Craigs Goes to Work

Last Saturday saw the usual trips to local parks to give the boys a chance to play outdoors. Craig was not in a particularly silly mood but getting into Graham's pram was not as clever as he thought it was.

In the afternoon, after another trip on the MRT to Neihu, the boys had heaps of fun. Graham even decided to give climbing a try after seeing other kids not much bigger than him doing it first.

It's not an especially impressive jungle gym but the boys seem to like it.

On Sunday afternoon, Craig went to work with his Dad. At first he was very shy and wouldn't listen to anything that anyone said to him.

Dad's coworker Mandy wasn't able to get Craig to relax but Grace had obviously played with little children before.

Craig and Grace seemed to get on pretty well.

Being carried around was good but that developed into a tickle fight.

It looked like Grace had won tickle fights against little people before. Craig never had a chance but he didn't seem to mind. The alternative was getting bored watching his Dad work.

Life Could Be Worse

Last Thursday started out as a cool day that quickly warmed up. Craig had been dressed warmly in the morning but later, after kindy, refused to take off either of his two long-sleeved t-shirts. He even put the hood of the outer one over his head resulting in lots of sweat and some pretty messed-up hair. He seemed to like his new look, however.

The boys were awake relatively early on Saturday morning this week. That meant there was time to travel all the way to LA Cafe for brunch and be able to call it breakfast.

Mum was quite happy to be able to read the newspaper while Graham played his own little games. It was a very pleasant way to start the day.

But, during the walk home the early morning sunshine disappeared and dark, heavy clouds began to threaten. Craig only had time to play for a few minutes in one park before rain forced a mad dash home.

While Dad ran through the rain to get home, Graham fell asleep. He was quickly taken into the bedroom for a nap.

A late-ish lunch was had at the breakfast shop nearest home where Mum was quick to pick up another newspaper.

She wasn't too happy about all this taking of photos during one of her very few chances to relax. Craig thought it was all pretty funny.

Graham was ignoring that fun. He just wanted to get out of the pram. It doesn't show much in the photo but it actually started to pour down with rain while they sat there.

Fortunately, the rain stopped long enough later for an evening walk. Graham managed to find a place where he could get his hands really filthy.

Back at home there was only clean stuff to play with, Graham seemed to think that was boring.

On Sunday, Dad's job was to take the two boys out so that Mum could clean the floor at home in peace. The boys went all the way to Neihu where the boys had heaps of fun on one of their favourite little jungle gyms.

They had only stopped at Neihu because the sun was out when they were passing through. It was an unplanned stop but it worked out well. Graham and Craig were happy to be outdoors.

And their Mum was happy because she could have half a morning to herself. Not a bad result on what was otherwise a wet weekend.

Wet Weekend

The weather was wet near home last Saturday so the family went for a ride on the MRT to see if it was drier elsewhere. Luckily, the rain had stopped in Neihu. Graham had fun on one of his favourite jungle gyms.

The boys had plenty of fun playing while Mum went shopping. She doesn't get much chance to shop these days so she went a bit wild.

Later, after they'd returned home, Craig tried on one of Mum's two new jackets! It will be good in the cooler weather ahead.

The weather then turned wet again to keep the boys indoors for the rest of Saturday.

The ground was still wet when they went to the park on Sunday morning.

Craig was good about rocking gently on the see-saw. That's worth mentioning because usually he makes things too rough for his little brother.

He did get in Graham's way when he was crawling up the stairs for the slide but it's tough for Craig to be good to his brother for a long period of time.

On Sunday night Craig went shopping at Carrefour with Dad. Craig likes "driving" this little car/shopping trolley but he sometimes doesn't like looking at the camera when a photo is being taken.

Back at home Graham had taken sole possession of the portable DVD player. (He may have been sitting too close to the screen.)

The last thing that needed to be done before bed was the taking of a family photo. Craig needed a new photo for kindy.

Another Proper Weekend

The good news last weekend was that Craig and Graham's Dad had two days off. The weather was beautiful on Saturday and the boys spent most of their time outdoors in local parks. Despite the looks on their faces here they actually had a really good time and played for hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon.

The weather was not so good on Sunday. The boys were taken over to Dahu Park where they were forced to walk around because the jungle gyms were wet.



Craig didn't like being part of the group photo. He wanted all of Dad's attention.

Back at home in the afternoon, some furniture was moved around. Craig now sleeps in the front room. Graham helped with the soft rubber flooring. Anything that his parents tried to put down Graham would tear up and pull to pieces as fast as his little arms would allow.

After all that exercise an afternoon snack was needed. Craig had his usual waffle and Dad had his usual mango smoothie. (You can never have too many mango smoothies.)

There was a short trip to a nearby park where Graham was good about having his photo taken while playing.

Unfortunately, Craig protested against Dad taking photos of Graham by turning his head away from the camera when it was his turn to be in the frame.

When the family went out for dinner Graham continued to make progress towards becoming a proper toddler. He seems to be in no hurry to walk by himself. He'd rather have a hand to hold than do it all by himself.

Craig decided to be helpful and push the empty pram.

Just before bedtime, Graham and his Dad watched a video for a little while. Graham's current favourite is My Neighbor Totoro. He especially likes the songs at the beginning and end of the movie.

The last thing that Dad looked at before bed was Craig's latest report card. His teacher seems to think he's a reasonably smart little bloke but still painfully shy.