Stealing his thunder

It was Mr Sunshine's birthday recently, so we all met up at Romeo and Juliet's place to have tea together and celebrate. After a delightful dinner (where, as usual, I forgot to put some of the food out and found the potato salad and coleslaw still untouched in their containers as we were packing up) it was time for THE CAKE - a rich choc mousse concoction from Cakes on Carthew. The grandkids all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday to Grandad and for a happy family photo.  Just as the song ended and Mr Sunshine got ready to blow out his candle, Lion gave in to a tempting impulse and beat him to it.

I love the look on Mr Sunshine's face. How did I capture the split second instant as the flame flickered before it snuffed out? I'm glad you asked because the timing is entirely due to my great knowledge and skill as a photographer really, really good luck.

Poor Mr Sunshine - all puffed up and nowhere to blow.

Solitary Lion

Monday was Dragon's very first day of kindy.  Mummy McTavish was taking Dragon to kindy and then having coffee with friends.  Lion could tag along with Mummy if he wanted OR he could spend some one to one time with Grannysaurus.  He chose Grannysaurus. 

Can you guess what we did?  Some of it is easy to guess.  Lion wanted to check out the streetsweeper ads on the internet.  Doesn't evey 5 year old boy memorise streetsweeper ads?  We did that for a while and discovered some mini walk-behind models that Lion hadn't seen before. That was exciting ;)

Babycino and an anzac biscuit (USA translation - cookie) were his choice for morning tea.  Not for me - I had coke.  Then back to the computer to check out the games on the LEGO website.  It is a great safe place for little fellows of all ages.  You can build things, colour in things, create things, play games (or play more sophisticated games if you are a big boy).

Lastly we did not do any baking in spite of the last clue in the photo collage.  Lion has discovered that Grannysaurus' really old flour sifter can double as a grinder.  So he empties the peppercorns into it and creates ground pepper for me.  I do have a pepper grinder or two, but this is more fun and I don't use it for anything else anymore.

Do you want to know one sad thing about my sifter?  Two years ago, when we were on holidays in Tasmania, I saw an identical sifter for sale in an antique store :(

I have learnt from experience that once Lion starts school, opportunities like this will be much rarer.

So we made the most of it and stayed out of the sun.

Lion at the beach

You can tell that it was a seriously hot and steamy day when we went to the beach with Mummy McTavish and the three little McTavishes.

The sad thing for the kids, is that they look forward to the beach so much, but when we get there, the sun is far too fierce to go out until late in the day.  Lion has such lovely milky skin, we would hate to see him get sunburnt.  So the boys play in the beach house and try not to be too impatient and sad.  Every now and then, you can't help but let your feelings show though.

Finally it is time.  Lion wastes no time in getting dressed and heading straight for the water.  For a long time he played happily on his own in the sea while Grandma rolled her shorts up shorter and shorter and still got wetter and wetter trying not to let Lion get too far out of reach.

The problem here, is that he has no fear of the water.  In spite of Mummy McT and Grandma and Grandad all calling him to stop (and the other family sharing the stinger enclosure all staring at the noisy people all yelling like fish wives), Lion kept wading into deeper water and pretending not to hear. 

Unfortunately for Lion, this happened once too often and he was confined to shore for some time.  He made the most of it by getting Dragon and Grandad to fetch buckets of water for him.  If Lion can't go to the ocean, the ocean must come to Lion.

Finally it was time to go home, so while Mummy McT gave Monkey a "top up" feed, Lion was allowed back in the sea for one last swim.  That tiny yellow blur in front of Dragon is Lion.

I hope they slept well last night.  I know I did :)

Heaven or . . .

One of our major local shopping centres underwent a huge renovation that culminated in a grand opening a few weeks ago. We didn't go. It was a madhouse on the BIG DAY. I guess everybody thought they would get a bargain.


When I finally was talked into going by Mummy McT and the boys, I took Lion and Dragon in my car. Part of the reno involved the construction of a new roof-top car park accessed by a pretty impressive ramp. We followed MMcT onto the ramp.

As we drove up the ramp we could see nothing but blue sky and Lion said (with AWE),

"Grandma, it looks like we are going up to Heaven!"

Well yes, it really does Lion.

When we got to the top, there were plenty of cars and, in the area we had chosen to park, someone had cleaned out their car and dumped a heap of litter that must have taken weeks to collect. As we got out of the car, I asked Lion, "Does this look like Heaven?"

In a very sad and disappointed voice he answered, "Nooooooo"

Confession: I added "TO HEAVEN" to the top photo. It may have been omitted from the original sign.

Lion's Birthday

It's Lion's birthday on Monday 26th and it's an important one - the big 5. That means that in a few months he will be a big school boy. In honour of his birthday I thought I would find some of my favourite Lion baby/toddler photos. The first one is Lion and Mr Sunshine at the TV towers on Mt Stuart.
The next was a really exciting time (if you are a little boy) when Grannysaurus' street was full of BIG machines because the city council decided we needed new curbing and asphalt.  There were many far worse streets around that didn't get fixed, but Lion was happy.

The bottom one is Lion at the beach. He loves the beach. Isn't he a sweetie?

Happy birthday Lion!

Life's a Beach

Blessed, aren't we? So much beach, so few people. It's almost like having your own personal tropical island, but it is only 40 minutes from Townsville. And don't forget that this is winter. It was a 'cool' 27 degrees centigrade for most of the day. To make it even more ideal for toddlers, the water stays shallow until you walk out for meters and meters.

All we have to worry about are crocodiles.

A thousand words

Doesn't that sad face just make you want to cry?
After all the build up about going for icecream at The Frosty Mango when the new road opened last month, Lion made a sad mistake. He chose the prettiest icecream. It looked delicious. He did try to enjoy it. He sort of paddled around in it. If I had realised a bit sooner, like before I scoffed my own tiramasu flavoured icecream (yummy), I could have swapped with him. Too late I realised that the problem was that he couldn't stand the taste.
What was really a valiant effort to eat something he didn't like was interpreted as playing with his food and he missed out completely.
Poor Lion.
Grandparents can be so thick at times.