Saturday, June 30, 2012

Boy Wonder

Where did my baby-boy go? Raf is three next Saturday. It's so crazy. It's gone so fast and yet I cannot imagine that we had a life before this little guy. What did we do with our time? What did we talk about? What did I do before my heart literally exploded with feeling I never, ever imagined could exist?

Raf seems to have aged very quickly lately. He is more chatty and verbal and so much less of a baby-toddler that he's been until now. He's still so sweet - even with all the 'nos'. He still wants 'kisses on the couch', 'hugs and cuddles'; he still wants you to 'kiss boo boo', yet he's becoming so fiercely independent in many ways. 'No mama, stop' - if I help him in ways that I've always usually done. And also so curious.

His new obsession are elbows (melmows). You see when you bend your arm an elbow is easy to see, but if you straighten your arm it seems to disappear. Raf asks, at least a few times a day, 'wheres my memlow?', or, 'mummy, where your melmow?' I show him and he likes to give my melmow a big kiss. Funny boy.

He likes to sing and dance to a sort of song we part stole and part made up.. it includes the line, 'shake, shake, shake; shake, shake, shake; shake your body'. Raf does a lot of wiggling of his hips and bottom. It's very funny.

Yet he also likes me to wrap him in his baby duck towel and sing 'Raf's a baby duck who goes quack quack quack. Little Rafi Roo, your mummy loves you...'

He likes to look at the 'baby clothes' hanging in his and his brother's shared closet. He likes to play with the baby toys and pat his brother - and kiss him, too. He calls the baby, mostly, 'baby Charlie' (which now has me at least considering that name for real!), and he has a new love for soy ice-cream in a cone.

Every day he wants to go to the train shop, and today, as I drove him around for a much needed nap, he  was saying over and over again, 'train shop, mummy', and the first words to come from his sleepy face as he woke up were, you guessed it, 'train shop, mummy?' It was though time had stopped in that hour of driving and it hadn't registered for him that he'd been away in lala land for some time.

Imagine his delight - and my relief - that we were pulling up outside of a Target (one of many train shops we frequent). He smiled dreamily, said, 'train shop', followed by, 'kiss mummy', and he was the happiest of boys running to check out the trains - all of which we have. He is content, usually, with looking and putting some in the trolley only to give them back at the end.

He was so happy there that he suddenly broke out into the 'shake your body' song with hips wiggling, and all.

It was mostly a Raf and Mummy day today - though we met our lovely friend Amy and her 2 daughters for a beach date this morning - and I have to say that I had such a lovely time with my big boy, who is such good funny, company.


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Bossy Boots

It seems that overnight Raf has turned into a very stroppy teenager.

This morning the conversation went something like this:

"Hi mama' (he got up just as I was coming home from the gym). 'No daddy, no!' (yet to work out what Rich was doing that was so contrary. 'No, Rich!'

Every question, suggestion, direction was met with a resounding 'Nooooooooooooo'. He continues to say 'no' when he means 'yes'!

He responds quite well to choices. "Raf, do you want to get changed upstairs or downstairs' (actually this wasn't that effective this morning). 'Do you want to choose something to wear.. how about your train tee-shirt?' And he shot upstairs. Socks are another new battle - and so now I give him 3 pairs to choose from, and this is helping no end.

But lots of 'Nos' and now, 'NO WAY, Daddy'! He says it with such affect, too - capturing future teenage years in one very short word.

Actually, Raf is getting quite bossy! Another sign of things to come... He likes to direct us when we're driving (to try and capitalize and maximize the number of train tracks and train bridges we see), he likes to tell me where to sit, where to go, and the relentless, 'Come, mama, come', when he's upstairs and I'm downstairs is quite something. He never gives up trying no matter how many times you say, 'Raf, I'm busy, come downstairs if you'd like to see me'. Or, if I say, 'Raf, I'll be up in a few minutes', those few minutes will be filled with tyrannical 'Come, mama, come!'



This morning the baby's name was 'Baby Toast'. He giggles loudly when he says it. Cheeky monkey.

Almost 3 is such a great age!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Names, etc.

We're still no closer to thinking of a name for this boy. Raf and I went through his trains to see if any of those names would work, and since then he's been calling the baby 'Baby Charlie'. So perhaps we have a name after all!

We're not sure how Raf is really feeling about being a big brother. He loves babies and this weekend, at the Veg fest we go to annually, he was especially interested in the little people. He's been helping me sort through baby clothes, and yesterday, after I washed all the covers and sheets from Raf's Moses basket (which he slept in for literally 5 minutes as an infant), he took it down from the stand and played 'sleeping baby'. It was very sweet.




Today we had a lovely play date with Raf's friends' Sawyer and Colby. Their Mum, Karla, is lovely, so we had a really fun morning with the boys. Colby is really great with Raf, and Raf loved watching Colby on his boogie board today.








