It's March and my babies are growing up!

Its hard to believe I last posted in January! My days have been richly filled with delightful discoveries through the eyes of a two year old, my arms have been full of the love of a 11 month old, my body has been weighed down with the growing life in my womb. And time is ticking by. We are looking forward to winding down the season, drying off our cows mid-May and then anticipating the arrival of our final family member.

The summer has been good to us, we've had lots of days out at the beach with the kids mucking into the dark sand of Taranaki. Alister celebrated his 36th in January, I celebrated my 34th in February, and together, we celebrated 3 years of marriage in March. In just a couple of weeks, Ashley will turn 1. WOW!  Here are a few highlights of what the kids have been doing these past few months.

Sleeping!

Look! I dragged the chair over to get inside the tractor!

Ashley has finally started cutting teeth so I treasure this one sleeping shot because she hasn't really been sleeping much the past two months. This is going from a two, 2-hour naps and 11 hours at night sleeper to NO sleep during the day and needing one or two cuddles at night just to go back to sleep. Sadly, all the trouble was only for 2 bottom teeth! I hope she gets the hang of it soon or else its going to be a long process! Fast forward to March, and she's starting to deal with it better, maybe it has to do with the more liberal dosing of teething tablets by mum and dad?

Wyatt's initiative grows by the hour. His attendance at daycare has enriched his play in many ways. He watches the older kids play and has taken interest in woodwork, sand, paint, cutting with scissors, and eating with a knife and fork. Alister and I had a good giggle when checking on Wyatt morning after breakfast, we found that he had dragged one of our chairs all the way down the driveway to the tractor so that he could reach the steps and climb in. Needless to say, Alister has to now turn off the tractor anytime Wyatt is left in there because he has also learned how to lower the front loader all the way to the ground.

We visited a traditional hay making day in Midhurst for a couple of hours. They had all the vintage equipment set up that included washing before electrical washers & dryers, pumping water, using belt power for tractor attachments, hay making, harvesting wheat, plowing, and splitting wood. It was insightful and I wondered at all the hard work our great grandparents must have put in just to put a roof over their heads, food on the table, and clothes on their backs.

Wyatt strutted from one tractor to another, insisting he be put on most of them to have a go at driving them. He was mesmerized by the sheep getting its hair cut with huge scissors. Ashley just wanted to keep moving around.

Watching a sheep shearing with scissors!

 

 I was a bit disheartened to hear over the loudspeaker that after the vintage haymaking days, all the traditional bales were going to be taken apart and re-bailed in the modern rounds. That must have been a lot of work for this farm the next day! 

We only stayed a couple of hours before heading over to a friend's property for an afternoon of motor cross. He's built a pretty good track into the hillside for his kids to ride. It was their oldest boy's birthday party - motor cross riding. What a great birthday! I was pooped by this time so the camera was left in the car and I escaped into the shade and a chair!

As I stated earlier in the post, Wyatt has taken a real interest in woodworking. One Saturday, it was me and the kids for the day as Alister was out riding motor cross at Whanga. I decided to take Wyatt to Mitre 10, our local hardware store. We ate lunch in the cafe and then I showed him all the chainsaws, tools, and lawnmowers for sale. He was in HEAVEN! I carried a saw all around the store, stopping occasionally to go BRRRRRRM, BRRRRRM, on things as though he was cutting them with his chainsaw. I got a few funny looks from other customers, but the blade had a protective cover over it so I didn't see the harm. I treated him to a few tools for play at home after these photos show my dismal scrapbooking tools don't really cut the mustard!

So now he's got a light hammer, nails, phillips and flat head screwdrivers. I'll add to it some sand paper, hand drill and screws if I see he keeps his interest.

Ashley is enjoying exploration at Playcentre so I've started dressing her in grungy play clothes and letting her have a go. Here is a recent precious moment of my two babies playing together (with lots of mediation happening by mum). But still, a sign of things to come when they start wanting to play with each other.

The sand cement has hardened so now at another session, I'll bring it out for Wyatt. I think he'll end up hammering it to bits, but that's okay. He pressed two leaves and a blade of grass into his creation.

Wyatt is presenting two schemas at the moment (if you are familiar with schemas in early childhood ed). Trajectory and transportation. Here are some good examples of a typical play session at home. This happened today.

Ashley loves outside too and gets really upset if the door gets closed on her. So today, when Wyatt went down for his nap, I left the door to the laundry room open. She hasn't been going down the steps yet, but today she did...and out the door...and here's where I found her a few minutes later...

She loves going on the bike with her dad-dad. He tells me she giggles and kicks her legs when they go off together. Too cute!

Okay, that's all I've got time for now. Hope you enjoyed seeing what the Swans have been up to lately. We love and miss you all!