Car Club Christmas Party

Every year in December Nanny and Poppy's car club has their Christmas party at the miniature train park in Nambour.

Max loves it because he gets to ride on the trains, eat yummy picnic food, see Nanny and Poppy, and get a present from Santa - what more could you want from a day out?

With 4 adults there to ride the trains with him, he could keep riding again and again without wearing any particular person out and have lots of fun. He was very excited to see Santa come riding in on the train, and I don't even think he noticed Santa's resemblance to Poppy as he received his present so everything went well.

O Christmas Tree

This year we thought it was about time that the Batkin family acquired a Christmas tree, since last year we thought it was too risky as Max may have destroyed and then eaten it.

Cam managed to find a great deal on one, so $30 and one Spotlight VIP membership later, we were the proud owners of our first tree including decorations!

Max has been getting very excited about Christmas this year. At Daycare they have been making decorations and he's seen the Santa and tree there, and always spots any Santas in the shops and Christmas trees at friends places. He is also getting better at waiting for things, and very patiently asks me just about every day - 'Santa coming today Mum?' to which I have to say 'No not yet mate, but pretty soon!'. We are also trying to teach him the real reason for Christmas and the presents, but there certainly aren't as many baby Jesus pictures around the place as there are Santas.

He was very excited to see our very own Christmas tree in its box, and took great pride in helping me assemble it and then place all of the decorations around and on top. We've placed it in the lounge room close to his high chair so he often looks at it while he's eating, and the first few days after we put it up he would come out in the mornings and say 'wow!' when he saw it still there from yesterday.

Entertaining Visitors

Last month we were fortunate to host Dan and Janet Reinhart at our place for a few days while they were visiting Australia from the US. Dan is an expert in Bible quizzing and was visiting Australia and NZ to share from the wealth of his experience and give us some tips on how to start up a similar program in our local churches.

We had a great time meeting them and getting to know them. Janet loves to knit and brought Max a hand-knitted blanket all the way over here, which he loves to have on his bed at night even when the weather is a little too warm for blankets. After the Bible quizzing workshop we thought it would be a good idea to give them a mini holiday by going up to Bli Bli to visit Nanny and Poppy so they could see the beach and the beautiful spots around the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

On the way up we stopped at Humble Pie to give the Reinharts the essential Aussie meat pie experience, which Max thought was pretty awesome as well.

Once at the coast we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have fresh fish and chips at the beach, so we went down to Mooloolaba. Max also loved the chance to play in the sand before dinner.

The next day we headed back down to the beach again, to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather while it lasted. This time Max got to get all of himself wet instead of just his feet, and we had fun burying him in the sand too, while Dan and Janet got to relax and take a walk.

The next day was a little less full of sunshine so we went for a drive and saw some local attractions instead. We went to the Ginger Factory at Yandina to buy some souvenirs, sample the tasty ginger products, ride the train and take the tour, which everyone really enjoyed.

Next we went for a beautiful drive around Mapleton, Maleny and Montville, and stopped for a picnic lunch at Mary Cairncross Park while admiring the view of the Glasshouse Mountains.

After a quick stop at Kenilworth for some ice-cream, we went back to Nanny and Poppy's house for a relaxed evening meal and then drove home so that the Reinharts could catch their plane early the next morning.

We all felt very fortunate to meet and spend time with such a lovely couple and hope that we can keep in touch in the future.

Face Painting

Yesterday we all went along to a fundraising event that our church had organised to raise money for victims of the tsunami in Samoa, called Touch 4 Samoa.

Even though none of us actually played football, we all had a great day after helping to organise it and it was great to see all of the support that was given to such a worthy cause.

Of course Max was a bit oblivious to that side of things and was much more interested in seeing all of his friends, eating some yummy food from the BBQ and cake stall, playing on the jumping castle and also having his first face painting experience. He behaved very well for this by staying nice and still the whole time and not immediately trying to wipe it all off.

These photos were taken several hours after the painting was done so hopefully you can still see the Spiderman resemblance, but what's more important is the fun after all!

Children's Day

As many of you may know the church we attend is made up mostly of People from the Pacific Islands and of those mostly from Samoa.

Traditionally the second Sunday in October is known as 'White Sunday' it is basically the children's day to celebrate and be the centre of attention. Each Sunday School class does a small song or skit from what they have been learning for the whole year. Afterwards is a massive lunch with lots of kids friendly food and then dessert and lolly necklaces.

This year we even had a jumping castle for all of the kids which was very popular. During the week a long list of food was provided so parents knew what food to bring here is briefly what was involved to feed everyone. 8 x pots of Chop Suey and Fried Rice, 147 pieces of KFC, 8 x XL bowls of Potato salad, 20 pizzas of various flavours, over 30litres of ice cream, 150 ice cream cones, 5 large fruit platters, punch and a large chocolate cake. Other food that was not on the list also magically appeared like donuts and mussels. All of the food was packed into individual lunch boxes and labelled for each class. For Max's class all we had to do was pick up the 12 lunch boxes for the kids his age. A count was also done of the parents and special parent packs were also done. It was such a good lunch. After lunch the kids had a small break before cake and ice cream. Then class by class was presented and Jo and I gave Max his lolly necklaces. He thought this was the coolest thing ever, he has seen Jo and I get these at Mother's and Father's day.

