Hot Date!

Today Mum came to visit while Dad went to pick up some new chooks. When I told Harri that Grandma was going to be at our house he said 'Harri and Jay go to Grandma's house and Daddy, Mummy and Noah stay home' - meaning that he wanted to go and stay the night.

Harri has never stayed anywhere overnight without us, but is always asking if he can. Jay on the other hand has never wanted to stay anywhere and every time we suggest it he stresses out and gets teary and worried about it. He has never even stayed at Mum and Dad's without us! When Harri asked Mum if they could stay the night and she said it was up to me, Jay started freaking out and getting very teary saying he didn't want to because he would miss us. I told him that it would be okay as he would have Harri with him and Uncle Eden and Auntie Steph are also there and Chloe and they would have heaps of fun helping Grandpa with the new chooks.

He didn't seem convinced and said he had to go and think about it. A few minutes later Harri informed us that he was on his bed crying and 'still thinking'. It took about 15 minutes to convince him that it would be fun and okay to go and Grandma telling him that he could have cocoa pops for breakfast pretty much convinced him to go!

Eden and Steph's slab for their house is being laid tomorrow morning so we thought it would be fun to go and see that happen, so I told the boys I would come out and pick them up in the morning and we would watch the cement truck come.

After a little while Jay seemed more excited to go, but he made sure that he had our phone number so he could ring me up to talk to us when he got there! You would think they were going to another state or something!

Harri was so excited to go out to the car and say goodbye.


When Aaron got home I told him they had gone with Mum and Dad and that we should make the most of it and go out for tea. I have been trying for ages to get Aaron to try the yummy Thai restaurant down the road and he finally agreed to give it a go! It was as yummy as usual and so relaxing to just take Noah out (plus he is a very cheap date as he doesn't eat anything!).


When we got home there was a message from Jay on the message bank saying he was trying to ring but we must be on the phone or Grandma and Auntie Steph said we may have gone on a 'hot date'. I rang him straight away and Mum was very relieved that I did as she said he was just starting to get very worried, and just said that I might be dead!! He is such a worrier!!!

When I told him we went on a hot date he laughed and asked me what we did with Noah. I told him that he came on the hot date too and he thought that was very funny. They were both having lots of fun and supposedly Harri freaked out when the chooks were let out! What fun for Mum and Dad! I think they will be glad when I pick them up in the morning :)

Old Friends

Today we caught up with some old friends that we hadn't seen for a long time. Kylie and I used to work together at the Launceston Women's shelter as Child Support Workers and we both fell pregnant at the same time with Jay and Patrick. We went through antenatal classes together and Patrick was born 12 days before Jay.

We then kept in close contact for a few years with get togethers with the other Mums and kids from our antenatal group. Since the kids have started school though it has been harder to get together.

It was great today to get together with them at the Bike Centre. Patrick is so tall and looks at least a couple of years older than Jay. I don't think Patrick and Jay could remember each other, but it was still great to see them, and hopefully we can get together a bit more regularly so the boys get to know each other again.

I need my Daddy!

It is great that Aaron is a teacher as he is home with us all Summer. Today was a sad day - this morning Aaron had to set the alarm clock again and go back to work :( I shouldn't complain as not many people get 11 weeks paid holidays per year.

When Harri woke up at 8am he came out and asked 'where's Daddy?'. I told him that he had gone to work because the holidays have finished and he burst into tears and said 'I need my Daddy!'. His face was soooooo sad. I told him he could ring Daddy at work and talk to him and he did, but the whole time he just sobbed and sobbed telling Aaron that he needed him. I just had to grab the camera to catch the moment as it was so sad, but cute at the same time.

Poor Aaron felt bad and told me to cheer him up as it was making him feel sad too. It didn't take long till he was okay, but on the way back from the gym this morning he asked me again where Aaron was. I reminded him that he was at school because the holidays have finished and said that Jay and Noah will also be going to school on Thursday and Harri says 'and me too!'. He is so ready to start school but has another year to wait. It is going to be hard for him when both the boys go to school on Thursday as well.

Billy carts, wheelbarrows and trucks

Last night it was great to go around to Mick and Bonnie's house for tea to catch up. We had hardly seen each other all summer (especially as Bonnie and I haven't been to the gym for ages), so it was great to finally see each other again.
The boys had a great time being dragged around the yard by the boys, going on the billy cart and being pushed around in a wheelbarrow. Jake, Arron and Brad all looked so hot and tired by the end of it! I'm sure they were very glad to see the boys go!


As we were leaving Jay told me to come into the shed to look at Mick's truck.

It is incredible how clean Mick keeps it! He very happily (not!) stood in front of it for me for a photo! :)

Hopefully with school going back this week, Bonnie and I will see each other a bit more regularly at the gym.

Cute

Yesterday Harri and Jay went outside to play basketball. When they came inside they both came over and gave me a big hug and told me they loved me. They then handed me a note that Jay had written and a flower each, that they had picked outside. It was funny watching Harri's face as he was copying everything that Jay was doing. If only they could stay this young all the time! :)

We miss Uncle Chrish!

