26\52

Otto:  Duplo clicked with you big time this week.  Your engineer father is secretly thrilled!  I am enjoying watching you create, imagine and explore.  I am not enjoying stepping on it quite so much.

Hugo:  Oh my dear poor boy, you were sick this week, the worst I have ever seen you.  Your entire mouth has been full of ulcers, and six surrounded your mouth making it impossible to eat.  This was your first smile in days and I almost cried at the sight.  We are back on track and you are able to eat more than yoghurt and custard now.

I am so appreciative of this project, earlier in the week I looked back through all the posts and it made me so happy to see my boys smiling and changing faces, as well as a description of what we have done.  Thank you so much Jodi, as always it is a pleasure to link up to you.

Stretch and pause.

Since Han was made redundant we have had an interesting journey.  In some ways it has been wonderful to be home as a family unit, but unsurprisingly all this time together in a stressful situation has been hard, the kind of hard that teaches you about yourself, and shows you what still needs more work.  Han is feeling the weight of being unable to bring in the pay packet while I have felt the strain of trying to keep everything going while working more.  Pretty unsurprising really.

We are looking down a new path together, will he leave the engineering industry?  Will we buy our own business?  Will Han go back to study?  All of these new questions require us to stretch and open ourselves to change, a change we had no control over.  I usually embrace change, I have moved countless times in our life together, twice to overseas postings, relishing the idea of loosing myself in a new experience, but these were all with some measure of our control, we knew the basis of what and where we were going.

Adventure I am good with, uncharted uncontrolled waters, not so much.

25\52

Otto:  You have wanted this dinosaur costume for a while now, so we worked out a plan for you to earn it yourself.  Opening your curtains, making your bed and taking your plate to the sink for a whole week and it would be yours.  Each day you did your "jobs" and by the end of the week you came home from your last day of kindy to find it sitting on your bed.

Hugo:  You are such a ham, you constantly pull this face, breathing deeply in and out through your nose, you love that the minute you start we all copy you.  

What a week, tonight I am going to try and sit down and do a brain dump.  It has been wonderful, hard and challenging all mixed together.

As always, linking up with Jodi.

24/52

Otto:  My sweet little boy, we have had a lovely week.  There were stories of fanciful creatures rescuing you from mundane chores; you picked your first 'rude' book from the library which has you giggling each time the elephant "toots", and my already bulging heart grew just a bit larger as you showed true compassion to your brother when he was sad.

Hugo:  This was after an exhausting day of playdates and a birthday party, you were an absolute trooper on little sleep but finally you could hold out no more.  All three of us stood around you smiling and shooshing each other while we watched you sleep.  You are well loved.

We are slowly getting used to our new routine while Han is home.  I have finally relaxed the reins a little bit and surrendered some control (this is a new experience!) and Han is working out how our days run.  Soon, I am sure the craziness will begin again when the hospital starts to operate in the coming weeks.  Until then, I am determined to enjoy this wonderful gift of time together.

This week saw me achieve a running goal I have had my sights on for a while, I ran the 15km from home to the city on Friday, it was a gorgeous winter morning and you couldn't wipe the smile from my face as I ran along the river, warmed by the sun.  Hopefully I can maintain the momentum and run a good 10km race in August for the Brisbane marathon.

As always, I am linking up with Jodi

23/52

Otto:  Your first ever dagwood dog, an Australian childhood staple.  We went to a history event and you loved it, the costumes, jousting, sword fighting and cannon firing.  I am hoping that your new found love of sword fighting won't make it to the playground.

Hugo:  This picture sums up our week.  Runny noses and drool but still smiling.  hopefully you get some respite soon.

This has been an interesting week for us, new challenges as we juggle job hunting and family life.  We are finding a new rhythm for us all to allow for the extra stress but also the extra fun of having Han home with us, and we were also impacted by the outbreak of Leigonella at the hospital I work for.  An interesting week for sure, and we are still smiling.

As always, linking up with Jodi.

Geocaching.

For anyone that follows me on Instagram you would have seen me start posting about finding treasures and geocaching.  Safe to say that it is the latest craze in our family.

I was first told about this while at work waiting to deliver a patient back to the ward in the early hours of the morning.  At first my tired riddled brain really didn't take it on but it sounded intriguing enough to look into it further.  I googled and came across the official website, within minutes I was hooked and only days later we hunted our first cache with friends. 

