Beach break

We recently took advantage of some beautiful winter weather and had a break at the beach. Grandma and Grandad came along too, which meant we were able to go for rides in the boat and visit the sandbank in the middle of the Noosa River, which is one of our favourite places for a run and a splash.

For the first few days we were joined by Tyden, Anne, Alora and Fudge - here's a photo of the three beach bums that we spent most of our time chasing on our first visit to the sandbank...

On subsequent visits Eli and I did most of the running, while Grandma and Grandad watched on, although Eli did challenge Grandad to a few short sharp sprints.




Guess who has come this way?

Lifeguards (and little engineer) on duty.






Finally, I've recently acquired a new camera, which can do movies - so here's one of Eli splashing around in a small puddle on the sandbank.

"I like animals!" and "I like cake!"

Alora's birthday brought out two new phrases from Eli - "I like animals" and "I like cake". Tyden and Anne has arranged for farm animals to be at the party, which pretty much meant that Eli felt like the party was for him, not Alora. I hadn't told him about until we got in the car that morning, because I knew if I mentioned animals that he'd want to get in the car and go and see them right away. I was right, because for most of the trip to the party all he would say was "I like animals!". And he certainly lived up to this proclaimation too - in this photo here we are, eager as anything, waiting for all of the animals (ducks, chickens, sheep, goats and a pig) to be released into the makeshift pen in Tyden and Anne's yard.

Once the animals were in and we had the green light to get in with them, there was no stopping Eli. He spent much longer in the pen that any other kid and he took it upon himself to pat, chase, feed and cuddle all of the critters. I think he thought the pig felt funny and he liked how soft the goats were. Here are a couple of photos showing Eli packing a scrum (apologies for using a rugby term for the uninitiated) with a couple of goats and carefully caressing the pig.







All of that animal action makes for one hungry little boy. As Eli has only recently discovered cake (wheat free of course) he then made the bold claim "I like cake!". Fortunately, Anne had made one just for Eli (Alora's pink giraffe cake was not wheat free) and he hungrily devoured his piece. In these next few photos he demonstrates his cake eating technique, which pretty much involves holding the cake to his mouth and pushing it in, as much as it will go at any one time. His style makes me think that he'll be a good harmonica player down the track, as he doesn't take his hands away from his mouth until it's all gone and he seems to be able to breathe through his nose the whole time too.

Just hang(er)ing with Eli.

Eli absolutely loves hangers. He often asks me for them and he's always keen to get his hands on a few blue ones (refer to earlier post on his obsession with blue). Why buy toys if Eli is so eager to help with the laundry?




Eli's hanger antics always start off harmlessly enough, but it's not long before he and the hangers are involved in an epic wrestling match to the death! In the next series of photos you'll notice that Eli has been thrown onto his back by the hangers, but it turns out that he loves to kick out and grapple the hangers with his legs, so they've actually played right into his trap.




At the end of this particular session, which lasted for about an hour, Eli demanded that I place all of the hangers on top of him...must be part of his warm-down routine I guess.

The many faces of butter popcorn

No real need for much text with this post - I think the photos tell the story. Eli has had raw popcorn (no butter or salt) a lot in the past, but just the other day I decided to treat him to some butter popcorn.

It turns out that he's a bit of a fan of butter popcorn (who would have thought?). Now I'm afraid that on the basis of this little experiment and his demands since then, that there's no going back to those bland old ways...

Balloons, blue and orange.

Eli loves balloons. Here are some photos of him playing with his favourite balloons, always the blue and orange ones, in our front room. In between hanging onto them tightly and giving me all manner of cheeking grins, he'd run around and whack them or kick them up into the air. Lots of fun. Needless to say we often have balloons in our house now - in fact, I think it's almost been a constant stream of balloons since his 2nd birthday in April!



For a while there it was a bit of a toss up as to whether Eli's favourite colour was blue or orange. He's always liked them both, but recently blue has won the battle and he's become a bit blue-obsessed. For example, when I dropped him at daycare the other day there was a big pile of building blocks on a mat and he systematically collected all of the blue ones that he could carry (around 10 of them) and started his own new blue-only pile of blocks. He also vigorously defended his blue blocks and I think he made it pretty clear to all of the other kids at daycare that they should never get between him and his blue blocks. I also think that it's a very good thing that some of the other kids aren't too fussed with blue.

Lark in the park

We headed to Newfarm Park for Mother's Day and Eli and Alora were treated to a spot of golf - Alora's Grandpop had brought along a toy golf set. Eli quickly struck up a fashion catalogue pose with his club under a nearby tree - and yes, I'm sure he knew that it was around the wrong way.


It turns out that he was actually pretty good at hitting the ball (probably by virtue of our cricket training routines at home) and he was certainly pretty happy with himself when he gave the ball a mighty whack...


Unfortunately, like most golfers, not every shot goes where you want it to go...


The game ended in smiles all round though, especially once I started declaring 'No more smiles!' to Eli and Alora...

Kangaroos are funny!

Eli and I were at a loose end a couple of weekends ago, so we decided to go and visit the animals at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where I used to work. Eli had been there before, but as a four month old he'd slept through the visit and really didn't take any of it in. What a difference a couple of years makes! Eli loved the koalas, especially when I woke them up with my koala call, but he got really excited when we went into the kangaroo paddock.


I had to stop him from running straight up and cuddling/tackling the kangaroos. In the end, the compromise that was reached had Eli 'gently' flicking the roos ears and watching for their response. He thought it was just hilarious when they shook their heads in annoyance! From my perspective, it was a delicate balance between wanting to capture these interactions in photos and making sure that Eli wasn't about to get swatted. Here he is, having a good giggle...


Eli also liked the feel of the kangaroos soft nose on the palm of his hand - these roos are really used to being hand fed - and I must admit that I was impressed with the restraint shown (by both Eli and the roos). I figured it must be because they're both so well fed.


Despite my confidence in the behaviour of the roos, I did try and keep Eli away from the biggest males...in this photo you can see him checking with me regarding his decision on which roo to 'play with' next.

Fortunately Eli didn't seem to mind which roos he interacted with - he pretty much just thought it was funny any time any of the roos moved or reacted to his movements. All in all, it was a pretty good excursion and there was certainly plenty of hopping like a kangaroo when we got home. In fact, that's how we get up and down the stairs now, with me grabbing Eli under the arms and helping him hop up (or down) one step at a time.