Kristy and Pete

We have two Chinese Tallow trees out the front of our house. We named them after our friends (Kristy and Pete) who moved to China shortly before we planted them. Kristy (the tree) has always been more aesthetically pleasing than Pete (the tree), which is why we named them that way. Pete (the person) is pretty good looking, but not a patch on his brightly coloured wife Kristy (the person).

Today, the difference between our two tress was as marked as we'd ever seen it. Poor old Pete has really fallen behind in terms of growth and has also lost most of his leaves. Meanwhile Kristy is powering on with her beautiful autumn coat and it doesn't look like she'll be losing it until winter is well and truly upon us. We'll keep encouraging Pete and any advice about how to give him a boost would be much appreciated.

More Cooking Lessons

This morning Ben and I went round to Team Watson HQ and we were just in time to learn how to cook potato chips in the ActiFry. The ActiFry was given to Jane and Trent to road test and comment on. I'll resist going into detail about the ActiFry out of respect for all those non-dietitian readers out there. But in summary; it's fun to watch and the boys had a great time helping Jane out and eating the finished product.

So Much Fun!!

Today Ben and I met up with Maz, Jacob, Kylie and Paige at Centennial Park. Ben and I have visited Centennial Park a few times this month (twice this week!). On Tuesday Ben braved the slippery dip all by himself. I didn't have a camera with me that day, so I had to wait till today to capture his solo efforts. Jacob also completed his first Mum-free run on the big dipper. The boys had so much fun that they decided to go down the slide together (pictured above). I love the shot at the top of this posting. I know it's blurry but I reckon blurry is good! The boys engineered this tandem slide on their own. I'm sure I wouldn't have thought to launch them together and I think it happened because Ben pushed in over the top of Jacob and took him down with him.

Paige very sensibly decided to leave the slippery dip to the boys, but was happy to share this toddler sized ride with Ben.

During the course of the afternoon we all had a go on the see saw...

Jacob and Ben kicked the ball around.....

......and Ben got some horse riding practice in. It's good to practice, just in case he's allowed to ride Fonzie next time we go to Columbine.

Cooking Lessons

Matt has finally agreed to pass on some of his culinary secrets. He recently gave Ben a lesson on how to cook scrambled eggs. From the look on Ben's face I don't think he fully understood the gravity of the moment.

When it came to the porridge cooking lesson he seemed to take it a little more seriously. He even finished the lesson in a way that all good apprentice chefs do; tasting the end product

Geography Lessons

Recently Ben has been getting some geography lessons from his Nanna. Nanna Jude knows how to make learning fun. She's tuned into Ben's learning style; "put it on something that looks like a ball and I'm 100% interested".

Life is Not a Fashionable Cafe

A few weekends ago I joined a bus-load of very happy people on a trip to four vineyards for the Lovedale Long Lunch. My friend Jane Maree Perkins had organised the trip and some of the girls from work had already signed up. So when a last minute ticket came up I was keen to join in the fun. Despite the fact that we hardly saw JMP (she was busy being "in charge") we had a really fun time.

We visited four vineyards, drank enough wine to feel flushed and ate a variety of yummy things. We also managed to come up with some very wanky ways to describe wine. I'm still not convinced that everyone else was right when they said my suggestion of 'ticklish' as a descriptor was just stupid. But I'm happy to concede that it wasn't nearly as wanky as our winner of the wankiest description of a wine competition. This accolade went to Anthony Cook's description of an Allandale Shiraz as "a timely reminder that life is not a fashionable cafe". It's a good job Anthony is good at making up wanky descriptions of wine, because he's hopeless at choosing food. While the rest of us were chowing down on some very delicious trout, he chose what can only be described as a poo curry. But in keeping with the up mood of the day, he didn't complain and simply washed it down with a little more red wine.

Hunter Valley Gardens

On the weekend Team aBeckett went on a Sunday drive to the Hunter Valley Gardens. Most people of my generation know that the Hunter Valley Gardens used to be Hungerford Hill. Now the HVG are very beautiful and the place probably needed updating but I've gotta say that the swings just ain't what they used to be. When I was a kid the swings were awesome and I couldn't help feeling a bit sad that they aren't there any more. The current version is all moulded plastic and I'm sure it's much safer, but the old version was just so good!! It's hard for me to see how climbing through a red plastic wall could possibly be better than navigating your way across a bridge made of rope and old tyres. Still Ben had a great time and who knows what will be there in another 25 years.

The visit was planned as a get together with my old school mates, whom I've mentioned before on the blog (see Dec entries). It was great to see them all again and this time I got to meet their kids, which was pretty mind blowing. Mum came too and she was very impressed with how the girls and their offspring have all turned out. The girls are pictured above. I would have liked to get a shot of their kids as well but it seemed like it would be just too hard to get them all in the one place at the same time. Pictured standing from L-R are: Ben and I, Tracey, Rachel, Kristin and her Ben. Tania is sitting down.

A Few More Words

Ben's vocabulary is expanding rapidly. In the last two posts I mentioned Ben's animal, ball and foot related words. Another word that we're not entirely happy about hearing is "no!". Ben's also making "vroom" nosies and will do this when he's pushing a car along or sees pictures of trains, planes, motorbikes or cars of course. He also makes "vroom" noises while he pretends to mow the lawn. Here's a few more words we've noticed lately:

"yummy yummy yummy"

"up"

"twinkle"

We think he actually tries to say the whole line "twinkle twinkle little star".

