me, take him away", but no. Jarvis just lay there, with Felix next to him. It was beautiful.

When Adrienne arrived home it was time to check our plaster cast mold. Jarvis and Adrienne slowly peeled away the Play Doh to reveal a pretty good cast of Lightning McQueen, which Jarvis has since coloured with felt tipped pens. So now I'm thinking that we should see if we can buy some proper molds and have more fun.

And finally, Jarvis waters his veggie plot every night and was delighted to find two ready to pick zucchini tonight. He loved picking them off the plant and hopefully, tomorrow night we'll get to eat them, though I'm not sure he'll like them. May be I can cover them in mayonnaise or tomato sauce!

House Dad.

Home Day - I Love My Becs

2008-11-11T19:50:00.001+11:00

After our easy day yesterday, I thought we'd try and attempt our very first total Home Day. It started off OK, with a nice lazy session of laying on the couch watching TV, followed by a bath. However, by 10.30am I was busting to get out, as were the boys, so drove to a local camping shop and then onto a toy shop for something to do. The final part of our trip out was to grab some McDonald's, as the boys were getting on so well.

After lunch had gone down, we made the most of the gorgeous weather and played in the backyard for a couple of hours. I had filled both the wee pools up in the morning, so by 1pm they were as warm as a bath. We set up one pool to splash and play in and the other was set up with a slide going into it. We also emptied out some household cleaning bottles, so that we could squirt water at bugs. I had an immense flashback to when I was growing up and living in Welling. I vividly remembered begging my Mum for the washing up liquid bottle, so that I could have water fights with the other kids in our street.

By about 3pm we had, had enough of the sun, so moved inside to cool down and have some quiet time. After a while though, we got bored and for some unknown reason decided to suck our hair up into the vacuum cleaner! It was great fun and both boys loved it. Jarvis hair was the best to do though, as Felix and I have straight hair that flops back down again, whereas Jarvis goes into a mad Afro. It was hysterically good fun.

Just as we were beginning to get bored we had a surprise visit from Jarvis favorite buddy Becs, who has been overseas for the last 5-months. Jarvis tells us that he loves Becs all the time and even talks about her in his sleep. It's not surprising, as Becs is a great person and so good with Jarvis and Felix. Anyway, Becs turned up with some presents for the boys from her trip. They both scored a t-shirt and stacks of lollies, which they devoured. Once they overdosed on sugar, Becs buggered off, leaving me with two crazy boys!

Still a great day though :o)

House Dad.

Keeping It Local

2008-11-10T19:31:00.002+11:00

One of my running buddies said after reading Jarvis blog "Do you guys ever stay at home and relax?" Well, no. I just need the boys to get out and be active, plus it keeps me sane too, as staying at home drives me wild. However, there is some merit in her comment, as over the weekend the boys had lots and lots of fun, so today I decided that we'd keep it local.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, reaching about 28-degrees, so something outside and fun was required for us. And where better to go on a sunny day than our local park. It's only about 5-minutes drive away and we never really make the most of it to be honest. It has an amazing play ground, heaps of trees, a wee river and water front, just perfect for rock throwing boys.

We started off in the play ground, where within minutes of entering, Jarvis has introduced himself and Felix to everyone. This is a result of trying to teach Jarvis about stranger danger a few weeks back. We told him not to talk to people whose name he did not know. So now he introduces himself to everyone, with the rational being that as he knows their names, they are no longer strangers to him.

After the park we had a spot of lunch in the wee building that Jarvis likes to call the castle. It's a nice shady spot and just perfect for lunch. It was so nice too, that both boys sat down for a full 10-minutes and cleaned up all their lunch before heading off for another play.

This time it was down to the waters edge, to do what we do best in Bi-Centennial Park and that's throw the biggest rocks we can find into the water. Even wee Felix has gets in on the act now and loves to copy Jarvis in rock throwing. Though Jarvis and I make sure to give Felix LOTS of space when he's throwing rocks, as his direction is not that great. It only adds to the stacks of laughs we have on our days out.

House Dad.

Weekend Wrap 8 - 9 November 2008

2008-11-09T19:21:00.003+11:00

Saturday 8th November

Jarvis, Adrienne and Felix drove north on Saturday morning to attend Dane's second birthday. I could not make it, as I was tired after a very early and long bush run with my club. Looking at the pictures, it looks like I missed out on a great time and some great food. Dane's parents are Chinese/Vietnamese and I remember the food at Dane's first birthday was AMAZING lat year. Did they bring me some back - NO!

At the party the guests had to make pizzas, their own chefs hats and participate in loads of fun games. Jarvis had a wonderful time and came home absolutely shattered.

Bugger, I'll have to go next year to score some yummy food ;o)

Sunday 9th November

Jarvis best buddy at school is Olly, who he just adores. Both boys could have been cast from the same mold, as they are both full of life and live it at a million miles an hour. Anyway, Jane, Olly's Mum and I have been talking for ages about getting together for a play date and we organised one for this morning at Luna Park. Both boys love Luna Park, so we were onto a winner from the start.

As I had a day off yesterday, I decided that I would not run this morning and join the family on their trip out. To be honest, with Felix speeding this way and that, it would have been a nightmare for Adrienne to have done it on her own.

Luna Park is very cool and as soon as we entered I bumped into a very good friend of mine, Lily, who was made up in all her costume. Jarvis was so impressed that I knew Lily that he's still talking about it tonight.

The boys went from ride to ride as I kept Felix entertained, which is just fine with me, as I'm not too keen on rides anyway. I did get pressured into going on the big slide though, which absolutely scared me to death! The coward gene certainly has not been passed onto Jarvis though, who went on everything he was allowed to for his height.

The thing he enjoyed most of all, as you can see from the pictures below, was the air vent, that blasted air out at high intensity. Jarvis spent ages standing over it and was stoked that it blew the saliva out of his mouth and up around his face - ewwww!

In total, we spent 3-hours at Luna Park and as expected, both boys were fast asleep within minutes of being in the car. So it was a quick transfer into their beds and a lovely, long Sunday afternoon nap for the whole family.

A wonderful weekend ;o)

House Dad.

Oops!!!

2008-11-04T18:58:00.006+11:00

Oops, last night I had loads of time to update the blog, but for some reason I totally forgot. Now tonight, I've hardly anytime as I'm going out, to do two days worth of updates, so here's the stuff that wee Jarvie has been doing over the last couple of days:

We caught up with our friends Yamini, Jai and Kirin at Centennial Park for a play. Jarvis hair was so long and big, that his hat did not fit, so he had to wear mine!

The boys had fun ducking from a very angry bird, that kept swooping down on them to protect its nest in the tree. We'd parked by the tree, so while I loaded up the car and ducked myself, the boys ran for cover.

As the morning play date was fast and furious, I insisted that the boys had a mid afternoon 'quiet time' session, where they each sat down with a bowl of grapes and watched a DVD.

After quiet time, we went out into the back yard and played for hours in the sun. The best part was drawing heaps of funky animals and drawing around our bodies. It was quite hot, so the boys had their evening bath in one of the paddling pools. It was only meant to be a quick wash down, but I went back and forth heaps of times with buckets of hot water, as they did not want to get out.

After giving up my hat to Jarvis yesterday, due to his Fro getting out of hand, I decided that I'd give him a long overdue haircut this morning. I did this in the bath and cut about 4cm off all over. It's probably the biggest haircut that he's ever had, however the ends were very dry. I think it made him look a fair bit older.

The new haircut certainly kept him cooler, as today's play venue was Little Dynamo's, which can get very hot for a racing and charging everywhere young guy. Jarvis was such a good boy and made so many new friends, spending, with his Brother, a staggering four-hours at Little Dynamo's.

House Dad.

Weekend Wrap 1 - 2 November 2008

2008-11-02T18:34:00.002+11:00

I've been running with my club over most of the weekend and when I have been home, I've pretty much been sleeping and recovering from all the kilometres I've clocked up. So Adrienne has been the one taking the boys out and having all the fun. They've been to Hungry Jacks for burgers, to parks to burn off some energy and played in the Italian Forum.

I did get involved on Saturday night though, as our good friends Mark and Thalia came round to watch the All-Blacks vs. Wallabies and enjoy some yummy Crust pizza. Jarvis was pretty tired after his big day with his beloved Mumma, so was a bit hyper. However, when it came to bedtime, there was no fuss, just one polite little man, giving everyone hugs and kisses before trundling off to bed. What a great wee man he is.

So yeah, for this update, I've not got too much to write, however the pictures that Adrienne took are wonderful and tell a much better story of the great time Jarvis had with his beloved Mumma.

House Dad.

Halloween 2008

2008-10-31T20:29:00.004+11:00

I'm just back from our trip up and down the road for this years Halloween. It was great fun too with Jarvis dressed as a Vampire (see last picture for scary Vampire face) Adrienne as a Fairy, Felix a Skeleton, Vanessa as a Witch and Dane as a wee Devil.

We only called on friends who we forewarned last week, as we really don't want to encourage Jarvis to be knocking on the doors of strangers. He really does not need the encouragement, does our confident wee man. It went well too, as he filled up a whole bowl with lollies, chocolate and other treats.

As you can see from the picture below, both he and Dane were fully charged with sugar and ran up and down the street like loons. I thought that he'd be hyper all night, but within an hour of returning home, he fell asleep next to me on the sofa, totally wasted. Another successful Halloween...woohoo!

House Dad.

Farmer Jarvis

2008-10-30T20:09:00.002+11:00

I promised my Mother, that if she did not get all gushy when she said goodbye to us, we'd make a massive effort to make sure that the vegetable table she set up for Jarvis would be well looked after. I think my exact words were "Cry and the plants die." But yeah, we've all pitched in with watering day and night, regular feeding as per Nanny Ronnie's instructions and the odd bug spray.

