Happy 10...and pockets

Did you do anything exciting for 10.10.10? Today, we all write the date the same way. Why couldn't I be working today? Wait...no. I don't wanna work weekends again so soon.

Today Andrew found pockets. He's had them before. His Aunt Vicki puts kisses in all his pockets. Today we were putting on his pants which had pockets. I mentioned "pockets" and he got a huge smile. He shoved his hands in his pockets as soon as he could. He walked around with both his hands in his pockets. Soooo cute.

We went down to the convenient store and he didn't want to hold my hand bc his hands were in the pockets. The only time he took his hand out was to hold on to the railing in the elevator. He was a very good boy walking to the store, but I guess it's hard to run away when your hands are in pockets...

sorry about the blur...we were moving

Do you know where you were...

... 10 years ago today?

Me.... I was doing this:

Play Day

I had planned on heading to the Botanic Gardens today (they were having an Iris exhibit) but it was overcast and rainy looking. So the bear and I stayed in.

Andrew worked on using the potty. He wore his big boy pants (so cute!). He is getting very good at telling the peepees to wait until he gets to the potty. He only wore a diaper when he took a nap. I am just waiting on the trainers I ordered to come in so he can use the potty at school too. Hopefully he'll be out of diapers soon. But wait...I love diapers...I will have to start shopping for other babies again.

I did some crafting this morning while Andrew played by himself (yeah!). I took a canvas bag that Rene got at a conference and covered the logo. Andrew now has a bag to carry his school thing in.

Then I decided to embellish one of his many white t-shirts. I put stickers down to spell his name and then outlined it with tape. Then I used a cut up sponge to put the paint on. Turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself....

Rene got a package the other day. Included with his order was bubble wrap. We had lots of fun popping all those little bubbles. It's funny how one little bubble that pops can let loose loads of laughs...

now it's off to fold the clothes...

my day of = errands

Finally have a day off work (yeah!) so I spent the morning running errands. I love being in the city b/c I can walk everywhere.

After dropping Andrew off at school, I headed to the World Tower. I stopped by the Nursing Board to try to get my NP registration. Can I just say...incompetence??? The woman I spoke with said they don't currently have standards for NPs and they don't know when they will get them so there is no point in sending in the application. Wha????? No standards??? Now I knowthis is mis-information b/c I have come in contact with an Australian NP. As soon as I left the office, I rang her to give her the 411. She is going to help me get registered.

Off to the library (literally just down the block). Got a library card and a few books for the wee-one (and a few for myself). It's interesting that the selection of books is different from back home. I suppose they have more of a UK selection of authors.

Andrew's loving the "Truck Stuck" book. If I could figure out how to load videos, I would upload a video of him reading this book. So cute! And he surprised me by pointing out the letters in lowercase. I knew he knows his uppercase letters, but I didn't know he could recognise the lowercase letters too.

Then off to the craft store to "get my craft on". I am missing my sewing machine. I wish I could find a little one like I had back in the States. Not that we have room for me to have crafting stuff... More on my craftiness later. Oh, when I was checking out the craft paper, one caught my eye. This is what I saw:

not quite accurate, but it's Chicago

As I was walking down the street, I saw all these statues that were dressed up. I have seem them dressed up before. It's just weird. Don't the costumes get yucky in the rain?

Off to nap....

PlayDoh=PlayYeah

Andrew's nanny, Tashlin (or as we more recently call her "his home teacher"), made him some playdoh. It was a big hit!

When I got home today, Andrew was still in his jammies. It looked like it had been a rough day, so I brought out the playdoh. We had a grand ole time. He especially loved squishing it thru the potato masher.

(is it me or does he look like his aunt VJ in this pic? I think she's got a pic of her around that age with that same look on her face)

da Bears

It's Tuesday Night Football....but we're ready! Well...most of us were. Somebody was more excited about stickers :)Rene had DVR'd the game. I got the snacks (unfortunately there is no Uno's here). We had both successfully avoided any mention of the game (which meant staying off facebook!)

We watched, we hemmed and hawed, we lamented. Then the game got exciting. With 2:26 left...the DVR had stopped recording!!! agh!!!! Luckily, the game was being replayed so we just had to sit thru the 4th quarter again.

Mental note...extend the recording for future games :)

new toy

Andrew found a new toy....

He walked around holding this egg carton. Talk about a weird little one...

Speaking of beaches....

Rene surprised me (us) by taking a roadtrip to the beach today. Next week is Labour Day weekend and I am working all weekend (including Monday). So he decided we would go away this weekend. Since I am "on call" he didn't think we could go away overnight, so we just road-tripped.

