Underwater World

Even though I have done very little work from home for my company this year, my boss was still kind enough to invite me to the work Christmas Party. This year we all drove up to Mooloolaba to visit Underwater World before going on a short cruise around the canals, rivers and ocean in the area and then enjoying lunch at the local Surf Club.

Max was quite good on the long car ride up to Mooloolaba but was a little tired by the time we met up with everyone and went into Underwater World. We were lucky enough to get a behind the scenes tour before seeing the rest of the marine park, which Max thought was pretty cool because we got to see lots of turtles up close as well as see the sharks from the main tanks swimming past with their fins out of the water.
His favourite thing about the underwater tunnel was not the big scary sharks, or huge flying rays, or tiny little brightly coloured tropical fish, however. Max was much more interested in the moving walkway that takes you through the tunnel. He had lots of fun getting onto it, and then off again, and then trying one leg on each which of course made him fall over.

Once he had had enough of that we went exploring to see what else we could find. Max liked the seals because they kept jumping in and out of the water and making splashes and being playful.


By then it was almost time to leave for the cruise, but not before trying to take the obligatory tourist photos in front of the big shark's mouth. Max coped better with this than I thought he would and we got some pretty decent shots.

By the time the cruise started Max was a very tired boy indeed, but there was enough to keep him entertained for a little while. His favourite people on the boat were my boss's 3 daughters. He had lots of fun with them - giving high-fives, pointing out their various facial features, and especially giving them lots of kisses. But even that started to get a bit too much by the end of the boat ride and he fell asleep on my lap for the last 15 mins.

The short nap recharged his batteries enough to stay happy during lunch, especially since he got to eat grown up food and share my orange juice and spend more time playing with the girls. But after that it was time to head back to Nanny and Poppy's place for a proper nap at the end of an exhausting but happy day.

Choo choo trains

Nanny and Poppy are members of a car club which has an annual Christmas party where Poppy traditionally plays Santa Claus. So they were keen for us, and especially Max, to come along to have fun at the party and see Poppy as Santa, but the main reason is that the party is held at the miniature steam train park in Nambour. We knew Max would love seeing and riding on the fully working steam train models, along with all of the other car club members and their families.
We all had a fun day riding on the trains and eating lunch together, and Max loved seeing Poppy as Santa and receiving a great little truck as a present.

Merry Christmas!

Sorry once again for the lack of recent blogging. We have been travelling lots this Christmas season and haven't had computer access for much of it to do things like download photos and post them up here. But now we are at Pfeffer's for new years I can do both of these things so expect a bit of a flood from the backlog.

First things first - Christmas! This year was Batkin Christmas, which we spent up at Hervey Bay with Cameron's sister Bronwyn and her family. Max was a little grumpy the morning of Christmas Day since we had to wait until everyone arrived before letting him near the tree and the presents. By the time everyone had arrived he was having a nap, so we decided to eat our delicious Christmas lunch before opening presents. We had the usual cold meats and tasty salads, which Cam organised and prepared, as well as perfectly cooked meat from the barbeque care of chefs Cam and Sam.

After we had all eaten plenty we gathered around the tree and cousin Liam was selected for the vital role of Santa Claus.

Max was much more interested in everything this year, especially when it came to opening and receiving his own presents!

Thanks to all the Batkins for an excellent Christmas Day. Max enjoyed it so much, and will continue to enjoy playing with all of his shiny new toys!

The twins come to visit!

It's been a while since the twins have come over to our house to play so it was wonderful to see them and their parents last Thursday. It was one of those really hot and steamy Brisbane days before a storm so we were trying to keep the little ones as happy as possible by removing their hot clothes, so we got some cute topless photos to show you!




All three of them are doing quite well at the moment. All are healthy and growing well, and also are continuing to learn more words and be more active, so they enjoyed having extra playmates. Max doesn't quite know what to do with other kids his age and tends to be a bit rough with them, so he got into trouble a bit for pushing the girls out of the way of his toys. They got some respite while he went and had a nap and then really had fun exploring a new house and lots of new toys with no fear of Max wreaking his vengeance.
After Max woke up and we all had some lunch he was in a better mood and decided to make up for his earlier behaviour by trying to kiss the girls, especially Elke.