So I thought I should upload some pictures of Jarvis tending his wee garden, so that Nanny Ronnie could see how they are doing. As you can see, they are well looked after, with lots of healthy leaves, some wee peas and a few very small tomato's starting to develop. I've even added a couple of pictures at the end of Jarvis eating a couple of the peas he's grown. At last, Jarvis eating some greens.

House Dad.

Finally, Lunch With Auntie Sophie

2008-10-28T18:59:00.004+11:00

Throughout Jarvis short life, he's had a ridiculous amount of lunch dates with his Auntie Sophie, whom I worked with a Prime TV, back home in New Zealand. I think Jarvis was only 10-days old when I first took him into work, to have him whisked away from me by Sophie, so that she could give him a tour of the building. Since then Sophie and Jarvis, along with myself of course, in my role as cleaner upper and buyer of lunches, have had many, many lunches of Burger King over the years, with the boys even going out of their way to stay in Auckland for a few days when we are home, to have a BK lunch with Auntie Sophie.

Some two-months ago Sophie moved to Sydney, and there have been numerous attempts to hook up for lunch, with all being canceled for one reason or another. However, today we were all determined to actually get together for a hug and hello. So the boys jumped onto the train, where Jarvis informed everyone that he was off to see his Auntie Sophie and found our way through the Rocks area of Sydney to meet up with Sophie.

As soon as Sophie came down from her office, Jarvis dashed up to her for a kiss and cuddle. He remained in her arms for several minutes and got quite upset if Felix or myself got too near his Aunt.

Then it was down to a local cafe for some lunch and a much needed coffee for Dah, to catch up on all the gossip from back home. It was strange to hear Sophie's Kiwi accent, especially when she said "Egg", which sounded like "Igg". Sophie also commented on Jarvis accent, noting the Aussie twang.

Our hour with Sophie flew by, but it was so nice to see our girl again and lovely to have her over this side of the ditch now. I'm sure there will be plenty more lunches and play dates in the future, which of course Jarvis would just love ;o)

House Dad.

It's Monday, So It Must Be The Zoo

2008-10-27T19:59:00.004+11:00

I told Jarvis that if he was the first boy into the bath this morning, he could choose were we would go today. After I said no to his first choice of a toy shop, we settled on his second choice of the zoo. It was a great choice too, as today promised to be a scorcher, so we packed the cozies and set off.

Even as we drove over the Harbor Bridge at 9.45am, the temperature was getting around the high twenties and I was glad that we were all wearing shorts, t-shirts and hats. I even managed to pack some sun screen for the first time this year, though I eventually forgot to put it on the boys!

Once at the zoo, our tradition is for Jarvis to grab a map and lead the way, however with Felix now walking for about 95% of our days out, the trip takes a lot longer. This is good though, as I assigned Jarvis the job of teaching his younger Brother about all the animals we'd see on our walk through the zoo. He was pretty good too and showed Felix heaps of animals.

We even discovered a whole new section that we'd never visited before, that contained some large kangaroos. Jarvis asked what the large thing hanging down from between some of the kangaroos was, to which I replied "They are called testicles Jarvis, all boys and men have them." For the next 10-minutes, testicles was his favorite word!

By about 11.30am it was getting very hot, but luckily we found ourselves at the kids zoo section, which has lots of water features. No sooner were the boys into their cozies, than they were both up to their necks in the chilly water. All the other little people looked jealous and must have been wondering why their parents were not as organised as Super Dah..LOL.

The boys stayed in that area for about and hour, which is longer than I'd normally expect, but it was now about 34-degrees, so the water was keeping us all cool. There was so much running about and fun to be had, that by about 1.00pm, I spotted a couple of yawns. This was my cue to get the boys dry, dressed and back to the car.

Jarvis was so good on this trip out, that I insisted that he bought a toy in the shop. Saying that, it still had to be under $5, as I'm such a tight-arse! He settled on a tub of Outback Slime, which you can see in the picture below, is a tub of red slime containing a large rubber spider. He was not allowed to open it until he got home, as I did not want all that goo in our car.

As per normal, both boys were fast asleep within minutes of our departure, meaning that I could transfer them to their beds and enjoy 30-minutes of Dah time with a refreshing cup of tea. Lovely :o)

House Dad.

Leichhardt Festival

2008-10-26T20:41:00.002+11:00

Where would we be socially if it were not for my running buddy Manal, who not only put us onto last nights Halloween Festival, but also told me about today's Leichhardt Festival. So it was, that as soon as I got home from our run, which by the way, Manal really, really pushed me on, so thanks Manal, that I suggested we try out the festival.

So in under an hour of returning home, the whanau was back out of the door and heading towards Leichhardt, which is the next suburb along from us. Leichhardt has traditionally been the Italian section of Sydney for many years and it's still not unusual to hear Italian being spoken everywhere around that part of town. This of course, is more than reflected in the festival, as it hums to the sound of Italian music and the air is full of the aroma of Italian cooking.

Jarvis couldn't really give a stuff about the music or the food, as he's spotted a couple of clowns from Cheekie Enterprises, who did a great job of making both Felix and himself a couple of balloon animals, plus painting a lovely spider on Jarvis cheek.

The next stop was the park, as they had rides and other forms of entertainment to keep both young and old amused. Jarvis spent ages going round and round on a bouncy assault course, while Adrienne growled at little people who tried to push in front.

It was extremely hot and muggy, so loaded up with soft drinks and some strange looking Italian biscuits, we sat for a while in the the shade, before walking home and having one of our lovely long Sunday afternoon naps.

In the evening we had a BBQ and then opened the Wii computer game, that I'd bought for Xmas, with the remaining money that Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve left for the boys. Unusually, it was my idea to open it VERY early, as Adrienne is normally the one who can't wait for these things. I'm glad that we did, as it was lots of fun and I'm sure it'll get played with heaps.

House Dad.

Kegworth School Halloween Festival

2008-10-25T21:55:00.001+11:00

While out with my running buddies on Friday morning, Manal told me that her boys school, Kegworth, was having its annual Halloween Festival the following night. What a great opportunity for the boys to try out their new Halloween costumes I thought.

So it was, that we ventured into new areas of our district, be it only 1.9-kilometers from our home, to Kegworth school on Saturday night with Jarvis the Vampire ready to do some vamping. He was so thrilled to see so many other little people dressed up for the occasion and just couldn't wait to get inside the school grounds.

Once inside, we said hello to Manal, who was helping out for a wee while on the lolly stall. Then Jarvis found Manal's youngest boy Cameron and the boys spent about 20-minutes going crazy up and down the big slide. It was the first time that Jarvis and Cameron have played together and the boys are as spirited and as full of life, as each other. It's wonderful to see.

We stayed for nearly three-hours and had just the best fun. It was so nice to do something in the Community and great to know that all the money we spent, would be channeled back into the school.

House Dad.

Wednesday Through To Friday

2008-10-24T20:35:00.003+11:00

Unless something big happens, Wednesday through to Thursdays are a bit tricky to write about, as it's these days that Jarvis goes to pre-school. However, he did have a surprise on Thursday when his big Sister Claire came to meet him after school. Jarvis was stoked to see Claire and ran up to her to give Claire a massive hug. Felix and I didn't even get a look in!

Friday night is now our Little Athletics night and Jarvis is getting better at remaining focused and completed all the events. I can see that it's hard for him, as he goes after three straight days at school and it does not start until after six and runs for over an hour. He copes, but is always fast asleep when we pull up at home.

I've added a couple of videos below from Little Athletics, that show Jarvis doing his sports. If you watch the second one, where they run the 70-metres, you can see that Jarvis is more interested in laughing with the guy next to him, than actually racing!

House Dad.

Brotherly Love

2008-10-21T19:39:00.003+11:00

Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve left some money for us to buy the boys some presents, so we used some of it this morning to buy dress up for Halloween. We initially went to Toys R Us, but the selection was really poor, which was surprising. So we decided to drive over to a fancy dress wholesalers, that is located near Jarvis school.

Once inside we discovered a massive selection of things Halloween themed. Jarvis really wanted to be a Vampire and there was no shortage of outfits to choose from. He scored a bat winged collar cape, fangs, rubber spider and bat, medallion and blood capsules. Felix scored a really cute skeleton outfit and Adrienne some fairy things. I wanted to get a witch outfit for Adrienne, however Jarvis insisted that his beloved Mumma, was only allowed to be something nice and beautiful. That boy ADORES his Mumma.

Later in the afternoon while Felix was sleeping, I overheard Jarvis talking in the play room. He'd dressed and set up three Mr. Potato Heads as ghouls in front of him, and sat on his throne, and dictated orders to his minions. It was so funny, that I had to ask him to repeat it again, so that I could make a wee movie for the blog, which is posted below.

Halloween dress up was not the highlight of the day for me, it was seeing Jarvis playing with Felix. He can be very heavy handed sometimes, but he's really starting to enjoy playing with Felix. I really do think that they'll be great friends in years to come. Jarvis is allows so proud of Felix when we go out and always introduces him.

House Dad.

Back To The Powerhouse

2008-10-20T19:01:00.003+11:00

We've learned to avoid our normal haunts over the school holidays, as they get so busy, it kind of takes the fun out of our trips. But the schools have returned, so today meant we could go back to our favorite day out venue The Powerhouse Museum.

