The House Of Hot Kettles

Defiance

Arlo is certainly hitting the defiant stage of development.  In a rather gentle way, I have to admit - he's pretty even tempered, apart from the occasional fragile day (of which we've had a few this week, even in tandem with mad-and-dave's Lillian during their sleepover party here).  But he definitely enjoys activities which he knows are discouraged.

Sometimes he will do something like pull out the fire tools and bang them on the floorboards, or, as he did five seconds ago, look at me over his shoulder while throwing his books across the room*, and then assume a Serious Face and say "Stop it!  Don't do that!".  Sigh.

* Of course, he is attention seeking right at this moment because I am on the "cyuper", which I very rarely do while he is awake.  It is the number-one trigger of attention seeking behaviour so usually I restrict it to when he's in bed, but in this case we are waiting till we can call his dad so he just has to deal.

And now we have to stop for a cuggle because Arlo "bump his head, need cuggle a kiss".

Hello, My Name Is Arlo. I Am Two Today.

That's what Mark tried to teach Arlo to say, this morning.  Needless to say, .

What?  It was needless, so I didn't say it.

We had a remarkably successful picnic in the park (avoiding the Catholics with the Cross on the Foreshore) complete with minor injuries, ancient cars and, of course, frisbee.  We took the annual King Edward Park Cousins Have Got Your Back photo (less Logan and Kai, plus Willow, Zeph and Darbs).  We ate delicious salads, delicious cake, delicious fish and chips and enjoyed delicious company.

People gave Arlo fabulous gifts, about which he is excited.

But, I'm sorry folks - his favourite gift by far was the one we gave him this evening: his new, purple Dyson kids' vacuum cleaner.  OMG.  Fits of excitement, followed by tantrums when we said it was time to pack it away and go to bed.  We didn't even have the right sized batteries, so he still has that heart attack to come, when he realises the thing really makes noise and really works.  He was tired and overwrought, though, by the end of the day.  Too much cream cheese icing, and the excitement of actually getting to eat Makka Pakka.

Tomorrow is sleepover party time at Aunty Leighsa's!  Then on Tuesday we head off to see Aunty Amber and Logan and Kai.  Eeek.  Didn't think about south-bound traffic.  Hmm.  Perhaps we'll think about going the old road instead of the freeway.  Could be messy; too many pilgrims.

Snufflesneeze

We have been struck by headcolds this week, Arlo and I.  Here I sit, watching Friday night footy (sad) with a tissue dangling out of my nostril (sadder) because repeated wiping has abraded my nose to the point where I can no longer bear to do so.  I have moved on to soaking instead of blowing.  Blegh.

We're undertaking a major landscaping project in the back yard at the moment.  We've been working on it for a few months, and Arlo enjoys gardening so much - and is physically independent enough - that it's generally a joy to be outside every day with him.  As a consequence, things are coming along more quickly than I expected.

We took up the paving that had been there forever (I remember sweeping the sand into the pavers when I was about 10) and laid some new paths with old refractory bricks which came from the school near my parents' place (yay scavenging!).  In between those paths we're doing a waterless water feature; black mondo grass and polished black river stones will represent the waterfall and pond.  I am not in favour of a real water feature because it's too much work, and also a haven for mosquitoes, and we have plenty of them as it is.

We've also, since levelling one section on the yard, discovered we have some run-off drainage issues, so we've created a 'creek bed' to direct the run-off away from the house.  We had a metre of tumbled sandstone pebbles and some larger gabian rock delivered last week, much to Arlo's delight - he loves rocks at the best of times so to have a truck noisily dump a load of rocks into our front yard in the rain was seven kinds of bliss for him.  It's pretty much all done, now all we need is a good steady downpour for a few days so we can see whether it does the job.  And meanwhile I have to finish of my waterless feature so that the dirt there stops washing into the drain and blocking it.

Arlo turns two on Sunday!  Fish and chips in the park with various family and friends, huzzah!

Possibly the least frequently updated blog in the history of blogging.

Arlo turns two in a couple of weeks.  He's such a child now, not a baby.  Of course, the walking was the first big transition, but his language is so amazing to us.  He recognises so many colours and shapes, he's always pointing out things of different colours (and he knows that in certain areas, we see yellow buses, but in others we see white buses, or blue buses).  He can follow multi-part instructions - i.e. go and pick up that bag, empty it and bring it to me.  He has become the proverbial little pitcher - we are starting to watch what we say, as he will hear a random comment not directed at him and bring it into a related conversation, several days later.

His favourite activity is still gardening, and that's how we will spend the afternoon, once he wakes.  He trundles around with his red wheelbarrow and his yellow shovel, or his blue rake, and he very precisely imitates everything we do.  So when I get around to chopping the firewood I'll be careful to be out of sight.

We went south to the snow last week.  Well, a town in the general vicinity of the Snowies, anyway - it took hours to get to the snow, and we could only spend a short time outside with him before his face turned purple from the cold, but it was worth it.  We had such a fantastic time, and Arlo made two new friends in Mark's colleagues Damn [sic] and Pete, whose departure after dinners never failed to bring on desperate sobbing of "Later! Later! Damn and Pete! Later!  Tomorrow!".  He's still talking about them now.