Having Elfie stay with us over the Christmas break sure was exciting. Never knowing where he’ll end up next was certainly a highlight for the kids. Our Elf on the Shelf visitor certainly got up to some hi-jinx, which in retrospect, may be a lot to sustain in the future. (more…)
This year we had a very special Elf on the Shelf visitor stay with us for the lead up to Christmas.
Every year Santa sends out a special Scout Elf to monitor kids behaviour and report back to Santa each night. The kids get to name their elf and went with the very creative ELFIE (Elf The Elf). Elfie then returns each morning hiding in a different place for the kids to find. There are only two rules;
Rule#1 – You cannot touch Elfie or his magic will not work.
Rule#2 – Elfie isn’t allowed to talk to us.
But you can talk to him, share your secrets and tell him what you want for Christmas.
I’m a firm believer in keeping the wonder of magic alive for our kids for as long as is humanly possible. Which I passionately mentioned in an earlier post, and Elfie is no exception. (more…)
We’ve all seen them on the net. The creepy things toddlers say that makes you think they’ve lived another life as a serial killer or frightened the bajeezus out of you because ‘they see dead people.’
We’ve had our own experiences that not only raised a curious eyebrow, but that eyebrow actually crept so far back over the top of my head, it actually disappeared down my ass crack for its own protection.
There’s three instances in particular I’ll choose to focus on.
For about two years now, Indy has mentioned a constant sound he hears, particularly at night. He says whenever he closes his eyes, he sees feet creeping and running around and that they make a kind of sshh-sshh-sshh sound as they walk. I mentioned one time that it was probably me coming in to check on his clock and put his snacks and water beside his bed for the morning, hoping that would make him feel better. Now he prefers I don’t do that so he doesn’t hear my footsteps. Only now, things have cranked up a notch… (more…)
It’s every budding palaeontologists delight. A chance to get up and close with some of the biggest, meanest and ugliest creatures this planet has ever seen…and then, there’s the dinosaurs. If your kids are way too young to watch Jurassic Park without being traumatised by digital CGI dinosaurs and prefer to traumatise them the old fashioned way with the old analogue animatronic dinosaurs with realistic sounds and movements, then Jurassic Creatures featuring Prehistoric Creatures of the ICE at Docklands Harbour Town is just the ticket for you.
Our boy is going through a stage where he loves dinosaurs more than rainbow wrappers…(well, almost) and now that he’s discovered other huge creatures existed other than dinosaurs such as wooly mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers, cave bears and wooly rhino’s (I’m sure that’s a cocktail just waiting to be discovered), his interest in all things dead and buried has been peaked again. And to think you can see them all under the one roof at the same time as your other perennial Dino favourites such as T-Rex, Triceratops, Parasaurolophus, Saltasaurus and more. I mean, come on, even Mother Nature couldn’t do that. She had to keep them separated by millions of years in the back seat so they wouldn’t keep touching each other. But here they are getting along in perfect harmony (I think you an your sister could learn a lot from this?). (more…)
T’was the twelfth day of Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except for two little mice, perched between Mumma and I on the couch. Eyes wide as saucers, breathless with anticipation. ‘A message for me…from Santa?’ my little bloke repeated, eyebrow cocked as if Spock had just been asked if approving a second season of Gogglebox was logical. And there on the TV screen, as large as life (or Matt Preston), was the man himself…
“Santa Claus”.
Live from the PNP (Portable North Pole) console, in brilliant HD quality. And the first three words uttered from beneath his massive white beard had our boy’s eyelids snap open like over-tensioned roller blinds…
“Oh. Hello, Indy.”
He’s never watched ice-cream or scurrying ants with this much intensity. Santa then took him on a secret tour of his wondrous village and reviewed his entire year from his personal book of ‘Indy’ complete with pics of his wonderful birthday party mid year and the not-so wonderful time he drew all over his own legs with Daddy’s textas. It’s as if Santa’s elves had been keeping tabs on him all year. And then the moment of truth arrived, Santa’s Verdict. Was Indy on the ‘Nice List’ or the ‘Naughty List’?
Let’s just say, there were tears involved…and he was on the ‘Nice List’. I think the overwhelm of realising he’s an all but certain chance to get what he asked for for Christmas, was too much excitement for his precious heart.
And then it was Alice’s turn. And although she’s only just turned one, she was still transfixed and jumping with excitement as Santa reviewed her year and made a special mention about her starting to walk. Which totally blew Indy’s mind. (more…)
Being a Dad is pretty awesome and there’s always a lot of advice and tips that people are always willing to give a first time Daddy-to-be. But there’s quite a few things that nobody ever told me about being a Dad which would have been handy to know in the beginning to properly prepare and psych myself for.
