Broccoli Monster

We have this ancient relic from Steve's childhood. Old and broken, Lucas seems to have taken a shine to it (the bin will have to wait).

This week before his nap, he pulled down the change mat and nappy, put it in the hallway and continued to wrap monster up in a blankey. He put him in the cot, climbed in himself and wasn't happy until I'd tucked them both safely in bed.
Lucas wouldn't go to sleep until he'd seen me safely tuck monster up on the chair next to the cot (with dummy in it's mouth) for a nap.On Thursday we went to Aldi and the market. A nice man tried to give Lucas a chocolate bar, ended up giving him two and it took all of my polite persuading to stop the man opening one for him ( I could just feel the other mothers eyes looking at me - a toddler with a whole chocolate bar!). I just so happened to have a piece of dark choc in my bag and gave it to Lucas as a swap.

When we got to the market, he squiggled and wiggled until I gave him a head of broccli to munch on as they were out of corn, and to my surprise (and the on lookers) he ate it down to the stalk!
Yes, he had eaten breakfast!

Strange little boy, but he was so thrilled to have it, he wouldn't even off me a pretend nibble :o)
Last week he ate an entire corn on the cob - quiet trip home that was! He asked for corn straight away this week "gcor".

Hooley Dooley!

Well this week has been a sicky but exciting week. Lucas has been up every night (teething the bottom molars now) and has had a cold on top of that.
He's been very cuddly (more than usual) and has enjoyed making a few discoveries.

Graffiti is not tolerated. It's a good job he thinks cleaning is so much fun, it took me a good 10mins of scrubbing to get off (and now we have a clean patch on the wall). He seems to have learned not to draw on the walls, no repeat offenses so far.



Okay, okay! We can't put off buying blocks any longer (he chewed the paint of the first set so we took them back!), he's obviously crying for something to build with and the tins are a tad painful on the way down. Not to mention my food storage cupboard is all out of whack.


Here is THE BEST* lemon meringue pie EVER. Well done me :o)
I've been obsessed with lemons so far in this pregnancy. Drinking water makes me feel sick unless I have lemon juice in it. So it's handy having a lemon tree.
*Best according to preggy taste buds and Dad's opinion (sorry mum! I'm sure he just meant best one I've ever made, not the best ever in the world :o) I'm not sure I can take any credit since it's your recipe anyway! haha!




Band aids for "ouchies". Here's a pretend nose ouchy which he thought was quite funny, but he kept pressing it and wasn't all that fun to take off. Mental note: clean the kid's face before photos!


Shin-annigans. Grandad and Lucas having a great time with the classics, Lawnmower and Superman.

Lucas loves playing in his cot when he wakes up. He likes me to pretend I'm knocking at the door to see if he's in, then peep through the bars and act all suprised to see him, then teddy, then patch, then bunny etc. Today I even had to change his nappy in the cot as he seemed too keen on the "pretending I'm asleep" game.

Garden clippings & Flower Sniffs

Just had to pop these ones in. One minute it's Tantrum Alert, the next it's all sweetness and giggles (with Daddy).



We've had lots of fun in the garden doing winter jobs.
Even though our Meyer lemon tree fruits for most of the year, we trim off the diseased leaves etc.
Lucas wanted in on the action, didn't get much done though. Must have been those clippers he was using.

It was Mother's Day here last Sunday. The kiddies sang a song for their mums at church and at the end we were all given a long stemmed rose. I got two as there were some left over.

When we got home, we popped next door to our friendly neighbour who cut two beautiful roses from his "tequila sunrise" bush and another red, smelly sort.

I LOVE the yellow ones with the peachy pink trim the best. I love their scent of peaches and lemons. So does Lucas and he's clambered onto the table at every given moment for a nose burying sniff.

Steve's Mother's Day gift to me was washing up. Which, considering the state of the kitchen, was on par with chocolates!

Happy 9th Anniversary to US!

Yes, today is our 9th Wedding Anniversary!

I was reading Bron's blog the other day with this poem included on one of the entries:

By Anne Campbell

You are the trip I did not take;

You are the pearls I cannot buy;

You are my blue Italian lake;

You are my piece of foreign sky.

("To my child,"quoted in Charles L.Wallis, ed.,The Treasure Chest (1965),54.

I'm really glad we spent time at the beginning of our marriage to have fun, travel and soak in that piece of foreign sky. I do hope to return there one day, but the realism of that is far off.

So for now, we'll enjoy remembering the last 9 excellent years:
Danish mustard on our hotdogs (and Klejne for Christmas), Spanish olives at our table, French (style) bread and cheese, Leeks for Wales, Scotch pies, Blue Bells and roasted chestnuts for England and German Zimtsterne (and all other Christmas goodies).

Not to forget the dozens of surf trips with frozen bodies and sand dipped steaks ;o) To this day we still use pringles for firelighters.

Now, we're happy to be here. The adventure to last a lifetime, family.

I've just realised how recent digital pics are! Sorry, got nothing else!