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We did it! March 30, 2008

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Emily told me that she’d lost one of her doll’s shoes yesterday morning. I told her to look for it since it must have been in her room. Later on she came out all excited and told me she had found the shoe. Then she proceeded to since the “We did it!” song from Dora the Explorer.

Emily wishes she was older February 14, 2008

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She can’t wait for her next birthday, she can’t wait to go to prep, she wants a Barbie (but I don’t think she even knows what one is).

Sigh. I wonder how long I’ve got until she wants to go out with boys ;-o

Emily can do puzzles January 2, 2008

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Just a few weeks ago Emily couldn’t do puzzles but today she can.

It’s funny to watch her. She has to try all of the pieces to see if they fit and simple things like having a piece sitting rotated can get her confused but she figures it out eventually.

Christmas Party/Wiggles December 23, 2007

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We had the work Christmas party. It was up on the sunshine coast this year. We went up early on Saturday to the Eumundi markets. Due to a late scheduling change, the kids and I missed out on most of Sunday because we were driving down to the Wiggles concert.

This was the second time Emily had gone to a Wiggles concert. She wanted to give Dorothy a rose. It seems to be an unofficial thing that happens. Unfortunatley, I forgot to get a rose when we stopped for lunch and the drive down took longer than I’d anticipated so we didn’t have time to get one when we got there.

Isaac had his feathersword to wave. The thing is, he was all good right up until we got to our row. As we started to go across to our seats he just lost it. I think it was because we were in a hurry and there were so many people everywhere and it was very loud. He didn’t want to sit beside me so he sat on my lap. We only just managed to sit down before the show started and I think it was a bit overwhelming for him. He spent most of the show sitting there watching the stage with a slack jaw. Emily was much better. She clapped, sang and danced along. By the end, Isaac had warmed up a bit. Afterwards he talked about it so clearly he did manage to take it all in.

The monday was our last day and we went swimming again before coming home. We hit a major traffic incident on the Gateway. There was a sign saying there was a road closure at an exit but it didn’t mention an accident so I figured the exit was shut rather than the whole road (for road works or something). The radio hadn’t mentioned the gateway being shut either. Of course, the actual problem was a rolled truck that had closed the road for most of the day. In the end it took us about 2 hours to get down the Gateway. Luckily the kids were asleep the whole time.

Merry Christmas from the kids December 1, 2007

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We made our Christmas card this year. You can see it below. I’ve included the full sized image in case you want to print it.


Click for full size

How this image was made (for the geeks).

1) Take some photos (in colour). Don’t use a background with red unless you want to be really careful with the selection process later. I used a dark blue sheet.
2) Load the pictures into an image editor (I used the GIMP).
3) Create a layer for the hat (I used the lasso to select, more careful selection is required if there’s any red behind the hats).
4) De-saturate the image.
5) De-saturate the the green and blue channels on the hat layer (I used the Hue-Saturation tool to de-saturate the master channel and then boost the red channel).
6) Crop, scale and join the images.
7) Add text.

The use of the hat layer is to prevent red in other parts of the image from showing up (for example, the Santa Claus Emily is holding).

Back at Dreamworld November 25, 2007

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We went back to Dreamworld today. My dad was off watching a bike race in the morning so I went on a bunch of rides with the kids. I took Emily on the chain swings, the bumper cars and on the Avalanche (now called the spooty spin). She enjoyed all of them.

We had lunch and then I went on some rides with my dad. The tower of terror was open this time so we went on that and scored the front seat. We did the Cyclone again and scored the front seat on it too. It’s quite a different experience to the back seat. We went on the Nickelodeon coaster which was ok but not really something I’d go on again. We went on the Wipeout and my dad managed to miss his car key when we emptied out pockets. As you can imagine, it came flying out during the ride. It’s a good thing we’re in a drought because otherwise it would have been under water (the whole ride is dry at the moment). One of the attendants was an ass, saying we would have to wait until the end of the day for someone to get it but one of the other attendants got it for us.

The kids got to see Captain Feathersword and Wags the Dog and they played in the play room again. They went to the feeding zoo but it was really busy.

We met up and headed over to the wet rides. I was hoping Emily wouldn’t be too tired and would want to go on and she did. Bree watched Isaac and the rest of us (pop, nanny, Emily, me) went on the rapids ride. Emily managed to pick the worst seat, going backwards the most and both Emily and I got wet. Emily loved it though and wanted to go on it again but we went over to the log ride instead. Pop and nanny were in the front and Emily and I were in the back. When we came down the hill the water came surging over the sides of the log and Emily and I were both drenched. Luckily Bree had purchased a new shirt for Emily, I just went topless.

One the way out I stopped at the chip vending machine. I saw it the first time but didn’t get any so I was determined to get some this time. It’s a machine that vends freshly fried chips. It takes about 2 minutes and the chips were pretty good, though they were also $5 which is pretty steep for the amount we got (to be fair, chips from anywhere else in the park would have cost a similar amount, my sandwiches both days cost $8.50 each). I suppose it’s not so crazy to think about a chip vending when they’ve got pizza vending machines. It’s also a chance to get some greasy food. Unlike the bad food I remember from visits years ago Dreamworld seems to sell mostly healthy stuff everywhere these days. Of course, there’s still sugar-loaded products everywhere, it hardly seems worthwhile to make us eat a sandwich and then give us a slurpee to wash it down.

