Getting Back Into It

Again, I've been super slack!!!

We're now back from our almost two-month long trip to New Zealand!! We had a fantastic time, did heaps, saw lots of people and the boys now have now been on 13 flights! Not too bad for only being 2.5 years old!

I'm trying to download a photo collage programme on our new laptop (woohoo!) so I can share a few photos - WAY to hard to narrow them down! - but it doesn't seem to be working for some reason...might have to get Simon to have a look at it when he gets home from work.

We are slowing getting back into the swing of things. We got back a few days after Christmas, and we've kinda been just cruising since then. Simon started back at work yesterday - Kason was far from impressed about that, and the only thing that stopped him crying, was a Skype call to his beloved Grumps :-)
Today, they had 'school' (childcare). They haven't been since the start of November, but Cohen was a champion, and just went with the flow, as per usual. Kason was happy enough to start off, but just as we were about to walk out the door, he realised what was happening and the waterworks started :-( We ended up staying there about half an hour until he was a bit more comfortable, but he apparently spent a lot of the day being the shadow of his favourite carer, Amanda. He was SUPER excited when I got there to pick them up.

We've got a busy few days coming up, then not a lot scheduled for next week, but hopefully that will change :-) It's a bit hard at the moment because Simon is now back at work, but none of their usual activities (playgroups, library etc.) start back up until school starts, and that's still a while away yet.

Anyways, better get going, I have several things I need to get done tonight and I'm hoping to have an early-ish night - the boys were up at 5:30am this morning!

xxx

The Calm Before the Storm

This is my view right now! I'm sitting in the apartment we've rented for the night, waiting for my friend to arrive from Auckland so we can get the last few things done before we go and pick up the bride-to-be for her Hens Night!!!

Oh, and Happy Summer!

xxx

Improvements

I know I've been quiet on here lately...I've been crazy busy getting this hens night organised!! Only a couple more days, then we'll be gearing up for the wedding - SO EXCITING!!!

In other news, Kason and Cohen are having an amazing time with Nana & Grumps, and their speech is improving massively. At the end of last week, Cohen sentences would go along the lines of, "fgydsdtbh hgddbhuh jjyghhd hhgyhvd dog lick." Now, just a few days later, his sentences are more like, "fonzi dog lick hand, yuck!" It's absolutely how much change there is in just a few days. Kason's speech has hugely improved, too, he has a huge vocabulary, bigger than Cohen's, I think, but he is still figuring out how to make sentences. The other thing Kase has been working out over the last couple of days is the use of 'yours' and 'mine'. It's so hard to explain it to a two-year-old, but he's grasping it :-)

xxx

More Busy Days!

We've been busy!

Saturday we went ten pin bowling with my parents. The boys loved it, although Kason started to melt down about round 8...he thought every turn should have been his turn! I even managed to win despite getting gutter-balls for several rounds - Dad was unimpressed, he was winning by quite a bit until I got two spares and a strike in a row :-P

Sunday the weather was playing ball a bit more, so we took Kason and Cohen to a donkey stud which was having a fundraiser and open day. Cohen absolutely loved it, and even rode a donkey! He just loved every bit of it, especially the little ride-on toy tractors they had. Kason, on the other hand, was RIDICULOUSLY clingy all afternoon. I could barely put him down, and if I did, I had to be holding his hand. At one time, I was standing right behind him and he cracked it because he couldn't see me for 5.7 seconds! He refused to ride the donkey, and didn't want to pat any of the other animals there :-(

Monday we went to Mainly Music before a playdate with one of my best friends from school and two of her three kids. After that the boys and I went on a mission to find a jumper for each of them. We succeeded, but not without drama...all because I lost a receipt to get out of the carpark for free!

Tuesday we went to Matamata with my Dad. He had something on in Te Poi, so we dropped him off before going into Matamata to catch up with another old school of mine (intermediate school this time). When we'd finished there, we went back to Te Poi to pick Dad up. He was doing some work with his cousins son on their farm. Cohen and Kason ABSOLUTELY LOVE diggers, and they have a digger on their farm, so the boys were so excited to get to drive it with their uncle :-)

Today we went to the local Twins Group. We had a good time, and it was so nice to be able to talk to the other twin mums about 'twin stuff' rather than spending two hours listening to people talking about other people I don't know! Anyways, after that, we came home, hung out, went for a walk, had lunch and went and picked my Mum from work early. This afternoon Mum and I took the boys to the Hamilton Gardens. It was such a lovely afternoon, and really warm. Kase & Cohen decided to have a swim in the shallow pool in the 'American Modernist' garden. In their clothes! Luckily for all involved, I just happened to have two towels and two full changes of clothes in the car. When we got home, they wanted Grumps to take them for a swim in the 'big' pool. It wasn't quite warm enough for that, but he dipped them both in, up to their shoulders, several times!

