How to Get A Gumnut Out of a Small Child's Nose and Other Adventures!

Yesterday the 25th of March is Jo's mum's birthday. In honor of the occasion we got the clan together for dinner at the Everton Hills Tavern in Brisbane to celebrate as Jo's dad was already down and staying at Jo's sister's place. I got picked up straight from work and the kids were playing when Elke started to point to her nose and said "nut" it took her to say this a couple of times to realise she had a gumnut up her nose. Amy went to grab the tweezers and in this time the gumnut had gone further up!

So after a call to Kurt's sister who is a GP who didn't really know what she was working with because she couldn't see it. They also consulted several other medical types that suggested they go to the big hospital. To be honest we all thought they would miss out on dinner completely. They got to the hospital and when they got to see a doctor they had a look and got Amy to close the unblocked nostril and blow through Elke's mouth real hard and the offending gumnut popped out!!!

They were able to join us for dinner and a good time was had by all. The pub was no ordinary pub it was designed specifically in mind. When you walk in you see heaps of high chairs and a a massive playground for kids from 1- 12 and a computer games room. The computer games room had a camera and if you sat in front of one of the plasma screens you could watch your kids play in the computer game room. To really push it's kid friendly credentials they had their own permanent carousel. Max had 2 rides through out the night and had an absolute blast.

We left at 9 which is very late for Max and he was tired but not a little bit grumpy which is a win win situation for all concerned!

Happy birthday grandma!!

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.

When Will We Return To Our Normally Scheduled Programming?

Just to keep everyone up to date. We are continuing issues with our internet/phone and have been for the last 2 weeks. We are doing well and once we get back to normal we will update with some new pics etc.

Thanks for your patience.

Cam, Jo and Max

Down On The Farm!

A bit of a Batkin family update for you all. In the upcoming weeks Jo will be going back to work from home two days a week. Jo will work on Monday and Friday. Mr Max will go to a small daycare within walking distance. We have decided to do this for a couple of reasons including keeping Jo's skills up and her brain engaged and allow Max to interact with other kids and will improve his social skills.

To allow this all to happen Jo had to duck into her work at the Valley in Brisbane and update the files on her work laptop and catch up with what she will be working on. Max and I dropped Jo off and then proceeded down Brunswick St to New Farm. Cam Watt with whom I once worked was a former resident and always reffered to it as "The Farm". Jo had packed Max and I some morning tea but we went to the New Farm Village Bakery to grab some extra treats. It is a great little bakery and does not look like it has changed much in about 30yrs. The cabinets and trays look like they have been used for that long. The food looks the same as when I was a kid. They have old school match sticks, cup cakes, hedgehog slice, gingerbread men, lamingtons and vanilla slices etc.

We went with the hedgehog slice (chocolate) they have caramel hedgehog and chocolate and Max scored a gingerbread. These were exactly how a gingerbread man should be freshly baked and not in a pre sealed plastic bag, chewy, tangy and sweet with ginger. They also had only 2 smarties for buttons and the eyes were currants.

Being a Thursday we were able to get a great park right in front of the playground of New Farm park which is a large park with beautiful jacaranda's and rose gardens down by the river. The playground was huge with a massive fort at the back which had several levels and slides and 4 or 5 kinds of bridges. Max and I had great fun climbing all over it and going down the slide. The problem with the slide was that there was no way to the ground near by excpet for the slide itself. So Max would slide with me behind so he could climb up the bridges which suspended and had gaps in it so he could ride the slide again. He really enjoyed me riding on the slide behind him and catching up and hitting him. He thought was so funny and would giggle and say moah (more) over and over again. Here are some pics:


We stopped twice for morning tea to get some fluids in him. He really like the gingerbread man and ate most of it all himself. He also wolfed down the grapes and nectarine as well.

After nearly two hours of playground fun we packed up and went and picked Jo up. Max managed to stay awake with the helps of some of his favourite music so he could sleep at home which he did for ages.

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.

How much fun are backyard wading pools?

After a very long trip from Bli Bli we eventually arrived at the farm near Millmerran. We left in the evening in the hopes of Max sleeping all or most of the way there, but unfortunately the weather was against us. It started to rain near Kilcoy and continued on and off for the rest of the way to Toowoomba, which cooled the air down quite a lot. We were both concentrating on the extremely thick fog that stayed with us the whole way from Esk through Highfields and into Toowoomba and didn't realise that Max was getting a bit too cold in the backseat until he woke up and started complaining right in the thickest part of the fog. We did make it through thanks to Cam's good concentration and driving and stopped at a 7-11 in Toowoomba for a pitstop. I took Max into the toilet since he also needed a nappy change, and thankfully found an emergency hoodie for him in the nappy bag. He was then wandering around a 7-11 in Toowoomba at about 10.30pm wearing his pjs, the hoodie with the hood over his head, and no shoes, while eating a muesli bar. He looked so funny that Cam and I couldn't help giggle every time we looked at him. Thankfully the stop fixed most of his issues and he was good for the rest of the trip.

When we arrived at the farm, Amy, Kurt and the twins were already there and the next day Tammy and Cam arrived as well. We then opened all of the Pfeffer Christmas presents and it was good to see how much more the kids enjoyed it this year than last year. After presents and lunch it was time for a swim in the wading pool that Grandma and Pa had set up.



They all had fun splashing around in their togs for a while before wanting to get out. Elke was happy to swim so long as Max wasn't in the pool at the same time, since he is a bit more boisterous than she is used to and she didn't like it so much.

Later on Gabbie and Max wanted to go for another swim so we just took off their clothes and let them go. They were very happy and cute playing in the water and getting in and out of the pool with little naked bums and we all had fun watching them. Once again Elke was a bit scared by noisy splashy Max and instead went to play in the twins' Christmas present from their parents - an inflatable fort/jumping castle.

Max and Gabbie also had fun taking the inflatable stars from the fort to the pool and back again, doing lots of splashing and running around in the process.

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!