Almost August



I cant believe how quickly this year is flying by, Jasper no longer just chatting, he is Mr "What is it?/What's is called?/What's it do" every thing is questioned thoroughly! Often answers are made into songs. This week's funny song was Jasper's own nursery rthyme creation: "Baa baa black sheep have you any wool? No sir, no sir, no bags full, none for mummy, none for daddy, none for Jasper down the lane!" all belted out at full volume as we drove to the supermarket. The creativity keeps me astounded, two year olds are such little people! (Jasper did tell me a couple of months ago that he is not a baby, he is a kid!)

Today we started term three at Kindermusik, a class for toddlers to enjoy music, dance, rhythm. It was so exciting for J that he decided to forego his midday sleep in order to do some painting, and then play all afternoon (games included: tackle mummy; sift the sand out of the pit; feed green playdough grass to all plastic animals; try to find patterns to stamp into playdough including imprint of fireplace bricks, mummy's nose, Jasper's jumper (made great stripy patterns), and almost the TV remote control (until mummy decided in the nick of time that playdough needed a sleep for the evening); so we resorted to helping make dinner, and I discovered that little fingers give the perfect pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon to pumpkin pasta sauce! - and Jasper decided that raw pepper tastes horrible (quick mummy, drink!)

The sweet bliss of 8pm - deep sleeping baby!!!

Last weekend I meant to write and post pics of little Daniella, Jasper's cousin who turned one! Have found I get to busy with Jasper - and too tired after to write enough - sorry - but here is a picture of Jasper with Juliana (4yrs) and Daniella (1yr) with Zoran's parents Milica and Vanco - enough hands to cuddle all of the grandkids!


Good night,
Tamx

Wet, wet, wet



Last day in Melbourne was Tuesday the 17th (I think) and it poured! Which made Jasper happy as he could jump into a hundred puddles and happily wore his raincoat and gum boots! Zoran and I weren't so well prepared!!! But had a good time anyway.



We enjoyed a last evening with pizza and a DVD. Jasper especially liked the pizza box puppet (thanks Jess). Here is Supratim, Jasper and I at Jess and Sup's place. The painting in the background is one of Jessi's.



Tamx

The Zoo


Yesterday we all came down to Melbourne to see Jess and Sup. Jessi and Sup, Jasper and I went to the zoo today, in the cold crisp weather. jasper loved seeing the tigers, otters, seals and elephants. It is great spending time with Jess and Sup, and Jasper has had lovely bonding days.

Will add more pics later. This one is Jess and Jasper with some interactive signage in the Australian Bush section.

Tamxx

Tile Shopping

Slowly renovations continue, our 6 month job of fixing up this ole house, has morphed into two and a half years... and one baby later... Today we came a bit closer to picking tiles, white and pale grey. Jasper had fun climbing over all of the displays, and slept the whole way home after "working" so hard! I will be getting my owner builder licence next week and hopefully we will start construction within the month. I will post pics of changes as they happen...

Jasper has started singing all day long and has begun to invent songs. They sometimes rhyme with ones he knows (twinkle twinkle) but some are new melodies I haven't heard before. A few weeks ago someone asked him if he was going to play piano (I did when I was younger) and he said "NO, Jasper - guitar"!!!!! Hmmmm, images of my baby with long hair and a mosh pit spring to mind...

Tamsin
PS I plan to update weekly, on the weekend...

Hello,

Last week my friend Eli came to stay for a week. On her flight here from Melbourne she saw a beautiful waterfall cascading from some cliffs into the sea, just south of Sydney. After looking at Google Earth (free program with very cool satelite imagry) and looking up National Parks maps, we decided to go and find it. (Here is her pic, taken at the edge of a cliff, craning around to get the whole falls in!)



This was Jasper's first hike, a four hour return walk along the coastal track in Royal National Park. It was a beautiful, chilly day, but the coastal heath was full of birds, honey eaters and colourful finches. We looked for whales but didn't see any on thier migration north, we did see a huge sea eagle sucessfully fishing in a small inlet.

Jasper walked for about two hours of the hike, which was great (boy did he sleep well that night). Here he is with Zoran on a section of boardwalk (part of the park uses boardwalk for erosion control).



And as a koala on Eli's back when he was a bit tired...



And playing in the clear stream which preceded the falls.



Eli has now gone on to a trek in Southern Africa, then two months of volunteer work in South Africa before heading off to the UK for a year or two of work and life. To see more of her adventure visit: http://elipelletier.wordpress.com/

The walk was beautiful, and now when I say to Jasper "would you like to go to the park?" he says "The National Park?"!!

Tamsin

Hi!

I have decided to start a blog so that you can all see what is happening in our lives at the moment - especially for family and friends far away. I sincerely appologise if this is the only post, but at this point I do intend to try to make it a regular habit, so I will try to update every week...

The main star of this will be ... JASPER... who you all know, and who is now just over 2!

I hope you enjoy our little family ramblings, please email me whenever you like!

The pic up the top is the only one I could find of the three of us together - we are on a tram in Melbourne, Jasper was very interested in the new hook and eyes I screwed onto his cars so they could "make a train!" (trains are BIG!!). This was taken in April, 2006, just before J turned 2.

The name moon-star come from some of Jasper's first words and drawing, he used to draw dots for stars and ask Zoran and I to draw the moon, he would also spot the moon and stars in all sorts of places– packets, boxes, TV, toys, shops, books, the sky..., but at first I thought he was saying monster... silly mummy... I found his interest in the moon and stars really special, it is so nice to be reminded how beautiful the world is.

Tamxx