In the Kitchen with Max

Our internet has returned, finally! So here are some photos from a while ago now, but still worth putting up.

On Valentine's Day we decided to make some gingerbread biscuits and take them over to Cam's sister's place for a visit. Cam had recently worked during the Tupperware conference at the BCEC and so had some gift Tupperware such as a mixing bowl, cookie cutters, spatula, food containers and this gorgeous little kids chef's outfit, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to use them and to get Max helping out in the kitchen.






He loved it, but just made so much mess that I had to end up taking over. He didn't mind too much, and then enjoyed helping us to eat them afterwards.

New Years Celebrations

We spent about a week out at the farm with my family, and it was wonderful to celebrate New Years with them and catch up with everyone in the same place for once. With everyone so busy the time together didn't last long and so we celebrated New Years a few days early so that we could all be together.

Instead of the traditional BBQ, my Dad likes to prepare a hangi where you wrap the meat and vegetables in alfoil and bury them in the ground with heated rocks and coals. Although it takes a bit more preparation the food comes out wonderfully tender and delicious and it's easy to cook a lot of food at once. Throughout the day we could feel the storm building, with high temperatures and humidity and the wind starting to pick up. We could tell it was about to hit just when we needed to take the food out of the pit, and so Dad called in his best mate Charlie to help him get everything out before the storm. Here's what it looked like ...

Thanks to the extra help we just managed to get all the food out before the rain started, and then we had a great communal dinner with Charlie and his family there as well to share all of the delicious food from the hangi that they had helped to rescue.

Eating Out

On our last night in Hervey Bay we all went out to dinner, thanks to Uncle Lance, to one of his favourite restaurants The Drover's Dog (highly recommended!). Usually if Cam and I go out to eat in the evening we try and plan to leave Max at home, but this time we wanted to all eat together so we planned his daytime naps and our restaurant booking so that he could come along too.

Max loved the experience and had great fun making friends with our waitress and several of the other diners. He did have a few upset moments, however, such as when our drinks orders arrived and his cousin Rhys received a chocolate milkshake in a big tall glass. Max watched it intently as it was set down in front of Rhys and then let everyone know that he was being robbed if he couldn't have some.
We thought he may as well be let in on the fun, so the nice waitress went and prepared Max a strawberry milkshake of his very own.


Max watched her every move while she was preparing it and then didn't take his eyes off it until we'd poured some into a smaller glass and he was drinking it out of his very own straw. He must have thought we were going to take it away again, because he completely drained his first glass without taking a breath and then wanted a refill! Everyone at the table was amazed at the speed at which he drank the entire milkshake throughout the meal.

One of the excellent things about the Drover's Dog (other than their delicious filet mignon which is what I ordered) is that they provide free mashed vegies for kids under 3, and our very understanding waitress gave Max an oyster fork which was the perfect size for him. After feeding him a few mouthfuls my own meal arrived, so I decided just to not watch Max too closely (to avoid cringing at the mess he made) and let him go nuts with the fork while I paid proper attention to my perfectly cooked steak. Here are the results ...

vegies you say? hmm, tastes better with fingers

actually this fork thing isn't so bad after all if you open your mouth wide enough

who says I can't eat the garnish? it looks like the best bit!

get that camera away! I LIKE being messy!

Bundaberg Day Trip

Another outing we took while staying at Hervey Bay was up to visit the town of Bundaberg. Usually this is a town with much to offer the day tripper, such as the Ginger Beer and Rum factories, the famous Sunshine Kebabs, and the free zoo in the botanical gardens. Unfortunately we chose to go on Boxing Day, which meant that Sunshine Kebabs (and most other dining establishments) were closed, and the star attraction of the zoo, the emu, had been killed only a few days previously.

Still, we had a fun day visiting the zoo's other inhabitants and playing on the playground.





After quite a bit of driving around and finding that most places are closed on Boxing Day in Bundaberg, we eventually discovered that the RSL still opens for lunch, so we went there and had a lovely feed while overlooking the boats on the river.

On the way home we decided to visit Woodgate Beach again since we had such a good time there on the last visit. This time we were more prepared with swimming togs so Max, Cam and I all had a wonderful swim before returning home.

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!

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.