Our plan was to go to Wollongong, but we got sidetracked as we went thru a national park. (don't ask me which one...I don't have any clue which one...ok, the iPhone says Garie or Royal National Park)

Our first stop in the park and Andrew wanted to see animls. So we walked a bit. The only animal we saw was a stuffed Joey near the Ranger station. Not really the type of animal I want him exposed to.

So we got back in the car and almost ran over a porcupin-y, hedgehog thingie sauntering across the road..

We took the windy road down to the beach.

Andrew was excited to see the big "sandbox". He liked walking without his shoes.
He was a little hesitant about the waves, but he made his way up to edge of the water.

"coming daddy?"

Then a wave came to lap at his feet...

and suddenly he was face down on the sand (and water).

not enjoying the water very much this time...

He was a little startled, and wet, and sandy but he was ok. We just sat out in the sun for a bit and all was well.

Everything's better with a "lick it"

He liked watching the surfers in the water and walking by. The surfers reminded me of that Keanu Reeves movie Point Break - older paunchy dudes...
Once dry, we moved on to the "Windy Bridge of Death" or "Puke-y Plunge Road" or "Cliff Death Drop" or as the Aussies refer to it "Grand Pacific Drive". It was so twisty - I felt like puking the entire time.
We stopped in Thirroul at a little beach that had a play place. Andrew had fun running around. I had fun being stationary. We got take-away and ate it at the beach. Such a fun time!

Hopping on the pylons

There were these weird little "pool" things. I assume it was a shallow bottom. The end was open to the ocean and the waves splashed in to circulate the water. Cool concept...not my cup of tea...
On our way back to Sydney, we stopped at the organic food market. Look familiar?

Such a long, fun day. Somebody was totally zonked...

Hope you enjoyed the play-by-play.

Just for fun

Here are some pics of me and Andrew before work.

(why Rene thought it would be a flattering pic to take it from below is unknown....)

Love his smile!

upside down time

Marathon day

Today was the Blackmore's Sydney Running Festival. I had wanted to do the "Family Fun Run" but Rene said he didn't want to since he would be travelling this past week. They ran one street over, so I thought I'd take Andrew over to watch the runners. He had a fun time watching the runners during the C-U Marathon Rene and I did.

Since the race started in North Sydney and they have to run the Bridge to us, I thought we would see runners around 9-10. um...nope! Around 7:30, I looked down and saw....

So Andrew and I got on our shoes and walked over. Didn't quite work out like I'd planned in my mind. He kept trying to run away and into the race....

maybe I'll be running the Nov marathon....

Watching the runners tuckered him out. He sat like this ("zombie-like") forever.

then...

Another early morning...

Andrew and I went on a quest to find b'fast. Unfortunately the only thing open that early wasn McD's, Hungry Jacks or Krispy Kremes. So guess what we go...

After our nap, we ordered from Wagamama (delish) and went to go pick it up. Andrew and Rene explored the wharf while I picked up the food.

Busy Saturday

Finally got off our tushies and had a busy weekend.

We rented a GoGet car (like a ZipCar). Had us a l'il Prius. Just like home except Rene was on the wrong side of the car.

First we were off to watch daddy play tennis.

Got bored so we decided to play with some balls....

Forget tennis....I wanna eat!

Then we went for a haircut...more to come. Yes, the hair cut deserves it's own post :)

After the haircut, we played in the park right next to the salon. There was a little boy there wearing an amber necklace. Great conversation starter. His mom and I had a nice little chat.

Then we went to Target!!! I was looking forward to getting into a familiar place. It wasn't the same.... It was in a mall - reminded me of the Westchester Mall in NY. It ws very cramped in there. The layout and look reminded me of the Sear in Gurnee. NOT like Target back home. booo!

We got towels. $30 bath towels. $30!!! (ok, officially a cheapskate) Cool thing about these towel. The tag says "THINK CLIMATE. COLD WASH & LINE DRY" - um...you know it! I swear this is not the reason we got $30 towels. I didn't even know the tag said that till I was drying off (and that did not occur in the Target).

Anywho.... we got something else at Target too. A potty and big boy 'roos. Andrew was so exited. When we got home, I had to get the potty out straight away- before we even unpacked. Unfortunately, the peepees didn't cooperate (despite the dry diaper after many hours). So we spent all afternoon "making more peepees" by drinking lots of water.

I digress again..... on the way home Mr. I-know-how-to-get-home takes us on a slight detour over The Bridge. Nice detour, but someone was itchin' to try out his new potty!

and one last photo...cuz he's a cutie!