Plus Two, and two, and two again!
There were a few days when we had cousins over. We went for a walk to the park, played and watched TV. Alex finds these days a little hard, and relations are strained between us. But when he allows it, we all have fun together.
On a separate occasion we watched 2 friends whilst their mum attended an appointment. The kids played, we haven’t had them visit us for ages.
We’ve had the neighbours over a few times. They generally all play outside but there’s been lots of iPad playing lately, namely Robox. On hot days we’ve had the slip n slide out and Alex has visited their house and pool. Daniel gets a bit upset that he’s left out so I make myself more available to play with him. It’s a good opportunity to spend some time with him without the demands of Alex!
Caretaker day
We spread mulch in playscape and pulled weeds. Another truck full! The kids’ attention span was limited – they wanted to play!
Socialising
We had friends over for a play. The kids played families. Alex and friend also played minecraft and facetimed! They also sent each other messages and facetimed a few times whilst they didn’t see each other for 2 weeks of the holiday.
We also had our end of year west meet at the state rose garden. There were a few families, mostly regulars. The kids climbed trees, played tiggy, and wrestled! We then had a brief visit to the zoo where we saw gorillas, cheetahs and hippos. It was too late to go on the bus, but we got a good play in the hippo beach area.
We’ve been able to catch up with ‘before school’ friends. We visited a new park. The kids enjoyed the change of scenery I think. There was a great scooter track, and some sand/water play. It was a hot day though. There was an interesting set up with monkey bars under a footbridge and Alex came away with scraped knuckles. Afterwards we went to Melton waves pool. We had a great afternoon, just us. Outside we retrieved and raced for toy fish, inside we enjoyed the waves and toddler pool. Alex got upset when someone jumped on him. It was an accident and thankfully Alex didn’t panic and get put off of the water. Daniel didn’t want to leave so ran off to the toddler pool and lay down on his back – he tells me not to do that in the bath! I watched as the boys played together, there were some beautiful, tender moments. Lots of joy and laughter.
Getting physical
In the evenings we’ve been to the football oval a few times. Alex and Vio have played football, practising being a keeper and passing. We’ve run around lots too.
Alex got a new bike – bargain too on gumtree! We’ve tried it out a few times at the skate park. Alex says he wants to do tricks. I suggested he watch some youtube videos but he didn’t – saying he wants to make them up himself.
Home
Slowing the pace has allowed us to take our mornings a little more easily and we’ve enjoyed long, long cuddles in the ‘cuddle bed’.
The kids have been out in the yard, particularly Alex playing football with Vio. or cooling off in the sprinkler or on slip n slide.
We’ve played rat-a-tat cat together. Alex said it would be funny to get 4 zeroes. We talked about how that was the best score, which lead us onto the worst score of 4 nines. I asked him what that totalled and he gave me a quick answer of 36! I asked him how he worked it our – 4 x 10 then take away 4. It’s amazing how he can work things out as he understands it to be and not with a procedure to follow blindly.
Alex and I went to the End in minecraft – the PE update allows you to go there now! We killed the enderdragon, though we were in creative mode to be fair. I’ve also updated the PC version and obtained a plane mod. He’s played on it more than the other times, especially after I looked up how to control the planes!
I got the USB microscope out and we looked at salt under it as requested by Alex. We also looked at a feather.
Alex has been watching some animal guy on youtube doing some crazy things like kissing a moose and getting stung by nasty bugs!
We’ve been inside a bit due to the unbearable heat! So we’ve had to busy ourselves once the kids bored with TV and games. We played a game where the floor was a swamp with a croc and we had to get across on furniture obstacles. It was fun for a bit. On one particular day it poured, tropical rain! I raced outside, the kids followed, and we ran around chanting and giggling. We were soaked through but it was such a relief to cool down.
Daniel has asked lots to play ‘camping’. He packs his bag and we go to his bed (often Vio does this), and he sets up a fire. We pretend to cook, such as roasting marshmallows, and sometimes sing.
There has been train tracks built and lots of lego play. Daniel has wanted to smash things so I set up a game where we’d throw a ball at a wall of duplo bricks. Alex got into it to and worked out how to make it fall every time by hitting it in certain places. So I changed the structure a little and asked him about it.
Out and about
We’ve had some park plays where it’s just been us, the kids have utilised scooters on sloping paths.
We used gifted movie tickets to go and watch ‘trolls’ one evening. Alex loved it, I did too 🙂 I was surprised to see Alex singing along to so much, especially ‘the sound of silence’ but apparently he’s seen lots of clips on youtube.
Alex has been excited about the ‘special’ chicks (pigeons) at Gigi’s and we’ve visited a few times. He also has budgies.
We took advantage of the early opening hours at the zoo and visited. Daniel wanted to see the gorillas so we did the monkey trail first.We had to come back later though as there were none around so early, but we were glad that we did as we saw the baby gorilla playing with her mum! A heron (I think) stole some of our lunch, we went to the seals and penguins, took a walk past the giraffes (Daniel’s favourite) and went through the bird walk and on to the australian animals. Alex had wanted to go to the maze. Before we left we saw the tiger, elephants, orangutans and butterflies. The kids were desperate for a butterfly to land on them. We stopped off at keeper kids where the boys found some playmates. They pretended to be wildlife rescuers, saving cheetahs and birds.
Christmas
We decided to open presents on Christmas Eve since we would be out most of Christmas Day. It meant the kids had the whole day with their new toys. Alex wouldn’t make his lego without me, so I spent a lot of time on that. It took them many hours to gravitate towards their iPads! Alex couldn’t decide if he wanted the minecraft lego or not so we left it – until the neighbour came over and Alex let him build it.
They received a basketball hoop from their aunt which they were overjoyed about! It was a very hot day and we spent Christmas Day in the pool at Vio’s sisters. One we put it together the kids have been using it most days, especially when the neighbours are over.
Daniel has enjoyed using the demo function on his keyboard and has been dancing wildly.
Alex and I have been playing his new minecraft card game. He got other games for Christmas but has not been keen on them.
NYE
We took the day as it came, but in the early evening we headed to Footscray PArk, as we have for 3 previous years. It was the busiest we’ve seen it. We set up away from the main stage, where there was space to run. Alex and Vio spent a lot of time playing football. Daniel and I went on an adventure walk. Daniel took lots of photos as he went. We went for a walk towards the stage and the kids had a good dance to the band that played – I love watching ALex dance! The fireworks were great, a nice end to the year.
