Matt, Ad & Alexander! - matt blog

Bollywood boy

2008-11-15T14:36:53+00:00

We went to the annual diwali celebration on Monday, at the home of two lovely friends. As you can see, they manage to cram a huge number of people from our staff into their apartment, it is always a lot of fun and everyone dresses in Indian outfits.

Alex wore his costume brought back from India by Miss Helen, one of the teachers on staff:

But he was a bit bemused by the Bollywood dance moves ('screw in the lightbulb, pat the dog'):

Finlay found many willing laps to sleep in:

As did his little baby friend Hannah:

And our Mongolian friend Chief has been happy to meet another best pal:

The henna painting is always a favourite activity:

My handiwork (but not my hand):

Someone gave Alex his own smiley face tattoo:

And all the friends together:

(Thanks to Anthony for the photos)

081111 Wallpaper of the week

2008-11-11T19:30:11+00:00

A nicer kissing photo than last week's. Finlay is getting very good with his head control.

Cooking with monkey

2008-11-10T11:00:45+00:00

The only condition of monkey being involved in the cookie-cooking was that he not get dirty. He lasted about 5 seconds before being covered in flour, but maybe it was an unfair condition.

The existential dilemma for 3-year-olds

2008-11-10T10:52:32+00:00

Alex: I'm me, and you're you.
Mummy: That's right, I'm me
Alex: No, you're YOU, I'M me.
(and so on and so forth..)

Everybody stop at the red light

2008-11-10T10:45:47+00:00

One of our latest obsessions here is road signs. On Saturday Alex issued me with instructions on something he wanted me to make. It took a while to decipher exactly what he was after, as the instructions consisted of things like, 'and then the road goes round and round, and it's on another paper'. But basically, he wanted a road drawn on many sheets of paper stuck together to make one long road. We had to have some windy parts and a bridge, and of course lots of road signs.

I was told that there had to be signs saying 'no dogs', 'no bikes' and 'no skates' as well as his favourite, 'hold my hand' sign. Once it was finished, many happy times ensued involving driving the bus down the road, stopping at the bus stops and then slowing down, stopping and going at the traffic lights, which are controlled by the high tech finger mechanism of covering up all but the pertinent light.

(People who have the green Playschool 'On the Go' DVD may recognise this trick from Colin's traffic light costume!)

I am enjoying Alex being into these sorts of games, since they are so the sort of thing I used to enjoy playing when I was little. I do find it boring playing cars over and over, but I like drawing the roads!

Sleeping like a..

2008-11-07T23:00:21+00:00

This was my afternoon:

First one...

Then the other...

Alex is not really meant to be having day naps now, since it means he goes to bed quite late, but it is so hard to resist letting him fall asleep at the moment, when I feel like I really need a break!

A special present

2008-11-04T14:55:12+00:00

Alex's friend Jesse came back from his trip to Sri Lanka on the weekend, and brought Alex back a very special present. Jesse is 8 years old (I think?), is very kind to Alex, playing with him a lot, and Alex adores him.

So what would you bring a 3 year old as a gift from Sri Lanka? Only a fellow kid would think of this one... Jesse came to the door bearing his gift, which was wrapped in a teeny tiny piece of tissue, and then placed carefully inside a zip-lock bag.

It was an elephant's hair!! I'm still not sure exactly how Jesse acquired this hair - the mind boggles, really. But he was very proud of it and Alex was intrigued by the whole thing. He made sure Daddy knew all about it when he got up this morning.

It made me remember being 8 years old and treasuring such things enough to wrap them in tiny pieces of tissue!

081031 Wallpaper of the week

2008-10-31T16:43:28+00:00

I have observed that the second child gets a lot more rough treatment than the first, who is generally wrapped in cotton wool!

There is leaves in it

2008-10-29T23:33:08+00:00

This morning I made corn fritters for my boys (those that can eat solid food at least), but the reaction was something of a disappointment. Alex was so excited when I told him he was having 'corn pancakes' for breakfast, and I found a recipe I liked the look of, at recipezaar.com. Of course, I felt obliged to make it a tad more healthy than just batter, tinned corn and cheese, so I decided to add a handful of chopped coriander.