Visiting the twins

Last week was mine and Max's turn to go and visit the twins again. They only saw each other for about an hour before the twins went to bed for their nap, but it was plenty of time for fun. They can all play together much more these days and are lots of fun to watch. Max and Elke were kissing each other through the glass door, and all three were riding on the scuttlebug trikes out on the deck.

The girls had lunch before going to bed, and of course Max wanted some food too, so I am feeding him some mandarin which he really enjoys. The prospect of food also attracted the girls, although they weren't too keen on actually eating it.

This big playbox is a birthday present for the girls from Grandma and Grandpa. All three of them had lots of fun pulling out toys to play with.

Happy Birthday!

After much anticipation on our parts (Max had no idea what was happening really), Max has now turned a very big 1 year old!! Congratulations son!!

We started his birthday celebrations on Friday night by opening his presents from Cam and I. Cam had to work on Saturday morning and we wanted to do this as a family with just the three of us before his party. So we all sat on the floor in the lounge room and had a great time ripping off paper and showing Max his birthday presents.


Then on Saturday afternoon, after Max was very patient while I was busy icing the cake and getting party things ready, we all headed down to the park for the party. Max always loves being the centre of attention so he had a wonderful time seeing his relatives and playing on the playground and just being outside with lots of new things and friendly people to see.

As our regular blog readers will know, Max always likes his food, especially yummy party food that he isn't normally allowed to eat. I made him a special rocketship birthday cake and gave him one of the stars to eat by himself and as you can see he thought this was awesome!


His aunty Alison took advantage of the different colours of icing to turn Max into a cross between Braveheart and Humpty Dumpty. We tried to clean him up when he was done with the cake, but as the rest of the photos will show, this didn't entirely succeed and he spent the rest of the day looking a bit like an alien. But he was very happy and if you can't make a mess on your birthday then when can you?

One of Max's guests got a bit scared by this little alien when he came walking towards her with both hands in the air and grabbed on to her for support!

The next major event of the day was the opening of birthday presents. Thanks everyone for your amazing generosity - Max had a great time opening them and will really enjoy playing with his toys, reading his books and wearing his clothes in the year ahead!


After we all packed up and headed home (huge thanks to all who helped carry everything back to the cars and take stuff back to our place - so much appreciated!) we put Max straight into the shower with Daddy to try and clean up his blue facepaint. Cam did a great job of making him look like the Max we know and love, but Max must have decided that he did want a blue face after all. While we were busy talking and cleaning up, he wandered into the kitchen and found the blue food colouring bottle in the pantry. Although we noticed this we didn't think he could do himself much harm with the lid on. Silly thought! He must have managed to suck up the dye through the lid because he ended up with blue hands (again) and this time blue lipstick to match!

What a cute little goth.
After we cleaned Max up yet again Cam and I headed out for the evening and let Nanny stay home to put Max to bed and babysit. He was so exhausted that he went to bed with barely a whimper that it wasn't Mummy and slept straight through until morning. Cam and I had a great night out and everyone had a good nights sleep.

All gone!

It's always cute when little people start to mimic the things they see big people do.

One of the cute things Max has started to do lately is raise his hands and make appropriate noises to copy me when i say 'all gone, Max' and turn my palms upwards. He looks so adorable and the noises even sound like he is saying 'all gone'. Of course I can't help but laugh at him and then he thinks he is very clever and smiles and claps his hands, which makes it even cuter.

Max is enjoying his food a lot at the moment (we think he's having a growth spurt) and this is another reason to enjoy dinner time, so that we can delight in saying 'all gone' together at the end of the meal!

9 Months Already

Yep, little Max has now been on the outside for as long as he was inside! He celebrated his 9 month birthday on Saturday, by going to the fruit and veg markets with us in the morning and then going to a friends 1st birthday party.
I thought it was about time for another checkup of his height and weight since it's been ages since we last went to the child health clicnic. So last Wednesday we went for a drive over there and put him on the scales. Max now weighs just over 10kgs and is 75cms tall. Both of these figures have him just above average for his age.
They also gave us a checklist of things that Max should be doing as a 9 month old, and fortunately he is doing pretty much of all of them. It includes things like

• distinguishing between familiar people and strangers
• recognising his own name
• sitting without support
• crawling/moving around and exploring surroundings
  
• picking up things and putting them in his mouth (he's been doing that for a very long time now!)
• using one finger to point or poke at items
  
• drinking from a cup and eating solid food
• playing peek-a-boo
• looking for fallen objects (and then dropping them again when I pick them up)
• speaking in babbling sounds.

