Joseph - December 09

At the Bear Park Christmas party, the Tui Room (Joseph and cohorts) performed two Christmas carols ("Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town").  Unfortunately it was raining so we all had to cram into the "piazza".  Here is Joseph all decked out as a cute reindeer.

Here is Joseph sleeping his last night at Tawa Road...you will note that he is sleeping in our bed.  The day after we bought our new house, Dan had a bike accident and ended up breaking his ulna right up by the elbow.  So, Dan slept in the downstairs bedroom and Joseph decided to sleep in our bed (for six weeks!).

With our move to Parnell, we also decided to move the boys to a new daycare centre closer to our new home.  It was very sad to leave the Bear Park family but we are hoping that the boys will have shorter days as we will have less travel time.  Here is Joseph with his favourite teacher, Sarah.

George - December 09

George's favourite teacher, Lorna, left mid-December to return to Scotland.  We coincided Lorna's departure with George's transition to the Morepork Room.  He pretty much transitioned himself not really needing the week of half days in the Fantails (babies) as well as the Moreporks.  Here is George with his girlfriend at the Bear Park Christmas party.

Now that sunnier weather has arrived we have dragged out the ice cream from the freezer...here is George enjoying his first ice cream cone.  Very tidy eating too!

Along with the ice cream cone, came big boy pyjamas!

We ended up selling Tawa Road quite quickly with the purchaser requesting a very early settlement of 18th December.  Here is George sleeping his last night in his first ever bedroom!

The Warren Boys - November 09

We have taken to using the weekly supermarket shop as an opportunity for a family outing - this guarantees us to be out of the house for an hour and a half at least!  Joseph likes to sit in the trolley which means there is not much room for the groceries.

Our big news in November is that we bought a new house!  So exciting for us!  Dan bought it at auction and we are settling in February 2010.  It is in Parnell, a four bedroom, two bathroom villa with lots of living space, a great deck and a back yard complete with tree house, sandpit and slide!  Plus it has a fabulous primary school up the road which will be perfect for Joseph when he starts school in March 2011.

 

This means we need to get our Onehunga house on the market quick smart.  Here's a picture of the boys watching TV in our reasonably spartan show home look lounge!

Joseph - November 09

Mihos came over for another playdate...Dan read them "The Lorax" - nb their full attention!

Grandma sent over another magazine (ie toy catalog) for Joseph.  He really loves perusing them in great detail and working out what he would like to play with.  I try and use it as an opportunity to talk about money and how he can't have everything he wants.  I think that tends to fall on deaf ears.

Joseph seems to have gone through a big growth spurt.  All of a sudden he seems so much taller and grown up.  His vocabulary continues to expand (fire extinguisher for example) and his ability to role play or engage in dramatic play has expanded.

George - November 09

George continues to change - everyday it seems he is doing something new...he runs most of the time; no point in walking it seems!   His short haircut has unleashed his "inner boy" and he has become much more boisterous.

He has a good appetite and will eat pretty much anything you put in front of him.  Being the independent boy that he is, he does prefer to help himself.  Here he is in "beggar mode" with the raisins.

And finally, a shot of me and George just before he went off to bed.

 

The Warren Boys - October 09

Here are the boys looking slightly flummoxed by the "Vtech" noisemaker - I don't know why they were so contemplative.

I managed to get some shots of the boys together...these are staged!

On Hallowe'en we went to the zoo for "Boo at the Zoo".  We underestimated how seriously people take dressing up...we're were seriously under dressed and not in any costume whatsoever!

 

Joseph - October 09

Dan introduced Joseph to the wonders of instant pudding (or putting as J calls it).  It has become a firm favourite in our house.  It reminds me of my own childhood too!

Here's Joseph after his haircut...along with his ubitiquous finger bun.  He never shares it either - not even a tiny bite!

At Dilworth, the Tuis have art on a Monday, ball skills on Tuesdays and dance/drama on a Wednesday.  Here's Joseph with the "Piston Cup" aka as the player of the day cup from Tuesday's ball skills session.  He was so proud of himself and the cup even went to bed with him.

George - October 09

I'm going to start the October post off with a shameless smug parent picture of George - no more to say really!

 

George's phyiscal exploration continues unabated...I found him up on the bathroom rubbish bin one night.  This became a very popular vantage point for both boys for a few weeks.

And finally it was time for George to enter the world of haircuts...here's the before shot:

 

And then the after (quite a difference):

 

 

This haircut unleashed the inner big boy in George and he has become quite unstoppable and even more independent.  Here's George loving being at the table.

The Warren Boys - Sepember 09

This seems to be a regularly occuring sight in our house - the boys watching television!  In this case, eating dinner as well.

Luckily, this is balanced by the popularity of books!  And this isn't staged!

Here's a couple more shots from the boat trip.

 

And our two curious monkeys peering into the cavernous engine bay!

Joseph - September 09

Joseph loves the new Bear Park - he is now a Tui (having bypassed completely the Kiwi stage - this took a bit of explaining and reassurance!).  There is lots of lovely space and resources for the children.

However, three days into Dilworth, Joseph had a massive wipeout on the pebbly concrete path and came with a mask of scabs.  Here's a selection of photos documenting the healing process.  It actually healed remarkably quickly and with little scarring.  As I write this (in January 2010), he just has a little piece of pink skin on his cheek that gets redder when he gets angry!

As part of Auckland Heritage Week we went out on a coal engine tug boat.  It is a free trip run by the Ports of Auckland.  We went last year as well but not on this boat.  Joseph was scared at first and took a while to warm up and start exploring.  We went down into the bowels of the boat into the heat of the engine (nosiy and smelly too!) but I couldn't get him down to the lowest deck where the coal shovellers were!  Joseph's wearing his "fireman's jacket"

George - September 09

On the 31st of August, both George and Joseph (finally) started at the new Bear Park Centre in Remuera (or Dilworth as we call it after the street it is in).  The centre is purpose-built, brand new and amazing.  George is still in the Fantail Room but he'll be transitioning to the Moreporks by the end of the year.  It took about four weeks for George to not cry when we left him each morning - that's quite draining to go through every day!

I took George to the supermarket one Saturday...he was all rugged up in a hand-me-down outfit courtesy of Joseph (top) and cousin Alfie (trousers and puffer).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, here is George eating at the table, sitting in a "big" chair.  He is much happier with this arrangement although he does tend to want to get up and down to the chair - he hasn't quite worked out how to do that yet by himself.

It is nearly time for George to have a proper haircut (more than his fringe trimmed anyway) so I took this opportunity to gather it all up into a ponytail!

George has been experiencing on going ear infections over winter so we went on the waiting list to have grommets inserted...he was a very good boy.  I took him into theatre and it was very unpleasant holding him down while he was put under.  He's recovered well though - grommets are amazing! He's such a happier wee boy.

The Warren Boys - August 09

We made a family trip down to Tauranga to go to Rich's 40th birthday.  We hired a great apartment (that had the all important DVD player).  This photo was taken on Sunday morning when the boys were busy "exploring" (ie touching things they shouldn't!).  Can you see George's cheekiness?

I bought George's portfolio home from Bear Park Parnell to add the "parent voice" contribution.  I discovered Joseph and George reading it together.  They were having a great time looking at the pictures and Joseph recognised some of the toys from when he was a Fantail too.

Joseph is usually the one bossing George around but lately George has been a bit more assertive.  Here's a prime example, George was playing with the trolley, then Joseph muscled in - George didn't think much of this and decided to muscle right back in!

Finally, here's some updated pictures of Great Aunty Aida with both boys.  (Joseph obviously forcibly made to pose)