As we queued outside we made some new friends called Jai and Kirin, who along with their Mother Yamini, were also paying a visit to the museum. We got talking and discovered that both Yamini and I are both ex-Londoners. The chatting continued for a while longer, as we took them up to the members lounge for a look and play, before they headed off into the museum. We stayed just long enough for me to gulp down a cup of tea and for Jarvis to dress up as a Chinese warrior.

Jarvis lead the way from one exhibit to another informing us as to what each display was. I was so impressed with his sentence structure and range of words, all due I'm sure to the months of speech therapy he's received.

We then ended up in Zoe's House and bumped into our new friends, plus their play date buddies Zoe, Sophie and their Mum Emma and Dad Pete. It was nice to see them and great for me to watch another parent with two wee boys, roughly the same age our my wee men.

Once our new friends left, I kept the boys at the museum for another hour, as I wanted them to be really tired, so that they would fall asleep during the drive home. I'd also arranged for them to meet their big Sister Claire outside. Jarvis was SO HAPPY to meet his new big Sister and wouldn't let go of Claire. We couldn't stay with Claire to long though, as Felix was very, very tired, so left Claire, promising Jarvis that we'd catch up again soon.

And as planned by the uber-organised Dah, both boys were fast asleep before even leaving the car park. Once home, all three boys enjoyed a lovely, long after sleep. What a tough life eh!

House Dad.

Ryde Aquatic Leisure Centre

2008-10-19T19:01:00.005+11:00

I really don't like public swimming areas, as the thought of swimming in water where everyone pees, just freaks me out. I know it's all chlorinated, but eeewww, I just don't like it. Anyway, after I came back from a club run this morning, I could just tell that Adrienne really wanted to do something with all the family, and was keen on a swim. So I bit the bullet and looked up on the Internet to see if there was a nearer aquatic centre than Homebush. There was, and it was in a place called Ryde.

So once Felix had woken up, we all bundle into the car for the 15-minute drive to Ryde Aquatic Leisure Centre. It was a very warm and sunny day, so as expected, place was very busy. Great, a higher density of pee!

After paying to go in, Jarvis then bought a pair of goggles and a kick-board. He was so excited and jumping with joy, just busting to get into the water. Felix wasn't too fussed and was just happy to wander around and point at stuff and wave hello to everyone. Perfect, I'll stick with Felix, so that Adrienne and Jarvis can swim in the diluted pee water!

It as a pretty good aquatic centre too, with a wave machine, slides, whirlpools and spraying water. Adrienne and Jarvis spent ages playing and swimming before I insisted that we go outside to eat our picnic. I'm glad we did, as it was such a lovely sunny day, just perfect for warming up a wee four-year-old, who was shivering and smiling with blue lips!

After letting our lunch go down, Adrienne and Jarvis went back into the water for another swim, until we all headed home for a lovely rest. I'm so glad that I spent some time with all the family on an outing. I should do it more. Plus, Adrienne looked so slim and gorgeous and not at all like a Mother of two, that she may get lucky tonight! Yeah right, As per normal, everyone will be fast asleep by 8pm. Parenting - the perfect contraception!

House Dad.

Jabs - Fillings - Big Sister Claire

2008-10-18T20:59:00.004+11:00

Jarvis had a bit of a shocker this morning, as he had a Doctor's appointment at 9am, which involved a jab in each arm, then a visit to the Dentist's to have his problem front tooth looked at. This involved more pain, all of which he dealt with really well. So well in fact, his beloved Mumma bought him a Play Doh ice cream set.

He was feeling and looking a bit under the weather from the drama of the two events, so when I received a sms from Claire who we met on the train a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be nice to invite her over for a visit. Claire was in desperate need of a break from her studies and jumped at the chance to hang with our family for the afternoon.

Jarvis and I drove over to collect Claire and spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging, as only we know how. When we chill, we chill big time and insisted that Claire do the same and make herself at home. Well, Claire is now officially Jarvis Big Sister, so has to do, as we do on lazy days.

The afternoon lead onto early evening, where we enjoyed a bbq made up of left-overs, which didn't taste too bad. While we were eating Jarvis made up a concoction of drink, chalk, sausage and other yucky bits, which he then dropped on the floor, as little people are want to do. It looked gross and had the appearance of vomit - YUK!

So yeah, a day that started off being pretty yucky for Jarvis, turned into a beautifully relaxing day, with a new family member and lots of chilling - just perfect ;o)

House Dad.

My Handsome Boys

2008-10-17T22:23:00.006+11:00

Jarvis has settled back into pre-school so well this week, better in fact than the previous three times that he's gone back after school holiday programme. I guess he's getting older now, which is really showing in the way he now relates to Felix. There are the odd moments when he's had enough of his younger sibling, but there are times, as there was this evening, when I hear them laughing and giggling like mad in another room.

Anyway, what have we been up to? Not much really, as I have a new policy of slowing things down and enjoying my boys, as oppossed to the old Lee of trying to cram as much as possible into our days. Now I enjoy the simple pleasure of just being with them and soaking it up.

We did have a massive wrestling fight tonight (see pics) before going to Little Athletics. It was great and both boys did a sterling effort of beating the crap out of their Dah.

Jarvis was also wonderful at Little Athletics tonight and completed all the events. This was due to his Beloved Mumma being with him and not his grumpy old Dah. To celebrate, we all sat down on the grass afterwards and ate hot dogs - yummy.

I have to tell you this story though. The hot dogs made us thristy, so I went to the kiosk to get a can of drink with Felix. There were two woman working behind the counter and the one who served me said "Is this your boy, he's so handsome", to which I replied "Yes, this is Felix." The other woman then said "I've seen the cutest little guy tonight, with all these tight blonde curls." I said, "Is that him over there?", to which she replied 'Oh yes, that's him, he's such a cute little man", to which I then replied "Yep, he's mine too." I was SOOOO proud :o)

House Dad.

Another Great Trip To Little Dynamo's

2008-10-14T19:19:00.002+11:00

Going from yesterdays fantastically hot day to the pouring rain of today, was somewhat of a shock, but luckily we have the most amazing wet weather option in Little Dynamo's. And to be honest, we've not been there for a couple of months now, so were overdue a visit. It also fitted in nicely with having to drop our car off in that area for it's service, so all in all, the perfect option for today's trip out.

Amazingly, I managed to sit down for twenty-minutes and enjoy a soy flat white on arrival, as Jarvis found a wee play mate and Felix was fast asleep. I was a bit stunned to be sitting still and not chasing after the boys, it was very, very weird/nice indeed.

Actually, Jarvis pretty well kept himself entertained for the whole time we were there. I used to have to accompany him all over Little Dynamo's back in the day, however these days, he finds wee mates to play with and has a ball. He does come back to Felix and I every 30-minutes or so to check on us and refuel, which is nice.

So yeah, today would have been the most successful trip out ever, as Jarvis was so well behaved and self entertaining. We had such a wonderful time that we managed to stay there for just over 4-hours, which is amazing. And as with yesterday, both boys were fast asleep within minutes of pulling away. They were both so extremely worn out, that I managed to remove them both, while still strapped into their car seats, from the courtesy car from the garage, back into our serviced car, which believe me, was no easy feat!

House Dad.

Another Great Day At The Zoo

2008-10-13T15:41:00.002+11:00

The school holidays are over so we can now get back to visiting all our favorite haunts around Sydney, with less queues and masses of people. And as it was a lovely day we headed across the Harbor Bridge to spend some time at Sydney Zoo.

Our routine on arrival is always the same. I grab a soy flat white while Jarvis goes and grabs a map for himself, as he's always our leader. As I paid for my coffee, the boys spotted the chupa chups on he counter and asked if they could have one; well Jarvis asked, Felix just pointed and screamed! As they were only 50c each I gave in, which is most unlike me.

The next thing we always do is ride the Sky Train to the bottom and back again, so we can get a good look at the Zoo and decide where we might go. I asked Jarvis to keep a hand on Felix's back as he stood and looked out of the window. He did this all the way down and back up again. I think we are really starting to see the odd act of kindness to his younger sibling now.

After looking at the reptiles Jarvis ran on ahead and started playing with a group of little people. Once I caught up I met a very polite boy called Elliott who knew every super-hero question I threw at him. Elliott (nearly 5) was with his Mother Amy, his younger Sister Maddy (nearly two I think) and their Cousin Stella. They all seemed to be getting on well and Jarvis was really keen to tag along with them, as I think he was a bit in awe of Elliott, as he's normally very impressed by bigger boys.

Our next stop was the Southern Oceans area where they have this wonderful tidal pool, that has been set up so that little people can have a paddle. Being me, I was ultra prepared and had togs ready for the boys. Jarvis was into the water in a nano-second, splashing around and having a wonderful time with his new buddy Elliott. It was also nice for me to chat with Amy, as it can be quite a draining experience when you just have little people to care for all day. So yeah, we had a lovely chat and may hook up again with our new friends in the future at the Zoo.

Once dried, feed and watered I felt the boys still had another couple of hours left in them, so we went down to check out the penguins. The Southern Oceans exhibit is an excellent place to escape the sun too, as they is a most wonderful section where you go under the pens and can see the seal and penguins swimming around.

It was in here that I spotted the smallest of yawns from Jarvis, which was my queue to start walking back up the hill to the exit. The walk from the bottom to the top is at least a 20-minute hike, made harder by having a fully laden stroller with Felix in the front and Jarvis on the skateboard behind. I don't mind though, as I'm constantly thinking that the trudge to the top will increase my uphill running stamina.

Once in the car, both boys were fast asleep within 60-seconds of pulling away. I even managed to transfer both of them from the car, into bed and join them for a lovely afternoon nap. How good is our life or what?

House Dad.