So I’ve compiled a short list of things I’ve discovered myself and am willing to share with any Daddy newbies out there.
Here’s a quick list of 5 things nobody tells you about being a Dad:
The only thing worse than hearing fingernails on a blackboard is having your cheeks, eyelids, lips and nostrils shredded to pieces by tiny razor-like Kruegeresque knives forged in the belly of a dragon at the bottom of a volcano.
Even though babies come into this world vulnerable and defenceless, it only takes a few months before their inherent self-defence ninja skills come to the fore. They may look incredibly cute and adorable lying in your arms as you gently rock them to sleep, but they can incapacitate an elephant simply by totally pinching the sh*t out of the skin on your neck with the strength and accuracy of a Vulcan warrior. (more…)
For a couple weeks now our boy has been exhibiting great strides in independence. Wanting to do many things on his own like climbing the playground equipment, taking himself to the potty or trading blue chip shares on Wall Street.
But today at 3 years and 15 days, our little boy surprised us both when for the very first time in his life he sidled up to my side of the bed at 6:47am to announce…
“Me dress myself!”
A feat even some adults find difficult to accomplish, especially at 6:47am on a Monday. And when my bleary eyes failed me, my hands ran across him in the darkness like a brail Detective novel. Confirming that yes, he’d managed to Houdini his way out of the zip-up onesie, singlet and pull-up he went to bed in and was now wearing jocks, tracky-dacks, a t-shirt and a long-sleeve top. Mind you, the t-shirt was inside out and his right arm was twisted inside the sleeve of his top like an anaconda in a burlap sack, but the evidence was clear. He’d managed it all on his own.
My immediate thrill then turned to despair as I realised my boy is growing up and every day, requires our assistance less and less. And in my moment of self-pity, a sudden thought struck me, ‘Did you have a poo in your pull-ups?’ (more…)
Being a Dad is a pretty awesome and often tough job.
It’s funny to look back on my memories of my Baby Boomer Dad and compare them to myself today and just how ‘uncool’ I feel in comparison. Like the sideburns and handle-bar moustache which required a permit to feed them. Flares so wide you could hide a Boeing jet behind them. Collars so long and pointed they were registered as lethal weapons. Not to mention the platform shoes so high, you had to run up three flights of stairs just to get into them. Yet, somehow…
He was cool.
Maybe because he reminded me of Steve Austin, the Bionic Man. My younger brother still has furrows in his brow from trying to replicate that stoic powerful cocking of the eyebrow that both my Dad and Steve had in common.
Maybe it was because he played guitar and was good…damn good.
Or maybe it was because he used to draw cowboys for me on the back of the Weeties box for me to cut out and play with.
Or maybe its just because he was my dad, that he just seemed larger than life and cooler than cool.
Maybe my kids will feel the same about me?
Not realising that truth be told, I still feel like a bumbling teenager trying to fudge my way through it. (more…)
It’s no secret that our little bloke and I are both into Super Heroes. He’s also currently obsessed with ‘Dusty’ from the Disney movie, PLANES, and basically anything that flies.
I guess it’s every boy’s dream to actually be able to fly and after several days of pestering persistent enquiries, I did what any Dad with a fondness for Super Heroes would do…
I told Indy I would find a way to help make him fly.
The result is this…
Mumma and I snuggled on the couch in a rare opportune moment of synchronised ‘free-time’ from our busy schedules. Indy was safely snoozing in bed so we had a few hours to kill, and we took in a movie with Kevin Costner who had ‘3 Days to Kill’.
Kevin Costner plays an ex-CIA agent who missed out on seeing his daughter grow up, and when he finally retired to spend more time with his family and get to know his daughter again, he’s forced back into one last case. Turns out he’s also dying of an inoperable brain tumour, and the CIA operative who coerced him back in, has an experimental drug that keeps him alive that he needs to keep topping up. The whole movie takes place over a 6 month period, which, if you remember the title of the film, makes perfect sense, right? — NOT!!
Which is one of several things that made this movie just…gawd awful. The only good thing about it, was Kevin Costner. It was as if he knew he was in a really awful film and knew the dialogue was really terrible, and the direction appalling, so just refused to say anything ‘corny’ or ‘on-the-nose’ like every other character did, and just did his own thing. The reason I bring all this up is because even though it was probably one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, something unbelievably unexpected happened, right in the middle of watching it.
There’s a scene in which Kevin Costner reconnects with his estranged daughter and teaches her to dance in preparation for her prom. A father and his daughter slow two-stepping together and then it happened… (more…)
November 27th, 2017
November 11th, 2017
October 17th, 2017
September 4th, 2017
August 19th, 2017
THEN YOU SAID…