April 23, 2008

Redesign

By tonyandrewmeyer

I’ve (obviously, unless you’re reading this through the feed) got far enough with the redesign that I’ve decided to switch over. The tunetest link at the bottom of the page doesn’t work yet, and the “notes” section (click “more” below) doesn’t quite look right, and there are a few other minor bits and pieces, but in general I think it’s good enough to go live.

Please let me know (add a comment or via email) if anything is broken (I haven’t tried this at all in Internet Explorer, for example), or if there’s something you think doesn’t work as well as before, and I’ll try and make some more edits to the theme.

Apart from just having something fresh, it’s nice to have a little more colour in the page, 4 more photos, more than one post on the front page, and a few other things like that. Hopefully you find it an improvement, too!

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April 17, 2008

Mixed Feelings

By tonyandrewmeyer

Since Adam has been visiting a lot recently (and will now be looked after by Olyvia, along with Regan, twice a week), Samuel is able to pick up new skills by observing someone roughly a year older than himself.

This is obviously good in some ways, but bad in others. Sam’s now able to open doors (at least the internal ones here), for example. Obviously a skill that will come in handy later in life, but also a bit of a pain (at least he can’t unlock doors or open the front door yet – although he does have sufficient skills to move something over to the garage door, push the opener, and get out the automatic door).

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April 8, 2008

Words & Pictures

By tonyandrewmeyer

Sam lying on the bed laughing.Sam’s vocabulary is increasing reasonably quickly at the moment. As well as speaking words, he’s getting a lot better at understanding them, too. If you ask him to find Grandma/Granddad/Poppa/Nanna from a selection of photos (we have a little photo board with friends & family on it) he can do that; he’s reasonably good at finding Aunty Brenda & ‘Aunty’ Debbie as well, and he knows Mummy & Daddy, of course.

He can say (in no particular order, and I may have forgotten some): Poppa, Nana, Mummy, Daddy, fish (“fishfishfishfish”), swing (“wiing”), turtle, wheel (“wheelwheelwheel”), nose, door, more, elephant (“nananent”), bubble, ball (“ballball”), swimming (“mingming”), baby, bird (“bir”), shoes, teeth, keys (“ees”), cheese, and bye. He knows some other things, but has picked up the wrong word: boat (“row row”), car (“bye bye”), dog (“woah woah”), cat (“ohhh”), elephant (“nose”), duck (“uack uack”) and throw (“catch”).

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April 6, 2008

Paihia

By tonyandrewmeyer

Samuel in RussellLast week we all drove up to Paihia to visit Simon, Jolene, Adam & Regan, who spent the week up there. Sam did quite well with the 4.5 hour trip (probably his longest so far), with just a little stop at Wellsford for some lunch. We didn’t really do anything on Wednesday night, but on Thursday we took the ferry to Russell.

As far as we can recall, this was Sam’s first trip (and second, on the way back) on a boat. He didn’t seem to know quite what to make of it, but had a good time anyway. He did a lot of walking around Paihia and Russell – hardly used the stroller at all. We had lunch at a little restaurant in Russell, and Sam & Adam had lots of fun running around and playing. The weather started to turn bad (and there isn’t really that much to do in Russell anyway!) so we headed back after that.

Russell from the ferry back to PaihiaAfter a quick swim and spa, we headed back south, with a brief overnight stop at the grandparent’s place in Whangarei (where Samuel tricked Grandma into staying up an extra hour and Olyvia and I were of limited use to Granddad’s quiz team). Back to Auckland the next morning to rescue the lonely dog (who did have great fun at Aunty Brenda’s, apparently). Short in time, but somewhat long in distance!

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April 5, 2008

Don't look behind the curtain

By tonyandrewmeyer

I updated the CMS software that badtomatoes.org uses (WordPress) today – theoretically, you should notice nothing at all (unless you’re me, Olyvia or Debbie and can go see the Wizard). In practice, things sometimes break. It looks fine to me, but please let me know if something doesn’t work.

Next up (as well as a couple of regular posts and some more photos), I’ve got a redesign planned – that should arrive in the next couple of weeks, I think.

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March 15, 2008

Bees, ogres, and a house full of kids

By tonyandrewmeyer

Liv’s family is still making their merry way across Europe (one each in Germany, France, and Italy at the moment, I think), and Sam hasn’t seen his grandparents on my side for a few weeks either (they’re making their daily merry way across Whangarei to work…), so another update.

