Just a Little Catch-Up and Another School Visit

We were at Starbucks yesterday and guess what the boys did?  They cleaned! They took some wipes from my bag and started cleaning the store! It was quite a site and put a smile on everyone's faces.

Doug came back from two weeks in Singapore. The boys were THRILLED to have him back. Tucker still points out airplanes flying overhead and says,"Dada! Dada!"  With Doug's return came the suitcase.  Guess who else is happy.... :)

  

Another gorgeous day for playing in the park. This time, we brought our trucks!  What fun it was to dig in the dirt and bask in the sunshine. This is some winter we are having here!

We visited our third preschool today. It was by far the best all around.  From the professionalism of the director, the way all the kids and teachers greeted Cooper by name, the program was good and the facilities were wonderful. Of course they are also completely full. Ugh.

Just a Little Catch-Up and Another School Visit

We were at Starbucks yesterday and guess what the boys did?  They cleaned! They took some wipes from my bag and started cleaning the store! It was quite a site and put a smile on everyone's faces.

Doug came back from two weeks in Singapore. The boys were THRILLED to have him back. Tucker still points out airplanes flying overhead and says,"Dada! Dada!"  With Doug's return came the suitcase.  Guess who else is happy.... :)

  

Another gorgeous day for playing in the park. This time, we brought our trucks!  What fun it was to dig in the dirt and bask in the sunshine. This is some winter we are having here!

We visited our third preschool today. It was by far the best all around.  From the professionalism of the director, the way all the kids and teachers greeted Cooper by name, the program was good and the facilities were wonderful. Of course they are also completely full. Ugh.

Three Ps- Paddington, Park and Pugs

I have been trying to get to this outdoor market since we got here. My mom went and had good things to say about it. I was a little apprehensive about taking the boys with me, but today we went anyway.

It was another gorgeous day.  Sunny and in the 70s.  I took the boys to breakfast at a local restaurant where they had pancakes and french toast. It was quite tasty, but the boys were pretty squirmy so it did not last long and it was super sticky!

We took the bus to the market. It is an outdoor market comprised of about 200 stalls selling handmade Australian goods.  They have a little bit of everything- food, clothing, toys and accessories. They boys did really well and lasted probably a good hour. We looked at quite a few different things.  Cooper, of course, wanted all the toys we saw and when I said no to that, he said, "Well, why don't we find a little something, something (yes, he said that) for Tucker."  That is his M.O.-- if he can't get mom to get something for him, then for sure she will fall for the nice, big brother wanting to get something for the little brother that he really wants for himself act. :)  We found the chocolates my mom has been raving about.  We got to taste a few different flavours and finally decided on the dark chocolate covered oranges. I was really surprised that Cooper actually liked them.  In the end, Coop did a little, old fashioned fire engine (yes, call me a sucker) and I was finally able to find the perfect baby gift for a dear friend that I have been looking for.

While on the bus home Coop started talking to an older couple sitting near him. It turns out they were from Wisconsin!  I told them that is where I went to college and we talked for the rest of the ride. It was really nice to hear a good ole Wisconsin accent again. They were very nice and really interesting.  We alighted the bus near our apartment, made a quick stop at Starbucks and spent the rest of the morning playing in Hyde Park.

After Tucker's nap, I decided it was high time to take the Pugs out for walk. They haven't been out in weeks and must be going stir crazy. Tofie was thrilled. Manzie hid under the bed.  When we finally got there, I put Tofie's wheelchair on her and let the dogs do their thing. There was a great deal of sniffing to be done!  Manzie scored big time when she found someone's leftover fruit salad!  It really was so nice have them out with us enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

The boys had a great time too.  Tucker played "Peek-a-boo" from behind a tree while Coop played in the dirt (which he calls sand). Tucker also spent some time blowing on the flowers. I am pretty sure he was trying to smell them, but just has it backwards. It was pretty sweet.  Tucker loves to show his tummy.  He pulls up his shirt and then runs to me with huge smile in anticipation of hugs and kisses and some tummy tickles.

At one point, Tucker took Coop over to the flowers to show him something. I thought this was a cute snapshot of Cooper listening to what Tucker has to say.  He is a really good big brother when he is not torturing Tucker....