Weekend Wrap 11 - 12 October 2008

2008-10-12T20:41:00.002+11:00

Our weekend started with a trip out West to Jarvis Little Athletics Club WSLAC, which kicked off at 6pm. Adrienne came along for the first time to see how super athletic her wee man is and was impressed with the number of parents and little people participating.

Jarvis managed to compete in the majority of events, that included the warm up, obstacle course, baton relay and hurdles, however was over it by the last event. He decided to call it a day, which I guess is fair enough, as it's a long day for a four-year-old after being at school all day.

Saturday was really nice as we did not go anywhere, choosing instead to laze around the backyard and soak up some sunshine. I was happy too, as we managed not to spend any money ha ha. The highlight though, was in the afternoon when the whole whanau had a nice long sleep for a couple of hours. From then on the only major thing we did was to all enjoy a BBQ in the backyard. A wonderful, lazy family day.

After my return from a lovely Sunday morning run, the whanau were all ready to head off to Bondi Mall to go shopping. At the mall, while I did the weekly grocery shop Adrienne and the boys checked out the puppy dogs, which Jarvis then mimicked, pretending to be a curly puppy dog, which wanted to come home with us. Oh all right then :o)

After the shopping was done we drove to Centennial Park for a play in the sun. I've not been to Centennial Park for ages, so it was nice to be back in a park that Jarvis and I spent many happy hours when we first came over to Australia. We spent about 90-minutes in the park before heading home to escape the heat and unpack the shopping.

Our weekend was capped off with a lovely BBQ at our neighbors Billy, Sarah and Thomas place, who live directly across the road from us. Thomas is nearly two and thinks that Jarvis is just the coolest when he does silly noises and runs around. Of course Jarvis soaks up the attention and plays up even more for Thomas.

So yeah, that was our weekend, nice and relaxing. Not much to write about, but heaps of cuddles and time to enjoy each other.

House Dad.

It's Hungry Work Being A Wizard

2008-10-09T19:31:00.002+11:00

I looked at Jarvis holiday programme schedule this morning and saw that today was to be Wizard Day - Bugger! So it was a mad dash up into the loft, where of course I had to be accompanied by both Jarvis and Felix, to find the dress up box. With only minutes to go before we were due to leave, I found the wizard hat, a wand, a scarf with stars on and an old satin curtain. Hey Presto, a wizard outfit.

Jarvis was delighted to say the least and had to say "Hi, I'm a wizard" to everyone at the bus stops, as we crawled along the Paramatta road towards his school. It continued after he got out of the car, as he ran up to a group of office workers having a coffee and smoke and cast a spell on them, which they all thought was hysterical.

Jarvis seemed to be the only little person who had gone the whole hog and dressed up, but his Carer said that Bernie the wizard, who was coming in, would make him his assistant. I'm sure Jarvis would have nominated himself regardless of his outfit anyway!

During the drive home, Jarvis kept talking and talking about his day. He told Felix and I about Bernie the wizard, how they'd made potions containing frogs blood and cast spells. He truly had a wonderful day.

Now Jarvis has always been a very small eater, with every meal being battle for Adrienne and myself. However, I think being a wizard for the day was hungry work, as for the first time ever, I saw him eat ALL of his dinner. Now as I write at 7.45pm, Adrienne has just come up to me and said that Jarvis has just wolfed down a plate of sandwiches. Now that's magic!

House Dad.

Jarvis Day In Pictures And Video

2008-10-08T19:22:00.009+11:00

Jarvis got stuck straight into the paints within minutes of arriving at his school holiday programme. He painted a beautiful butterfly for his beloved Mumma.

After holiday programme the boys checked out the new fish that their Dah bought for the fish tank today.

For dinner Jarvis wanted noodles, which I lovingly prepared for him, even adding some fresh herbs and smoked chicken. what did Jarvis do? The exact same thing that his beloved Mumma does with all her meal - poured Worcester Sauce all over it!!!

After dinner Jarvis did one of his daily duties, which is to check and water his vegetable garden. Tonight, he sprayed all his plants with an organic insect repellent.

Rather than the boys having a bath inside, Dah filled up one of the scallop shells with hot water, so that his boys could bath in the early evening sun. Have they got it good or what?

After the boys were bathed and into their PJ's, it was out onto the street to spot their beautiful Mumma arrive home on her bike.

VIDEOS

The boys early evening bath outside - LOTS of noise!

The boys run and greet their beloved Mumma - LOTS of love!

The Boys Are Back In Town

2008-10-07T16:40:00.005+11:00

The boys were due to catch up with a very good friend of ours Sophie, who has recently moved over from New Zealand. Jarvis and Sophie are great mates and have had many, many lunch dates, where basically I tag along and clean up the mess. Sadly though, Sophie had to cancel on us this morning, due to a large workload.

However, the sun was shining, we were all washed and dressed and just busting to do something, so why not go to the city anyway. So that's what we did and found ourselves waiting for the 10.08am train to the city.

On the platform Jarvis zoned in on a young woman standing nearby, who he liked the look of. Withing minutes, the young woman, whose name we discovered after introductions is called Claire had struck up a great friendship with Jarvis. It was like they were long lost buddies exchanging hugs and holding hands as they boarded the train. All the way into the city Jarvis and Claire played games and had a wonderful time. Jarvis even took some pictures of Claire pulling silly faces, which I won't put up here, but on Facebook. It was the most wonderful of things and purely by chance that we met Claire, who it seems has a wonderfully warm nature and gentleness and made our trip into the city, very special indeed.

Felix feel asleep as we left the station, which allowed Jarvis and I to spend a full hour in the coolest toy/hobby shop ever called HobbyCo. It's full of models and stuff, but seems to be full of men reliving their youth. I can see why, as after Jarvis played with the Scalextric for a while, I was eying up the boxes and thinking mmmmmm.

Once Felix woke up we moved to a small cafe next door to HobbyCo, where we ordered one large breakfast and a pot of tea for me. It was a mission trying to feed two restless boys and only about 60% of the breakfast was eaten. That's not the worst part though, as my pot of tea didn't even get touched - what a crime!

We then just went walkabout around Sydney, spending a fair amount of time in the Botanical Gardens. On leaving the gardens we all scored an ice-block, which gave Jarvis a mouth freeze. It serves him right though, for trying to eat it so quickly.

The last part of our day out was spent in the fountains outside Circular Quay, where the boys slipped off their shoes and took a paddle to cool their feet down. Jarvis was just the best Brother and took great care, in making sure that wee Felix didn't slip over in the fountain.

After the train ride home, both boys were fast asleep in under sixty-seconds as I drove away from the train station. And once home and safely deposited into their beds, I took the opportunity to put up my sore feet and FINALLY enjoy a cup of tea!

House Dad.

Rock Throwing Boys

2008-10-06T20:29:00.002+11:00

It was a long weekend here in Australia, so the boys had the immense pleasure of having Adrienne/Mumma home with us on a Monday. We took the opportunity while she was around to drive over to Ikea to buy a rug for the lounge. The drive over and back was not too long, but long enough for Felix to fall asleep on the return journey.

With Adrienne and Felix asleep, Jarvis and I decided that we'd go out and leave our sleeping babies in peace. We ended up in our local park and did something that as boys we love doing: throwing rocks into the bay - and lots of them. We spent about forty-minutes chucking big, small and odd shaped rocks, as far, as high and as stupidly as we could. It was great fun and thirsty work too, as Jarvis downed all of my Gatorade!

I had a few chores to do in the early evening, so Adrienne to the boys for a 'kiwi walk', which means going for a stroll shoeless. When I first met Adrienne in the UK, she pretty much walked everywhere shoeless. I'm sure the legend goes, she never owned a pair of shoes until she went to school!

On their return, Jarvis explained to me the fantastic time that he'd had with his beloved Mumma and Brother. They saw and stroked a pussy cat, stamped in puddles and meet up with his buddy Lucy, who lives about 50-metres down the road. Jarvis and Lucy get on very well and play so nicely together, it wonderful to see.

So yeah, a lovely long weekend for the whanau - now back to the real world :o)

House Dad.

And Some Sunday Stuff Too...

2008-10-05T18:22:00.003+11:00

Jarvis and I were up bright and early, as we had to go and visit our running buddies from The Sydney Striders. Jarvis insisted on wearing his Little Athletics strip, as he wanted to show Manal and his buddy Thalia that he's now an athlete. It was so nice to see my running mates and a bonus for Jarvis, as Phil, the Marathon Training Group Leader and his partner Fiona had brought along their wee girl Izzy. Jarvis and Izzy had a wonderful time playing together, which allowed me some time to chat with my buddies.

When Jarvis and I left the house at about 7.00am, I told Adrienne that we'd b about 20-minutes. However, we were having such a wonderful time, I'd totally lost track of the hour and we ended up arriving back over 2-hours later. All well and good, but it meant that we were now VERY late for wee Ava's birthday party...oops!

So it was quick baths and a change of clothes for Jarvis and I, before heading north to attend Ava's second birthday party. We didn't arrive that late that we missed all the fun and still managed to play some games with Dora The Explorer, who wee Ava just adores. Jarvis even had his face painted like a pirate by Dora.

As the weather in Sydney right now is wet and windy, we've all been tucked up inside sleeping this afternoon. It's so nice at the weekend, that we always manage to slip in the odd nana-nap, that sets us up for the week ahead.

House Dad.

Friday And Saturday Stuff

2008-10-04T19:15:00.001+10:00

Friday

As we got in the car on Friday after picking Jarvis up from his school holiday programme, a really cute girl walked by. I said to myself "Wow, she's a cutie" to which Jarvis replied "She's not as cute as my Mumma." How right he is.