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy, with extra work on, but the weather has finally improved (for a while it seemed like we were going to have rain the entire time Nana was in Europe!).

We visited the Pukekawa Playcentre yesterday for their “Carnival Day”. Sam played on the playground again (Adam’s birthday party was there last year), did some painting, ran around on the tennis courts, patted the donkey, and seemed to have quite a bit of fun (he warmed up to the other people quite quickly, so hopefully the shy time is wearing off, or has been worn down by seeing so many people recently). Everything was quite good, except that I woke up with a rather sore wrist for some reason, and was stung by a bee on the underside of my foot (feel free to insert comments about shoes here) at the Playcentre, so was a bit tender on the left side. We visited the Kellys for a little while afterwards and came home mid-afternoon.

Liv and I watched Shrek the Third last night. One of the things I really admire about the work that Pixar does is that they stay away from sequels (apart from the Toy Story sequel that Disney made them do). I don’t know if Dreamworks has managed to do anything much worth seeing apart from the Shrek franchise. However, even though it was a sequel it was still pretty funny (better than the second movie) and worth watching.

Olyvia looked after Adam & Regan as well as Samuel last week (and Madeline and Veronica were here for a while, making four little ones to look after) while Jo did some job interviews, and did remarkably well with the three of them. She’s doing it all over again this Tuesday, so hopefully that goes as well!

Sam had swimming again as usual this morning, and it went well again thankfully. Recently he’d been a bit shy (like elsewhere) and struggled to take part. Last week and this week he was back into it, though, and is nearly swimming by himself – he’ll even put his head under the water by himself now. He’ll probably be moving to the next class up at the end of the term. Liv, Sam and Sebastian then went for a walk with Milo & Debbie in the afternoon, and I’m told that Sam walked nearly the entire way around the park, so I imagine he’ll be sleeping pretty well tonight!

No doubt there were other things over the last fortnight, but nothing else comes to mind right now (there was a zoo visit with Veronica, Madeline and Jacs, but I don’t remember exactly when that was). Another busy week coming up, although there’s Easter at the end. Hopefully everything is still going well for all of you!

p.s. As you may have noticed, I’m managing to keep up with the photos a bit more now. In fact, in the latest bunch, there are even some from my cellphone that have been sitting there for a while (Sam looks pretty different on the swing at the playground up the road to a few months later on the swing at home!).

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March 1, 2008

Some new skills

By tonyandrewmeyer

So, we went to swimming this morning as usual and Sam has decided that he can put his head under the water on his own now. I was so surprised! We count 1,2,3, then submerge and today he did it himself, right on cue, twice, and even blew bubbles. Very cute and talented.

We went to a surprise party for my Grandfather’s 80th yesterday at Pitt St Church (where Sam’s Christening was). The party went well and I made another cake (I am developing a new skill), a bunch of balloons made of cupcakes; there will be photos uploaded for you to stare in awe at soon…

Sam, however, loved running up and down the aisles of the church and talking to his echo (very quietly of course). It was so funny, he just went and went for ages. It kept Daddy busy while Mummy mingled with various family and friends.

Funny story:
Yesterday morning Sam was busying himself as I was baking 36 cupcakes. Tony came into the dining room and Sam pleasantly offered Tony something to eat from his little hand (he does this often now). Taking it politely in his mouth Daddy thanked Sam and nibbled on the morsel. Mummy cracked up hysterically upon seeing this scene from the kitchen.
“Do you know what that is?” Mummy knowingly asked Daddy?
“I thought it was a raisin, why?”
“It’s a cat biscuit!” laughed Mummy.
Hahahaha! Sam had stolen the whole bowl of cat biscuits from the kitchen while I had my hands busy with the oven and I had not yet removed them from his possession.
The look on Tony’s face was awesome as he spat out the cat biscuit he had just been sucking on.
One of my all time favourite moments of parenting so far.

Thats all from me.
Lyv

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February 25, 2008

When the cat's away

By tonyandrewmeyer

Since Sam’s Nana, Poppa, and Uncle are all in Europe, I ought to do an update (rather than completely rely on Debbie!), since we said we’d keep them up-to-date a bit. (And hello to everyone else!). I’ve also got photos to upload, probably tomorrow.

