Canberra Holiday – Part 2

Whist on holiday we visited a model village.

Monster enjoyed the bus ride there:We saw lots and lots of models. They were very realistic. This is us on our way into the house whose gardens house the models… … and this is the first model in the garden, of their house.There were models of famous landmarks, like Stonehenge, … … places  that were familiar, like the house in the clouds … … and other (somewhat stereotypical) sights from around the UK like a church wedding (spot the Grim Reaper in the graveyard), …. … a country house, … … and bin day on a council estate! There were also some unusual sights if you were looking closely, like the man in a mask with a chainsaw raised above his head… … and the UFO that had landed in order to use the public toilets! Monster’s favourite part was the model trains with their buttons that made them move around the track. He would quite happily have stayed and played with the trains all day!

 

TBC …

Canberra Holiday – Part 1

Last month we took a trip to Canberra.

We travelled there by train. Monster had his own seat by himself of the other side of the aisle to us: We let him choose where to go for tea. He chose his favourite: nice rice! On our first full day we visited the Mint and looked around the centre. Monster took a liking to this sheep!

TBC …

New Year’s Eve 2012

We went into the city again this year for the New Year Fireworks. This year we decided to stay only for the Family Fireworks at 9pm.

We had lots of time to spare before finding a spot to watch the fireworks so we went to the Maritime Museum. They had lots of children’s activities running as it’s the school holidays. Monster enjoyed dressing as a pirate:Dressed as a pirate He made his own pirate flag at one of the craft tables and then found a glockenspiel to play with in the pirate tent:Playing the glockenspeil He caught some magnetic fish before going out to play in the water fountains outside:Playing magnetic fish

We had some tea and then went to find a god spot to watch the fireworks in Darling Harbour. We sat on the steps along the harbour as it got dark and waited for the fireworks to start:

New Year's Eve New Year's Eve

The fireworks were really good 🙂

The rest of December

The weather was quite varied for the rest of December so we saw a number of different outfits.

There were some colder days so Monster got to try out his new jumper from swimming (whilst enjoying his Christmas chocolate!)Eating Christmas chocolate There were slightly warmer days when Monster chose his own oufits – his trousers that Mummy made (that are nearly too small now), a shirt, his green hat and shoes, and his Mr Tumble spotty bag:Monster chosen outfit And then it got hot again and we were back in shorts and t-shirt:With his new binoculars

We had a few trips out.

We went on the bus to play at soft play:Bus trip And we went to the zoo. He wore the new shirt he got for Christmas and his sunglasses – a real cool dude!Cool dude Monster was eager to try out the binoculars he bought with the Christmas money he received from Grandad – he looks a proper little explorer!Happy boy

He’s a happy little boy 🙂DSCF1115

Christmas 2012

Father Christmas visited on Christmas Eve and brought all the presents everyone had sent him. He enjoyed his biscuits and green squash (which Monster chose for him) and the reindeer chomped on their carrot:Father Christmas has been In the morning we came down and monster was a little overwhelmed. He was very excited to see all the presents:Overwhelmed This was the first year he’s been able to open presents properly by himself, which he really enjoyed doing:Opening presents We played the games, did building with Duplo, and Monster insisted that we all dress up in his new dressing up outfits too:Dressing-up It rained all day, and after a play with all his presents Monster wanted to go out in the rain with his umbrella:Playing in the rain There was lots of puddle jumping until his boots were completely full up with water:Puddle jumping

We had a good Christmas 🙂

Wiggles Celebration Tour Concert – 22/12/2012

We went to see the Wiggles!

(All the pictures were taken on my phone which is why they’re all a bit blurry!)

Monster was very excited. He was very good waiting for the show to start:Waiting for the show to start Father Christmas was there too along with his reindeer and elves:Father Christmas on stage The Wiggles sang lots of songs that we knew:Wiggles singing There were big smiles all the way through:Enjoying the show Henry the Octopus sang Jingle Bells in octopus language:Henry the Octopus Monster insisted I take a photo of Murray in his muscle suit for the ‘Strong’ song:Murray in his muscle suit Captain Feathersword is one of our favourites:Captain Feathersword on stage Along with Dorothy the Dinosaur:Dorothy on stage We had a great time 🙂Watching the show

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere we go:Central Station Tree We even have our tree up at home, with a few extra special decorations this year:Swimming Snowman This snowman was a Chrismtas present from Monster’s swimming teacher,Button Snail and this dove Monster made at Nursery (although if you ask him he insists that it’s a button snail!)

We’ve also been to the nursery Christmas picnic, where Santa came to give out some presents. All the other children paused and smiled to have their photo taken with him…Running from Santa Monster edged closer, grabbed the present and turned and ran as quick as he could – he’s not good with strangers! (We did go up with him later to say thank you properly.)

He also brought home some presents for us:Rudolph card A Rudolph handprint card, …Handprint calendar… and a handprint calendar!

December

 

 

December seems to be flying by – only 10 days left til Christmas!

This is what December looks like so far:Bee bee bear Reggie gave Monster a Bee Bee Bear hand puppet, which was taken and shown to everyone for several days. Here he is showing Bee Bee Bear what can be seen from the bus window.

Thunderbirds are GO It’s very hard catching him still enough to get a non-blurry photo! The reflection in the mirror is slightly less blurry! Playing Thunderbirds wearing his International Rescue hat 🙂

Red tardis We’ve been watching Dr Who together recently. You can tell from his playing. I asked him what was happening:

“The TARDIS has landed on the garage! It’s a red TARDIS!”

It then took off again and went spinning round the room before landing again!

Shopping He insisted on carrying the basket to do the shopping!

Posing This was last Sunday in Sydney. Monster requested we take his photo – so we did!

Cool DudeAnd this is him posing for another photo, looking a right cool dude in his hat and sunglasses!

It’s been hot this week!

This week has been hot. Probably the hottest since we’ve been here. So we’ve done a fair bit of staying indoors and trying to keep cool.

I built Monster a big train track to play with while we watched the new Thomas DVD that we borrowed from the library – Thomas and the Blue Mountain Mystery.

Monster wanted to help wrap presents so I gave him his own pieces of paper and tape to play with.

We took a trip to the Post Office and took his scooter instead of the buggy. This was us waiting at the bus stop.

Since it was getting fairly late we decided to surprise Daddy by calling into his office on the way back to walk/scoot home with him!

We went to the shopping centre to meet Reggie Egg from Reading Eggs. Monster did not like big Reggie. He says he likes tiny Reggie (as he appears on books and the computer)!

And because it’s been so hot we’ve been swimming every day. Monster has been practising and his swimming teacher was very impressed with him this week.

He is much better at staying horizontal and kicking and splashing his legs now.

He can also do this:

Jumping in without holding anybody’s hand! (it took lots of jumps to get a photo mid-air!!) He’s very proud of himself 🙂

What have we been up to?

Bits and pieces from the last 2 weeks:

Currently his favourite game – Catch the Fish!

Being grown up carrying his own bag to swimming.

Helping Sam the Ant climb the ladder.

 

We’ve also been to sign the new lease for our house. We had to wait a while and told Monster we needed to be quiet as the people were very busy doing work.

He decided he needed to do busy work too!

We’ve been out and about on the bus lots.

They’re now starting to decorate them up for Christmas!

 

And as always there was lots of this:

Building rockets and flying them round the room!