Christmas Eve

Decorations in the city

 a gift from the Christmas Fairy

Reindeer Ti-Ti

Stone Santa

The Gingerbread Village, in the city

Our gingerbread house

Christmas Eve dinner at Abu's house

Christmas time making

I've been decorating twigs and crocheting garlands to hang. Planning biscuits to make, gathering recipes for glazed hams, buying supplies and sweeties for the gingerbread house we'll make tomorrow.....

and Toby and I have been crafting together too. Googly eye glueing, painting, pretending to be Mister Maker...

and making a festive reindeer for Daddy's desk. (There was to have been a Father Christmas too, but Toby was adamant the toilet roll he had just painted red would be better off being a fire engine, and I couldn't argue with that!)

Decorating the Tree

It was almost as much fun for Toby as Christmas day.  He couldn't wait to hang up his new nutcracker from Gra-Gra, and we opened our box of decorations in an excited frenzy, tissue paper flying and Toby shouting "I remember this one Mummy!"
 

Christmas has begun

Toby and I are very excited about Christmas this year.
I remember reading something somewhere on another blog, where the girl was writing about loving all the excitement of Christmas, all the preparations, all the planning, but feeling a little bit let down by the actual day itself. I know what she means. Especially since being here in Australia, the Christmases don't feel like those of my own childhood. No fires in the living room, twinkling fairy lights lighting up the house by half past three as it's so dark outside. Frost crunching underfoot in the mornings, the excitement and possibilities of snow, icicles hanging off the windows, and cold, how I miss the cold at Christmas!
But there are positives here too. Sunshine, lots of it. Light, warmth, long days, cider on the roof terrace, barbeques, eating seafood.

So this year I decided that we'll make the most of the excitement of Christmas, to spread it out over the whole month. I have finished making Toby his advent calendar. Everyday a new felt ornament to hang on the fabric tree, and a little surprise for him in the pocket too. Yesterday he couldn't believe it when he found a large gold (chocolate) coin, and that he was allowed to eat it before breakfast! And today an even bigger surprise, a tiny letter from the Christmas fairy, a small chocolate coin and a Lego skateboarder.

He was beside himself with excitement! And he's been re-counting the story of how he found everything in his advent calendar, how the Christmas fairy had left it all there for him while he slept, all morning to Gaw-Gaw.
This is what Christmas is all about for me. Magic, the sharing of excitement, anticipation.

And we're going to put the tree up this weekend, to make the most of it. And just in time, a parcel arrived this morning from England with new decorations for our tree! Toby loved his soldier, thank you Gra-Gra!

Last Weekend

Just mucking about in the city.
We went to a lovely contemporary craft market at Fed square, bought some nice stuff.

Looked at some vintage minis
Toby danced in the street in his new red shoes 

And we watched an old fashioned bike ride along the Yarra

Stinks and the Gawgerleys.

He still hates me taking photos of him. But now he likes to try and take photos himself. Of me, or the floor, or anything at all really.

Photo taken by Toby

This morning it was of Fancy and Original. The Gaw-Gaws as we call them. Or Gawghito/Gawgerley /Gawgolini/ Gaw de Gaw.
These are all the nicknames we have for them. They are still such a big part of our life.

But i did manage to sneak some photos of him in today.

Of Ti-Ti/Stinks/Crazy Chops. Those are my nicknames for him. For my gorgeous, funny little boy.

Early morning dance practice

While I get ready to go to work he practises dancing like Michael Jackson, carefully watching himself in my bedroom mirror.
He's fussy about the clothes he'll wear to dance in, only certain shirts will do. And he has to wear a hat. Preferably the one Daddy bought him from New York.
And when he thinks I'm not listening, I hear him chatting away to himself, pretending he's going off to dance school. So sweet!

When I'm a grown up....

One of many of his favourite little phrases at the moment.
And I love his ideas of exactly what he'll do when he's grown up. They change everyday.

Sometimes he'll be an astronaut, or a dancer, a fireman, a diving man, or a policeman.
Today, he wants to be a doctor and a builder.
And the reason he wants too be these all started about a week ago, and his reasoning is so sweet and kind, my heart just melted.
We were at Queen Vic market last week, and I'd just bought a sausage for him from the Polish Deli. I sat down on a bench to break some off for him to eat. As I was unwrapping it, I felt someone sit down next to me on the bench, almost on top of me. And then I noticed the smell...... I turned and saw a homeless man, and thought I might just move on. As I stood up to move Toby who was sitting in his pushchair, the man turned to little Ti-Ti and roared at him, "What are you looking at? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" I quickly fled, and carried on with my shopping, buying fresh butter and bread. It was quite a few minutes later that I realised Toby was quietly weeping, absolutely devastated at what had happened with the man. I sat down with him and explained that the man was not very well, and also didn't have anywhere to live, or any family to love him. And that he must feel very sad, and that is what makes him so cross. After a while he seemed to except this explanation.
And that is what led to his decision, that when he is grown up, he will be a doctor and a builder. He told me, So I can make the cross man feel better Mummy, and then I can build him a house.