Another fun day. The kids were again totally worn out. Emily was as good as I’d expect but it’s Isaac that has really surprised me. I really didn’t think he’d handle the long, wearing days as well as he did. He even walked most of the time, covering a huge distance. I guess he’s growing up.

Food Preferences October 29, 2007

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We had a lamb roast yesterday and finished the leftovers today. I noticed something strange today. Emily and Isaac had eaten a bit and when I looked Isaac had only meat on his plate while Emily had only vegetables. They did eventually eat all of their food but clearly they’ve got different preferences for food.

Comparing Language Development October 27, 2007

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This morning, Emily said “I want a drink”, over and over. Isaac said “please drink” so he got a drink. Isaac says please most of the time now and if he forgets a quick prompt will get him to say it. Emily just refuses to use please in a sentence. Even when we say exactly what we want her to say, “Daddy, can I please have a drink”, she leaves out the please.

Isaac can say complicated words like “helicopter”. Mind you, if you didn’t see that he was holding one at the time, you’d probably think he was babbling at you because he doesn’t really have the sounds he needs. He can stream many words together telling you about things. He’s getting up to 3 or 4 words in a sentence too. He was pointing around the room tonight telling us about what he saw.

They’re doing colours at kindy. It must be sinking in because out of the blue Isaac said to us today, “this red shirt”. The particular shirt has always been a “wiggles” shirt and I’m not sure that we’ve ever called it red before.

Emily and Isaac really love nursery rhymes at the moment. Isaac especially loves ones with actions and he’ll try to do them. Emily is starting to sing along but she doesn’t seem able to get all of the words in a sentence.

Hmm…

Now that I think about it, Emily seems to have real trouble repeating more than a few words. Tonight we were reading her Dora book and she couldn’t say “River, Jungle, Farm”. She tried “Jungle, Farm” and then “River, Farm”. It’s as if there’s a big hole somewhere that things fall into. Perhaps some kind of memory problem. That would certainly go a long way to explaining her language problems.

Kid Update October 22, 2007

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In some ways, Isaac’s language is ahead of Emily’s. He says please and thank you with minimal prompting and sometimes spontaneously. Emily still just doesn’t seem to get it, refusing to use please in a sentence and telling us what she wants instead of asking for what she’d like.

<rant>
According to the official report we got, Emily’s language is “delayed” but that’s clearly wrong. There’s nothing at all “delayed” about Emily’s language. To delay means to move forward in time. To have delayed language you’d need to have a standard rate of development, starting at a later point than normal. The reason they use “delayed” is because the don’t want to use the (not politically correct) accurate word, “retarded”. To retard is to lengthen and slow. It’s a more accurate description of Emily’s language, which has developed at a slower than average rate. I hate political correctness, especially when people abuse the language in order to avoid using particular words.
</rant>

I caught Emily sneaking broccoli into Isaac’s bowl tonight. It’s the latest move in a string of bad behaviours. I don’t think Emily is trying to be bad. I think she’s a bit confused at the moment. She sees Isaac doing things and tries to mimic them in order to get the same response (which of course doesn’t happen). She tries to play with Isaac but usually ends up telling him what to do and pushing him around. I suspect she’s one of the more dominant kids at kindy because she doesn’t seem to think there’s anything wrong with telling everyone what to do. The language problems she’s having won’t be helping either because she just can’t talk like other kids her age.

Isaac is really in a sweet spot right now. He’s charming, cute and full of giggles. He’s got enough language to talk but not enough to be annoying. He runs around laughing. He smiles for cameras. The only time he’s not nice is when he’s tired or hungry.

Isaac has finally slowed down his eating. For a while now he’s been eating more than Emily. Bree noticed today that he’s shot up quite a bit. He’s now eating about the same as Emily. Both of them are eating less than they were a few months ago. Isaac is still fairly thin. Emily is taller but more solid, she’s getting little boobs now.

Emily and Isaac have quite a bit of overlap now in what they like. Isaac likes cars and other wheeled toys more than Emily while she’s more into her “baby” and other role-playing activities. They’ve both got doll houses. We got hers first, it’s big and wooden but the pieces are small. She’s got a smaller plastic one at my dad’s house to play with and we noticed that Isaac liked it too so we got him one for here. He doesn’t have the fine motor control to handle her doll house so his has bigger, less intricate pieces. Emily likes playing with his house but they’re not always the best at sharing toys.

Island Holiday September 24, 2007

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We’ve been on Stone Island for the last week. Here’s a summary of the things that happened.

Emily has named her doll. They must have started doing Christmas stuff at kindy because she’s called it baby Jesus.

