Vancouver winter visit

On route to Denise's wedding in Mexico, Logan and I decided to make a quick zip up to Vancouver for 8 days. It was a wintery whirlwind, but it was so great to see everyone.

Here we are waiting for our flight to Auckland. Logan is so into airplanes right now, it was hard to tear him away from the window.




After 20 hours of flying, we don't look to worse for wear, do we?



Nana and Logan having a snuggle on the couch



I tried to take one too many pics by this point and Logan was done and wanted a mommy cuddle.



New favorite toy



Logan loved helping Nana decorate the tree, the downside was that the nice, fragile ball shaped ornaments were his objective as he loves to throw balls. Luckily there was only one causality.







There was a great snow dump while while we were there, something that Logan and I were not prepared for but after a quick trip to the store, Logan was ready to play in the soft white stuff. It took him a bit, but after awhile he was getting into it.







This just looked cool.



Then Gramma came in and spent the day with us. Logan got spoiled, yet again.



A rare family Novotny shot -- Logan's a lucky boy surrounded by all these women.



Then we spent a day in cold day in Vancouver, but it was absolutely gorgeous. You can beat a gorgeous Vancouver winter day.




After a trip to Granville Island, we took the ferry boat back. Logan just stared and pointed out all the other boats. He was quite a happy little camper.





And then, at the end of our trip, Logan had to help clean up Nana's place :)

Park Play

One of the best things about Melbourne is the parks. There are parks everywhere, and they all quite different from one another. From our house, we can walk 5-10 minutes in any direction and we are at a great park. One of the new parks we've found is right by the train tracks. What could be better for little boy than getting to swing and watch the trains go by?



But, in between trains, we climb....




We slide....



Bounce on a kangaroo...



Drive the play-train



....and then, another train to go watch.

A flash of the last month

There has been a lot going on in the last month, mostly moving house so there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging, especially since it took 10 days to get the internet up and running. So here is a flash of what's been going on.

Mothers group had a communal 1 year bday party for all the bubbies (everyone was already a bit past 1, but better late than never) A great time in the park that included cake...yum, yum for everyone.





There was on going packing for a few weeks, but one thing that kept Logan happy was one of his best buddies, little mocha. He LOVES little mocha.




After the move, we put Logan straight to work. He is a great little sweeper.



And after a hard days work, there is nothing like hopping into the tub and cleaning off.



We still had not gotten Logan his 1st bday present because we wanted to see what space we had in the new place. So finally, we got him a couple of great items. The first, a little tool bench. 16 months and look at this skill. A little handy-man in the making.






And of course, now that we have a backyard, we couldn't pass up a classic -- the sandbox.



If you can remember, they don't really celebrate Halloween here in Melbourne. But, we couldn't help but dressing him up in a bit of a costume. His Superman PJ's. A bit big as the underpants reach his knees, hahaha!




We've had a couple of nice meals in the new place. Logan's particular favorite was the braised lamb shank...yummy yummy!




Of course, we still have our weekly playdates at the park. Thomas the Train is the favorite of the boys -- choochoo!




And now with the hot weather coming (only 28 degrees today), we have to water our newly planted veggie garden and Logan is the first one to help. He tends to wear most of the water, but that's one way of staying cool!





And, there is always time for ball play.

Pint-sized green thumb

Now that spring has arrived in Melbourne, we've started to do a bit of gardening/maintenance and who's in the middle of the action? Logan of course. Dad (since he's the green thumb) was showing Logan how to water the plants -- not sure who was wearing more of the water, the plants or Logan, but he really had a great time. And after watering, what is more fun than putting rocks in the bucket?

Biker Logan

After dusting off and oiling up we got my bike back on the road, with and addition --- baby bike seat. I've been wanting to get one I think since Logan was 6 months old. These was taken on our first excursion and Logan was loving it.(This little trips was about 5 km) Our next trip started well, decided to see what Craig's work bike route was. Logan was great all the way there, even had a little snooze. On the way back, I decided to go along the creek instead of the city (versus the city route) and it was beautiful, until the first detour and then the second detour --- where the heck we were going I had no idea. Finally, back on the trail, and what do they have on the trail? A set of HUGE stairs --- WHAT THE HECK? How stupid is that? Fortunately, a really nice guy carried my bike down as I took Logan out and carried him. So, Logan until this point was great (it had already been about 2 hours in total this trip) I then try to put Logan back into the seat and Logan pretty much expressed that was a NO GO! He was done. And then, I realized he had lost a shoe (one of his good ones) along the way. Well, no turning back for that as Logan is screaming and flailing everywhere. But what do I do? I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere, one shoe, no soother at this point, so I put him back in and he screamed for about 20 minutes before he finally settled. So, moral of the story, second time on a bike with a toddler, stick to 10 kms (not 30), take a track not under construction and always remember the soother -- just in case :)