Later at about 6pm, we decided that we'd wait outside for our cute Mumma to arrive home in a taxi. The boys were so happy to see their beloved Mumma, as they truly love her, as I do, more than anything else in the world. Plus, Adrienne had some gifts for her boys (not me, I always miss out) Jarvis scored a game called Piranhas, which looks like a pinball machine thing.

Saturday

Adrienne took the boys off to the movies to see Wall E, which apparently was very good. I didn't go, as for one I can't stand it that the boys never sit still, and two, I had to take down the bed and move the sofa from when Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve were here.

Later that evening Jarvis received a call from his Nanny Ronnie to let him know that herself and Granddad Steve had arrived home safely. Jarvis told his Nanny Ronnie that the beans that she'd planted for him, where now sprouting.

House Dad.

Bye Bye Nanny Ronnie And Granddad Steve

2008-10-02T20:11:00.003+10:00

It was a pretty sad day for us all today, as we said farewell to Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve, who have been over from the UK for the last month. Considering that we have such a small house here in Sydney, Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve went out of their way, not to get in our way, as we went about our daily business of getting ready for work, school or trips out. It went so smoothly, mainly due to Veronica and Steve. At times it made me think of how those submariners who live and work on submarines cope, as they squeeze past each other, as we all did in our narrow hallways.

But yeah, it was a wonderful 4-weeks with them here and Jarvis and Felix had just the best time getting to meet them for the first time. Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve were so good with our wee men and gave Adrienne and I loads of positive feedback on our parenting.

I especially liked taking Jarvis to school and returning to find all the beds made, the dishwasher emptied, the rubbish taken out, the washing hung up and sandwiches made for lunch. I enjoyed it so much, I even had visions of building a Granny flat for my Mum. It's going to be hard next week, after being so well looked after. But in all seriousness, my Mother and I had some very hard years 'way back when', but I'm so glad that she's met and married such a wonderful guy like Steve; they are both so happy together, which makes the rest of us happy too. Though that might be due to the 6 or 7 bottles of wine they drink each evening!!!!

The boys will miss them most of all, because as Jarvis walked into the house after school, he yelled out "Nanny and Granddad, I'm home, where are you?" He looked so sad when I said that they had flown home. And poor wee Felix keeps walking out to the back room to find his Nanny, so that they can play chase. Ah well, we'd better start saving for a trip to the UK I suppose ;o)

House Dad.

Jarvis And Amy Go Crazy

2008-09-30T23:58:00.002+10:00

As the weather has now picked up in Sydney, Jarvis was due a new pair of sandals to keep his feet cooler in these temperatures. As always, we make the trek across from the Inner West to Bondi Mall to see our friends at Shoes and Sox. It's so worth the cost of the tunnel each way and the time involved, as the staff are complete experts and so dam friendly. I can honestly say that the quality of service at Shoes and Sox far surpasses anything we've experienced in Australia.

Anyway, over the years of going there Jarvis has made a few friends. He loves Leeron, who is very friendly, but Leeron now has stiff competition from Amy, who I think was caste from the same mould as Jarvis. Both of them are wild and as I said to Amy, I'd dread to leave her with Jarvis for a few hours, as heavens knows what trouble they'd get into.

Joking aside, Amy fitted Jarvis with a great pair of Ciao sandals in blue, that are both rugged and comfortable. Jarvis kept them on and really put them through a rigorous test in the shop.

So yeah, a massive thanks to Shoes and Sox, who again, have supplied us with another great pair of well fitted shoes, but mostly to Amy, who did such a wonderful job of not only fitting Jarvis shoes, but of also getting him so hyper, that he ran me ragged for hours!

House Dad.

A Mixed Day

2008-09-29T19:52:00.002+10:00

This morning it was pretty sunny and looked like the perfect day for a trip to the beach, so we all piled into the car for a drive over to Clovelly. This is the beach that we visit most often, as it's very child safe and being an inlet, has virtually no waves.

As I set up the sun tent, everyone else headed down to the waters edge. Jarvis was straight in and up to his neck in the chilly water, which is wonderful after the first couple of years when he was not too keen on the sea. Saying that, his first introduction to the Australian beaches were surf areas with massive waves, so it's not surprising.

After about 30-minutes in the water, the wee guy, who barely has any fat on him was shivering with cold. We wrapped him up and he snuggled up with his beloved Mumma to warm up. It was about at this point that suddenly a strong wind kicked up forcing most people to leave the beach. We tried to sit it out, however it got ever more fearsome, resulting in us too, packing down all our gear and heading home.

Once at home and with the sand and sea water washed off our skin, the boys still had plenty of energy, so Adrienne took them for a walk to Kids Stuff. I stayed behind for a sleep, as I've had lots of early morning runs over the last week, so needed a quick catch up sleep.

Then this evening Adrienne suggested that they make some cupcakes, which Jarvis was very keen to do. Jarvis mixed all the ingredients, which he then put into wee cup cakes and into the oven. Once cooked, he then sprinkled some colourful bits on top and presented them to his Grandparents. What a clever wee boy we have ;o)

House Dad.

Reptile Park

2008-09-28T18:57:00.003+10:00

We thought we would head off today to the Australian Reptile Park to give Nanny and Granddad a taste of outback Australia before they go home. The Reptile Park is 1 1/4 hr from Sydney so its a bit of a ride for wee boys, but they were brilliant though, as I sat in the back to keep them entertained while Granddad drove us to our destination. Felix thought this was very funny, he kept pointing at Granddad, laughing and clapping his wee hands.

Once at the park, Jarvis took charge and showed his Grandparents around. We started off in the reptile part that is kitted out as an Egyptian Mummy area which Jarvis loves. He ran around showing Nanny and Granddad around. We then headed off to the spider part that has a lot of interactive kiddy things that's just lovely. As you can see from the below photos, Jarvis fell in love with the crocodile man, every time he saw him wandering about Jarvis went bounding over yelling 'hello friend'.

It was very entertaining at the park, as there was a tour from Korea there to see all the animals but they were more interested in Jarvis and his hair. Jarvis gets a lot of attention for his hair, especially from Asians and old ladies. They all had to take a photo of him, which he was very patient with obviously, loving being the centre of attention.

Jarvis scored some binoculars just like Granddad Steve. His Granddad is a bird watcher, so Jarvis was keen to be able to follow him around and spot stuff through his own binoculars.

Adrienne to finish later...Felix needs boob!

Soaking Up The Sun

2008-09-27T19:55:00.004+10:00

I went into the backyard this morning to discover that yesterday, unsupervised, Jarvis and Betty had pretty much emptied the entire contents of the sandpit over everything in the backyard. I was not pleased and decided that the sandpit would now be history. So I set about the task of cleaning up, not realizing that it would take another 3-hours to complete all the jobs.

The first mission was to drag the plastic fantastic lawn into the service lane and shake out all the sand. Next I had to wash all the sand off the toys, BBQ, chairs and garden furniture. Once all the sand was gone, I thought that we'd use the plastic half clam shells as paddling pools, but thought that as the weather forecast was good, it might be a good time to bring out the Thomas The Tank Engine inflatable pool. The boys were delighted to see it inflated and full of water and could not wait to get back from the Doctors to have a swim.

At this point I left home to go and have some adult time, but Adrienne informs me that the boys, herself and Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve had a wonderful afternoon just hanging in the yard. Apparently, the water was pretty cold, but both boys were not at all fussed and enjoyed their swims and paddles.

House Dad.

Little A's

2008-09-26T20:59:00.002+10:00

Nanny Ronnie, Felix and I went along to Jarvis first Little Athletics night this evening. It was a pretty rushed affair to get there on time, as it started at 6pm and Adrienne was not on hand to help, as she was at a work function. I was quite stressed out, however, now that I know the location and have in my mind some of the things I need to prepare for, next week should be easier.

Jarvis was a bit hyper active with excitement at his first Little A's meeting, which didn't mix too well with a stressed out and tired Dah. However, we made it through the night with Jarvis taking part in a warm up and stretch, followed by a short run. Then onto the serious business of track and field with some obstacle course running, a relay race with mini-hurdles and baton change over, some shot put, concluding with a 100-metre sprint. All of which took just over an hour.

After Jarvis had finished his sports, we met up with our friends Hector (pictured below) and his boys Tyler and Cameron. I run with the boys Mum, Manal and it is through Manal that we found out about Little A's.

The final act of the night was for Jarvis to devour a hot dog, like I've never seen him eat one before. He's such a picky eater, but boy did he scoff his hot dog down. I guess being an Athlete like our Jarvie is, requires super large amounts of energy food.

House Dad.

Green Fingers

2008-09-25T19:53:00.003+10:00

Jarvis has recently showed lots of interest in the school project that his class has undertaken, and that is to grow some plants from seeds. He eagerly showed us the project one day this week when we picked him up and talked about it lots in the evening. Nanny Ronnie wanted to do something for her Grandchild, so suggested that she set Jarvis up with his own little vegetable, fruit and herb garden.

Once Jarvis was dropped off at school Felix and I drove Nanny Ronnie to a local garden centre where Nanny Ronnie set about the task of selecting suitable plants, feed and other bits. I had a momentary lapse of forgetting myself and picked up some bits, only to put them back instantly when I realised that I was desperately out of my depth. Neither Adrienne or myself are interesting in gardening, preferring the grey colour of concrete to the lush green of grass and flower beds. Just look at our plastic fantastic synthetic back lawn for a good example!

Anyway, Nanny Ronnie set Jarvis up with the following selection of plants: Strawberries, Beans, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Cucumber, Lettuce, Peas, Coriander, Thyme and Cress. A nice little selection, for the tidy sum of $300! OMG, plastic ones would have been so much cheaper and lasted longer than the 2-weeks these ones will when I eventually kill them all.

