Car Wash

On Sunday Tim and Bailey washed the car. Bailey just loved helping and he got to wear his Nemo swimwear and hat! His favourite part was playing in the warm, soapy water in the bucket! But he did do a pretty good job using the sponge on the car!
Later on in the afternoon he tripped on the concrete and scraped both his knees. There was a lot of blood but he didn't cry - until he saw the band-aids on him which he wanted off!
He can now count to 10 on his own, can say how many fingers a person is holding up to 10 and I'm so proud of all the words he can say now. He can finally say 'Thomas' where previously it was just 'Mas'.
Really enjoying the holiday break and spending lots of time with Bailey, Tim, Mum and Heather.
Have also been spending a lot of time with our friends Anna and Ava lately, it's good to have friends. :-)

Changes

Well there's been a few changes here lately. I am back at work, working as a teacher for a Christian Distance Education School for North Brisbane families. It is work from home but there's a lot of home visits and home calls etc to do. Tim lost his day job but is now focusing on growing his own multimedia business and doing freelance work, as well as being a stay-at-home Dad for Bailey.

Mum and Heather moved here from Perth last week too and have moved into their own rental house near us. It has been great having them here and seeing them settle into their new house.

It's been hard for me to be away from Bailey over the past week as my training has meant I've been away from home a lot lately and I have missed him. He's been a bit naughty/cheeky for Tim some days as well, breaking a part off his lamp and drawing on the coffee table with permanant marker!!

He is getting so clever now can say and point 'A,B,C', still mad about his cars and trucks and loves climbing onto our bed and hiding behind the curtains and loving his books!

My boy is very clever!

Bailey has always been very into books and in the last few weeks he is starting to show that lots of it is sinking in! He has randomly started pointing at numbers and letters in books and naming them. This comes after months of pointing at every number or letter he sees ANYWHERE (letterboxes, number plates, signs, TV) and asking us what it is. He can now recognise and say numbers 2 and 3 and letters C,D,T and Z and correctly identify 14 letters of the alphabet when asked to locate it. I think he's pretty clever but really I guess it is no different from him being able to identify a dog or bird or flower in a picture. He definitely has a very good memory and thinks he's so clever when he gets it right! He is still asking for dozens of books a day, so he's definitely going to be a reader and is even starting to sit down and look at books on his own too. Alphabet books and Thomas as well as The Very Hungry Caterpiller are current favourites. :-)

Long Weekend

This has been another long weekend and we've been busy and having lots of fun! On Saturday night we went to visit Tim's Nan and Aunty in their new home and had dinner there, then on Sunday we went and tried a new church with our brother and sister-in-law then went for lunch at Tim's Mums for his Nan's birthday, and today the three of us went to Centenary Lake for a play at the playground and a walk around the lake and Bailey climbed his first tree! :-) See photo!
Then we had a lovely time when putting him down for his nap and we played this game where he would kiss us and then we'd fly across the room and he laughed and laughed and kept wanting to kiss us, even saying 'kiss, kiss' and putting his face towards us to do it! :-) He's been saying lots more words as well, can sort of say numbers 2,3,4,6 and can say Jesus, go, watch, tree, T (when pointing to a letter T), shoe, and 'ter' when he wants a drink of water.
A favourite food this week has been, strangely, brocolli, and also Nutri-Grain as breakfast or on their own as a snack.
He has loved playing trains and left his Roary the Racing Car toy at the creche at church, hopefully we can get it back next week. He also loved climbing on our bed and 'relaxing' on the pillows and jumping on us when we lay down!
Good times with our little boy, and there's another long weekend just around the corner in June. :-)

Sick :-(

Bailey has been sick and unhappy. Took him to the doctors yesterday morning after he couldn't eat breakfast and kept crying and crying, turns out he had an ear and throat infection again. I guess that explains why his balance has been a bit off kilter lately and he's had a lot more little falls and accidents. But with his medicine and some rest he is feeling much better today, just gotta clear up his nose a bit more. Hate yukky noses and when they are sick and there's nothing you can do to make it better for them :-(. Last night he woke up after 11 and was screaming and crying for nearly an hour and we were holding him and trying things that we thought he might want but he didn't want anything. :-( Not sure if it's related to the sickness or if he had a nightmare as usually when we pick him up he calms down but not last night.. Today he's been heaps better and his appetite is back in full swing!

New words lately and favourite things to say:
car
'D'
google
there - if you ask him where something is
Last night he very clearly said 'Baby' I think he may have been trying to say 'Bailey' though.
He can do the actions to Open, Shut Them and If You're Happy and You Know It and part of the chorus to the Wiggles 'Point your fingers and do the twist' and has started to do actions for 'I love You'. Very sweet! :-)

Was great having Mum over last week while Tim was in Hobart, we found a house for them to rent near us from the end of May. :-)

Bailey's words

Bailey is finally starting to use a few more words frequently.
Here's a list of what he can say to date at 18 months 3 weeks.
Mum/Mummy
Dad/Daddy
car
cat
dog
duck
tissit? (What is it?)
and apparantly 'hourglass' but won't be saying it anymore as it got broken and we threw it away.
Doesn't say yes or no but can shake his head!
Hope to add more words soon, he should be saying more than that by this age I think but he'll get there, we're just happy he's starting to say anything at all! :-)
Tim's away in Hobart this week and Mum is staying with us for the week to find a rental to live in while her house is being built, having a good week so far!

April Already!

It's now the middle of April, next week Tim is going to Hobart for a week for work so Bailey and I will be by ourselves. We've had a lot of fun times already this month, had a great Easter, especially getting to spend a Saturday just the three of us and going to Centenary Lakes as a family, Tim took some great photos. Last Friday I took Bailey to Australia Zoo again and we had a fantastic time, got lots of photos with all sorts of animals and things, he just loves running around the zoo and climbing all the stairs in the Crocoseum.
Last week we also went to the Active Kids holiday programme the council runs for toddlers, it was a gymnastics one but catered more for older kids. 2 of our friends and their children came too. Bailey didn't really do it properly he just liked the beam and the little trampolines, the rest of the time he was just running around (yes he can run now) and moving the equipment around.
I have to say that Bailey is getting better at playing alone, he can do it sometimes, especially when he's busy playing cars or with the bead maze he got for Easter, though sometimes cooking dinner is still a real battle with him holding onto my legs trying to get me to pick him up, or else emptying drawers and pushing things under the fridge to get my attention!
Library this week didn't go too well, he didn't want to participate at all, just play in the playroom outside, had a tantrum every time I tried to get him to sit in my lap argh! Not sure if we'll keep going to that, we're quite happy with Playtime and Kindy Gym and Playtime has a singing part in it too so we don't really need Rhyme Time as well. Speaking of singing, Bailey can now do the actions to 'Open, Shut them' and 'If You're Happy and you know it' (he loves the stomp your feet verse). Very cute!
Trying the Kindy Gym at the Leisure Centre on Thursday as it's apparantly more geared for young children with smaller bright coloured equipment and stuff. (The PCYC is standard sized beams and bars and rings etc) then on Friday we're going to have a play at one of our new friends houses. So it's all go.
The past few days Bailey keeps taking his bib off and not wanting to wear it, doesn't seem to mind the cloth ones as much but they don't stop the mess as well. Today has been a lot cooler and it was good to be able to put Bailey in his jeans and sneakers today.
That's all for today, lots of random thoughts and things as I hadn't posted in awhile. And oh yeah, we've had a koala in the tree behind our back fence over the weekend, very exciting.
Until next time. :-)