He thought this was such a fun game and Elke wasn't too scared of him either, even though he still gives kisses with a wide open mouth, so we had fun just watching them and taking photos.

Elke has also learnt that there will soon be a third little person in their family, and she pushes up Amy's shirt to point at her tummy and say 'bubba'. What a nice way to begin welcoming their new little person - congratulations Mutzelburgs!

Fun at the Beach

After the BCEC Christmas Party we headed up the coast to Bli Bli since Cam had a couple of days off. Max was so tired out that he slept the whole way so it was a nice easy drive up.
On the Monday we drove out to Kenilworth to visit Nanny and Poppy who were on their annual caravan club holiday. Max slept in the car for a little while but then woke up and we all had a wonderful time eating yummy burgers and fish and chips for lunch, playing in the park and eating delicious Kenilworth icecreams afterwards.

On Tuesday Nanny and Poppy came home but had to go up to Maryborough to attend a funeral for Poppy's uncle, so while Cam was driving them up there Max and I went to the beach at Cottontree. There's a great playground there and it's right next to the beach. Last time we went I didn't take spare clothes for Max and had to try and keep him dry, but this time I was prepared and I let him go crazy. He had so much fun splashing in the water and exploring the wet sand and playing with the beach toys from Nanny.

BCEC Kids Christmas Party

Can you believe it's this close to Christmas already? This year has gone so quickly, and last weekend it was time once again for the Kids Christmas Party run by the social club at the BCEC where Cam works. Last year Max did go, although he was too small to appreciate all of the fun things on offer. This year he had a much better time!

When we first arrived his attention was occupied by all of the good things to eat. He isn't normally allowed goodies like jellybeans, chocolate and chips but since this was a Christmas Party we let him go crazy and eat what he wanted to. Jellybeans are his current favourite and he demolished most of those in the plate of lollies on our table. Once they were gone he started to look around and just had to go and explore Santa's throne.

He loved the christmas trees with their decorations, the snowmen beside the throne and of course he loved climbing up on the throne itself, along with lots of the other children there. Here he is with Sam McKee and Daddy.

Next stop were the rides!
Max and I rode on this huge slippery slide several times. It was about 6m tall and had several bumps on the way down and we just flew! Apparently Max had a huge grin on his face the whole way down, but we were going too fast to catch this in a photo. He loves even the small slides at the playground so this one was a huge hit, and I'm sure he would have gone on it more times if he could have done it all by himself.

Lucky for Max he was able to ride the merry-go-round this year. He is still too small to ride on the horses but had fun going around in the wagon with Sam anyway. We have lots of blurry shots of the ride in action but at least in this one you can tell it's Max.

After we all had some lunch it was time for Santa to arrive. Max was fairly tired by this point and wasn't very good at sitting down waiting patiently for his name to be called to go up and receive his present, but I managed to keep him happy by feeding him some chips until it was his turn. He didn't need too much encouragement to go up and get his present from Santa, especially since he got to give Santa a high-five.


Daddy also got to have some fun at the party as well as helping to organise it. Here he is driving Santa back home!

After all this excitement it was almost time to leave. We stopped by the giant jumping castle first, since Max just kept wandering over to look at it throughout the day and we could tell he wanted to have a go. Although he is still too little for it, the operator said she would let just small kids on to make it a bit safer, so he got to have a go after all! He had a lot of fun bouncing around but since he is still a little unsteady on his feet sometimes he ended up crawling to get around. We went down the jumping castle slide as well and then it really was time to go home, since I lost my balance getting off and Max got a little squashed!

We all had a fun day, and thanks so much to Cam and Matt and the BCEC and all who helped to organise it!

Fun at the Beach

Last week headed up to Bli Bli to visit Nanny and Poppy so that Cam could attend the funeral of a close family friend. While this was quite a sad occasion, we also found time to enjoy the break by going to the beach.

Max absolutely loves playing in the sand, and he had even more fun this time because Nanny bought him a bucket and spade set, which he thought was the best thing ever.