But seriously, a MASSIVE thank you to Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve for setting Jarvis up with his little garden, which he'll now have to look after, in order to get his daily stickers on his charts. And you never know, in a month or so, we may even be eating some of his produce.

House Dad.

Nanny Ronnie's Broken Toe

2008-09-24T19:43:00.003+10:00

Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve returned this afternoon from their three-day trip to the Blue Mountains. Jarvis was stoked to see his Nanny enter the classroom at the end of the day and showed her his painted plate. I had no idea that he'd made one, so it was a nice surprise. During the car ride home, Jarvis sang his Nanny a new song that he's learned in German. We are not 100% sure what it's about, but we think it's about a bunny hopping around a log. None the less, it's a very nice song and we are very proud of our boy.

Before Nanny Ronnie left for the Blue Mountains, she managed to kick the side of the bath. It was not until she was in the Blue Mountains that she had it looked at and had her fears confirmed. Nanny Ronnie has a broken toe! Luckily for Nanny Ronnie, she's always drunk, so the pain is not too bad!

In tradition with all broken bones that are put into a protective casing, Jarvis drew a wee picture on his Nanny Ronnie's plaster. It's a wee forest for some reason, but it looks cool.

House Dad.

Sharing - Caring, Wolfman And Park Fun

2008-09-22T19:18:00.006+10:00

We've been on Jarvis case for what seems like forever about having kind hands and sharing with his younger Brother Felix. I think it's suddenly working, as I found both boys tucking into a tube of Pringle chips this morning, while watching TV. I looked on from a distance and each time Felix held his hand out and squeaked, Jarvis handed him a chip. Could this be a sign of things to come?

Once the boys had some proper breakfast and bathed, we drove to Bunnings, as I wanted to find a suitable table for a wee project that we will be doing this week. Nanny Ronnie has promised Jarvis that she'll buy him some plants, so that he can grow some potatoes, strawberries and other edible fruit and vegetables. The reason for the table is that I'm certain that wee Felix would destroy anything that grows, so have decided that it should be up out of harms way.

After locating a great trestle table, that I'll pick up in the week, we walked over to the garden centre of Bunnings, where we found a display of Venus Fly Traps. Jarvis had never seen such a plant before and was fascinated when I told him that they catch and eat bugs. He just had to have one. On the drive home he nicknamed the plant Wolfman Vampyre!

Within minutes of arriving home I found a fly in the bathroom, that I managed to swot. Jarvis then held Wolfman Vampyre while I dropped the still twitching fly into one of the plants barbed mouths. Jarvis was amazed to see the mouth close up around the fly. What a cool boys plant aye.

By now it was still only 10.30am and I wanted to get the boys out, but didn't want to do too much, as I was still very sore from yesterdays race. So it was that we found ourselves walking to a local park to meet up with Signe, Betty and Evie.

For the next couple of hours we had such fun, not just playing, but eating a wonderful lunch provided by Signe. Signe and I even found time to chat, something that rarely happens when you are looking after little people.

Once it was time to go I promised everyone that I'd buy them an ice-block, which we did from the dairy across the road from the park. It was a great idea, as it was a pretty hot day and the sugar rush from the ice blocks got everyone home in a super fast time. Once home and cleaned up, all three boys flaked out exhausted on the sofa for a wee nap.

So all in all, a splendid day :o)

House Dad.

Weekend Wrap 20 - 21 September 2008

2008-09-21T19:02:00.002+10:00

Nanny Ronnie got to meet our neighbor Robyn who put her pet Galah on Nanny Ronnie's shoulder.

Jarvis stroked Mixie, one of Robyn's three Alsatian dogs. It was one of those dogs that dragged Jarvis down the road over a year ago, resulting in Jarvis cutting up his face pretty badly.

Jarvis took his Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve to The Sydney Fish markets, where they bought heaps of fresh kai moana for a BBQ.

Jarvis quite liked the look of the water melons, but had trouble lifting one on his own. Someone needs to eat more of the food and get stronger I think.

The extended whanau enjoyed a lovely BBQ on a warm spring night. The climax for Jarvis was when the sparklers came out.

Jarvis put on a one man sparkler show for everyone.

On Sunday morning, Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve came down to the Sydney Opera House to see me finish the Sydney Half Marathon. They missed me, as I must have been running so fast.

While Dah hung with his running buddies, Jarvis and the whanau got ready for a trip to Centennial Park. it was essential that Jarvis put on as much bling as possible for the trip.

Adrienne and the boys nearly killed Nanny Ronnie on the bike around Centennial park.

And finally, Jarvis was got to meet his school buddy Phoebe in the play ground. It was hugs all around apparently.

House Dad (Too sore to do a proper post - sorry)

Time To Go Home

2008-09-19T21:40:00.003+10:00

Just like every other day in our whanau, everyone was up at a ridiculous time, but today that was a good thing, as we needed to get packed for the trip home. Adrienne still had another half day of her course, so we packed as much as we could before breakfast.

After breakfast Adrienne went off to her class and he boys just kind of hung around the estate looking for stuff to do. We spent some time playing pool and table tennis. Well I say play, it was more a case of throwing pool balls across the table and stuff, but it killed and hour. Then we just waked around the grounds enjoying the sun and watching the varied wildlife, which consisted of parrots, parakeets and some other strange walking birds, that we tried to catch. Jarvis found a Rozella feather that he bought home for his Granddad Steve to identify, which of course Steve did.

On the plane journey home, Jarvis had everyone at the rear of the plane in stitches with laughter, as he pulled out his famous gutter laugh on both the take off and landing. It was VERY bumpy and he cried with laughter at the top of his voice, resulting in everyone around us laughing and looking back to see where that funny laugh was coming from. We also had lots of fun pulling our faces back pretending that the g-force was stretching them.

Now we are all home safe and sound and even though we had the most splendid week, it's lovely to be back in our shoebox sized house and back to our crazy routine.

House Dad.

Melbourne Zoo And Trams

2008-09-18T19:54:00.002+10:00

Wednesday

I have a confession and that is that I'm actually writing this update, not on Wednesday or Thursday, but on Friday night after our return home. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but the first couple of nights that I updated the blog, I had to walk back to the gate house in pitch blackness through the estate grounds. I'm a city boy through and through and to be brutally honest, I'm petrified of the darkness and remoteness of the country side, so could not drum up the courage to walked the 800-metres back to the gate house. Give me built up smelly, noisy cities any day. So there you are:

OK, today the boys drove the 60-minutes back towards Melbourne to visit the zoo. As with yesterdays visit to Scienceworks, entry was free, as it's a deal that our membership gets us into all of Australia's top zoos free of charge.

The weather was wonderful and we spent a happy three-hours roaming around the zoo, which does not seem to have as wide a range of animals as Sydney, but the animals they do have, live in far more spacious pens. It also seems to be set in much larger grounds, so there was plenty of walking, with the major bonus being that it's all flat, unlike it's Sydney counterpart, which is built on a steep hillside.

So yeah, a lovely trip to Melbourne zoo, on a beautiful sunny Melbourne day - Could life get any better, I think not!

House Dad.

Thursday

After an early night, I was nice and refreshed and busting to get the boys into Melbourne city for a look-see. Adrienne and I had stayed in Melbourne many years ago, but I'd forgotten what a wonderful city it is and so easy to navigate, as it's built on a grid system.

After reversing out of the first car park we found, due to the cost being $46 for three-hours, we pulled into a little moody car park, which looked totally illegal, but only cost $15 for the whole day - bargain - love it.

The priority for us was of course to jump onto one of Melbourne's famous trams, which run all over the city and beyond. Our plan was to ride the city circle ones, that continually loop the C.B.D and are free. They are really old and perfect for tourists, as they have a speaker system on-board, instructing you, as to what is available in and around each stop.

So for the next five-hours we just roamed around the city, listening and watching some of the excellent buskers and stopping here and there for the odd bit to eat. The highlight for Jarvis though was when he discovered an RD-D2 made from lego. Jarvis, like his beloved Mumma, is a bit of a science fiction/fantasy fan.

Then it was back onto one of the old trams or the ride back to the car. Just for good measure though, I let the boys play for another 30-minutes in a park, so that I could truly wear them out for the hour long ride back to Mount Eliza. As planned, both boys slept the entire trip back and I even managed to get them both cuddled up on the sofa together, as you can see in the really cute picture below.

House Dad.

Scienceworks

2008-09-16T19:48:00.004+10:00

We had heard some pretty good reports about Melbourne's Scienceworks when back in Sydney, so it was a no brainer that we'd pay the place a visit. It was great too, that as members of Sydney's best museum The Powerhouse, we got in for free - bonus!

It was a bit chilly waiting outside, as we had arrived about 20-minutes early, but things warmed up quickly as the boys ran from tactile exhibit to tactile exhibit. The place was so hands on, it was unbelievable. We spent about an hour playing downstairs before realising that there was another whole floor above dedicated to little people from 3 to 8. So off we went.

It was great to see that the little peoples area had child proof gates at either end, because as parents, those sort of things make such a difference. So yeah, we parked up the stroller and spent about 60-minutes playing, making new friends and learning about various things, such as recycling and how the read the weather, it was wonderful.

After a quick lunch we headed down to the pump house and saw a great exhibit on how Melbourne's waste was treated way back in time. We also had the bonus of walking into the pump room just as they fired up the ginormous pumps. Jarvis was so impressed, but looked shocked when I told him that it was designed to pump poo!

Three-hours after entering the building, I bundled two very tired boys into the car for the 35-minute ride back to the castle. A very, very successful and happy day for the boys :o)

House Dad.