There’s a new boat at Stone Island. For years they just had a tinnie which was rough and prone to getting you wet. Last year they were borrowing a boat which was bigger but not exactly built for comfort (eg. only 2 seats). Now they’ve got an ex-charter boat. It’s got bench seats in the middle and it’s got plenty of room. The motor has a trim control so you can make it faster (for flat seas) or make it stable in rough seas. The boat has a berth in the marina but it wasn’t very hard to park.

A series of events meant that the boat’s rego had lapsed and since we were there we helped put the new letters on. Unlike cars with convenient plates boats have to have lettering on both sides. We picked up some stickers to avoid having to paint them on but since we didn’t want to use a dry dock we had a bit of fun getting the letters on. Getting the old ones off was just a matter of using a scraper. Getting the new ones on was a different story. It was a relatively calm day but still, getting the letters straight was difficult. After doing the first side we realised we were short 2 numbers (we needed four 2’s but only had two). Getting the second set on was a bit harder. I sat on the edge of the Jetty and my dad stood on the other side of the boat to lift the bit the letters go on out of the water. The letters aren’t quite straight but they’re readable which is I guess the point. Unfortunately some of the letters were broken after driving the boat around. The bottom half of 2 of the letters went missing.

Bree and I went out to lunch without the kids. That doesn’t happen very often. It was nice. The cafe we went to obviously fell for the whole Coke Zero thing because they had a heap of it in their fridge. We took the last two sugared drinks, a Coke and a Pepsi. I really wish Coke would stop pushing Coke Zero down everyone’s throats. It’s everywhere but I only know 1 person that prefers it to regular Coke. I can’t stand the taste of aspartame (the sweetener they use) so I’m never going to accept Coke Zero. I mean… they presumably needed Coke Zero to compete with Pepsi Max (because Diet Coke just can’t compete with Pepsi Max) but I really have to wonder. I can actually drink Pepsi Max (despite it’s use of aspartame). I consider both Pepsi and Pepsi Max to be competition for Coke. To me, the fact that Pepsi Max has no sugar is a non-issue. Ask any dentist and they’ll tell you the sugar in Coke is the least damaging bit. Perhaps people that drink several cans per day can do without the sugar but really, they can do without the other crap in there even more.

There’s a kangaroo they call Fatty. He comes over in the evenings to eat and fights off the other kangaroos so they don’t come over.

I took some photos including a huge panorama of the whole island (I can’t stitch it together because I’m down to 3.7 GB free space and the process requires more space than that!). I took a photo of an eagle who was nice enough to hold still for me while I took a photo of him flying (floating in an updraft).

There were some cheap dirt bikes on the island. As a point of reference, a similar, non-cheap bike cost about $6,000 while these were about $1,000. They looked fine until they got used (by my cousins several months ago). The faults were numerous. Cheap wiring leading to sparks when starting. One had a ground wire that was just not connected (WTF?). The rear end wasn’t connected properly, one of them had managed to lose a bolt which let the chain come off really easily. The exhaust system heated to a glowing red when running the engine… that’s about 2 cm from your leg! The batteries were crap and without manual starter systems we had to resort to using jumper leads from a car to start them. Even then, one cut out inexplicably after a short while. Talk about crap. If you ever go to buy crap like that watch out unless you are (or have access to) someone who’s mechanically minded and want to waste a lot of time.

Emily and Isaac had fun on the dirt bikes and in the car. I got them to “drive” on my lap. Isaac was a bit better than Emily but only because he didn’t try to turn the car all the time. Emily also went on the Jet Ski. She was a bit funny because she didn’t want to go on the boat, she didn’t want to go on the Jet Ski and she didn’t want to go on the bikes. She was sobbing and trying to run away every time we came to a new vehicle but after being dragged on she enjoyed the experience and wanted to go on again. It was scary when she tried to drive the bike. She had a bit of trouble grasping that the throttle shouldn’t be pushed all the way in and after the inevitable “bunny hop” she kind of panicked and grabbed the throttle. I had to pry her hand off before we could stop accelerating at top speed. Bree got her to have another go and she actually seemed to get the idea.

There was one day that was so flat we could ride the Jet Ski around the island. Normally you can’t even take a boat due to the big swells (the ocean side is classed as open waters) but for some reason it was like glass. I took Bree around and we saw a turtle (I’d seen several by the end of the trip).

There was a big fishing thing happening in Bowen and there were so many boats the public car park was full. We normally see almost no boats around but this time there were boats everywhere and they were fishing all around Stone Island.

We checked online to see that our outgoing flight was delayed but when we went to check our return flight we found Jetstar had neglected to include a number on the receipt thing we had. I guess they really don’t like you to call (makes sense, since then they have to employ people to answer phones). We eventually found out the number and our plane was delayed. Something at 6am had caused the plane to be late and it hadn’t caught up all day. We ended up getting home 2 hours late. Then we almost got stuck behind a big accident on the Gateway… The ambulance arrived while we were waiting to go past.

Bree set the record for fishing this time by catching 9 fish. Only 3 of them were big enough to keep though.

Bree also bogged one of the bikes. A mis-communication got her to ride into thick, sticky mud. It even ate her thongs when she tried to get off. I had to use the other bike to tow it out and it required a good scrub to get clean after that.