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath to hear how my 58,000+ iPhoto disaster turned out, here is the update. It took 4 DAYS for the program to run through all 58,000 pictures. It found over 25,000 duplicates which have not been removed (although I am not sure exactly where they are now) from my computer and I am back to a healthy 7,500+ photos on my computer. Wow, that was quite a process! Now onto backing them all up...

Three Ps- Paddington, Park and Pugs

I have been trying to get to this outdoor market since we got here. My mom went and had good things to say about it. I was a little apprehensive about taking the boys with me, but today we went anyway.

It was another gorgeous day.  Sunny and in the 70s.  I took the boys to breakfast at a local restaurant where they had pancakes and french toast. It was quite tasty, but the boys were pretty squirmy so it did not last long and it was super sticky!

We took the bus to the market. It is an outdoor market comprised of about 200 stalls selling handmade Australian goods.  They have a little bit of everything- food, clothing, toys and accessories. They boys did really well and lasted probably a good hour. We looked at quite a few different things.  Cooper, of course, wanted all the toys we saw and when I said no to that, he said, "Well, why don't we find a little something, something (yes, he said that) for Tucker."  That is his M.O.-- if he can't get mom to get something for him, then for sure she will fall for the nice, big brother wanting to get something for the little brother that he really wants for himself act. :)  We found the chocolates my mom has been raving about.  We got to taste a few different flavours and finally decided on the dark chocolate covered oranges. I was really surprised that Cooper actually liked them.  In the end, Coop did a little, old fashioned fire engine (yes, call me a sucker) and I was finally able to find the perfect baby gift for a dear friend that I have been looking for.

While on the bus home Coop started talking to an older couple sitting near him. It turns out they were from Wisconsin!  I told them that is where I went to college and we talked for the rest of the ride. It was really nice to hear a good ole Wisconsin accent again. They were very nice and really interesting.  We alighted the bus near our apartment, made a quick stop at Starbucks and spent the rest of the morning playing in Hyde Park.

After Tucker's nap, I decided it was high time to take the Pugs out for walk. They haven't been out in weeks and must be going stir crazy. Tofie was thrilled. Manzie hid under the bed.  When we finally got there, I put Tofie's wheelchair on her and let the dogs do their thing. There was a great deal of sniffing to be done!  Manzie scored big time when she found someone's leftover fruit salad!  It really was so nice have them out with us enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

The boys had a great time too.  Tucker played "Peek-a-boo" from behind a tree while Coop played in the dirt (which he calls sand). Tucker also spent some time blowing on the flowers. I am pretty sure he was trying to smell them, but just has it backwards. It was pretty sweet.  Tucker loves to show his tummy.  He pulls up his shirt and then runs to me with huge smile in anticipation of hugs and kisses and some tummy tickles.

At one point, Tucker took Coop over to the flowers to show him something. I thought this was a cute snapshot of Cooper listening to what Tucker has to say.  He is a really good big brother when he is not torturing Tucker....

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath to hear how my 58,000+ iPhoto disaster turned out, here is the update. It took 4 DAYS for the program to run through all 58,000 pictures. It found over 25,000 duplicates which have not been removed (although I am not sure exactly where they are now) from my computer and I am back to a healthy 7,500+ photos on my computer. Wow, that was quite a process! Now onto backing them all up...

Help, My Blogging Skills Are Fading....

My blogging skills seem to be on hiatus.  I cannot seem to come up with witty ways to make our experiences as of late interesting at all.  Maybe we haven't been doing enough or maybe it is just because some of the glamour is gone and we are now just living life.  Hmmm.

I finally got my Deep Dish pizza to work.  I decided to nix the oil and replace it with-- da-da-da-da-- butter!  What isn't great with a 1/4 of melted butter in it, on it and on the pan?  The crust turned out perfectly and the toppings were quite good as well. If only I had some good Italian sausage or real pepperoni.  Can't seem to find the good stuff here. The best part was that neither of the boys wanted to eat it so more for me!! I even made a second one and put it in the freezer for later on.  I put a picture below, but I was so excited to try it that I ate two pieces before remembering to take a picture....