Hanging Around The Castle

2008-09-15T20:36:00.003+10:00

As yesterday was a big trip for the boys and the fact that we are still recovering from last weeks sickness, I made the call to have a rest day today. It was a good call, as it gave us a chance to explore the grounds of this place and have some fun.

Once Adrienne went off to her course at 8.15am, the boys had a quick bite to eat and drove over to Mount Eliza for some vital groceries. The boys are so good in the supermarket and we never have any melt downs at all. This may be due to the fact that I do everything at such a break neck speed, that the whole thing is over so soon.

After the food shop we set off to find a toys shop, as stupidly we didn't bring any toys to entertain the boys. We found a really quaint wee toy shop and the little old woman inside was delighted to see the boys. Jarvis scored some magnetic toys (it's a well know brand, but I'm tired and in the main complex, so can't remember the brand name) and Felix, a wee push along bus.

After lunch and a three-hour sleep for Felix ( I was right to have a home day) the boys went exploring. We discovered the games room and had fun playing a Jarvis version of pool and then table tennis. I'm still confused by his version and style of play, and still unsure how he won all the games, when I didn't even get to touch any of the balls!

From there we moved to the Gym for a play and then onto the beach, which was very, very windy. So windy in fact, that Jarvis and I laughed ourselves silly, as Felix's snot (his nose like most toddlers is always running) was blowing in long streams, sideways off his face. It then got pretty dark and rough, so we headed home to ready ourselves for the return of Jarvis beloved Mumma.

House Dad.

The Gate House

2008-09-14T18:10:00.003+10:00

We are somewhere outside of Melbourne for the next week, Mount Eliza I think, as we have come over to keep Adrienne company while she is on a course. It's an amazing estate built in 1890, and we've scored the Gate House to live in for the next 6-days.

The trip from Sydney to Melbourne was a breeze, as our boys have flown so many times now. Also it was only about a 90-minute trip, which is so much easier than the flights we've taken back home to New Zealand. Jarvis was a dream and watched Nick Jr on the wee TV screen the whole way, even eating his lunch with his headphones on.

The drive from the airport to Mount Eliza was a piece of cake, as we bought our TomTom satellite navigation, so no wrong turns for us. It took about an hour, which was just about right, as everyone except me had a wee sleep.

On arrival we were blown away by the old gate house building as we drove in, with Jarvis even commenting that it looked like a castle. Little did we know then that this would be where we'd be staying for the next week. It's wonderful and we can make us much noise and mess as we want, as it's about 500-metres from the main complex.

As it's all private grounds, with hardly any traffic, Jarvis was allowed the VERY VERY rare privilege of sitting on my lap and steering the car for the very short drive down to the main estate house for dinner - he was stoked.

House Dad.

Kid Bugs!!!

2008-09-13T20:54:00.004+10:00

So where have we been the last three days? Well Adrienne, Jarvis, Felix, Lee, Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve, have either been sitting on the loo with diarrhea or with our heads in bowls vomiting. Ah yes, that lovely bug gastroenteritis, that sweeps through children and adults with stealth, came to stay with us for a few days.

It all seemed to start on Wednesday night with Felix coming down with diarrhea, that smelled like no other diarrhea I've ever experienced. It stank like fish and was just horrific. Then on Thursday night, one by one, we all succumbed to the bug with varying degrees of severity over the next couple of days. We didn't even see Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve for the whole of Friday, as they were bed ridden out the back!

Thankfully, by today, we all seem to be recovered, if a little slow on our feet. We were all well enough though to get outside and enjoy the unusually hot day, which hit a high of 31 degrees (88 degrees Fahrenheit), that's 11 degrees higher than the average for this time of year. Jarvis and Felix even stripped down and had a play in the pool. However, come 3pm, everyone was fast asleep, recovering from a truly awful couple of days.

Then this evening, after our traditional Saturday night pizza, we all watched The All- Blacks beat Australia 28 - 24 to win both The Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations....woohoo!!!

Oh, the first two pictures I've posted are from Wednesday nights bath, when I put Jarvis hair in a ponytail, so that he could look like a pirate. I was shocked to see how much he looked like his beloved Mumma when she was a wee girl. Scary stuff!

House Dad.

Jarvie The Athlete

2008-09-10T19:39:00.002+10:00

Jarvis insisted on wearing his Western Suburbs Little Athletics Centre cap to school today, so that he could show his class mates that he's now and athlete. He also asked me to draw a wee picture of him and Felix on the back of his hand, having a running race. I've no idea where he got that idea from, but I went with it.

You may notice in the first picture that Jarvis is not smiling. The reason for this, is that when Jarvis is in athlete mode, he refuses to smile, as he reckons athletes NEVER smile. He must have watched some races with me and seen them focused and in the zone before a race. So yeah, he won't smile when being an athlete, that is unless we coax a smile out of him, as we had to do in the final pictures.

While Jarvis was at school his Nanny Ronnie went with me to buy him a wee track suit and running shoes. Unbeknown to us, Rebel Sports had a sale on, so we scored 25% off everything.

After school Jarvis changed into his athletes gear and gave us a demonstration of how he looks in his new threads. He looked so cool and I was really touched to see my little man looking so grown up. I'm sure I'll be the same way in years to come when he's on the winners podium collecting his gold medal for representing New Zealand.

House Dad.

Jarvis Takes His Nanny To The Zoo

2008-09-09T20:56:00.003+10:00

Sydney put on another wonderful spring day for us, so the boys, along with Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve, squeezed into our small car and drove to Sydney Zoo. We'd normally be at the gates at exactly opening time, but with a couple more whanau in our wee house, it takes a lot longer to get everyone organised and out of the door.

The Zoo was rocking by the time we arrived and Jarvis was keen to get stuck in. We decided that we'd split up with the Grandparents going one way and the boys going another. I would not be any fun for the boys to go at the olds pace and no fun for the olds to race around and not see anything. Well that was the plan anyway. After a fun ride in the sky train, Jarvis wanted to go back and find his Grandparents, which we did.

Jarvis scored Granddad Steve's bird watching binoculars and enjoyed looking at things far away, but had more fun looking the reverse way and making near things appear further away! I even managed the rare feat of getting in a picture with my boys, two days in a row.

After about 20-minutes Jarvis was over going at his Grandparents pace, so we decided to split up again, which meant that we could whiz around, play and cause mayhem. It was fun, but by about 1pm I can honestly say that I was more tired than on any other trip out with the boys. The dynamics have changed so much with Felix now being mobile and as I've said before, I don't like him to be strapped into a stroller all the time, but out and about moving. This is all well and true, but with the boys going at different paces and in different directions, I'm going to rethink how I approach trips out from now on. It is not helped by the fact the Sydney Zoo is built on step hillside. I might try and leave the stroller in a strategic position next time, move around without it and come back at a latter date. That or hire a cute Nanny to help me out each time ;o)

Eventually, three VERY overtired boys meet up with Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve for the drive home. Once home, the three VERY overtired boys slept for a straight 2-hours, before waking up to find a house full of visitors, which was so nice.

The day concluded with a sparkler display by Jarvis, outside in the street. No wonder people think we are the strange Kiwi family in our road, who spend too much time having fun and making too much noise. Ah well, such is life :o)

House Dad.

Jarvis Takes His Nanny To The Powerhouse

2008-09-08T20:15:00.002+10:00

Anyone who spends any length of time with Jarvis will, without doubt, end up at his favourite place The Powerhouse Museum. So it was for Nanny Ronnie today (Granddad Steve went bird watching), as she got the full blown, break neck speed tour of the best place to visit in Sydney.

We were lucky to briefly see our wonderful friend Louise, who previously worked up in the Members lounge for a chat. Sadly for us, but great for Louise, she has now moved onto a new department. It was also nice to introduce my Mother to Louise, who has been a big part of our blog and major player in our fun times at The Powerhouse.

Nanny Ronnie really enjoyed the museum, though I think struggled with not being able to fully appreciate the exhibits, as it's hard to look at things and keep your eyes on two wee boys. It'll probably be a good idea for my Mother and Steve to go back on their own for a proper look while they are here.

Jarvis put in a solid three-hours of fun and exploring at The Powerhouse, so as I'd predicted to my Mother, he was asleep in the back of the car within minutes. And with the successful transfer of both sleeping boys from the car to their beds, all three boys and a very worn out Nanny, all squeezed in a nice long Nana nap - tough life eh ;o)

House Dad.

Fathers Day 2008

2008-09-07T19:51:00.002+10:00

Today was Fathers Day in Australia, so we all went into town to buy Dah a couple of new shirts and to drop of Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve, so that they could have a look around. It was VERY tricky all fitting into our small VW Golf, but we managed it in the end.

I scored a couple of great casual shirts, which I picked and paid for myself, as I'm very fussy about what I wear. The best present though, was a double kiss from Jarvis and Felix, which made me so happy.

Outside Myers department store we saw a balloon blowing clown, who we've seen before. He's very, very good and entertains the little people and adults so well. All the little people make contribution for their balloon, which is great, as he so deserves it.

We then walked down an old fashioned shopping lane, that Jarvis has nicknamed Diagon Alley, as it looks a bit like that old lane from the Harry Potter books and movies. In the alley, Adrienne and Jarvis gave each other a shoe shine. The best bit though was going into Haigs chocolate shop, where I scored another Fathers Day present, some chocolate covered almonds - yum.

