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.
here it is, in all its glory. enjoy!
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!
the first half of our weekend was all about connections, old and new. there is this dutch couple, kim and gordon, who are living in our hotel with their 18 month old. they have just arrived from a stint in melbourne. brenda has been hanging out a lot with kim, and on friday we finally all had a chance to meet each other and hang out. we went to the markets by moonlight at the rocks which is a great thing to do if you’re in the area! its really relaxed with interesting stalls and places for kids to have a bit of a wander. kim and gordon are cool, and gordin is really into surfing so we had a lot to talk about. they are going to live in manly, which is a great surf spot, so that gives us another excuse to head out there on the weekends!
on saturday i got the honour of catching up with aba, who i have known since i was about thirteen years old. he is the father of my good friend noa, whom i have known since high school. through noa i met her parents and have also become really good friends with them too. we dispensed with names a long time ago and now i just call them aba and ima, which means father and mother in hebrew. aba and ima live in brisbane so coming to sydney brought us closer together but not quite. lucky for me, aba was in town this weekend on business and found some time to come and say hi. we hadn’t seen each other in over a decade and it was amazing to be in his company again. a lot has happened in the time we were apart – i grew up (kind of), became a dad and he beat cancer and found a new lease on life. still, it was like we never had those years apart and he is still just as awesome as i remembered him to be. brenda and i are going to see whether we can make it up to see them in brisbane over new years. fingers crossed our stars will align!
we had big plans to go to the blue mountains on sunday but were foiled by maintenance on the rail tracks and bad weather. sundays are a good day for exploring because for $2.50 each we can ride all day on the buses, ferries and trains. nayou has been dying to ride on one of the articulated buses that run in sydney so we went on a hunt for one in lieu of the blue mountains. unfortunately we were unsuccessful so we made do with an articulated tram and a monorail ride. nayou was none too happy about missing out on the articulated bus, but he came around eventually!
the weather got worse over the course of the day so the afternoon turned into craft time. nayou’s birthday is on thursday and brenda has been wanting to make some tie-dye t-shirts and party gifts for a shindig we are planning. so we busted out the pots, pans and paraphenalia and got busy! the fumes from the dye were a bit strong so we left the door open while we worked. the people walking by must have thought it was a meth lab or something. especially since our room looks like a bomb hit it…
for some reason the directions said to put salt in with the hot water and dye. nayou had a whale of a time playing with the salt and decided to give himself a facial with some of it.
this whole thing started off when brenda found a big basket of kids t-shirts at the salvation army for $1 a piece. they are good quality shirts and come in different sizes. they went in white and came out blue!
we tried a variety of ties using marbles, coins and rubber bands. i not-so secretly thought that the shirts would turn the wearers into crusty hippie kids, but they actually turned out pretty cool!
in addition to birthday planning we are also in the process of organising our move into our house. our move-in date is the 6th (next monday). i think i say this every time i mention the house, but we are very excited to be settling down. we’ve got our utilities all hooked up, internet on its way, and a fridge and temporary bed rented. bring on the good life!
p.s. he’s talking to his favourite phone buddy, baby jaguar.