Not sure if I mentioned this in my blog or just on FB, but Manzie had taken to sleeping (probably more like hiding) in Doug's unpacked suitcase from his last trip to Singapore. Well, he headed back to Singapore on Sunday and took her beloved suitcase with him.  So, what is a Pug to do? Find the next best thing of course- the laundry basket!  It amazes me how a dog with only 80% of her vision and bad hips can still manage to climb into a laundry basket. 

Coop had another swim lesson this week. He loves it so much. He told me it was "Boom-tastic!"  Not really sure what that means, but I am taking it as something good.  He is improving so much each week.  While walking home, he said to me, "Mom, guess what I learned in swimming today?" I, of course, thought he was going to tell me about a new skill he learned, but no, this is Cooper, I should have expected what was coming.  He said, "I learned how to burp underwater so no one can hear me."  I guess this is what the future holds for me raising two boys.  Lovely.

Coop and I did an art project we found on Pinterest (Thank you, Karen).  Pinterest you ask?  Pinterest is an addictive website (Again, thank you Karen because I need more things to suck my time) where you can "pin" all your favourite  (damn that Aussie spelling) things you find on the web in one place and THEN, you get to organise (apparently I now have to spell organize with an "s" or my computer gets mad) them and share them with others. You also get to see what others have pinned and can re-pin what they pinned. Got it?  It is so fun especially for people who are shall we say "hyper-organised" like myself. Anyway, back to the art project. Isn't this cute?

Got my haircut today. Opted for the $39 haircut at Just Cuts instead of the $95 cut everywhere else (Rhonda, how I long for your haircutting skills...). The lady who cut my hair is here from Ireland. It was fun chatting with another "outsider." It was actually just nice to sit and not have to be responsible for anyone but myself. 

Last week I spent over an hour at the Apple Store's Genius Bar getting my hard drive replaced and hoping super, super hard that my photos and music could be salvaged. Well, they were. Not only were they saved, but they were all saved over and over and over again.  Each iTunes song was saved twice.  Not too difficult to deal with.  All my photos in iPhoto were saved 4-5  times.  That is difficult to deal with.  So, I went back to the Apple Store and met with another Genius (these people really are super smart) and spent another hour plus trying to rid my computer of all the duplicates.  Success was had with the iTunes. I am currently running an application to "annihilate" all my duplicated photos. Let's see-- began with 58,088 photos (remember multiple duplicates not obsessive mom who takes way too  many pictures of her udderly adorable and intelligent children and dogs), the programs has 52,566 images to go and has found 2,685 duplicates.  I have been running the program since noon today (now almost 9 pm). Gonna be a long, long night for my computer....

Help, My Blogging Skills Are Fading....

My blogging skills seem to be on hiatus.  I cannot seem to come up with witty ways to make our experiences as of late interesting at all.  Maybe we haven't been doing enough or maybe it is just because some of the glamour is gone and we are now just living life.  Hmmm.

I finally got my Deep Dish pizza to work.  I decided to nix the oil and replace it with-- da-da-da-da-- butter!  What isn't great with a 1/4 of melted butter in it, on it and on the pan?  The crust turned out perfectly and the toppings were quite good as well. If only I had some good Italian sausage or real pepperoni.  Can't seem to find the good stuff here. The best part was that neither of the boys wanted to eat it so more for me!! I even made a second one and put it in the freezer for later on.  I put a picture below, but I was so excited to try it that I ate two pieces before remembering to take a picture....

Not sure if I mentioned this in my blog or just on FB, but Manzie had taken to sleeping (probably more like hiding) in Doug's unpacked suitcase from his last trip to Singapore. Well, he headed back to Singapore on Sunday and took her beloved suitcase with him.  So, what is a Pug to do? Find the next best thing of course- the laundry basket!  It amazes me how a dog with only 80% of her vision and bad hips can still manage to climb into a laundry basket. 

Coop had another swim lesson this week. He loves it so much. He told me it was "Boom-tastic!"  Not really sure what that means, but I am taking it as something good.  He is improving so much each week.  While walking home, he said to me, "Mom, guess what I learned in swimming today?" I, of course, thought he was going to tell me about a new skill he learned, but no, this is Cooper, I should have expected what was coming.  He said, "I learned how to burp underwater so no one can hear me."  I guess this is what the future holds for me raising two boys.  Lovely.

