Big trip to Oamaru and iceskating

Lots has happened in the kids lives lately. They had their first trip to visit Grandma and Grandad overnight. We took the kids to Palmerston and turned them over to Grandma and Grandad. They happily waved goodbye (so did we- see we are all smiling in the bottom photo :-) ) and they had a wonderful time. Riley is still talking about it and how he wants to go to Grandma and Grandads "another day"

Both children have become more chatty in the last fortnight. Dad was away working for a week and even he noticed how much more chatty both were. We can understand half of Jemma but Riley is certainly very articulate and able to answer questions relevantly and talk away, so it is great to see them both doing this.

Though Riley is now very excited about his birthday in 2 weeks and he asked for a party which amazed us as he has never been to one, and very rarely has there been children of his age at our house. However, we will have a small one so Mum has been running around organising hats, plates, loot bags etc and of course a rocket cake of Little Einsteins is to be made (Mum cleverly deflected from the train cake- 2nd and 3rd birthdays were trains.. she wanted a change!). Riley slept with the instructions to making the cake that Mum found and he wants to know what 4 presents he is getting from us for his 4th birthday. Of course his chatter that is so great... is exhausting!

Today we went iceskating. Jemma sat in the toboggan and Riley insisted on skating so he held onto the back of the toboggan with our help and worked on his balance. He tried really hard and never fell over. He was so pleased with himself. We got some on dvd and apparently we can take photos from that but we forgot to take the camera, hence no photos here. Riley loved it and wants to go iceskating "another day".

We are testing Riley for heavy metals and future chelation goals so we needed some urine. Surprisingly enough he was happy to pee in a cup and help send it to France. However, now he wants to pee in the cup all the time and put in bottles to send to France "another day".....

Jemmas gumboot fetish has been joined by her jacket fetish to match her already present hat fetish and she also likes bangles and necklaces.... we just look at her and even Dad has to ask where she got her girly girl nature from????

PS... the rollercoaster saga

Unfortunately the rollercoaster disappeared after 2 days because we have not seen another poo in the toilet. Poor old Riley is too anxious to do it there so we took it away until he is a big boy..........

I did say it could be an expensive poo! ROFLMAO

My baby girl is growing up.......... waahhhhh

Yes, Jemma is becoming a big girl. She self weaned this week and we put her into her big bed yesterday to which she settled well. Where has my baby gone? I want another one..... (said of course now that I have forgotten all the sleepless nights and the intense dislike I had of my husband at the time:-) ). Oh well, 2 is a great number. I only have 2 hands to hold their hands... sniffle.. sniffle..

Jemma still has her gumboot fetish and she wears them with anything, including her dresses. Its a battle not worth fighting. I am bound to hate a lot more combinations in the years to come. Her talking has come a long way- she copies everything. She also likes to bring my handcream out to me so she can have some each day... or each hour... her hands will be her best asset.

The top photo has me trying to hold the kids back. Jemma in particular won't stand still long enough for a photo to be taken (and of course our camera is slow) so we have to catch her unawares. They have the same problem with her at childcare. She is too keen to see the end result.

They are proving cheap to entertain these holidays. Going puddle hunting in the gumboots seems to be the highlight of their day. Pity it stopped raining but they are fascinated by the frosts as well and the toy library car is a success too. Kam lent Riley his thunderbird toys while he is away and Riley is in 7th heaven- thunderbirds are go! As is typical, he sleeps with thunderbird 1. He does like to sleep with his various obsessions. We are lucky his obsessions are short and swift.