My kind little man, with the biggest heart.

Crazy

The photos are blurry, but they really sum him up.

Crazy, happy, playful, ridiculous little thing.

Wearing pyjamas he'd stay in all day if he could (he absolutely begs to wear pyjamas some afternoons), his bike helmet (that he would also like to wear all day) and his fake glasses.

And running away from the camera, it's absolutely impossible to get a good photo of him these days!

Imagination

Watching him. Lost in his huge world of imagination, there is nothing I like more. I came out of the shower the other day to find him hiding under his baby blanket in his room with all of his toys, apparently the Wobbly Man was on the loose. Sometimes it's a Giant Ogre. Or a naughty robber after Gaw-Gaw. Or squirrels that steal honey and throw nuts at him. Other times he is a breakdancer running from the police. (Thanks to naughty Daddy, letting him watch movies that are for grown ups...) Or a knight on a mission to fight off the dragon. Or a mechanic trying to fix the fire engine so it can go and fight a fire. Sometimes he speaks with an American accent, and it makes me laugh as I remember Phil teasing me about speaking with an American accent while I played. Imagination, it's endless and amazing.

Some days it is just Lego that he wants to play with, all day long. Hoardes of reformed robbers (he is quite specific, he tells me, 'Mummy, they're not bad eggs anymore, they are good now') piling into a truck to go to the park. Or police and firemen rescuing cats from trees.

(Note the lack of visor...)

And there is a complicated game we play in my studio. Toby is a chicken called Goldie,  sitting on a pile of (polystyrene craft) eggs. I have to pretend to be the visitor to a farm with his friend Lily, and stroke him while he clucks, and look at the eggs. I think that one is based heavily on our trip to Tasmania!

And my favourite game, partly because I get to lie in bed while we do it, is the space rocket game. We put on our helmets and blast off, wondering at the milky way, dodging black holes and asteroids, and stopping off at the space station to buy some fast space food. Toby likes to go as far as Jupiter. Fun days.

I'm doing it

 "I'm doin' it!"

Toby's favourite phrase at the moment, and my favourite of his too. I'm not sure why it makes me laugh so much, it just does. And I find myself using it in the exact intonation he uses too. All the time.
He says it when he's doing something he is not supposed to be doing, or if I'm using a bit of reverse psychology on him. I'll tell him he is too young to brush his teeth all by himself, and quick as a flash the toothbrush will be in his hand, brushing his teeth as he shouts "I'm doin' it, I'm doin' it!" It works everytime.

Toby learnt to ride his bike all by himself last weekend. (with training wheels, of course)
We bought him his first bike helmet, which he thought was really cool because it had flames on it. And then we took him to the park. At first he couldn't even seem to steer it himself let alone pedal, but after 2 days of intensive training, with Luis taking him around the block a few times and then to the museum gardens, he was riding all by himself, whilst shouting that much loved phrase, "I'm doin' it, I'm doin' it!"

Doing a little bit of Michael Jackson dancing...

I'm so proud of my little man.

Happy Birthday to my Little Man

 I can't believe he's three years old already.
It's gone so fast.

I can't believe he now runs, jumps, swims, rides bikes, breakdances, tells jokes, makes up stories, and wants to do everything himself.
And I can't believe how full of joy he is. Always so happy, so excited by the smallest thing. Seeing a fountain in a park, a cat on the pavement, or an unexpected gingerbread man. His legs still go all stiff and straight just like they did when he was a tiny baby.
And I can't believe how funny he is. Always being silly, trying to make us laugh. This morning when I was putting him in the car after swimming he told me I had a big bug in my hair. I freaked out (just a little....) shaking my head like a wild thing. I asked him if it was gone, and he laughed as he said, "It was just a pretend bug Mummy. I'm really cheeky!" And I couldn't help but laugh too at his complete cheekiness.

His party was small, just family. But we decorated the house with streamers and balloons, and he requested that his cake be the Octonauts.

We played pass the parcel, and ate sandwiches and popcorn and cakes. And he got loads of presents. A pretend vegetable market, a shop till, a piano keyboard, Lego, Play-doh, and lots and lots of other things.
Happy Birthday to my beautiful little boy xx