Coop and I did an art project we found on Pinterest (Thank you, Karen).  Pinterest you ask?  Pinterest is an addictive website (Again, thank you Karen because I need more things to suck my time) where you can "pin" all your favourite  (damn that Aussie spelling) things you find on the web in one place and THEN, you get to organise (apparently I now have to spell organize with an "s" or my computer gets mad) them and share them with others. You also get to see what others have pinned and can re-pin what they pinned. Got it?  It is so fun especially for people who are shall we say "hyper-organised" like myself. Anyway, back to the art project. Isn't this cute?

Got my haircut today. Opted for the $39 haircut at Just Cuts instead of the $95 cut everywhere else (Rhonda, how I long for your haircutting skills...). The lady who cut my hair is here from Ireland. It was fun chatting with another "outsider." It was actually just nice to sit and not have to be responsible for anyone but myself. 

Last week I spent over an hour at the Apple Store's Genius Bar getting my hard drive replaced and hoping super, super hard that my photos and music could be salvaged. Well, they were. Not only were they saved, but they were all saved over and over and over again.  Each iTunes song was saved twice.  Not too difficult to deal with.  All my photos in iPhoto were saved 4-5  times.  That is difficult to deal with.  So, I went back to the Apple Store and met with another Genius (these people really are super smart) and spent another hour plus trying to rid my computer of all the duplicates.  Success was had with the iTunes. I am currently running an application to "annihilate" all my duplicated photos. Let's see-- began with 58,088 photos (remember multiple duplicates not obsessive mom who takes way too  many pictures of her udderly adorable and intelligent children and dogs), the programs has 52,566 images to go and has found 2,685 duplicates.  I have been running the program since noon today (now almost 9 pm). Gonna be a long, long night for my computer....

Just Call Me Doctor

Noughts and Crosses anyone?  

 Naughts and Crosses is a game we play in the US as well, only we have a different name for it.  Be the first to guess correctly what it is called in the US and win a free, round trip ticket to come see me. 

No Googling allowed folks!!! See contest details below.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Today has been a day of medical wonders in our home.  First, I, Stephanie Whittle, gave Manzie an injection.  Yep, put a needle right into the little dogs neck and pushed!  She didn't even flinch!  I am so proud of myself.  Maybe I should become a veterinarian- just kidding. I suck at science.  :)

On the people side of things we had a rough night last night.  Little Tucker just cried and cried throughout most of the night.  He would sleep for 20 to 30 minutes and then cry for a few minutes from about 11 pm until 5 am.  Poor little thing.  I made an afternoon doctor appointment thinking that we would watch him during the day and see how he did.  Duh, Tucker is always happy even when he is feeling terrible- not a good way to judge how he is feeling.  Anyway, he looked a little funky when he woke up from his nap and the sitter he was with in the am said he seemed off as well. He was also sporting some serious green 11s (thank you Dr. Davies for the terminology).  What is a green 11 you wonder (or maybe not), too icky to describe, but if you just have to know, I will tell you sometime.  The phrase is so gross, but so catchy and descriptive!  Okay, I digressed from the story at hand.  After his nap we headed to see the doctor.  Turns out the little guy's throat was all swollen and red (no wonder he does not want to eat).   So a prescription, a smoothie (for his throat) and a taxi ride later, we were back at home.  Poor kid spiked a fever but was still as happy as a clam!  Guess we can all learn something from him, huh?

Hoping for a quiet, non-medical evening.  As you can imagine I am a just a wee bit tired.  I just got Coop to bed and will now get the dogs settled in for the night and go to sleep myself.

Sweet dreams all!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Contest details: Ha! Just kidding.

 Did you figure it out???

This is just a sneaky way to get you all to COMMENT on my blog so I know that 

someone out there besides my mom is reading it. 

Hee. 

Just Call Me Doctor

Noughts and Crosses anyone?  

 Naughts and Crosses is a game we play in the US as well, only we have a different name for it.  Be the first to guess correctly what it is called in the US and win a free, round trip ticket to come see me. 

