George - August 09

George continues to reveal his character...he is a great eater and so easy to put down to sleep. 

Here he is having a great time eating his yoghurt.

Uncle Gerry came to visit and the boys had a lovely time getting to know him again. 

George loves books as well and here we are reading one of his favourite books "The Human Body".  It had lots of pull out bits but they seem to have been destroyed over times!

George is also physically fearless...the confines of a highchair are no obstacle to George - when he's finished, he's finished.

 

(Needless to say, we banished the highchair shortly after this!)

The Warren Boys - July 09

On our last night in Noosa we went to the surf club for dinner.  We all had a great time - the boys loved the hot chips and Joseph took a real shine to the calamari.

 

And here's a shot of my three Warren boys...early in the morning when we'd gone down to the beach to get a paper and a coffee and muffin.

 

Joseph - July 09

Joseph was a bit of a house mouse on our trip to Brisbane/Noosa.  He didn't want to do much but read, watch "Toy Story" and eat.  We had to bribe/force him to go anywhere!

He had a good time with Grandma and Grandad - here he is finishing off making the gingerbread men with Grandma.  Joseph made a good effort at icing them and making sure they all had the required number of buttons!

Joseph really loves reading...in fact toy catalogues are his version of magazines.  Grandma had saved a few for him and he loved spending time going through them and working out what he would like to play with and what we could buy.

Once we got to Noosa, Dan and Frog (Mark from Melbourne) managed to convince Joseph that going swimming in his (and his wife's, Melinda's) hotel's pool would be a great idea!  I still can't believe that Joseph actually went in!

Matt came up from Sydney as well (Matt is Joseph's Godfather) and the two of them spent some quality time together - mainly on the couch watching DVDs.  I think this particular afternoon, they watched Toy Story with an encore of Cars.

Finally, I can pretty much count of one hand the number of times, Joseph has ever fallen asleep on the couch (he tends to resist sleep as much as he can).  Here he is coma-ed out watching Tour De France highlights (7pm!!!).

George - July 09

As Dan mentioned, we've had to move to monthly posts...this post is a selection of photos documenting George's month of July. He had a late arriving present from Aunty Kate in Bristol...a hand knitted dinosaur made by Harry's teacher's Mum!

At the end of July, we headed off to sunny Brisbane for two weeks holiday. Here is George having a great time at Aunty Di's and Uncle Ben's..he really made short work of getting the scarves out of the drawer! This is a skill he has transferred to Auckland as I often find my clothes all over the bedroom after being pulled out of the wardrobe.

George loved the beach at Noosa. He he is at Tea Tree Beach in the National Park. This is one of the first beaches we took Joseph to as well. Unfortunately, on this trip, Joseph didn't want a bar of the beach, sand or sea.

George has been standing for ages now and has also been toddling around holding onto to us and pieces of furniture. He also loves climbing stairs. Here he is at Main Beach, Noosa. From memory, George and I had just polished off a gelato from Maximos! George was a bit sick on this trip with an ear infection and he also had his two top eye teeth coming through. He didn't sleep very well at night - neither did we!!!

June 2009

We've given up on the weekly posts - life is too hectic now George is no longer a baby but an on-the-go toddler - but more details on that later. Right now we 'll just try to get the best part of 3 months of news updated, so back to June...

A long running story on this blog has been Joseph's haircuts. But every time he gets one he is a little bit better (starting from a very low base!). You can see from the pic below he's still a bit tense sitting in the chair as his regular stylist Cham does his work, but he knows there's a treat from the bakery across the road straight afterwards.
I've got some serious competition for the bowl nowadays when Sophia is baking and when there's more than one around I just give up. Lizzie's helping out but Joe seems to be making sure he's controllong things.
The biggest news we've left to last was of course George's 1st birthday on June 30. We had a family morning tea party with Grandma & Grandad BQ, Aunty Dorothy & Uncle Bruce and Aunty Aida the Sunday before. Joseph was happy to be on hand to assist with opening presents and playing with them as well.
Sophia made a cake for George's birthday at Bear Park. Here is the morning tea crew (extremely well behaved at daycare!)
And here is a cute one of George with his cake.

30th May - 1st June

And now the final post to bring us completely up to date!

On Saturday, Joseph chose to wear shorts...so here he is looking quite like Billy Elliott! This is just before we went to the supermarket for the weekly shop. He was very good at the shop until he saw the mega chocolate display and then starting whining about wanting chocolate. I made him eat an apple before I gave him some chocolate!

George met another milestone on Saturday when he climbed up the stairs for the very first time...in very quick time too. Joseph is not happy about this development and keeps telling us to "get him and take him away". As soon as George hears the door being opened he is quick to see if he can slip out and get up those stairs.

We participate in a med school study and have two med students visit us (well, George really) every six weeks or so. They have been following George's progress for about a year now (before he was born) and come to make sure he is meeting his milestones. Ru and Madeline came on Saturday afternoon to put George through his paces. Here is a picture of Ru and George. I'll try and get one of Madeline at the next visit.

George is still working the camera (unlike Joseph who has not taken a lovely photo for months!!!)...look at those teeth!

Finally, Dan was keen to watch the Warriors on Sunday afternoon, unfortunately both boys wanted Dan's attention. Here is Dan watching the TV and helping the boys read at the same time!

