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Monthly Archives: December 2010

there is this nice park at the end of our road which is perfect for scooting and running around in. we’ve been having a lazy post-christmas break, which means that by the time we’re ready to actually get out of the house its a bit late to go anywhere very far away before nayou needs his nap. so embarkation park has been our haunt of late. i took my camera down with me this morning and took some shots of nayou. he’s getting really good at riding his scooter!

へっこきあねさ (“hekkoki anesa” – literally, the farting sister), is one of nayou’s favourite books at the moment. my dad bought nayou a set of 昔話 (“mukashi banashi” – literally, old tales) ages ago when we were in new zealand, but he was a bit too young for them at the time. we found them again when we got our stuff from wellington delivered and have been working our way through them since. its a very very old japanese kid’s story – i read it when i was young – and its about a young lady who marries a carpenter who lives with his mum. the three of them get on well initially until gradually the lady begins to become pale and sick. when the mother asks her what the matter is, she replies that she really needs to fart. the mother laughs and tells her not to be shy and to just let it out. so she does. it turns out that this lady’s farts are strong enough to blow people up into the air and she accidentally bangs the mother into the rafters. shenanigans ensue, and each episode involves the lady saving the day with her powerful flatulence.

the story is hilarious and very japanese. what i love about this version are the illustrations. even if you can’t read japanese, i think much fun could be had making up your own story to the pictures. look at the expression on the lady’s face! she’s sweating and everything!

i am also in awe of the red hue around the butt. that is some attention to detail.

the lady’s talent doesn’t just stop at expelling gas either. she can also suck air in! here she is doing her reverse farting thing to lure the ferryman to their side of the shore.

the ferryman’s expression is priceless. it made me lol.


merry christmas everyone! i hope you all had a wonderful time filled with many smiles and fun. we kicked our celebrations off on christmas eve with a family dinner at my aunt adele’s house. she went all out with her preparations, cooking a turkey and a ham, plus all of the fixings that go with it. the house looked amazing and it was nice to share such a beautiful space with all of the usual suspects from my mum’s side. nayou is really comfortable with everyone now and made himself at home immediately. although sometimes i think the only reason he likes to go to adele’s is because he gets to use their vacuum cleaner. this kid is obsessed with vacuuming!

grandma got an ipad which is great because now she can check all of the family blogs easily. she even got herself an email address!

the dinner went on way past nayou’s bedtime. the excitement kept him in good spirits though, especially when he got to watch maisy mouse in uncle colin’s arms. we think these two must have been super close in a past life because there is a very strong bond between them. nayou’s reaction when he first saw colin that night will probably go down as legend in the family annals!

here are some photos from a couple of days ago. we didn’t get a tree this year and so brenda decided to get some art supplies and make some decorations and a paper tree instead. kim, gordon and sarah came over and we went to town with our cutting and pasting. brenda also sewed some stockings for us which are amazing!

this was the first year that nayou really understood the concept of santa claus. he wrote him a letter asking him for a blue scooter and was fascinated by the fact that he lived in the north pole. after we got back from the party at adele’s, we put out a carrot for the reindeers and a cup of tea for santa and then nayou passed out cold. when he woke up in the morning i was expecting him to be amazed at the fact that the presents had magically appeared, but he was very nonplussed. i think because we had explained to him what was going to happen so many times, he just took it for granted that that was what was going to happen. there were some funny moments with the reindeer droppings though!

we celebrated christmas day in true aussie style with a trip to the beach. the weather was amazing – a beautiful sunny 27C (81F) day with a light breeze. we went to coogee beach because we had heard good things about it but hadn’t visited yet. we definitely were not disappointed! it wasn’t too crowded, but not too deserted and the water was perfect.

we even found santa and one of his helpers drunkenly wandering the beach. apparently they missed their last sleigh home.

santa hats were probably the most popular accessory at coogee. i found a stray one while i was swimming in the water and bought it back with me.

our boxing day has been super mellow – just skypeing with family and taking some strolls around the neighbourhood with the scooter. i’ll leave you with some cute photos we took of nayou on christmas eve. he’s looking much older and mature in them… perhaps its the tie? ho ho ho!

so here it is, at long last – a quick tour of our new digs! i finished up work yesterday and have been enjoying my first day of a two week break. we don’t have any real christmas plans, except for a big family dinner tomorrow night, so i expect we will be relaxing a lot at the park and at the beach. which isn’t a bad thing at all given that the weather has been super duper awesome. if theres one thing you can’t complain about sydney, its the weather!

anyways here is the video. i was trying to get nayou to be the tour guide but he was too busy playing with his ball. and brenda was out of commission sorting out her visa stuff. oh well. enjoy!

so we finally got internet at home today! in honour of this momentous occasion, i thought i would share my favourite video of late. the bum wiggle video! brenda made some super cute skinny pants for him last week, and nayou liked them so much he decided to put on a little show for us.

we’ve got one tired three year old passed out cold on our bed right now. not surprising, considering nayou has been showered with attention and gifts more or less since the moment he woke up this morning. we spent the early morning opening presents in our hotel room. and then scored a slinky from the reception crew at the hotel. i think this one girl christine is ready to adpot him! brenda and nayou spent the day at aunty adele’s house making christmas pudding and opening more presents with the hockeys and his great-grandma. oh, and there was a birthday cake somewhere in there too!

here’s the family making and stirring the christmas pudding, putting their good vibes and wishes into it.

of course there was no time to nap, so we whisked nayou off to his (and our) favourite pizzeria around the corner for dinner. we met up with kim and gordon who hooked him up with an amazing wood firetruck. it kept him occupied for the entire meal which is a small miracle, and we all had a good time chowing down and chillaxing.

once again our room looks like a bomb hit it, with balloon carcasses, random toys and their packaging, plus a load of new laundry all occupying our very limited floor space. four more days until we’re in our new house! i bet the cleaning crew are going to be glad to see us go! but with a three year old, the amount of disorder in the room correlates directly to the amount of fun that was had. its like that thing in chinese restaurants where they say the dirtier the tablecloth, the more enjoyable the meal was. or something like that 🙂

i would say he’s had a pretty awesome birthday! thanks to everyone all over the world who sent presents, donated money in his name, said hi on facebook and sent him emails. its so nice to know that he is loved in so many different place by so many different people!

p.s. we’ve taken lots of video today, which i have edited. unfortunately the internet connection at our hotel is sloooooow, so i’m going upload it from work tomorrow. watch this space for nayou’s birthday: the movie!