No Googling allowed folks!!! See contest details below.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Today has been a day of medical wonders in our home.  First, I, Stephanie Whittle, gave Manzie an injection.  Yep, put a needle right into the little dogs neck and pushed!  She didn't even flinch!  I am so proud of myself.  Maybe I should become a veterinarian- just kidding. I suck at science.  :)

On the people side of things we had a rough night last night.  Little Tucker just cried and cried throughout most of the night.  He would sleep for 20 to 30 minutes and then cry for a few minutes from about 11 pm until 5 am.  Poor little thing.  I made an afternoon doctor appointment thinking that we would watch him during the day and see how he did.  Duh, Tucker is always happy even when he is feeling terrible- not a good way to judge how he is feeling.  Anyway, he looked a little funky when he woke up from his nap and the sitter he was with in the am said he seemed off as well. He was also sporting some serious green 11s (thank you Dr. Davies for the terminology).  What is a green 11 you wonder (or maybe not), too icky to describe, but if you just have to know, I will tell you sometime.  The phrase is so gross, but so catchy and descriptive!  Okay, I digressed from the story at hand.  After his nap we headed to see the doctor.  Turns out the little guy's throat was all swollen and red (no wonder he does not want to eat).   So a prescription, a smoothie (for his throat) and a taxi ride later, we were back at home.  Poor kid spiked a fever but was still as happy as a clam!  Guess we can all learn something from him, huh?

Hoping for a quiet, non-medical evening.  As you can imagine I am a just a wee bit tired.  I just got Coop to bed and will now get the dogs settled in for the night and go to sleep myself.

Sweet dreams all!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Contest details: Ha! Just kidding.

 Did you figure it out???

This is just a sneaky way to get you all to COMMENT on my blog so I know that 

someone out there besides my mom is reading it. 

Hee. 

I'm Back and Blogging Again

Haven't been much in the mood to blog lately. Well, I also haven't had a computer for a few days. It seems my hard drive was "no longer able to mount." I know that is not a good thing, but the terminology is so wrong! Anyway, my computer basically froze and wouldn't do a thing so I headed over to the Apple Store to talk with one of the "geniuses."  The guy was a genius. He did all kinds of fancy stuff (to no avail) and then told me the hard drive had to be replaced and I may not get any of my data back, but he would try. Holy #@#%! That would have meant I lost the last 5+ years of photos the most important ones being of the boys. I know some of you are asking- well, weren't they backed up and all I will say to that is no.  Let's leave it at that, okay?  They called later that day and said they were able to retrieve my photos, music and documents.  Thank goodness!  I now have a new hard drive that I assume is mounting away and all my sweet memories.  Actually, I have all my photos times 3.  When I put all my photos back into iPhoto I ended up with 3 copies of each photo plus a gazillion copies of each photo cropped. No clue what happened. At this point don't really care. Better to have 3 copies of each than none of any of them. How is that for a positive attitude?  :)  Needless to say, I will be doing some serious backing up (and deleting for that matter) over the next few days (unless any of you geniuses know how to easily get rid of all those duplicates).

On Saturday night we walked over to Winter Fest which is going on a few blocks from here. Basically they have recreated a Swiss village and put in an ice skating rink.  It seems so strange that it IS winter, but not really because the weather is so mild.  It was really a very tame "fest," but the boys like watching the skaters and it was a beautiful night to be outside.

I

Coop is having a blast at swim lessons. When he stops, listens and concentrates he can do amazing things, but I must keep reminding myself that he is not even 5 yet and playing around in the water when the teacher is talking is not unusual at all-- right Teacher Anne????

We attended a music class today.  We took a bus to community center in Paddington (a neighbourhood of Sydney, I guess) where we joined a class called, "Shake, Wriggle and Roll." The first class was a freebie to see if we liked it.  Well, the kids liked it alright.  Tucker danced the whole time with a HUGE smile on his face and Coop just loved every part of it. I think he also liked being the older kid. All the others but one were Tuck's age.  The teacher was great (no Melissa tho'). She has a beautiful voice, is very knowledgable (musically speaking) and had a great manner with the kids. When the class was over Coops turned to me and said, "Is it over already?" He was just gearing up for more and all the little ones were DONE!  I am hoping we can sign up and go again, but like everything else here it is not cheap. We will see. It was great for me too to see other moms and kids in a small setting.  It felt very comfortable.

