The last 3 months…

Cool at the beach.

Path of destruction.

Great day at the beach.

Christian has an obsession with fire fighters and fire engines. It began with the kid’s show “Fireman Sam” and has branched out from there. One day, there was a house fire near by and he got to see fire engines and fire fighters in action.

It was his best day.

I think that’s where he got his love of  ladders too.

Andree got into the act with a fire engine cake.

And we got him a battery-powered fire engine ride-on.

Don’t forget the hat.

No one will be surprised if Christian grows up to be a fireman.

By the way, he can say “fire extinguisher”. He’s only two!

Cheeky monkey

Lazy rainy day with dad.

With the women in his life.

A rare day when he was enjoying his food.

Hey! Where’s the water?!

Happy days with granddad.

Although granddad makes him work hard

Christian the builder.

This was first day of school childcare.

Reading with Christian.

One of Christian’s great loves is reading with others. Christian’s grasp of language and image recognition constantly amazes us.

Reading with Bethany.

 

 

You talkin’ at me? Well, I’m the only one here. (in his best Robert De Niro voice)

Absolutely enthralled…

 

 This photo is from Mourad’s birthday. Christian is only interested in the doggie

A photo of me! (by my brother Paul: http://www.thiaphotography.com/).

Back by popular demand!

Yes, I’ve been slack. I would be interested in any statistics on how long, on average, do blogs last before they get neglected. I have no real excuses except laziness, tiredness, and perhaps the computer game Fallout 3. Certainly, Christian’s increasing exuberance makes night time, after he goes to sleep, a time for collapse rather than construction. Anyway, the blog is back by popular demand (at least for the moment).

Indeed, this blog’s usefulness in documenting Christian’s life has increased. In the last few months, Christian’s grasp of language, his mobility and independence has been nothing short of amazing. For instance, he has gone from single words to comprehensible sentences remarkably quickly. Claudie and I often look at each other in amazement and amusement at how that little brain works. His comments and observations are precious.

 

“How are you today? Good? My shirt is fancier than yours!”

Contemplative Christian.

Loving Christian.

Recently, Rita, Claudie’s cousin, got married. Claudie bought from eBay a complete suit for Christian for the occasion.

Probably our best family shot.

He was so adorable!

Clothes really maketh the man (or boy in this case). Certainly, it’s easy to think that Christian was older than the 18 months that he really was at that time.

Day in the sun

If you live in Melbourne, you know that we have been living through a major heatwave. It got so hot that I was sent home from work as the weather and power usage caused power fluctuations in the building. I was not considered essential staff since I’m only a researcher at a hospital, and patients are obviously the top priority. Since then, we have been told that we were one of the few public hospitals that didn’t have to close any wards last week, so sending us home was pretty good call.

Christian has also been suffering from the heat. We’ve had to move his cot to our bedroom (kicking me out of my own bed because I snore!) as our room has airconditioning. When it wasn’t too hot, we got out a little paddling pool for him.

Too bad it was too small for me. It looked really cool in there.

Tasting the fresh water… before he had an accident… and his nappy leaked poop… leading to frantic bathing (in the bathroom), and lots of washing… It was disgusting. That was one way of getting him out of the pool!

Christian, our little danger magnet.

I don’t think that Christian has much of a sense of danger. Rather, I think he has an attraction to danger…

Sometimes, this is the only way to keep hold of him.

He will try to get into anything…

And smart enough to move to chairs to reach things he shouldn’t touch.

He’s a strong little kid with an incredible grip (try and get something off him!).

Believe it or not, he started to swing back and forth.

Thomas the Tank Engine!

Guess what we bought on eBay (for one-fifth the original price!)…

Christian is a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine (he bops and dances whenever he hears the theme song). He has Thomas books, Thomas toys, and now a Thomas cubby house!

Can I play here too?

Okay, Christian is now offically spoilt!

With the Grandparents.

We are very lucky to have grandparents who are fully involved in Christian’s life. Christian is not the easiest child to look after, and we’re not sure we could have managed without our extended family.

What a great shot of my mum!

The first of many, many horsey rides.

One chin-up, two chin-ups, three…

Christian has developed an interesting hobby – piling stones.

My grandparents are avid golfers, and nothing would make them happier than if Christian took up golf

The things we do…

Look at what Christian has made us do to:

We have had to stack our couches away! Christian discovered that he could climb them to reach the  blinds and windows. We were worried that he would take a dive off the couches. And the window has a crack in it, which is a major problem when Christian seems to like the noise he can make when he bangs the glass. And he thinks it’s a game when we take him down from the couches.

So when you come over, we can offer you a place on the floor…

At least Nala seems happy.

Words he now knows.

Cat, dog, woof, sheep, baa, cow, moo, horse, chicken, bee, buzz, duck, bird, lion, roar, tiger, penguin, snake, fish, elephant, giraffe, look, no, dance, jump, give, ta, thank-you, sit, book, sleep, bye, bye bye, hello?, breakfast, lunchie, dinner, water, bath, where is, igglepiggle, blanket, spoon, egg, door, knock, star, teddy-bear, bed, pillow, phone, bunny, fan, bubbles, balloon, ball, train, bus, car, shoes, socks, nappy-change, newspaper, glasses, tick-tock, clock, watch, jesus, cross, amen, banana, blueberry, apple, pear/kommetra, orange, strawberry, christian, mum, dad, chinese-grandma, chinese-grandpa, meme, paqo, teta, stella, nala, kat, blue, red.

At the moment, Christian has decided that one nap per day is the way to go. And it looks like his molars are coming out. That means his night sleep is disrupted which means that Claudie and I are suffering from sleep deprivation… So why did we decide to have children then? Good thing he’s cute

Playing on the deck (now that the deck has rails)

Look! A camera taking my picture!

Heights

Oh. Hi. Don’t know how I got up here…

Life imitating art.

His first big, big bruise.

Surprisingly (and especially after his climbing feats in the last few days), this was not caused by a fall. He walked into the edge of a closing door. The bruise came up in seconds – a blue/white centre and lots of swelling. He doesn’t appear to be that worse for wear, although Claudie was convinced for a while that he had cracked his skull.

Oh well. It looks like Christian will have a pair of black eyes on his first birthday!

Adventures in Parenting (and Not So Good Parenting!)

Christian was quiet and when he is quiet, we know he is up to something. We found him standing on the seat of his tricycle and reaching into the fruit bowl:

So did we get him down from his tricycle? No. We took photos instead!

And, of course, the inevitable happened. He actually saved himself quite well (he didn’t bang his head or suffer any hurt), no thanks to his parents!

All this effort was for an apple.

The reward.

I’m sure that he thinks that it was worth the effort.

And now, Claudie and I will slap ourselves on the wrist. And wonder what dangerous thing he will attempt next.