Mum or Mom?

VS.

I was looking for Mother's Day cards yesterday and as I saw all the cards that say "Mum" on them, I realized that maybe I'm being a bit silly to expect Elliot to call me "Mom". Usually, I try to go with the flow as an outsider living in Australia and adopt the Australian way of doing things (hence my Australian spelling of most words, as you've probably noticed), but I just don't identify with the word "Mum", nevermind "Mummy". But if Elliot grows up calling me "Mommy", am I just setting him up to be corrected by his school teachers, made fun of by the other kids, and aggravated whilst trying to find a bloody Mother's day card that doesn't say "Mum"?

I guess what it really boils down to is whether "Mum" or "Mom" looks better tattooed on a bicep.

Welcome to the world BB!

Last week Jenny and Mike finally got to meet their gorgeous baby girl, Brooke Nicole. Don't know when we'll get to meet her, but in the meantime, Elliot is blowing her lots of kisses.

Here's wishing you lots of happy days and restful nights as you get to know the newest little member of your family, Jenny and Mike.

P.S. In this photo, I think she definitely looks like a little Jenny!

A boy who knows what he wants . . .

 

The other night Elliot was really testing us with his refusal to eat dinner. He would squish it through his fingers, toss it to Nacho, put in his mouth and immediately spit it out all over, but he would not just eat the darn stuff. I was getting so frustrated that I was half-contemplating force-feeding him. (It's not like we can just let him go hungry, because we will be the ones who suffer when he wakes up in the night crying with an empty tummy.)

So there we were, wondering what sort of magical parent ingenuity we could come up with so he would just eat his damn dinner, when all of a sudden, he started pointing and saying "nana" and nodding. We were so uptight about getting him to eat that we didn't twig on right away what he was trying to say, so he kept pointing and repeating "nana" and nodding. Finally, we looked over to where he was pointing and oh my gosh, he was pointing to bananas! He was asking for a banana by name! Elliot was communicating!

We quickly forgot all about our food frustrations and decided that that sort of genius deserves a reward and peeled him a banana which he quickly gobbled down. It was a magnificent moment, that wasn't nearly so magnificent at three in the morning when Elliot woke up hungry!

I love my Daddy!

The morning paper

Elliot's intellect just can't be sated! I mean how many 14-month-olds do you know who catch up on the latest news with the paper each morning?
 

 

On closer inspection, it looks like maybe Elliot's just checking out the newest babes in town.

 

What a busy Easter weekend!

Wowser, we had a fun and busy Easter weekend! It all started with a Good Friday picnic in the park with Yvonne and Keith and David and the girls where we ate yummy salad and salmon and Elliot played with his big cousins on the big toys.

 

 

The next morning we were off to King's Park to celebrate Aine's first birthday with an Easter party complete with homemade hot cross buns and dyed Easter eggs. Elliot and Aine thought they looked pretty cute in their Easter Bunny ears.

 

 

Then we all hopped back into the car and headed for home to load up the car for a barbecue in the bush with Susan, Rich, Dommie, Vinnie, David, Rebeka and Rhiannon.
 

 

 

 

 

And would you believe that we still weren't through yet? Nope, next we headed down to Busselton to visit Les and Liz and play at the seaside (but forgot to take photos while we were there).

All and all it was a very busy but a very fun, family-packed couple of days!

Why brushing is important . . .

 

It's a good thing I like to brush my teeth so I don't end up with choppers like Rebeka. And did you know that I can brush my teeth all by myself? Mommy thinks it's hilarious when I brush my teeth. I don't know why; I just put the toothbrush in my mouth and shake my head back and forth. Works a treat! ~ Elliot

Holiday in Bali

 

A couple of weeks ago, we jetted over to Bali for an extraordinary and extravagant week of beautiful people, tasty food, breath-taking scenery, and plenty of uninterrupted family fun!
 

 

Elliot was an absolute trooper, going on cycling trips through the rice paddies, playing with wild animals and even allowing us to get him a babysitter so we could go out in the evenings once he'd gone to sleep.
 

 

It was a short but very restful holiday that was oh-so-good for our souls with all the stress we've been under lately with all the planning for our major house reno that we've been up to. You can check out more about our holiday on our travelblog here.
 

Mommy is a slacker!

Since Mommy has been so slack about keeping this blog up-to-date lately, I’ve had to take matters into my own little hands so that you will know about all the amazing things I’ve been doing these days.

I’m a real walker now; sometimes I can walk all the way from one end of the room to the other before I fall over. That’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? I’m still not real great at getting myself up again unless I’m next to the wall or something, but watch out; once I get that little technique mastered, there’ll be no stopping me.

I’m also a really really great sleeper now, and Mommy and Daddy are super happy about that. I just figured that I better let them get their rest now; they’ll need it once I start running!

And you all know already what a flash dancer I am. What you probably don’t know is that I’m quite a hit at day care with some of my signature moves, like the one-arm-shruggy-shoulder-chicken-wing. Pretty soon all the kids will be doing it. I just can’t help it; as soon as I hear music, wherever I am, I have to groove. Mommy and Daddy even saw me dancing in my sleep in my car seat last week.

I’m doing some other new things lately that have got the ladies at day care talking. For instance, I blow kisses now, fast as I can, to every body I see. Mommy says I’m a Casanova, but I just like to spread the love. I can also cover my mouth when I cough, and I like to make myself cough just to show everyone what a clever boy I am.

I’m saying all sorts of words now and I even say some of them at the right time! I can say ‘mama’ and ‘daddy’ and ‘doggie’ (I like to pat my tummy when I say this so Nacho will come to me). And I say ‘baby’ and ‘bird’ and ‘nana’ and ‘ish’. Mommy and Daddy think that this means ‘fish’ or ‘what’s this?’ but they don’t know much. After all the time I’ve spent learning some of their words, you’d think they’d be able to work out just one of mine! Seriously!

Mommy says that I’ve also become quite a big boy because I can play with my toys all by myself. I like to play with my finger puppets and put them on my fingers and make them talk to each other then take them off again over and over and over. I’ve also really started enjoying my Little People farm and like to make all the little animals climb up to the hay loft and slide down the shoot and land with a clang. Sometimes my finger puppets join in the fun and slide down the shoot too!

But it isn’t all fun and games; sometimes there is work to do! And I’m really learning to do my part. I still love to help out with the dusting and now I’ve started helping Mommy with the washing. I help her push the dirty laundry basket down to the laundry room. Then it is my job to put all of the clothes into the washer. And if Mommy isn’t quick enough at shutting the door, I’ll pull them all out again too! Then Mommy puts in the soap and I get to hit the button and watch the clothes go around and around. I also like to help Mommy fold the clothes afterward, but she says I’m not really very helpful then.

She also says that I’m getting to be quite a handful at mealtimes. But it’s just because I’ve become quite the discerning eater. Gone are the days that I’ll shovel down whatever Mommy or Daddy throw in front of me, now I’ve got taste! And to be honest, veggies and rice porridge and stuff really don’t taste that good. But give me my cheese or fruit or noodles or rice puffs or ground beef or Cheerios and I’ll gobble it all up. They’re what I call real cuisine!

I guess that’s pretty much it for now. I’m off to climb up on the couch and push all the cushions onto the floor. Now that’s FUN! ~ Elliot