Manzie's age is beginning to show.  She has arthritis in both her back hips and she is limping around quite a bit. It is really heart-breaking.  I am really hoping that the injections we began last week will help her.  Despite her pain, she is still able to get up and down from the couch and sit under our chairs at dinner and beg for food...

Oh, look what Tucker made today.  Some of you may not be overly impressed, but you educators out there know that this is a developmental milestone.  And, when he was done he pointed at it and said, "Ta-da!"

Can't think of much else that is happening down here.  We are just going along day by day and making the best of it all.

I "made" this shirt for Coop (from his favourite show)

Boys watching tv together

Okay, strange thing happened in this post- my computer now knows Australian!  I tried to spell "neighborhood" and "favorite," but it insisted I was wrong!!  It made me spell them "neighbourhood" and "favourite."  That is a little creepy to me....

I'm Back and Blogging Again

Haven't been much in the mood to blog lately. Well, I also haven't had a computer for a few days. It seems my hard drive was "no longer able to mount." I know that is not a good thing, but the terminology is so wrong! Anyway, my computer basically froze and wouldn't do a thing so I headed over to the Apple Store to talk with one of the "geniuses."  The guy was a genius. He did all kinds of fancy stuff (to no avail) and then told me the hard drive had to be replaced and I may not get any of my data back, but he would try. Holy #@#%! That would have meant I lost the last 5+ years of photos the most important ones being of the boys. I know some of you are asking- well, weren't they backed up and all I will say to that is no.  Let's leave it at that, okay?  They called later that day and said they were able to retrieve my photos, music and documents.  Thank goodness!  I now have a new hard drive that I assume is mounting away and all my sweet memories.  Actually, I have all my photos times 3.  When I put all my photos back into iPhoto I ended up with 3 copies of each photo plus a gazillion copies of each photo cropped. No clue what happened. At this point don't really care. Better to have 3 copies of each than none of any of them. How is that for a positive attitude?  :)  Needless to say, I will be doing some serious backing up (and deleting for that matter) over the next few days (unless any of you geniuses know how to easily get rid of all those duplicates).

On Saturday night we walked over to Winter Fest which is going on a few blocks from here. Basically they have recreated a Swiss village and put in an ice skating rink.  It seems so strange that it IS winter, but not really because the weather is so mild.  It was really a very tame "fest," but the boys like watching the skaters and it was a beautiful night to be outside.

I

Coop is having a blast at swim lessons. When he stops, listens and concentrates he can do amazing things, but I must keep reminding myself that he is not even 5 yet and playing around in the water when the teacher is talking is not unusual at all-- right Teacher Anne????

We attended a music class today.  We took a bus to community center in Paddington (a neighbourhood of Sydney, I guess) where we joined a class called, "Shake, Wriggle and Roll." The first class was a freebie to see if we liked it.  Well, the kids liked it alright.  Tucker danced the whole time with a HUGE smile on his face and Coop just loved every part of it. I think he also liked being the older kid. All the others but one were Tuck's age.  The teacher was great (no Melissa tho'). She has a beautiful voice, is very knowledgable (musically speaking) and had a great manner with the kids. When the class was over Coops turned to me and said, "Is it over already?" He was just gearing up for more and all the little ones were DONE!  I am hoping we can sign up and go again, but like everything else here it is not cheap. We will see. It was great for me too to see other moms and kids in a small setting.  It felt very comfortable.

Manzie's age is beginning to show.  She has arthritis in both her back hips and she is limping around quite a bit. It is really heart-breaking.  I am really hoping that the injections we began last week will help her.  Despite her pain, she is still able to get up and down from the couch and sit under our chairs at dinner and beg for food...

Oh, look what Tucker made today.  Some of you may not be overly impressed, but you educators out there know that this is a developmental milestone.  And, when he was done he pointed at it and said, "Ta-da!"

Can't think of much else that is happening down here.  We are just going along day by day and making the best of it all.

I "made" this shirt for Coop (from his favourite show)

Boys watching tv together

Okay, strange thing happened in this post- my computer now knows Australian!  I tried to spell "neighborhood" and "favorite," but it insisted I was wrong!!  It made me spell them "neighbourhood" and "favourite."  That is a little creepy to me....