Once home, Jarvis opened this weeks toy that he bought with the money he recieves if he gets enough stickers on his chart. He was after and scored a Test Tube Alien, as he'd seen one at Tommie and Sophie's once. It took a while to prepare, which is all part of he fun, but now he has to look after it and take care of the thing for the next few months. It will be a good idicator as to whether he'd be comitted to looking after a pet. My call, is that he's too young. We'll see.

House Dad.

Nanny Ronnie The Sewing Legend

2008-09-06T21:15:00.004+10:00

The weather has been poo for Jarvis Grandparents since they arrived on Thursday, as we are having a very wet spell. This is all good for us, as we really need to water, but not great for visitors. So it was that Adrienne took the boys and Grandparents for a look at her office this morning, as it has amazing views over the city. It also gave me a much needed break and some quiet Lee time at home.

They arrived back after a couple of hours and that's when I asked Nanny Ronnie if she could sew the three patches onto Jarvis new running top. Adrienne and I don't sew, so had no idea how to do it, with me even drawing blood within seconds just trying to pin the patches in the right place!
Having no experience with sewing, I thought that it would be a 20-minute job, however about two-hours later Nanny Ronnie finally finished. So thank you Mum for a splendid job, you really got us out of a tight spot there.

It was then time for dinner and we were delighted to be treated to a takeaway curry from our favorite Indian restaurant Surjit's, which is just down the road from us. It was a wonderful meal, enjoyed by not only the olds, but some of the milder stuff by Jarvis. This is wonderful, as traditionally, Adrienne and I have always loved hot and spicy food, so if the boys eventually enjoy it as well, then woohoo!

Nanny Ronnie must have drunk too much wine with her curry and fell asleep on the sofa. She was meant to be helping Jarvis do some drawing, so we let Jarvis draw with felt pen on her nose. It was so funny and we were hoping he'd be able to do the whole face, but Nanny Ronnie woke up - bugger!

I've debated as to whether I should document this next piece, as it might show our family in a bad light, however this is a warts and all blog and hey, these things happen and we are no angels. Anyway, as I was just finishing off the blog Jarvis and Adrienne came and gave me a kiss goodnight, as they do every night as I update The World Of Jarvis Tahi. After a few minutes, Jarvis came back with a very concerned and serious face and said "Dah, it's too late, you need to sleep, so go to bed. If you stay up you'll get tired and be grumpy tomorrow and say fuck." I found it humorous, as it's not a word he uses, but also quiet interesting, as he spotted that I'm not good if I push myself too hard, so was touched by his seriousness and concern.

So yeah, I'm off to bed, because if I stay up any latter, we all know what will happen tomorrow don't we ha ha.

House Dad.

Little A's

2008-09-05T20:06:00.002+10:00

Poor Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve are getting a real bashing from Jarvis and Felix. No sooner have the boys woken up, than they are heading out to the back room to hassles the olds! The poor guys are still jet lagged and struggling to adapt to the different time zone, however little people are no respecters of this and just want to wake them up and play.

Jarvis is just loving having his Grandparents around and even got to make a salad with his Nanny for dinner. Sadly though, Jarvis is not a big fan of green stuff, so basically had a beetroot and cheese salad.

After dinner Jarvis and I drove over to The Canada Bay Club in Five Dock to sign him up for Little Athletics, which is something I'm keen for him to do. Jarvis was really into it too, as he's been to lots of running events with his Dah. It cost $82 to sign him up for the season and another $40 for the kit, which is not too bad, as that's all you pay for a season. There will be more expense, as he needs running shoes and a track suit, but we'll plead poverty to Nanny Ronnie and see if we can squeeze some $$$ from her - She's loaded anyway ;o)

At the signing in night Jarvis wanted to get into his club colours as soon as possible and could not wait to get home and tell everyone that he's now an athlete and does sport for The Western Suburbs Little Athletics Club. The only stumbling block now is that there are three patches to sew onto his top. Who sews these days? That's something olds do isn't it. Um, I wonder!

House Dad.

Welcome Nanny Ronnie and Grandad Steve

2008-09-04T19:12:00.003+10:00

Wee Jarvis was so excited to be meeting his Nanny Ronnie and Granddad Steve for the first time this morning, that he waited at the window for nearly an hour. Suddenly at about 7.15am their taxi pulled up and Jarvis ran outside to greet them, squealing as he went. Strangely, as you'll see from the video below, he got a wee bit bashful, but that only lasted a few seconds. Jarvis being Jarvis, was instantly at ease with his Grandparents who he's never met before and showed them the house, where they'd be sleeping and anything else he could find.

Jarvis was delighted to have his Nanny Ronnie join Felix and Dah for the school drop off. He just loved walking to school holding his Nannies hand and once there, proceeded to tell everyone who his Nanny Ronnie was. He got a bit confused when it was time for us to go, as he thought that his Nanny was going back to England. He even cried a wee bit, which was incredible, as Adrienne and I have never been afforded that pleasure/displeasure.

Granddad Steve joined us for the after school pick up, which meant that Nanny Ronnie had to squeeze in between the two little people seats on the back seat. It was tight and quite funny to see her struggle to get out. Our car is so small, I think a hire car might have to be sourced soon.

Now at 7.20pm Jarvis is kicking up a stink, as he doesn't want to go to bed, but wants to play with his Grandparents instead. However, I can see that he's exhausted and will be fast asleep in minutes, saving up enough energy to run his Grandparents ragged again tomorrow.

Finally, we'd ALL like to thank British Airways, who flew Veronica and Steve all the way from London to Sydney, as a thank you for all the great publicity they received from the story about Nanny Ronnie seeing the Grandson she'd never met in their Upgrade To Sydney Commercial. Thank you British Airways, you've made us all, especially one very excited wee four-year-old, all so very happy :o)

House Dad.

Running Wild In The City

2008-09-02T19:39:00.003+10:00

With the weather forecast to go belly up tomorrow, I thought we'd do one of our city days, where we just hit the CBD and wander. It's always a good trip as I don't have to growl that often and there's always plenty to see and do.

While walking down George Street the boys scored some mini rugby balls from a promo girl. These were put to good use for about an hour in Martins Place, where we played catch, kick and rolling of the balls, much to the delight of the boys and the office workers. It was lots and lots of fun, believe me.

We then scored some more freebies in the shape of free Movenpack ice cream. It was well timed too, as we had got quite hot from playing catch and needed a sugar rush too. The ice cream did the trick and had all three boys ready to push on for the rest of the afternoon.

Our next stop was Dymocks outlet bookshop. It's in Pitt Street and is full of reduced books, which is something I'm into, a bargain. Jarvis found the book he wanted immediately and I certainly approved. It's another of those pop up books that he's into, but this one is on the human body. It's way too advanced for him, but I'm NEVER going to say no to my Jarvie wanting to buy books. It's got lots of cool pull out and pop up bits, plus a pumping heart inside.

Then it was home on the train to find the car parked at the station. Jarvis always checks that we have the right car by reading the NZ sticker on the back - Go NZ :o)

Even though it's only officially the second day of Spring, it was nice and warm in the late afternoon sun, so I filled up one of the clam shells with warm bubbly water, so that the boys could have a soak after spending all day in the dirty city. It was a great way to clean them up, plus I try and get some sunlight on their skin early before the summer arrives.

House Dad.

Just The Best Day Ever!

2008-09-01T19:36:00.003+10:00

I had plenty of extra sleeps over the weekend, so felt amped this morning and wanted to have a full on day with the boys. So it was that we drove over to Sydney Zoo, as the weather was gorgeous today. Jarvis though, left the house with his Emo black painted finger nails, which I thought was really cool.

Jarvis was such a good Brother too, as I was keen to let Felix have as much time on his feet as possible, as it drives me crazy seeing little people strapped into prams/strollers so much. I appreciate that it's very hard for people when you have 2+ little people to look after, but I just have always liked my boys to move around as much as possible. But Jarvis was just wonderful, not running off and allowing Felix the time to catch up.

As with last week, the first thing we do on arrival is for Jarvis to go and ask politely for a free map, so that he can be the leader and show us around the zoo. Today he took us around some new parts that we'd not seen before and it was marvelous. Jarvis had discovered for us The Southern Oceans exhibit, which was just incredible and houses the seals, sea lions and penguins. I'd seen it on the news a few months back when it opened, but only this morning got to experience what a marvelous enclosure it is.

The trip was wrapped up with a ride on the Sky Train to the bottom of the zoo and back up again. The boys just delight going on the gondola and could probably go round and round and round if the could.

So yeah, today was the most wonderful day and Jarvis was just the best Son and Big Brother ever :o)

House Dad.

That Boy Of Mine

2008-08-31T20:20:00.002+10:00

Felix's tummy bug has had the whanau up ridiculously early for the last couple of days, and so it was this morning that Jarvis and I found ourselves setting up his Playmobil farm at 6am. I was initially sceptical about Playmobil toys when Adrienne first suggested them, as they are so bloody expensive, but since then I've found them to be really well made and have a long play life. Jarvis loves his farm set up and as you can see from the first picture, meticulously sets out all the pieces.

From there Jarvis moved onto wearing some of my running medallions, which is cool, as I'd like him to join Little Athletics this week. It's a great set up and will teach him many new skills. Anyway, Jarvis made lots of noise while wearing my medallions and looked a bit like a curly topped Mr. T.

While having breakfast of poached eggs on toast, which was made the more exciting by the poacher blowing up and shorting all the fuses in the house, Jarvis watched some Hi5. One of the sketches saw Kathleen de Leon Jones ( she's the only reason Dah watches Hi5) painting her toes nails. As soon as the sketch finished Jarvis ran off to the play room and returned with some pens, which he then used to colour in his toes nails. To finish off the overall effect, he then continued to draw on his face. That boy of mine is a worry aye!

House Dad.