Our first cache was only 500m from home so it was an easy adventure and we found it without too much trouble.  From a parenting perspective I love it, Otto is learning about direction, following a map or GPS, we see a lot of nature while we walk in different directions and talk constantly about this bird or that butterfly.  There are also conversations about robots coming and saving the dinosaur eggs which belong in the big holes we step over, so I have no fear that his imagination is also getting a good workout.  I love being outside, he loves being outside, as far as I can tell the negatives are a few spider webs and bugs to deal with.

We have found all sorts of different tins, some that can only hold a log book, others hold treasure to swap.  It is great to be able to read through the log book and look over people that have been there before us.  The most amazing part for me is the sheer amount worldwide, there are over 2million people looking for these caches and we have discovered new areas around our house while looking.

Today we found our fifth cache and it was by far the most difficult, probably not the best idea for me to wear a skirt and ballet flats!  The fun we had while searching for it was wonderful, we came upon some stunning birds, gorgeous butterflys and were rewarded with views of the Brisbane river the whole way.  Not a bad way to spend a Friday with my boys before heading off to work.  Otto was so happy to spot this cache in a rusted out car which appears to have fallen from the top of the cliff (would love to know the story behind it!). 

I can't reccomend this enough, such a great adventure to have with our children, teaching them about this amazing world, exploring, and having so much fun.







Growing up up and up!

Hugo's first birthday seems like such a long time ago now, so much has happened, but it sits like a beacon in my memory as such a wonderful celebration of an amazing little boy.

As Hugo is enthralled with all things in the air as well as balloons, I decided a hot air balloon party would be just the ticket.  Pinterest became a lifeline as I researched achievable decorations for this craft challenged mother.  I wanted it to be simple, suitable for a park and cost effective.  I was certainly more than happy with the results.

First up were the invitations.  I worked with the same printing people that have done all of our invitations since the wedding and as always they were right on the ticket for an excellent price.  I couldn't have been happier when I first saw them.

The decorations took a bit more thought, I had done the tissue pom pom's for Otto's first birthday and didn't really want to re visit that version of hell, instead deciding to create a new hell, the very simple tissue paper garland.  I must say, these were a lot easier to make than the pom pom's and much more forgiving of rough handling and crooked scissor lines!

I thought that they looked really effective and both garland's handled the transport well, now hanging up in our home.  As well as the garlands I crafted some hot air balloons that held the clouds (marshmallows).  These took FOREVER for me to make, especially as I continued to get the measurements wrong.  The sense of achievement was immense however when I finally put them together and they looked like I imagined (especially if you didn't squint too hard!).

The best part for everyone at the party was the hot air balloon, I used the same idea with the tissue paper garlands and made mini crepe paper ones for the outline of the basket, and then ordered a huge balloon filled with helium to attach to it.  We managed to get so many wonderful family pictures of our family and our friends and I am sure to treasure them.

Then there was the cake, earlier on the Friday morning as I pulled it out of the oven Otto and I had a discussion that as I molded it into a hot air balloon I would make a special little cake for him with icing, but, he had to leave it alone at that moment.  I should have known better, not more than two minutes later I find Otto with crumbs falling out of his mouth and a huge chunk out of the cake.  This was not my finest moment and Otto rightly decided it might be time for some quiet time in his room!

It did in the end work out ok, as long as you don't look at the green side too closely!

I am not particularly good at decorating cakes, and all things considered was pretty happy with how it looked.  The best part was that it tasted pretty nice too.

 By the end of the day we headed home, bark littered through every piece of clothing, icing wiped on the birthday outfits, extremely happy.  Our lovely Hugo celebrated his first trip around the sun surrounded by family and friends, happy and secure in the love that surrounds all of us.  It was a wonderful celebration.

Now Otto has decided on a dinosaur party!  Thank goodness for Pintrest.

22/52

                                   

Otto:  We did the color run together today.  I can't even tell you how happy it made me to do that with you, our smiles were so wide and I will treasure those memories for a long time.

Hugo:  You are a bonofide toddler now, the baby is still there but you inquiring mind has my heart racing with both fear and pride.

This was a rough week and next week will probably not be so smooth as we all settle into our new normal.  To end it with the color run today was brilliant.  These are iphone pictures, I just couldn't bring my big camera out, there wasn't too much that I wanted to document.

Have a great week!  As always, linking up with Jodi .  Hopefully this week I can finish off the other posts!