For the item of the Playgroup kids which Max is a aprt of they stood on the stage and said Jesus Loves Me. There was also a video with each of the kids name and birth date and some pictures and some video of them. Max joined in with some of the big group songs for the whole Sunday School. He loved being in the limelight and was so excited he kept jumping up and down which is a real sign he is having a good time.

The pictures below are a glimpse of his day. Enjoy!

Max Da Playa

We knew the time would come when a young lady caught Max's eye we just didn't think that it would only be when he just two. But twice this week I have had encounters with Max and his "friend".

I went to Baby Jail (Day Care) on Monday to pick Max up and saw him sitting on a retaining wall near the garden with a girl who had his most beloved blue teddy. I asked him to introduce me and he just smiled and giggled. It was almost like "Dad you're embarrassing me" I told her that she was very lucky to be cuddling his teddy because he is normal pretty protective of him. She smiled and said "Max's teddy". As we were leaving he went over and asked for his teddy by saying "Max Teddy pease". She gave up the bear pretty easily. On the way out I asked Max what his new friend's name was he said Jenny. It turns out that is not actually her name but for anonymity we will keep at that.

Today I go pick Max up and they had lost his shoes but as we left he had to go say goodbye to Jenny. So after saying goodbye to her we continued to walk down the path with the playground beside it. Jenny ran up and said "Bye Max" and tilted her head to her shoulder very cutely. Max slipped his hand gently out of mine and went to say goodbye again.

They then spent the next couple of minutes whispering to each other and giggling gently on either side of the fence. I said to Max "C'mon mate we need to go" he would take one step and then go back to saying goodbye to Jenny. I let them talk to each other for another minute and told Max we have to go. He turned to me and said "Say bye to Jenny". I told Max we have to go. Jenny then smiled at me and reached down and picked up a leaf and handed it to Max. I said Max we really need to go. He then moved in to give her a peck but his head would not fit through the bars. He then started to walk towards me but kept looking at her.

He then ran up to me quite happily and kept saying bye Jenny all the way to the car and I could hear her calling out "Bye Max" it was very cute.

It was so very cute and I wish I had video because I know no one would probably believe what I have just described. All we can say is that obviously the fruit does not fall far from the tree and he has his fathers way of attracting the ladies attention. I fear that he will loose that ability soon for a very long time just like his dear Dad.

How to Torment a Two Year Old In Three Easy Lessons

As you can see from the pictures in the other post we had a pretty bad dust storm. This was followed by 2 more days of dusty badness a couple of days after. In the paper on Saturday the local B.P servo had a voucher for a free car wash in one of a couple of car washes around town. We had one less than 10 minutes away. So we thought that Saturday and Sunday were a bad choice because of the impending second storm.

Monday is Max's day care day so that was out too. The voucher ran out on Wednesday and had to be redeemed before then. We thought every man and his aardvark would be using it on Wednesday so it had to be Tuesday. So we get Max mentally prepared and head off for a family outing. It was to be just Max and I for father - son binding purposes over a blokey thing like a car wash. Max got a bit upset and wanted Mum to come which was cool. We get there and guess what the machine was broken and getting serviced! We went in and asked how long would it take to fix seeing we had a 2yr old we had promised a car wash to. It would be at least another 2hrs. We decided that would really try his patience so we went over and showed him the man fixing the machine and he was upset and wanted to see the bushes (brushes) in action. The good people of B.P however told us we could redeem a voucher then and we had a month to use the voucher.

After Max's afternoon nap he and I headed off for the father - son bonding session. It was now just after school time and there was a line of 10 cars in front of me! I did the maths pretty quickly and realised that at 5 minutes a car that was almost an hour and he would tear me limb from limb if we tried to do that plus I had to be in Ipswich for a meeting shortly after that as well.

We gave up on Wednesday because we knew that everyone would try and redeem the voucher on the last day.

On Thursday we pulled in and had only 3 cars in front of us. We decided we had sultanas and water and toys on board and we could wait it out. Max is pretty understanding for a 2yr old if you talk him through something but 3 visits to the car wash and not getting the car washed was doing our heads in as well. We read some books and sang some songs and tried to tell him what to expect so he would not freak out. I have heard that it can be a bit too much at that age.

It was finally our turn and we talked Max through each of the processes and he saw the water go across the front window and his window and then he saw bubbles which are one of his favourite things in the whole wide world. When the car shook from the brushes he got a little apprehensive but was so happy he saw bubbles he settled down. We went through all of the processes including the dryer and then as we drove out he wanted more.

On the first two trips we had our camera to capture his reaction but on the third trip we forgot the camera so you will just have to paint a picture with your mind.

So if you need to kill some time with a 2yr old and don't want to get out of the car go to a carwash!

Playing Outside

Max has always loved to play outside, and well, who doesn't really?