After all his excitement, I saw that Alex was only nibbling half-heartedly around the edges of the fritter on his plate. I said to him, trying to ramp up the enthusiasm, "the corn pancakes are yummy aren't they?" He replied, matter-of-factly, "No they're not yummy." Hmph. Me: "Oh yes they're so yummy, look, Mummy's eating them." Him, gesturing to the coriander, "Oh no, Mummy, look there is leaves in it".

First it's 'yucky balls' in his pea and ham risotto, now it's leaves in his pancakes. What's his mother trying to do, poison him?

And below is the offending recipe. I think they would be really good topped with a fresh homemade salsa. I made them in a non stick pan, which turns them a bit rubbery, but if you used oil they might be nice and cripsy:

Ingredients

1 (300 g) can whole kernel corn
2 eggs
salt and pepper
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
25 g butter
2 tablespoons oil

Directions

1
Drain corn and discard liquid.
2
Put eggs, salt and pepper in a bowl and beat.
3
Add flour and baking powder, whisk until smooth.
4
Add corn and cheese.
5
Stir.
6
Put butter and oil in frypan, Heat until bubbly over medium heat.
7
Drop corn mixture in spoonful lots into frypan.
8
When golden turn and cook other side.
9
Drain on absorbent paper and serve.

4 weeks old today

2008-10-24T13:03:46+00:00

Ah, it seems only a few weeks ago that Finlay was born. Hold on, it was only a few weeks ago. He is doing really well, and already showing us a bit of his personality. He doesn't like to be left to sleep in a big room by himself (and can you blame him, really?) so he usually spends his day sleeps out in the living room with us, in his rocker, where there are nice familiar family noises going on.

His favourite thing to look at is the bookshelf, with its colourful books.

Alex loves any chance he can get to cuddle his little brother, or even feed him a bottle:

A few more photos uploaded

2008-10-20T18:56:16+00:00

I just put a few more pictures in that same Finlay folder in the photos section, look at the end of page 3.

This one reminds me a lot of Alex at the same age. I'll have to hunt out some comparison pictures:

Piano tuner

2008-10-18T17:11:41+00:00

In my experience piano tuners are either old and very doddering, or else bombastic Italians. However, there is currently a young Hong Kong whipper snapper who looks about 24 years old in my house tuning our piano, boldly challenging the stereotype. Maybe it's a profession that is undergoing a revival.

It is very nice to sit here and hear the piano slowly becoming less honkytonk. I'm looking forward to taking it for a spin soon!

081017 Wallpaper of the week

2008-10-17T23:46:33+00:00

New pictures added to the 'Newborn Finlay' folder

2008-10-17T23:44:40+00:00

Look at the end of page 2 and at page 3 in the newborn Finlay folder for new photos recently uploaded.

A few photos I'm enjoying at the moment

2008-10-17T21:21:39+00:00

We have had some visitors since Finlay was born, which meant I haven't been updating the blog much. Also, the euphoria of giving birth, especially with such a wonderful birth, has worn off and now I just feel really, really tired all the time!

I had been telling people Finlay was a fairly normal newborn as far as sleep goes, but my Mum brought it to my attention that he is actually on the very good side of normal, since he doesn't need a lot of resettling when he wakes to feed at night (just wakes up, feeds, and pretty much back to sleep), as well as having some good long naps during the day.

We loved having Mum visit, she did so much for us around the house. Especially appreciated was about 15 loads of laundry as well as a lot of time entertaining Alex, which is really my biggest difficulty at the moment. Thank goodness the poor child is going to preschool 3 mornings a week because I am not up to doing anything very exciting with him at home when it's just me. We also had George and Hugh return for a couple of nights and thanks to Finlay's early arrival, they were able to meet him, which was lovely.

Here are some photos of Finlay that I've been enjoying lately. He still has a very newborn look to him and still feels so tiny!

First bath at home. He enjoyed this, but hated subsequent baths.

With Aunty George

A rare photo with Mummy, usually I'm on the other side of the camera! This also shows his natural mohawk. Little rocker.

And another one, that shows his face. He always has a very worried expression!

We are all loving this precious little person, and trying to get to know him as much as he'll let us.