So a quick recap of the last week-and-a-bit: Saturday we saw the Slaters off at the airport, then helped Aunty Brenda move into her new place. It has a huge (flat) backyard and wooden floors, so it’s a great place for Sam to play. Olyvia headed off to her Orewa trip that night, and Granddad and Grandma stayed with me and Sam. Sunday morning we headed back to Brenda’s for morning tea, then headed back home for a couple of days of solo-dad’ing. Nothing much to report about that time, really – just normal days.

Olyvia came back Tuesday night, and we had a normal Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (although very wet). On Saturday we headed back to Aunty Brenda’s house so that I could setup an Internet connection for her, and Sam played in the rain for over an hour.

Last Sunday we headed out to Si & Jo’s Buckland house for a working bee. Actually, they’ve signed up for a reality TV show, and the working bee was part of that. Some silly TV stuff (‘say this like I just asked you a question’) and some actual work – the house is looking pretty good, so hopefully they’ll manage to sell it soon.

Monday Liv was quite sick, so Sam hung out with me while I worked (we managed a quick trip to Jansen’s since I had to go to the post office), and it was otherwise a quiet day. Liv’s feeling better today, although a bit tired from being sick, so we’ve had another quiet day (me working, Sam running and laughing, and Liv resting).

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February 21, 2008

An end to Seasons Greetings…

By tonyandrewmeyer

Is anybody else bored with checking this site and reading about the upcoming Christmas and New Year? Debbie here, and I’m hijacking this page temporarily until Sam learns to update websites, or at least until Tony/Olyvia get time to do it themselves.

Soooo, to update you all…

As you have probably guessed Sam is now a walking, running, chasing machine. The animals of the house aren’t too impressed by this, but it does make for a good workout when you visit. Talking and sign language is also getting better, he seems to have mastered the basics and if you fill in the blanks in your head you can almost have a conversation with him… actually I’m exaggerating slightly, but you can figure out what he wants most of the time now.

Christmas Day was much more interactive this year, with Sam opening all of his presents himself, and being the well trained consumer he is, he even oooohed and aaaahed at the appropriate times. Outside play became a lot more interesting with a slide and swing set to go with the sandpit and swimming pool that were already there.

Since then things have been plodding along smoothly… actually I can’t really remember what else has happened (it’s the end of February okay, how am I supposed to remember January etc..?). Last weekend Olyvia’s parents and brother flew off to Europe for Chantal & PJ’s wedding and a bit of travelling (so jealous!), and Aunty Brenda shifted down to Auckland (when is she on babysitting duty?)

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Hopefully updates will become more regular now :)

xxx

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December 12, 2007

and now…

By tonyandrewmeyer

So it has been two more months and, as predicted, Sam is not far from running. He went from a couple of wobbly steps to full-on walking pretty quickly. We think it was a confidence thing, once he got some he was sweet to go. Now shopping trips are far more interactive for all involved (much chasing, less carrying and more “don’t touch!”). But it is still a bit of a novelty for us and therefore all extremely cute.

Our little monkey has also developed a few words. Cheese, teeth, keys and yes are all fairly similar in their very secretive, half-whispered delivery. He is doing really well with his sign language, too. He knows about 8 signs well now and has even started to put them together; at Aunty Debbie’s he managed to point out the “fish” and told me they were “swimming” using sign language, then promptly tried to join them in their pond. He obviously understands a lot more than I gave him credit for. Until recently I still kind of assumed he wasn’t paying attention or understanding us; how wrong I am. He knows things we haven’t ever taught him and he seems to pull out all his new tricks at the moment. He follows heaps of instructions like putting things in the rubbish bin for us and helping tidy up and, even though he doesn’t always agree, “no” is well used – and from the little tantrums, understood.

We have the pool up again and Sam still loves swimming. His lessons come to end for the year this week and he is doing really well, he even stands on the edge of the pool and jumps in with great gusto.

Sam’s second Christmas is close and we were concerned that a tree and a toddler wouldn’t mix, but so far so good (touch wood (ho ho ho)), he helped decorate it (sort of) and has not showed that much interest in destroying it yet! The presents under the tree, however, are far more enticing. He already half-unwrapped a couple yesterday, so the next few weeks will be interesting and Christmas Day should be immense fun for his little hands. Looking forward to it actually.

Merry Christmas everyone and, if we don’t see you before, Happy New Year.
Lyv

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