Sugar Pine Walk

Such a lovely day! Air as fresh as chilled water, sunny skies and fields, farms and hills as far as the eye can see.. and beyond. It's going to take alot of adjustment going home.

Oh, and pine cones the size of Riley's arm!

I Turned Around...

I loved him in an instant..

Hardly let anyone hold him..

 Was overwhelmed with his squishy deliciousness!!

So full of thanks and love for my perfect little bundle.

 

 His thighs were hilarious, his expressions would melt everyone who saw.

 My tub of lard was a hefty boy..every bit as podgy and exquisite as the next.

 With eyes that would see straight through to my soul and ignite a flicker of joy.

  His big brother is still the protector. The kind hearted playmate and the teacher of monkey tricks!

 It's those heart tickling giggles that I breathe deeply and smile. Then realise if they're enjoying themselves that much.... there must be a big mess attached! 

I turned around.. and next month he'll be three. I miss my baby Riley and love my toddler Riley.
Soon he'll be "pre-schooler".
STAY TWO! STAY TWO! It's the best best age.
I said that for Lucas and now for his brother. It must be a magic age all round.

Big brother Lucas still his favourite companion.

They're both still super cute. All covered in dirt, smiles and pride in who they are.

 Oh! And the fun to come!

 I can only imagine and gasp at the anticipation of belly laughs, grey hairs and more beauty and hardships in their journey to becoming good men. Just like our Dad's and theirs.

Tonight at dinner Lucas told me he wanted another baby in our family.... he'd like a girl please.

Human tastes like chicken...

You know those things that happen in threes? Well here they are.

No.1 Steve gets bitten by a Goanna (lace monitor) which was more like a chew.

 Still has the patience to show off the "beauty" - click to enlarge the pic and you'll see his blood running down the lizard's leg.

No.2 Riley and the retaining wall.... and the concrete.

 Here are the very child unfriendly boulders that are our back fence leading up to the private road. Everyone can see in.. no privacy.

 This is the side of the house that has the drive that people walk down to get to the bush track to walk their dogs (on and off the lead). See the attempt to child proof? Needs improvement... we have smart little boys.

 

In the foreground to the left is the retaining wall that isn't fenced. We have to be with the kids ALL THE TIME when they're outside as there are too many dangers. (Why are we here again?!).

Steve was outside with his bandaged up hand and Riley sped past him chasing after the cat from next door. 

You can imagine the rest...

No. 3 Anxious Mothers have little sleep + Early Morning drives (6:30am) = Forgotten handbrakes..

Being all anxious about Riley's fall and Steve's bite, wondering what the heck we're doing living here and it being so hard for the kids having so many restrictions and not being able to simply go and play outside...gets a bit much. Luckily we were all in the house after the early morning Ambulance Station drop off for Steve.

An hour later we heard an all mighty crash and there it was.. the car on the bush track (on a nest of trees and boulders). 

Enough said. It's been a hard week.

Yeee Haww!! (Super cool pressie!)

Thanks Farmor and Gramps for sending Lucas this awesome awesome costume! He LOVES it, sleeps with it all by his bed. He's totally impressed with the map and we often get instructions from the back seat as to which turn to take to get to the Indians.

His face looks weird in this pic! He has that "I'm the Sheriff here... try something so I can chase you"
I've been saving feathers for an Indian costume.. not doing too well there.

Riley's kitchen creations..

Riley loves helping me in the kitchen. Stirs the pancake mix, shakes the yoghurt mixture before going in the maker, likes to help chop with a butter knife.

This week he made pasta and joined me in our "first time ever" using the noodle and pasta nozzle on my fantastic juicer. 

 He kneaded the dough and popped blobs of it into the juicer. Then he sprinkled a bit of flour on when it came out. (If he's not doing his new funny face for pictures he's saying "Bum" instead of 'cheese' - pic below)

 Cooked and yummy (well, it was only made for a play activity so wasn't great - yes, yes, that wholegrain, stoneground flour was a bit heavy.. but tasty!)

So beautiful and cuddly, so cute and squishy! I love you Riley.xx

Happy to be 5 and with Little Miss

Lucas has always been delicious. Never sat still, always looked at me with adoring eyes. I make his world! He makes my nerves shake and my heart sing. I love this little boy.
I can see now he's wanting to be more like Dad, with Dad, doing what Dad's doing. He's growing up.
 

We were going to head off to the beach but with bad weather looming we went to putt putt golf and our favourite park (as it turned out to be a gorgeous day!). I asked Lucas if he wanted 'this and this and this' friend to come but the answer was, "No, just (Little Miss)."

 His all time favourite friend.

 We ate our little picnic with hastily made Ben 10 cake (as the shop was out of stock at 11pm the night before!) and Riley showed who's side of the family he gets his appetite from.. Yep, he's a Browning gobble guts! Love 'im!

 In the pond there are lots of lovely eels to feed and tease. We saw the MOTHER of all eels!! It was flippin' huge! It stuck it's chin up and stared at us with it's huge glassy eyes. Totally freaked us out. It would have fed a village that's for sure.

 Steve disappeared into a bush.. as usual, and loved giving the kids another nature and wildlife lesson.

 .. and found our own secret hide-away field. So quiet, and apparently great red belly black snack country.. Yes, thanks for that pang of anxiety Steve!

 And hand in hand on the edge of the grass...

 

 .. they wrestled. 

Little Miss got in touch with her inner boy.. and ofcourse it ended in tears (Lucas) :o)

 We left sandy wet and pinched by the sun (Steve had a siren for a head). Thanks everyone for a lovely day.
He's already asking when his next birthday will be.

Tonight's whispering chat in the dark as I tucked him in, was about what happened to his wee and poo when he was in my tummy. *chuckle to myself* He's really pleased to know what a belly button was for now. I told him all about his first smile, he asked about his first tooth and we stared in eachother's eyes and Eskimo kissed... until Riley got out of bed for the 8th time. :o)

(self portrait )

I blink and he's 5.

The Monday before his birthday we went to a local animal farm. Who doesn't love baby animals?!

 All Riley said all day was, "AAaaaaahhhhhh!" in that 'I'm giving a cute animal a cuddle' kind of way.
This little goat escaped from the pen and followed Riley around. He liked that, his own little fury friend. He wasn't too keen when someone else wanted to play.

 Lucas having a go at milking the cow. The poor cow! Some of those kids dug their nails in and squeezed so hard I'm amazed the cow didn't fuss! Lucas was good at it though. We had lots of talks that day about how to tell a boy cow from a girl how, what udders really are (not wee bags) and how cats have lots of places for all her kittens to drink from...

 Tuesday we went to Nanny's. Grandad was in Hospital having a blood transfusion.. again. Not a great time and she was glad of the company. We couldn't go and see him because of the compromised immune systems of everyone in his ward. We had pre-birthday cake which was a lovely surprise. Thanks Ninny.

 The boys love their button blankets and they keep asking me to read out what it says on the patch. :o)

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Let down your hair.. Officer

Here's Lucas at his pre-school disco last month.

I dashed around trying to find something and remembered the police hat and vest we had in the toy room.




He was very happy that I let him spray his hair, nasty stuff but my Norwex face washers got it all out a treat with just water and a quick rub over his head.

He had some awesome dance moves and some tricky breakdancing - no idea where he learned that!
It was so hard to catch him on camera as he was zooming all over the place. He had a great time and was followed by his groupies and friends all night.

 Below is the "word to yo mother". Totally adorable.

You're a Gem Lucas! I wouldn't swap you for the world.xxx