Raf was sooooo tired when we got home. He is totally addicted to the most annoying show in the world (and he's been watching it a lot since I am so tired) - Wonder Pets. It's quite sweet as the show consists of three animals saving other animals, and they sing as they do it. The trouble is they're not great singers and the tune is the same every episode. There's a line in the song that goes something like: "what's going to work? TEAM work...", and Raf is singing it continually, at the moment. It's actually pretty sweet.

Here he is watching an episode, almost asleep. As Rich took the pic, though, Raf said, "cheese'! Funny boy.



Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer Fun

We absolutely love where we now live. We're close to the beach, trails, and state park - and we've been taking full advantage of it all. Here are a few (actually - a lot) photos taken in the last week or so.

On Monday, when it was a bit dreary, Raf and I headed to the state park to find some rocks to collect. Despite the greyness and the coolness of the morning, we had a very fun couple of hours filling Raf's bucket with pebbles and stones, and finished off the morning with rolling around in the sand.


I see a big pebble.




Enough of the collecting... now just lots of rolling around.


Things warmed up and here Raf is on the trail near our house, once again looking for pebbles to throw into the stream (one of his favourite past times).


Good throwing.


A quick inside interlude for some gymnastics...


Followed by a run around the block.


Then some time at the park.



And then some time in his little pool... swimming like a big boy.


An evening picnic on the beach.


Followed by some playtime in the water and sand.




Here's Raf saying 'hi' to the birds... very loudly and with a lot of passion.


Mummy escapes for a morning run.



Then comes home to take Raf and the boys for a cool down walk around the block.




What fun! We come across a big digger. What luck that we're currently living amidst lots of building sites :) Raf spent about an hour watching the digger and trucks moving dirt around.


Then it's back to the beach for another picnic - this time lunch - before he drags mummy into the sea for a very fun swim. On the way out of the park (a nightmarish walk from the beach to the car... when you have an over tired almost 3 year old and tons of gear and you're on your own), a woman stopped me and said that she's been watching Raf and I in the water, and that it looked as though we were having so much fun. We really did. We were both giggling and smiling a lot as Raf clung on to me and we swam into the waves.


Warming up, pretending to be a duck in his duck towel. Raf had me cuddle him while the towel was wrapped right around his head, and then had my sing 'baby duck' songs to him while rocking him. He really was ready for a sleep.


A short nap and then a Solstice party in our neighborhood. Raf was already exhausted but he had a super time with Nico, who was also there.






A very fun week.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Friendly Boy and Other Snippets.

Raf is an incredibly friendly little boy. So friendly that I worry a little bit about him being so vulnerable. He loves to say 'hi' and then 'bye' to everyone he meets. In fact he likes to have the windows down when driving in the car, and when we get to a stop light he shouts 'hi' to the people in the next car, motorbike, or random people walking down the street. If no one is around he loves to say 'hi' to inanimate objects.

"Hi train bridge, hi green grass, hi ice-cream shop, hi cars, hi train track, hi car bridge, hi shop, hi train shop, hi trees...", and then we have "bye house, bye Nico and Rosa, bye ice-cream shop, bye boys, bye train track.. see you soon".

It is a bit heartbreaking when someone he's said 'hi' to doesn't say 'hi' back. Really, people, there is never a good reason to not say hello to a very lovely little boy who, in his sing-song voice, shouts out 'hi' and waves frantically when you don't reply. I am sure I'm affected much more than him. Raf just carries on and starts saying 'hi' to the friendlier green grass instead.

Other funny/sweet things Raf does of late:

When he is very sad and crying he says, in a very sad voice, "tish (tissue) please" and points to the tissue box, waiting for you to wipe away his tears. He's always very polite when he asks for them.

He's also currently obsessed with kissing boo boos - well, me kissing his boo boos and him kissing mine. Yesterday when kissing a boo boo, when he was still upset, I asked him what would help, and he responded with the "train shop". Why not try your luck?


This past Saturday Raf had his final gym class of the term. We'd decided to take a break for the summer since the Saturday class is no longer, and we'd have to switch to an evening class. Well he had such a fun time on Saturday that we enrolled him in the Monday evening class. First class was tonight..  Let me just say that an evening class is a different animal entirely. He was utterly maniacal! But he had a blast and I actually managed to snap a picture of him with his listening ears on.


Here are a couple of clips of Raf's gymnastics! I think he needs some work on his vaulting technique, but a very good approach. 


And perhaps his trampolining could do with a little brushing up... but he did put his arms in the air.


Sunday, June 17, 2012

Papa's Day

I am pretty sure that fab-dad-Rich will write a little post about Father's day. It was of course also papa's day, and our first Father's day without my lovely dad. I must admit that I felt quite melancholy most of the day, but also I had lots of good memories coming to mind, too. 

I had a big post to write about some of the things I was thinking about but I'll have to come back to it. Raf did get Papa a card, though.