23rd - 29th May

I took George to visit Grandma and GRandad BQ over an extended weekend on Fri 22nd - Mon 25th May. Aunty Kate was also there having come down from Bristol for a week. We got to see Grandma and Grandad BQ's new house and check out all the lovely cafes and shop in Bulimba.

Unfortunately George only started to warm to Kate, Grandma and Grandad on the Sunday afternoon...he was Master Clingy for most of the time. He wouldn't let me out of his sight so all my plans of leaving him to spend quality time with his grandparents didn't come to fruition!!!

George did have a lovely time playing with all the toys by himself with no interuptions from Joseph and he also had a very special treat of being able to play with the TV and DVD remotes (something we don't encourage at home!).


Mum and Dad's new home doesn't have a bath so we used the laundry tub to keep George clean. To be honest, he didn't really relax into it but was fascinate by the hose from the washing machine and kept trying to pull it out.

16th - 22nd May

Only a couple of pictures from this week.

Joseph went for his six weekly haircut down at the BHC in Onehunga (Brother's Hair Cuts!). He is getting better at sitting still and actually let the haircut happen rather than try and stop it wherever possible. I will try and get some shots of the actual event the next time we go. As usual, Joseph's reward was a finger bun from Baker's Delight - this time with sprinkles. He wanted it cut up and placed on a plate so he could eat it on his bed (I was finding 100s and 1000s in his bed for days!).


George loves getting out amongst it outside these days and like, Joseph, he has discovered the little raised bed outside the back door. It got a good turning over by George.

9th May - 15th May

Dan and I went out for dinner on Saturday 10th May Great Aunt Aida came over to babysit...here they are just before we left...watching "Thomas the Tank Engine" (that DVD is still going strong - thanks Godmother Vikki!).

George has had a few tumbles of late as he keeps exploring. Here he is sporting a good red mark/bruise under his left eye after he pulled a dining room chair down onto himself on Mother's Day.


We had a lovely Mother's Day...I made french toast for us for second breakfast and could hardly keep up the production line as Joseph was devouring it as fast as I could make it. I got a lovely card and two instant scratchies (we won $5 on one of them) and I got to have a very nice afternoon sleep. I also made the first crock pot of the winter season and here is George sampling the magic ingredient.

George has been very interested in the cupboards this week and will take any opportunity to come over the investigate.
Finally, a picture of number one son, Joseph. He, too, is keen to get involved and learn new things so here we are ironing my shirt (a very tricky cotton number (ie requiring the iron to be on "hot") with bell sleeves!). He loved the water squirter and was a bit over zealous in applying excess water to the shirt - luckily the iron was set to hot!!!

29th April - 8th May

We're still trying to squeeze in posts to get up to date! I am going to try and get three up tonight taking us to mid-May. This one is primarily about George (I feel this is ok since Joseph had weeks and weeks of posts about him before George arrived!).

George is really changing quickly, every day he does new things, makes new noises, learns more about winding Joseph up! Here is George "getting on the tools"...a skill Joseph also mastered early on.

He is continuing developing his ability to stand but we are not seeing any standing on his own nor any "cruising" along the furniture. He loves to crawl and then climb up onto you.


George loves to be involved with whatever is going on and we are finding it hard to get things done as he is always wanting to see what you're doing. Here we resorted to locking him into position using the chair and a drawer full of plastic ware. It did work - but only for five minutes and then he started slipping off the chair!
We got the wooden trolley out of the cupboard and George is learning how to walk with that. He starts off quite quickly and can go quite fast. We have to use the telephone books as ballast otherwise it tips over and gives everyone a fright!

20th April - 28th April

Glen, our next door neighbour, is rebuilding his garage and a concrete mixer arrived to fill in some trenches. Joseph was beside himself with excitement! Dan said he was a bit scared a first but then got more confident - to the point where he wanted to help get the concrete out of the chute!

I arrived back on the 23d and Dan and I both picked the boys up from their respective Bear Parks in the afternoon. George gave me a lovely smile but wasn't too sure of me...when he saw Dan he got really excited and scooted over quickly to see him. Joseph was very happy to see me and became my little limpet for a few days. He was also very concerned to receive his present and was a bit underwhelmed with his tshirt and book!!

Here is a very cute photo of George in the bath...you can get a good view of his teeth. He has the largest top teeth gap of all three Warren boys!

Dan took Joseph into his work for an excursion - they went in on a train which was very exciting for Joseph.

Unfortunately, he fell asleep in the car on the way home from the station and was very, very cranky when we had to wake him up. He was extremely distressed to find that the train had gone!

10th April - 18th April

I (Sophia) was actually away this week as I went to Cambodia to visit my cousin, Rebecca. Dan and the boys had a great but very busy time without me!

Joseph was very lucky to have his Godmother, Vikki, come and visit from Brisbane for a couple of days. The four of them went to Cornwall Park for a kick around of the ball and here are Joseph and Vikki having some rough and tumble time.

We have had a bumper crop of monarch butterfly chrysallii and Joseph and Dan have been closely following their progress. Here is Joseph seeing one of the last hatches off on their journey.

As I mentioned in the last post, George is loving being able to stand and he loves to cause havoc at the bookshelf. Here is he is in action...

And then leaving the scene of the crime!