Thursday, August 30, 2012

Meeting my cousin Mack for the first time... by Ethan Papps

My mummy and daddy just took me on a holiday over East for a wedding. While we were there I was able to meet my cousin Mack for the first time! He is 7 weeks older than I am and the only time we have been around each other was Christmas 2010 when we were both in our mummy's tummys!

In the beginning we kind of just played by ourselves and checked each other out! But after a little while Mack gave me a big cuddle!
 But not long after our cuddles Mack spotted the truck that my Aunty Tiff and Cousin Hudson had lent me for the holiday. We both wanted that truck real bad and had a huge tug of war over it....
In the end Mack got the truck... (I let him have it, really I did!)...
 The next day we kind of learned how to share (with some intervention from our two mummy's). I did let Mack wear my sun hat, in fact I told him he could keep it cos I really hate it!
So although we only had a little time together it was really cool meeting cousin Mack!...

Saturday, August 18, 2012

A lovely day at the beach!

Today was a beautiful 24 degree sunny winters day in Perth! It was just LOVELY! So we decided to head down to the beach. Ethan is way happier at the beach these days as well! He had a ball playing with the seaweed and shells!

I don't think many more words are needed! The pictures say it all!





Thursday, August 9, 2012

Ethan's first haircut

After lots and lots of discussions between Jason and I we finally decided it was time to tame the mad professor hair do! Ethan had lovely curls when they were behaving, but more often than not, his hair was a tangled mess (especially as he had taken to rubbing his food through his curls!).

Here is a before shot for you!
 I wasn't sure how the actual hair cut would go, so as Jason also needed a haircut we made a family trip out of it. I wanted it to be a good experience for Ethan so first of all, Ethan and I checked out the salon, held the clippers and combs and checked out other people getting their haircut. Then Ethan sat on Jason's knee for a bit during the start of Jason's hair cut. Here is Jason and Ethan, their last pre-haircut photo together. Ethan is pretty interested in what is going on around him at this stage!
 Halfway through Jason's haircut Ethan sat on my knee and it was his turn. He did really well, but was too interested in the noise of the clippers to keep his head still! He kept turning to where they were! So (as you can see in the photo below) his left side is nice and tidy and even, but his right side wasn't quite finished properly! Even so, I think the two boys (post-haircut) look pretty handsome!
 Check this little dude out! Most people have commented that he looks a few months older with his new do!
 And here Ethan is a couple of days later, his hair has thickened out a lot since the cut and he is still looking as cute as ever (albeit a little serious in this photo)!

Monday, August 6, 2012

A little bit about Ethan!

So its been a while since I posted about Ethan! So its probably time I gave you all an idea of the little boy who has captured our hearts and made our life so amazing!

Ethan (as you can probably imagine) is a very cheeky wee fellow! He gets into everything. His favourite areas for mischief are the fridge (he loves rearranging the shelves) and the toilet (he loves pulling the toilet roll out and trailing it for as far as he can go without it breaking!). Recently Ethan decided he liked the look of the plastic bag drawer... this is how I found him one day:

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But in amongst the mischief he is also a really helpful wee boy as well. He helps empty the dishwasher (he does the cutlery himself - in reality this means that he throws everything in the cutlery drawer and I need to tidy it later, but its a great start!). He then takes the cups out and hands them to me to put away, saying "ta" every time he hands one to me! If I put the washing on the floor in the laundry Ethan will load it into the washing machine for me! Ethan also likes to sweep the floor! So we are training him well!

Ethan is well developed physically, he runs, can walk backwards and climbs everything! Ethan doesn't have many words yet but communicates very effectively with pointing! If you pick the wrong thing up he will let you know! Ethan has a few words, these are: heyoo, ta, nye-nye, and ta-ta. He also does a ducks quack, a cows moo and the sucking noise when the plug is removed from the bath!

For months now I have been verbally cueing Ethan when going to bed! Every sleep I have said night night Ethan. Well it has paid off and these days I say night night time? and Ethan says ta-ta or nye-nye and walks to his bedroom! I was over the moon the first night he did this!


Apart from putting random objects inside Jason's guitar (one day we found a pair of vice grips, a screwdriver, two building blocks and some other random items inside Jason's guitar) some of Ethan's favourite activities these days are:

Drawing (he has only drawn on the wall once):
Reading - Ethan ADORES reading. We can spend three hours reading solidly! He points at everything in the books and we go over the objects time and time again. When he ppoints he "says" something that sounds like "ayai-yai-yai-yai??". Its his way of saying what's this! Sometimes he grabs our fingers and points to things as well! Ethan really cannot get enough of books!
 Ethan also loves getting into places he shouldn't, like his toy shelf!

Equal to his passion for books is Ethan's love for the outdoors! He loves spending time outside - running around, climbing things, running his hand through sand and dirt! Bird spotting, all sorts!

Finally, Ethan loves to dance. When music with a good beat comes on he breaks into a massive grin and starts bopping away! We have some cute clips from you tube that he also likes to dance to, he does the actions along with them, such as: moving his arms like a bird, flying to outer space in his super turbo flying machine and turning around on the spot! I will try and get some video of his dancing, its such a joy to watch!

Well that's just a quick update on Ethan! I hope it bought a smile to your face as it does to mine every time I think of the special wee boy!

To pool or not too pool

To pool or not too pool, that is the question!

When we bought our new house we were adamant that the first thing we were going to do was put a pool in. We turned up at the pool shop with measurements of our yard, photos (aerial and normal), the water, sewerage, gas and electricity maps - everything! To an observer you would say we were pretty much a sure sale! The price just had to be right!

When he said the pool we wanted was around $20,000 installed we got even more excited. On the quote there was a list of "optional" extras for us to think about. We had the pool man visit us to check out the feasibility of our site and then he went through those "optional" extras. Well as it turned out a pool shops definition of "optional" and the dictionary's definition is quite different. So once we factored in the optional extras (and after some cash back deals) the pool was going to cost around $25,000. Ok still not too bad!

The we added in the tip fees, kerb fees, pool fence, decking, moving our electricity service wire (otherwise we would have a live line over the top of a pool - not a good idea) and doing some work on the water main. With just some rough estimates for some of these things we were up around $45,000! Hmmmmm we started to rethink our pool decision! I mean that's 9000 pool entry fees!

So after all our research, thinking and planning we have decided to not put a pool in for this summer!

So now that the pool is off the cards it has opened the door for other improvements to the house. We will be replacing our side fence (which half blew over in a recent storm), we will "renovate" our back garden and put it a food garden (some citrus plants, herbs, tomatoes and lettuce), and we are currently investigating solar panels!