This Week...

Hayden falls asleep reading. He's been letting some of his friends from his class (Ethan, Rachael, Gian, Alec, Tian Tian and Maryanne) write on his cast, including Gian's Dad. When he was three he wouldn't let anyone write on it. Now it's full of names and there's no room to write anymore.



This week Hayden asked me, ‘Mum, will I get to play PlayStation up in Heaven?”

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, but I finally replied, “Well, yeah, but only those boys who do what Heavenly Father asks them to do.” I’m not sure if that was a good response or not, but I figured that in a child’s mind Heaven wouldn’t be much fun without toys or boys games.

Hayden has really been into practicing his writing this week. He got a certificate at school for ‘making amazing effort with his writing’ and his teacher gave him a really big compliment that has had Hayden beaming. It’s as if he’s discovered something totally new about himself (that he can write really well) and every night this week he has got into bed, without being asked, to practice writing all the words he knows. I was in absolute shock during the week when Hayden wanted to do homework over PlayStation! Hayden has always been ‘100 percent boy’ always wanting to do physical things and never wanting to sit still, so it has been such a surprise to see him so diligently and seriously practicing his writing without any prompting at all.

Oh, and I should add that Hayden already writes much better than his Daddy!!!! Yay for Hayden! Tony has dreadful writing, and he admits it!!

Ashton proudly receives his Olympic Medal at the closing ceremony put on by his kindy/preschool last Friday. The event was really cute as the children took turns standing on the podium to receive their medal. All the children beamed proudly. They also got certificates for their acheivements (Ashton's was for running and jumping). The kindy teachers then showed a video of the kids participating in all the events: running, jumping, cycling, throwing, dancing, etc. There was lots of food to follow and all Ashton wanted to eat was the strawberries.

Noah seems to be changing every week right before our eyes. He is turning into a little boy so fast and the inches of baby left in him are disappearing quickly (makes me sad). He is making attempts at trying to say everything – every word I tell him (toothbrush, toy, window, car, outside, etc.) he will try to say the word back to me. This week he has started saying ‘water’ whenever he is thirsty and 'nanna' for banana. He also will run up to Tony saying, “Daddy, Daddy” and run up to me saying, “Mummy, Mummy!” It’s so cute. He understands everything now from “put your toys away” to “give me your dummy” to “go get a book.” He seems to be progressing vocally much faster than Ashton did. Noah escaped on me in the weekend and did a little ‘runner’ up our right-of-way (driveway). We had been outside playing, and since we were about to go in the car, I left the garage door open. I brought Noah inside and closed the sliding door to the garage and then ran upstairs to brush my teeth. A couple of minutes later I noticed it was unusually quiet, so I ran downstairs to check on things and immediately knew Noah had taken a walk outside. Sure enough, he had made his way all the way to the top of the drive and was standing by a bush with tears streaming down his face, his bib flapping in the wind, a red tractor tucked under his right arm and one of his gumboots tucked under his other arm. He looked so lost and sad without his Mummy that I enjoyed my moment of being able to rescue him and wipe away his tears. Thankfully, he was still about 25 feet away from the main road, though I knew he wouldn’t get closer as he is so scared of cars. I think he had gone looking for me and was a bit confused as to where I was, thinking that I had gone back outside instead of upstairs.

In this photo Noah is smiling once again and happy to be home safely. He has shiny cheeks from crying. Even inside, he still wouldn't put his tractor and gumboot down.

Tony went away to Taupo this weekend for a work conference. On Friday evening, as I was busy bathing the boys, cooking dinner, trying to get Noah to bed, and cleaning up the house, Tony called to say he’d just been swimming in a nice outdoor heated pool. Some guys have it good!!! In fact, Tony’s had it real good every weekend this past month – two weekends in bed reading and sleeping (ok, he wasn’t feeling good), the next weekend he watched movies and TV on the couch from 2pm until 10pm, and then away this weekend. I should add that while he got himself better in bed reading and sleeping, I was flat tac holding the fort and keeping the boys busy, and then I had the nice job of cleaning Tony’s vomit of the rim of the toilet - so gross - the things us wives do for our husbands!

Having just made that last comment about cleaning vomit I think that every wife needs a break from her husband once in a while. So, although I missed Tony, this weekend was somewhat blissful at the same time!!!
On Saturday morning we meet some friends at Lollipops Playland (a big indoor playground) so the boys could run crazy and get rid of their energy. In the afternoon my friend Suzie and her boy (also Hayden – Peter’s grandson) came by. They ‘hung out’ for over 3 hrs and we treated ourselves to apple pie and ice-cream. The boys ran wild again, but also spent a lot of time making spaceships with the Lego. Then my friend Julia popped in for a hot chocolate and took Hayden home to stay the night. I picked Hayden up in the morning and we ended up staying for pancakes and waffles. We have also watched the movie ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ four times this weekend. (All that fun when Tony's away!)

I have lost all my motivation to finish cleaning my moldy windows. However, I did accomplish one very big thing this week… I cleaned my car!! Being obsessively clean as I am, I couldn’t believe I had let it get so dirty, but this week I finally found somewhere to get the outside of the car washed for $10. I came home and scrubbed all the hub cabs since they were still coated with dirt after the car wash, vacuumed every inch of the carpet and seats and polished all the windows inside and out with Windex. All week I have felt as if I have a brand new car. In fact, when I picked Hayden up from school the day I cleaned it - before even saying, “Hi Mum” - he said with a big smile, “Hey Mum, you’ve got SHINY WHEELS!” Since I like things being clean, I've made a new rule; 'no eating in the car', but I'm sure that will be broken in the next few days. I figure that after all my hard work, I'm entitled to a few days of keeping the car clean!

It was the first day of Spring yesterday. Our magnolia tree (at least I think it's a magnolia) on our driveway is in full bloom and looks so pretty. The boys and I have been watching the flowers bloom daily and sometimes as we drive up the driveway Hayden shouts out, "Mum, another flower's opened". We have another Magnolia tree opposite this one that hasn't bloomed yet. We also have lots of calla lillies springing up around the side of the house and in the backyard. Finally we can enjoy some sun and flowers instead of RAIN!