I have spent the last couple of days grocery shopping, paying bills and getting photos printed from our trip to Sydney as well as other photos from the Summer. I haven't got any photos developed for so long - they are all just sitting on my computer, but I thought I should print some out as the boys would love looking at photos from the different things we have been doing lately.

While Harri was looking at the photos from out trip to St Helen's he asked 'we go to Helen's house another day and Uncle Chrish come?'. I told him Uncle Chrish could come if he wanted and he told me that he could sleep in the bedroom next to Noah.

It was nice that we could spend so much time with Chrish. He is such a great brother and so kind and generous (sometimes too much!). It was nice to finally see his home he has bought. Harri hasn't stopped talking about him since we come home and it is no wonder - he spoiled us so much! The boys loved being able to sleep in his bed and watch TV every night and morning.

They loved having breakfast cereal that they normally wouldn't have at home, and also loved Uncle Chrish's food cupboard which was stocked up with yummy food :)

We all had a great time playing his new Nintendo Wii, and especially loved his big plasma TV! Our TV looks sooooo tiny now that we are back!


We love Chrish's awesome driving around Sydney! Sometimes it scares the crap out of me (any sort of driving in Sydney scares the crap out of me!), but he definitely knows what he is doing.

One thing I didn't love was his internet connection :) I shouldn't complain - at least I could blog while I was up there - even if it did take me hours every night to get my hundreds of photos uploaded!

Aaron said to me on the way home that he will miss Chrish a lot. We all will, until we see him again at Easter time.

Trains, planes and automobiles

For our last day in Sydney we decided to sleep in a little bit, pack our bags and then head into the city before we had to catch our plane at 6.30pm. Aaron, the boys and I caught the train into the city, so that Chrish could take all our luggage for us.

We arrived in the city and grabbed some lunch and was then going to head to Centrepoint Tower to meet Chrish. As we were heading out of the shopping centre we saw that the sun had gone and it was once again bucketing down with rain!! Because it was sunny when we left Chrish's house we left all our umbrellas and ponchos in the car, so I ended up going and buying a heap of new umbrellas and poncho's AGAIN!

We had to walk about 5 blocks - through Martin Place and then to Pitt Street to meet Chrish. It was a very long and wet 5 blocks! I had to end up carrying Harri as he couldn't handle running, plus holding his umbrella, plus dodging the crowds all at the same time! Aaron had a huge umbrella to cover Noah and himself, but by the time we got to the mall his back was absolutely saturated. Jay and I were excited to spot the Channel 7 studios but it was too wet to take a proper look.

We finally worked out how to get up to Centrepoint Tower and hoped that even though the weather was terrible we would be able to get some sort of view from the top. Before we went up the tower we went to a show called 'Oz Trek'. The first part was a hologram show where you sat in seats with headphones on and there was a 3 dimensional scene set up and holograms would appear. It looked great. After each scene the whole seat section would rotate around to another scene. After the hologram show we went into a big theatre which had moving seats and huge screens. Harri and I couldn't go in the motion seats because he was younger than 4 and I am pregnant, but we could definitely feel all the vibration which freaked Harri out enough! Jay really enjoyed it though.

We then went to the top of the tower and were so happy that the weather had cleared up a bit as we got great views. The boys loved it and Harri kept saying over and over again that the Wiggles went to the Harbour Bridge!








Noah's med levels have obviously risen a lot as he was really sleepy all day long. He probably only woke up for about 2 minutes, total all day. We now have to fiddle with the doses etc to get him to a stage where he is awake but still happy and not irritable. I was so glad though that he was awake for most of the week and had a great holiday. It was nice that we could enjoy it without having him being really upset all week.

After going up the tower we headed back to the train station to get to the airport. We were lucky this time as the rain had stopped and it was fun to go through different shopping centres and see some more of the city. We went through the Queen Victoria Building which was beautiful and I could remember going there on a temple trip.


Aaron and I were very proud of ourselves - catching the trains on our own with no problems (except three kids!!).




We didn't have to wait long at the airport for Chrish to arrive with our bags. It was lucky that we had gotten to the airport early as it took ages to organise getting Noah's car seat and wheelchair on the plane and where we were all going to be sitting. The staff at Jetstar were great though and couldn't do enough to help us.

We had enough time to have some tea before catching the plane, and had to decide between either a Boost juice or Krispy Kreme's. Krispy Kreme's won out and I think Harri was very happy with the decision!


Our plane was supposed to leave at 6.30, but flights were being rescheduled and cancelled everywhere. Some planes were even boarded, and then all the passengers had to come off as they cancelled the flight once they were on. After 5 gate changes we finally got to sit down at one lounge for more than ten minutes but had a two hour delay on our flight. The boys didn't mind all the gate changes as they got to keep riding the escalators, but once we sat down in one spot they got very bored.


With every plane that Harri saw he kept asking 'is that our plane!?'. We were just glad that our flight wasn't cancelled as so many others were because of the weather.

Harri was so tired and fell asleep not long after we took off. We finally arrived home at 10.10 pm and was so happy to see Kylie who had come to pick us up. It is nice to be home, but we were also sad to leave Sydney and Chrish. We had a fantastic trip, despite all the rain.