Now I need to find some things to occupy us for the next two days!

xxx

Crap Weather

The weather here has been crap! Today was even cold enough to warrant having the heater on! We had been hoping to take the boys out to a donkey stud which is having a big fundraiser this weekend, but there was no way that was going to happen with the weather. Instead, we went ten pin bowling :-) The boys have been once before, for their 2nd birthday. They had a great time today, although Kason started to meltdown a little bit about round 8. Cohen managed to score lots of points for Nana, Grumps and Kasonk but for some reason, every time his turn came around, he would get a gutterball! I think he ended up with about 43 points, with the next person getting 70! I'm fairly stoked that I won, despite going several rounds in a row without scoring at all!

Yesterday, Kason, Cohen and I spent several hours with a friend of mine from school. She and her husband spent a year in Adelaide during the boys' first year. They were over again for a visit earlier this year, but I wasn't 100% sure that they would remember Catherine (Caleb wasn't home), but they absolutely did! When we pulled up at their house, the boys had big grins in their faces and they were super excited :-) They were also singing a song about Catherine the whole way there - so cute! Of course they wouldn't sing it for Catherine when we got there, though!

xxx

Look Mummy, BALLOONS!

I took the boys to a 'Little Rockers' song time thing this morning (singing songs and playing little drums and bells etc.), and at one point, the woman leading it pulled out a box of pois. All the otger kids knew what to do with them and my boys come out with, "look Mummy, balloons!!" Pick the kids who haven't grown up in New Zealand...!

We went for a quick drive to pick my Mum up from work, and on the way we saw a couple walking their pet down the road. It was a sheep. On a leash. In the suburbs. Only in NZ!
Also in NZ, chocolate fish! So, so good! I hate to think how many I'll eat before we go back.

The boys have been so  awesomely amazing since we arrived, they have just taken everything in their strides :-) The one thing they have struggled with is bedtime. Here they are in single beds, in a strange room. The night before last, they apparently decided my parents need to redecorate...they tore the net curtains down, and ripped off a pretty decent chunk of wallpaper!
Every night so far, they have needed me in there with them to go to sleep, preferably cuddling both of them. Poor little guys :-(

xxx

We Made It!

Kason, Cohen and I made it safely to New Zealand yesterday! It was a long day, but both of the boys did incredibly well and I was so proud of them :-)

The flight was delayed, although only for around 30 minutes, so they had a play on the playground before saying bye to Daddy and going through Customs. At Adelaide airport, there is virtually nothing once you've gone through Customs (other than a small duty-free shop, and there was no way I was going to spend any time in there with two 2.5 year ols boys who refused to sit in their stroller!), so we sat by the big window and watched the planes landing and taking-off. The boys thought it was fantastic :-)

The flight itself was great - Cohen and Kason loved the fact that they had their own little screens and remotes...actually, I think it was the remotes they loved the most. Add in the fact that they could watch or listen to The Wiggles, and they were just in heaven! There was only a tiny big of turbulence during the flight, during the boys laughed :-)

Coming off and getting through Customs and MAF was a breeze, and the grins on the boys' faces when they saw Nana & Grumpy were just priceless! They just kept looking up/over at them as if they couldn't quite believe they were really there - they are much more used to seeing them in Skype.

The drive to Hamilton was uneventful. Both of the boys were tired and a bit grumpy and Kason fell asleep about 20 minutes from home. We woke him up when we arrived, had some dinner, settled in a bit, then they had a bath, brushed their teeth and went to bed. They crashed almost as soon as their little heads hit the pillow :-)

They woke up about 8am, and played with Nana and Grumpy until I woke up a couple of hours later. Then they played in the sandpit, went for a walk in their new Grumpy-built trolley, rode on their new skateboards, had some lunch, then we went out  to the block where Grumpy took them for a ride on the 4-wheel motorbike. They LOVED it, and there were plenty of tears, mainly from Kason when it was time to put the  bike away.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, and Kason and I even had a nap on the couch! It was lovely, although it won't be happening again anytime soon...it was NOT easy to get him to sleep tonight!

Anyways, I better go, have to be up kinda early in the morning (well, early Adelaide time).

xxx