"ma!!"
Ben's word when he gives you a kiss. Here he is learning to love himself.

"bye bye"
Very frequently heard. Ben will often say this while holding a phone to his ear (or anything that resembles a phone).

"bot"

"bath".....

.........and my favourite;

"bwita bwita bwie"

Ben's word for blankie.

Fancy Footwork

I've mentioned before how Ben is very into balls and his love for all things spherical continues. One of his two favourite words is "ball" and even a circle on a page will elicit repeated utterances. On the weekend I had to dislodge him from an unsuspecting pompom, which was doing it's best to stay attached to another child's beanie (which in turn had much difficulty staying attached to the child's head). I've lost count of how many times I've had to remove him from a little round earring while he's insisting that it is in fact a "ball". Ben has now learnt how to kick balls and will often say "kick" as he dribbles along. He's actually pretty impressive with the way he keeps balls on the move.

Ben's other piece of fancy footwork involves his efforts with shoes. "Shoe" is Ben's other favourite word. And if he doesn't have a ball in his hands, he will have a shoe. He loves to carry them around, take them on and off his feet, or hold them up to his ears (don't really know what that's about - maybe he's been watching Get Smart).

Ben's also fond of socks, which lately he interchangeably refers to as "shoe" or "gok".

Animal Sounds

Several months ago I blogged that Ben was saying "Mu-ma" and "Da-da". Having mastered those words he seems to have given them up. He says quite a few other words now, including a healthy proportion of animal sounds. He has a favourite book with animal shapes and words in it. The book has only four animals (sheep, cow, duck and pig) and simply asks; "What does the sheep say?"...etc. He's mastered two and is pretty close with the third.

"baa",

"moo",

"gak".

Ben also says "meow" when he sees pictures of cats. "Meow" came completely out of the blue. We figure he must have learnt it at day care. He even said "meow" to Mum's cat when we visited on the weekend. Ben's other favourite animal sound is some sort of barking type noise that he makes at the dogs. It's quite forceful and very recognisable to us... but don't ask me to spell it!!

And one of the first animal (related) sounds Ben ever produced was his version of "gallop". Again, I have no idea how to spell Ben's version. Here's Ben galloping on Daddy's knee.

Columbine

We recently spent a weekend at Columbine. It happened to be the Mothers Day weekend and I was treated to lots of fun in the Autumn leaves with Ben. I also got to have a much appreciated sleep in. The weekend came at the end of my three week stint of full time work and I really needed to unwind. Ben had lots of fun rustling about in the leaves and he also seemed very taken with the crab-apples. He was spotted on several occasions holding a crab-apple in both hands and trying to pluck a third from Unnie's tree with his mouth.

While the falling leaves and fruit were entertaining for a while, the thing that kept Ben most amused was the screen door (pictured below). At least 30 years ago, Matt's Dad had put a handle on this screen door in a position where it could easily be reached by little people. It didn't take Ben long to find the handle himself and he subsequently spent most of his waking hours going in and out of the door.

Work: I Think I've Been Doing Too Much

I mentioned in a post last month how busy life has been. Our personal lives were pretty nuts in March and my work life was also ridiculously busy. Work hasn't seemed to slow down since then. April and May were also busy with a three week stint of full time work. Last week I went back to my usual two days of work, but I ended up going into work on the other three days as well. The only conclusion that I can draw from all this is that I'm working too much. I find the whole work/life balance really tricky. I want to be involved in work and when exciting or challenging things come up I find it hard to say no. Of course this inevitably impacts on home life. One of the ironies of all this is that the thing that keeps me super busy lately is Maudsley Family Therapy. Off I go to work with other people's families and I'm shuffling my son off to day care and to helpful friends. I guess this is a struggle that many parents go through. When someone figures it out can you let me know??

Oliver Donald Lennox

On Wednesday Ben and I met Oliver Donald Lennox. Oliver was born on 3rd May and is my friend Katy's third bubby. Katy and her husband Nathan now have three kids and seem to be taking it all in their stride. Oliver is very cute. And very quiet. He slept for almost the entire time that we were visiting. The picture above was taken on Wed. Katy is in the foreground with her daughter Ivy on her knee (oldest daughter Lucy was at school). Jane-Maree was also visiting on Wed and is pictured in the background with her boy Jack (six months old) and Ben. Meeting Oliver was very exciting, but the thing that really made my head spin was the state of Katy's house. It was immaculate. I'm not exaggerating. The beds were made, the floors were clean there was not a single dirty dish in the place. And Katy was dressed in spunky clothes and had makeup on. When Ben was eleven days old I don't think that I had gotten out of my PJs. I certainly hadn't cleaned the floors or made beds. In fact I still haven't made a bed. To make matters even more amazing, Katy and Nathan's dogs had puppies the day before Oliver arrived. I don't understand how you can have two kids, three puppies, one baby and a clean house. Can anyone make sense of this puzzle?

Alfie's Birthday

Alfie Jack Ivey, the youngest bub from our antenatal class turned one this month. Avid blog readers will know Alfie well, he's one of Ben's best mates!! What some of you may not know is that Alfie had a rough start to life and there was a very scary time when his parents thought he might not make it. So the fact that he's now one and doing all the things that one-year-olds do is a miracle.

Alfie's birthday party was quite a shindig. With plenty of party food to eat, fun toys to play with, knees to be bounced on, and silly hats to wear.

Jacob, Ben, Alfie and Elliott were there representing the antenatal group. Hard to believe they're all one now!!