Fun in the inflatable...pool.

Another summer holiday and Christmas spent at Noosa. Eli and I arrived there first this year (even before Grandma and Grandad), and Eli quickly made the most of it by enjoying a swim in the inflatable pool, which had, somewhat miraculously, survived the winter intact (albeit deflated). Armed with even more confidence and bravado than last year, he jumped around like a lunatic...here are some photos of some of his spectacular landings off the top of the slide (apparently just sliding down into the water is a bit mundane).



Eli loved it and once Alora turned up the pair of them went a bit crazy with their splashing around. They really are good partners in crime these days and a lot of their games revolve around them teaming up and 'getting' one of the adults...typically Grandad.



As if jumping around in and on the pool isn't enough, one day Eli ended up with the hose at his disposal. As you will know from some earlier posts, he loves a good waterfight, so long as he's on the drier end of the hose... He absolutely loved it and was out to spray anyone within striking distance. Grandad made a hasty retreat into the house, but Uncle Shane was up for the game and Eli's second cousins, Madeleine, Tyce and Brittany got caught up in some of the crossfire too.





Here's a short video showing Eli chasing down and hosing Uncle Shane...

Never lose control of the hose...

After a recent hot and humid Friday, Eli and I headed home with the promise of a cool-off under the hose in the backyard...

Now on previous occasions I'd held the hose or at least controlled the flow of water, but this time I passed the hose to Eli when the nozzle was on 'jet' mode (just to see what might happen).



And didn't Eli love it...he was giggling uncontrollably initially - and he thought it was particularly funny shooting water over the fence into our neighbour's outdoor dining area... After some time I managed to convince him that the neighbours didn't want any more water in and around their house, so he took to spraying the fence and some of the fruiting lilly pilly's in our yard.



As you might imagine, Eli also needed some 'encouragement' to ensure that the house (and me and my camera) didn't get a good hosing down. Somewhat inevitably, he then accidentally got himself in the face - and after that he was a little bit more subdued and focused on shooting the water up into the sky and 'making rain'.

Eli in the egg.

Not much pre-amble required for this post. The other day I was upstairs cleaning and when I came back downstairs this how I found Eli, sitting on the couch with a stack of his animals, inside an 'egg' - our upturned dirty clothes bag. He then started giving me a biology lesson, telling me that he (and his baby animals) were stuck in the egg...

Tree up early!

Look, I know we're early and I'm sure this will backfire horribly (because Eli already thinks that Christmas is upon us and we've still got more than a month to go!), but since Grandma Susan is here at the moment, we thought it would be fun to whack the Christmas tree up now.

First we had to head to the shops to get some decorations - we didn't have many last year - and Eli was very excited to cruise around looking for all of the blue, and often extremely delicate, decorations he could find. Thankfully we didn't break anything and we ended up with a blue-dominated, but not excessively blue, collection.

As soon as we got back home, Eli was into Christmas tree construction mode...



Once the tree was up, Eli was straight into the decorations. On my prompting, he posed for an 'icicle earring' photo, but it wasn't long before he just wanted all of the decorations on the tree.



Grandma Susan and I couldn't keep up with the pace at which he was delivering decorations to the tree, but we eventually got all of the decorations up (aside from a few that didn't come with hooks). Eli was so enamoured with the blue icicle decorations that we bought that he composed a short song...



The finishing touches to the tree included some fairy lights and the hanging of the remaining balls (I had to make a second trip to the shops to get these last few items).



As you can imagine, Eli really loves the tree and declares, quite often as he walks past it, "I love our Christmas tree!". I just hope that he'll still love it after a month and a bit of waiting for Christmas day. I thought I'd finish this post with just a few of my 'arty' shots of the tree at nighttime...

The new blue Mongoose!

After bike week at Eli's daycare centre a few months ago, I decided that Eli was probably ready to graduate from his red tricycle to a 'big boy bike' with trainer wheels. When I put this to him recently, he agreed heartily, on the proviso that his new bike would be blue.

Since we've got Grandma Susan visiting at the moment, I thought it would be good to get a new bike for Eli now (an early Christmas present from me) and after some searching, we were lucky enough to happen across a suitably sized, and suitably blue, mongoose 16".



I wanted to get a bike that Eli will be able to use for quite a while and I think he'll really enjoy it. So far his 'rides' have been restricted to the garage, but I'm sure we'll soon be out and about on the local bike paths...I think the next task for me will be to dust off my bike too.

As you can see from the video below, Eli is already a competent rider - here he turns the sharp corner in the garage with just one hand on the handlebars...much to my chagrin. And yes, I'm already fearing how his fearless attitude and unconstrained gusto for life will manifested itself out on the bike paths.

Making the most of the rainwater tank

All of that rain in October has our rainwater tank full to overflowing. So, now that the weather is warming up, we've started using the water (and not just for growing our tadpoles). On hot days Eli loves running through the hose or sprinkler...and I have to admit that I enjoy hosing him too.






Like all good hose sessions out our place, things got a little out of hand (but enjoyable so) once Eli picked up the hose and started wielding it...Grandma Susan and I made hasty retreats out of the range of his attacks.



This session, out in our front yard, came to an abrupt end, as Eli thought it would be funny to spray water onto the road and towards some unsuspecting pedestrians...thankfully, but disturbingly at times, I can read his mind, so I turned the tap off before he sprayed a family that were passing by...

A future Socceroo?

For the past four weeks Eli and I have been attending a 'Soccer for Juniors' program at a local school. The goal (pardon the pun) is to get kids interested in soccer and to develop some of the skills that will help them down the track. Eli's class was supposed to be a class for 3 year olds, but there weren't enough youngsters enrolled, so the 3s and 4s got rolled into one class. Despite some size and age differences, those of you that know Eli well will appreciate that he certainly holds his own.

Here are some videos of Eli weaving through some obstacles before burying the ball in the back of the net. He even easily beat me (and I used to fancy myself as I bit of a goal keeper)...



Overall it is a really fun course and Eli has learnt how to trap, dribble and pass (NB these are legitimate soccering terms not toddler ones). Not sure if he's destined for greatness, but he kicks well and enjoys a run on a Sunday morning (and so do I), so I think it's been well worth the investment.