What a great smile! We all had fun watching Max enjoy himself so much, and Kenna also enjoyed being able to go to the beach while she's in Australia.
When Max was thoroughly covered in sand we took him to the water's edge, where he had a blast paddling in the shallow water, since it was low tide. His favourite game was to pick up wet sand and throw it into the water. Of course he lost his balance once or twice and ended up wet as well as sandy, but he was having so much fun that it didn't really matter.

We managed to time our visit so as to catch up with some other coastie friends, Anthony and Pauline and their two sons. Mason is our godson and is about 9 months older than Max, and Spencer is still a tiny bub at 4 months. Max and Mason had a good time playing in the sand together and running around with Anthony.

Playtime with Kenna

It's been wonderful having Kenna stay with us during the past week. Max has really enjoyed the extra playmate and Cam and I have loved seeing an old friend again and getting to spend so much time with her, which we usually don't get to do since she lives in the USA.

The other day Max, Kenna and I went for a walk to the park and took some photos of us all having fun together.


Max loves this huge xylophone and always tries to walk off with the metal stick you use to hit the pipes and make noise. Luckily it is attached or he would have lost it many times over!

No doubt in anyone's minds that Max is a real boy! He loves to get dirty, and on this day he had fallen face-first into the bark chips, so that the dirt stuck to his sticky nose (he has a bit of a cold), and then he ate a mandarin for afternoon tea and added nice sticky juice to the mess!

Wheee!

Swimming lessons

For the last 4 weeks Max has been going to swimming lessons on Tuesday mornings. I have been wanting to get him more used to the water, as well as learn for myself the best ways to teach a little person how to start to swim and be safer in the water.

Max has taken to it quite well, and improves every week in the way he moves around in the water, holds his breath while under the water, in the way he kicks his legs, and also just in general confidence.

This week we have Kenna from the States staying with us (an old friend of Cam's and one of our regular blog commenters) so she was able to take some photos while Max and I were in the water.

Nanny's Birthday

Last weekend we ventured up the coast to Bli Bli to celebrate Nanny's 70th birthday. We arrived on the Saturday evening to get in early before everyone else got there the next morning before going out to lunch together.

Max is getting much better at travelling long distances in the car these days so that we don't have to plan on doing all our trips while he is asleep. We broke up the trip by stopping at Burpengary for a visit to the playground, which he really loved. Then it was time for afternoon tea and some listening to his favourite music and before you knew it we were there! Max was still glad to get out of the car and discover Nanny and Poppy's toy collection (most of which belonged to Cam when he was little). In fact he loved it so much that he had to get into the box with the toys!


The next morning we went out for breakfast at the local RSL where Nanny had a free birthday breakfast. Max loves the pancakes and also helped us eat our sausages, bacon and eggs. Yum! After a quick visit to the playground where he managed to get lots of sand in his nappy, we bought Nanny a delicious looking birthday cake and went back to their place to wait for everyone else to arrive. Max was very well behaved and managed to sleep through all of the exciting talking and noises from 5 of his cousins and 3 aunts/uncles arriving, and we had to wake him up so that we could leave in time for lunch. We all had a tasty meal and Max enjoyed playing with his relatives before heading back home to eat cake.

We also took the opportunity to take some Batkin family photos. Here are all of the grandsons, posing nicely for the camera.


Then we split into two teams for girls vs. boys photos. Unfortunately Uncle Lance couldn't be there, but everyone else looks quite happy.


Happy 70th Birthday Nanny! Hope you had a great day surrounded by family.

First haircut!

I took Max to get his first haircut last week. His fringe was getting so long it was constantly in his eyes, and he also had a bit of a mullet forming at the back. We took some shots just before going to the hairdressers so that we could do a bit of 'before and after' for you all. So here are the many fringes of Max ...

long and emo

messy side part with grin

my attempt at a comb-over

big mess!

I was a bit worried about how it would go, considering that he doesn't like to sit still at the best of times and loves shiny new toys. I thought he would be running around the salon and grabbing the scissors and not letting anyone near his head, and that he would end up with half a haircut or none at all. Surprisingly it all went quite well! Max sat on my lap and the hairdresser was very good at choosing her moments so that I only had to hold him still once or twice for tricky bits like around his ears. Here's the result!

He looks even more like a little boy rather than a baby/toddler with his new short back'n'sides.