Now that the dust storms all appear to be over we have again been spending a bit of time outside, either going for walks or just playing in the backyard.

the dust storm ... taken around 1pm last Wednesday

Some of his favourite outside activities include riding his bike, playing in the sandpit, throwing and catching balls (he also loves when we throw them on the roof) and generally running around like crazy.

One thing he has started to do recently is to get an empty flower pot, put it on his head and call it a 'fire hat' and ride his bike around. I guess he is pretending to be a fireman? It looks pretty cute anyway ...

I have no idea where he got the idea for this but it keeps him quite happy, even though it is a bit dirty.

The other thing he has been enjoying lately is picking and eating from our strawberry plants. This season he is much better at realising that you can only eat the red ones, and have to leave the green ones on the plant to get bigger and turn red so you can eat them. The plants have grown a lot since last season as well, expanding into other pots and putting on much more fruit. Here's a sample of what we picked in about 5 minutes one afternoon.

However fast we pick them, Max seems to be able to eat them faster. He loves strawberries and simply can't get enough!

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The new movie based on the books in CS Lewis' Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is being filmed currently. One of the main locations for filming is actually in Brisbane, over in Cleveland. The ship is very big and looks quite impressive, while being right beside a playground, so we thought we would go over for a family outing (a little while ago now) and get some photos.

It's a little hard to see since we weren't allowed past the fence, but you get some idea of what it looks like. The boat could also be lifted up and rocked to simulate being at sea, or swivelled around if they needed to change direction. Quite impressive!

We also saw some of the cast all dressed up in between scenes. Couldn't make out anyone famous, but then I don't think there are too many big names in the movie.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the playground since Max tired of the 'dragon boat' fairly quickly since we could only watch it from a distance. We listened to the director shouting out things like '... aaand Action!' while we played which was a nice touch. Hopefully one day we will let him watch the movie and show him these photos and he will be more impressed with it then.

Big Boy Bed

Max has been growing up so fast lately, and with him becoming more independent with his toilet training we thought it was about time for him to move out of his cot and into a big-boy bed. We've raised the topic over the last few weeks by reading stories about other boys moving into their big boy beds and discussing some of his friends who also have them, and he has been very enthusiastic about the idea.

So this morning Max helped me to take his cot apart and stow it in the garage and to bring in and assemble a single bed frame that Grandpa very kindly brought up with him in the ute on one of his recent visits.

Once it was together he was a little unsure about the idea, but we managed to reassure him by placing his Diego pillow and all of his toys on the bed, as well as some of the cot blankets even though they don't quite fit. He was also reassured that everything else in his room is still more or less the same.

He was very keen to go to bed for his daytime nap today and started asking for it at about 11am (he normally goes down at about 1.30pm). We compromised on 12.30pm, when he very willingly got into his bed and enjoyed a story (finally I don't have to sit on the floor and read them anymore!) before going to sleep without any complaints at all.

I had to sneak in and get a photo of him sleeping, but didn't want to use the flash so apologies about the dimness.

Tonight Max was also excited about sleeping in his big-boy bed and once again went to sleep with no complaints at all (SUCH a good sleeper these days!).

Cam and I were just relaxing after dinner and discussing if we should invest in some bed rails to stop him falling out. My opinion was to wait and see if it happens and then do something about it if we need to. About half an hour later I heard a thump! and went to check on Max. He was fast asleep on the floor, still cuddling his teddy. This time we definitely had to get a photo with the flash even at the risk of waking him, but we needn't have worried. Neither the fall, nor the flash, nor me picking him up and putting him back into bed woke him in the slightest!

Daddy's Birthday!

Max gets so excited when it's someone's birthday. Birthdays are right up there on his list of favourite things ever. When we pray at night and ask him what to pray for, he usually gives the names of a few of his friends, plus the inevitable 'birthday' - whether that means he wants it to be his birthday again or just that he would get to be involved in someone else's, who knows.

This year he was able to help me plan for Daddy's birthday a bit, which is tricky because then I have to get him to a) realise that the birthday isn't right now and b) not then go and tell Daddy about the surprises we have been working on. But it all worked out quite well. Max helped me make a joint Father's Day and Birthday card by putting his hands and feet into some paint to make hand/foot prints, something of a yearly tradition. He also helped me make and decorate the birthday cake (chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake) which he had heaps of fun with. He often helps me bake and is very funny when he wants to taste test - he will pick up a bit of mixture/ingredients in his fingers and hold in front of his wide open mouth while he looks at me for approval. Mostly I say 'In the tin/bowl please Max!' and he is very obedient, and then most times I let him eat a bit when we get to the end. He loved sampling the peanut butter M&Ms when we decorated the top.

This year Daddy scored quite well with 2 presents from America. One was a Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt, which came in a cool box with other assorted goodies, and the other was the latest CD from the Dave Matthews Band, both of which he is a big fan. Max also enjoyed helping Daddy unwrap the presents.

We also had to get an obligatory photo of Cam wearing the birthday hat. He is also wearing his new birthday t-shirt (and looking very handsome!).