He also loves to stand while holding onto people and furniture and loves to walk while I hold his hands. Noisy toys are his favourite, and if the toy doesn't make noise Max will often just bang on it with his hands, or bang it together with another toy, so that it does.

He is starting to seem more like a little boy than a baby, and is much more fun to hang out with during the day. He is also sleeping a lot less during the day and so I have to use my imagination a bit to think of activities to keep him happy and busy, so we've been going to the park in the pram or car much more often, which he really enjoys.

Anyway happy 9 month birthday Max! Congratulations on reaching this milestone and continuing to develop well.

Nambucca Holiday

I had meant to update the blog before now, but I guess it's better late than never. If I don't do it soon I'll get too far behind and have to miss out on some of the interesting things that have been happening lately! But first I'd better catch you all up on our week away in Nambucca Heads.

We decided that the easiest way to travel the 5/6 hour journey with Max would be to do as much as possible while he was asleep. So on Saturday morning we woke up at 3am, packed the last few remaining things and put a very sleepy Max in the car and headed off. I don't think he had any idea of what was going on, and he stayed awake (but quiet) just trying to figure it out for a while before nodding back off to sleep. We managed to get most of the way to Grafton before he woke again, since at that time of morning the road was almost empty and we had a great run. After a couple of quick stops in Grafton for breakfast and Coffs Harbour for some sightseeing (and running into the Hovell family from church!) we were the first of the families to arrive in Nambucca.

The house we stayed in suited our large group pretty well for the week. Probably the best thing about it was the large second story, which was all open plan and combined a lounge room, kitchen, dining area and opened out onto a deck. It was roomy enough to fit everyone in with enough space that we weren't sitting in each other's laps (unless we wanted to!). It was also a short walk downhill to the beach, but since the walk back uphill was a bit of a struggle we mostly ended up driving there. The beach was perfect for little ones, being very flat with lots of little pools of water sheltered from the waves. Max loved it from the moment we got there. He couldn't get enough of walking around with me holding his hands, splashing in the water, eating the sand, and crawling around.

He also had fun splashing in the bath with the other kids once he got used to the concept of having a bath with other people.

Most evenings the little ones had a group bath since it saved lots of time and water. With up to 5 in the bath at once it made sure that everyone got very wet, including the adults supervising!

There was a fairly good mix of ages between the 5 families. Jaxon and Orlani, both two-and-a-bit, were good playmates for each other when they weren't fighting about something. Nate, who is about one and a half, was left out of their play a bit being a bit too young and not as strong-willed, but there were still enough toys to keep him happy most of the time. Keira, 11mths, and Max, 8 mths, were the next most active, with Kiera walking and Max crawling. We had to watch these ones from eating too many things that they shouldn't! Eli and Amelie, both 7mths old, were probably the easiest ones to look after since both were happy to sit or lie on the floor and play quietly with toys, until one of the older ones came and stole them or got a bit violent.


The adults all had lots of fun as well, as well as some very tasty food. I really enjoyed our evening meals, since with so many people there who like to cook and are good at it, the menu just kept on getting better! We had everything from barbeque to Mexican, and from Indian curries to a roast dinner - all of it thoroughly delicious.
The girls all took the opportunity to go out for lunch one day to the local tavern on the water, leaving the boys at home to look after the children. We all enjoyed and appreciated this rare chance and also visited the local bakery on the way home for some coffee and cake. The boys then had their turn and went out for an evening meal at the RSL.

On the last day of our holiday we went back down to the waterfront to commemorate our holiday by painting a rock, which seems to be the thing to do. Here are the Batkin family and our piece of the Nambucca wharf.


Overall the holiday was a big success. I think everyone came away refreshed and relaxed, and we all got a chance to catch up with what we've all been up to and spend time hanging out together and giving our kids the chance to become friends as well. I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime!