All the leaves are brown... well, mostly

We took Dominic to the park yesterday for some fun romping amongst the crunchy dried leaves. Thanks to Matt's continual snapping away with the digital camera, we now have some nice autumn photos.

I want to get one printed out on the large photo blocks they have at Harvey Norman's but I can't decide which one. Any suggestions?











You'll notice that Dom is doing his strange invisible glove puppet in the last photo. It seems that after spending so much time walking around holding his parents' hands he now keeps his hand up even when there's no one there to hold on to.

Happy St Pat's Day

In celebration of St Patrick's Day, I made Dom a little leprechaun costume. A pretty budget affair really with a decorated $2 hat, a homemade bow tie and a waistcoat made from an old reuseable shopping bag. He got to wear it to the St Pat's Little Wrigglers group today and also enjoyed playing with green balloons, eating a green easter egg and a cupcake with green icing.

Here are a couple of photos that were taken in the brief moments between him pulling his hat off. He seems obsessed with pulling hats off at the moment, especially any on his or his mother's head.



The Leprechaun in training races around the house at frantic pace. You can't afford to waste time when there is so much mischief to be had.



Ever wonder how a green sock or handkerchief sneaks into your white wash? It's the laundry leprechaun at work!



Who's hiding between that innocent green hat? It's Dom!



Laundry baskets are the perfect spot for plotting your next St Patrick's Day trick.



Posing with his hat at a rakish tilt.

More table mischief

At first I thought climbing up onto the top of tables was a dangerous use of furniture.

Once again, Dominic has outdone himself in inventing a more reckless way to enjoy his Tigger chair.

I call this method the 'rocking Tigger chair'.



It starts out innocently enough. He turns around as if he has just realised there is a friendly Tigger face behind him.



Next thing you know he's starting to pull himself up on the chair.



Then he's standing up facing the back of the chair. This lulls the parental unit into thinking that his plan is complete. He can't climb any higher or reach the table from here after all.



Then it's time for the real action. He starts rocking the chair vigorously with all his considerable might. Oh, the bouncing! Oh, the surpised and worried look on Mum's face! Oh, what joy!



Then when it looks like your mum is going to grab you and take you away from your Tigger chair, you duck down and peek out innocently from behind the chair.

Tables and chairs

I've been wanting to get a kid-size table and chairs for Dominic for a while. I have delightful maternal fancies of having tea parties (possibly with teddy bears) and sitting with Dom to do arts and crafts. However, the main obstacle seemed to be Dominic's complete reluctance to ever sit still on a chair. Even at other kids' birthday parties when the other kids would sit up nicely at small plastic tables to eat their food, Dom would grab the food and then clamber down and make a break for it at full-speed.

My hopes of a getting Dom to sit on a chair for longer than five seconds without being tied to it were rekindled this weekend at Baby City. Whilst we were perusing for a replacement cup (his cow cup is starting to look worse for wear these days as he has nibbled extra holes in the nozzle), Dom took himself over to a shiny Winnie-the-Pooh wooden table and chairs. With gleeful blubrling he climbed up and sat nicely in the Tigger-backed chair and slapped his hands on the table with delight, pointing at his favourite characters. Disney has already got their evil merchandising hooks into my young boy it seems. Not content with reading Pooh books and watching the Pooh DVD, he now wants his furniture plastered with the characters.

I was thrilled and insisted on getting the table and chairs there and then. The sales assistant claimed it was the last one in stock.

We got the furniture home and Dom was eager to play with it further. I sat down with him and we shared a bit of brownie and apple.



Yummy brownie mess.



To my joy and rapture, Dom would sit in the chair even later when there wasn't food present.



He was happy to sit and point to the pictures of Pooh and friends.



We could read him books and still he remained seated in the chair.



Another happy storytime at the table.

However, in less than twenty four hours, Dominic showed us that there is nothing he cannot turn into a dangerous extreme sport. To him, tables and chairs were not merely items of furniture on which you had docile storytimes and indulged your mother's desires for playing tea party games.

No, tables and chairs were like mountains, they needed to be scaled.



Dominic makes his way up the perilous Mt Pooh table.



Once at the summit, the intrepid climber enjoys a quick story or two.

Gym photos

Here are some photos from Dom's gymnastics class. Matt popped along during interval a couple of Fridays ago to play photographer and get a bit of a workout in the pit o' foam.



An overview of the whole gym circuit. It's kind of like Tux Wonderdogs but for toddlers.



The infamous pit o' foam. It's deeper than it looks and surprisingly hard work to move around in and clamber out of.



Dom in the pit.



Upright again and ready for more romping through foam action.



Dom lowers himself down into the donut centre.



Then he crawls out of the donut and it's down the slope.



Dom makes his way through a tunnel.



Then through another smaller tunnel. Dom didn't fancy going through the tunnels on his first week but now he enjoys a good tunnel or two.



The trampoline is hugely long and it's good for a bouncy race-track.



Then he has a good old bounce on the mini-trampoline or rebounders as I believe they are sometimes called.

There were lots of other pics but alas most of them came out blurry. Hopefully Dom's photographer will make it to another session in the future.

The importance of being Billy Crudup

I'm not sure if it's the excitement of his beloved Watchmen finally coming out on film, or the result of a brain-frying working week but I don't recommend attempting to have any kind of coherent discussion with Matt this evening.

Over dinner, I was remarking upon the Empire article I had read and my thoughts on the casting. At first, I thought lovely Jeffery Dean Morgan was a weird choice for The Comedian but then it grew on me. By the time I saw pics and the trailer I had him firmly fixed in my mind as being perfect for the part. Hopefully he is.

I only recently realised that it is Billy Crudup playing Dr Manhattan which I can not so easily imagine. Unfortunately, while trying to express to Matt that while I liked him as an actor I was uncertain as to how he would pull off the part, I forgot Billy Crudup's name.

Me: I still think he's a weird choice for Doc Manhattan.
Matt: Who?
Me: The guy playing him, whathisname?
Matt: Dunno.
Me: You know the British actor. He was in Big Fish and Stage Beauty and a bunch of stuff...
Matt: British actor guy?
Me: Arrgg, I've forgotten his name. Maybe I'll go look it up...
Matt: Let me guess. Ralph Machio?
Me: No. British
Matt: Handsome von Hunky Face? Actor McStarsinfilms? Lord Guy Whoactsin films?
Me: No (gets up to grab magazine)
Matt: Wait, is he like a younger British Hugh Grant, only British?
Me: What the?
Matt: (Spiels off more stupid names...)
Me: (Finding the page) Aha, Billy Crudup.
Matt: Uh.
Me: You don't know who Billy Crudup is, do you?
Matt: Yes, I do. Mr Crudup. Billy. The Crudster to his close and personal friends.
Me: It doesn't matter...
Matt: He's that actor who stars in that movie "Billy Crudup in huhhmmm".
Me: You can stop now.
Matt: He's the one who uncannily has the face of Billy Crudup.
Me: Forget it.
Matt: Billy Crudup. Lord Billy Crudup von Cruddinson. Cruddie. (Starts singing to tune of Rock me, Amadeus) Billy Crudup, Billy Crudup, Billy Crudup...
Me: If you don't stop, I'm going to write this up on my blog.
Matt: No, wait. What movies was he in?

Advice on being sick

1. Don't get sick. It isn't any fun at all and it is always much worse than you remember it being. 2. If you have a small, energetic child who expects you to run around after them all day, then really, DO NOT GET SICK. There is no calling in sick and spending the day in bed for parents. 3. If you do have the misfortunate to become ill whilst looking after aforementioned busy toddler, make sure your partner does not also get sick at the same time as you. Guess who failed to follow the above for the last couple of days?