My big guy

My big guy loves flags. When Finn loves something he REALLY loves it. At the moment it's flags and Thomas (Thomas has been big for about 2 years now), and catalogues and books about flags and Thomas. He carries a book or catalogue with him pretty much all the time including bedtime.

Anyway this is Finn and Kasper's room at the moment.

Cool huh!

The school year is almost over, just 2 more days and yesterday our big boy got his school report. He's such a star.

"Finn's obvious delight when he achieves a goal is infectious and has made him a real pleasure to have in room 29 this year."

"Finn's enthusiasm for his personal interests has created excitement and new learning in our classroom."



bush babies

We spent Saturday afternoon walking around a few different parks in Orewa. One was pretty much just bush with a swing but it was great fun to pretend to be dinosaurs.
We even managed to find a Geocache (we actually looked for 2 but we tend to give up quite easily!).

onwards and upwards

We are currently enjoying a really awesome stage of development with Mikko. He is more compliant and using a few new words and has generally been easier to take out places. I won't go as far as to use the phrase 'leaps and bounds' as it's more of a shuffle with a little pace to it but it is truly great and I am hoping it sticks around for a while. The other day he was shrieking about something (it's a happy shriek which he likes to use while watching TV) and I shushed him as Kasper was napping and he turns to me and says "sorry"  :)   :)   :)  This might not sound much to some but man it is so exciting in this house! Then tonight I was calling him in from outside for dinner and he looked at me and said "NO! Bye bye, bye bye!" complete with an angry wave - very VERY cool!
With a bit of encouragement he is also eating dinner a bit better too. Sometimes I have to hold the food up to his mouth but he has been obliging me and taking bites - as i said, it's a shuffle but it's awesome.

Mikko also had his Preschool Christmas party this week and the local petting zoo/miniature railway. He was great there too. Kasper on the other hand had me running ragged but it was lots of fun.

Christmas disco dancin'

Tonight is Finn's 2nd school disco and the last one of the year. Daddy is once again on security detail and I will be at home with babies (who are really not such babies anymore).

Our tree is up now and our lights too and I just love it! The days are longer and warmer and we have started swimming at the beach.

'tis the season

When it gets to this time of year the weeks start to fly by so fast. We have a lot of school and preschool Christmas parties or special activities which Finn just loves! He's so excited as his class are hosting an afternoon tea for parents tomorrow and then on Friday the whole junior school are taking a bus ride to go see a movie.

Mikko is really enjoying preschool now that he is going 5 sessions a week. He has 2 teacher aides now and he seems to be slightly expanding his vocab a bit which is great.

Kasper is seeing a speech language therapist too but he does not seem to be expanding his vocab. He currently just says "Hi ya" with a big smile and a big wave - very cute!





Happy Halloween!

Finn hosted a halloween party for his class on Saturday aftternoon. When we woke on Saturday morning the weather was terrible so Colin and I spent the day decorating the garage so we wouldn't have to have twenty sugar crazed 5 year olds in our living room.
Of course by midday the sun was shining and they ended up all running around outside anyway!

Finn was a super cute Harry Potter, Mikko was Dash Incredible and Kasper was..... you guess it, a friendly ghost ;)

happy holiday

Mikko and I just had 5 days on Australia's sunny Gold Coast. I say sunny but actually the weather was a bit hit and miss. We walked a lot (well I walked, Mikko was on my back most of the time), went to parks and enjoyed the pool at the apartment.
Sleep didn't really happen unfortunately even with the aid of a melatonin supplement but Mikko was generally on his best behaviour and an angel on the plane.
It was really hard to be away from the rest of the family for 5 days and next time we will definately all go!

Enjoying Spring

I haven't posted in a while as we have been busy getting out and about and enjoying the beautiful world we live in.
The boys seem to finally have seen the last of the Winter bugs (touch wood!). And the weather, though changeable, has given us some beautiful days.

One of Mikko's favourite things to do is go to a beach/river/puddle and throw stones in. Last week we went to the beach after preschool several times and the boys had a great time!

We have MAJORLY cut back on TV time for Mikko. Mikko just loves TV and he is so happy and relaxed when it is on. He bounds around, chatters away and shrieks with joy. BUT when it goes off he is miserable and just pretty much cries or screams for it to come back on. So the week before last I turned it off on Friday midday and didn't put it back on till Tues 1pm. Since then I have had a lot more success with using it sparingly to give both Mikko and I a break. He's been really good. He's doing a lot more, asking for TV less and when he does ask and I say no he is a million times better about it!

Catch ya later!