Decisions decisions

It’s 8:30pm. Chance has been in bed since 6:30pm. I’ve just enjoyed a leisurely dinner with Hubs while watching an episode of The Sopranos. I’ve done the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. And now I don’t know what to do. Chance is usually only just settled by now, but we’re trying an earlier bed time for a few different reasons and it seems to be agreeing with us all.

Here are my choices:
1. Go to bed – yeah right, not going to happen. What if I miss something fun!!??
2. Read my book – I’m currently reading “The Red Tent” and really enjoying it, but not sure I’m in the mood to read right now
3. Do the folding – pffft
4. Make Easter Eggs. Decision made…

In the mean time, here is an embarrassing photo!! (Embarrassingly cute that is!) Matchies!!! I saw this top at an op-shop for $2 and just HAD to buy it so I could match my little man. This is SO going to come back to haunt him in 18 years… Hee hee!

Hangin’ with the Chan Chan Man

The Chan Chan Man is currently occupied with the babysitter

(this video was taken a little while ago, but you get the idea) so it gives me an opportunity to blog! FINALLY!!! Our trip up to Brisbane was just fabulous. Our little man was an absolute star with the travel – the trip back was just as successful as the trip up! It was so lovely to see our family and friends and everyone just went nuts over Chance which was very nice.

I took loads of photos but I haven’t gotten around to downloading them yet, as downloading photos at our place is a little more complicated than you might think. You see, we don’t have a PC, only a laptop (actually, we have 3 laptops and a tablet PC) and the one we use to dowload our photos on to our hard drive is Hubs’ tablet which he takes off the docking station to work in the loungeroom/take to uni etc, so in order to download the photos, I have to wait til Hubs isn’t using the computer, put it on the docking station, plug it in, plug in the hard drive, put the memory card in the computer, try and remember how to download the photos and voila! Easy! 🙂 Maybe it’ll happen tomorrow…

Life has been treating us very well. Chance has learnt some fun new tricks like squealing and poking his tongue out, and he has recently found his feet and is currently trying to put them into his mouth which is super cute. Hubs is gearing up for a big couple of months with exams in June that cover all the work for the last year. Chance and I are cheering him on! And as for me, my mother’s group is going wonderfully well, and I am keeping myself busy with other fun things like baking, shopping, (window shopping that is) going to the gym, and being a latte mum.

All in all, life is good.

Time with family

Hubs’ Dad and Nanna came to visit us on Sunday as they were “in the neighbourhood” (they had a party to go to in Shep) so we took them out to lunch at the King River Cafe. This is one of mine and Hubs’ favourite places to take family and friends to when they visit (hint hint!!). We were originally told about it about a year ago when we were coming up to Wang from Melbourne to go house-hunting. The nephew of one of the ladies I worked with at Newman College is a chef there, and after that first visit, we just have to keep going back. They change the menu every couple of months or so, so Hubs and I have never had the same meal twice.

On Sunday Hubs opted for the butterflied sardines…

…while I had an Asian-style pork, egg and rice bowl. 
 
Hubs’ Dad had the trout and gnocchi dish and Nanna ordered the pizza of the day which had smoked salmon and other goodies on it.

And of course we simply had to have dessert. (Lucky we went on that big walk the night before!!!) Hubs had an orange and chocolate torte:

And I just couldn’t go past the lemon tart:
And we accompanied the meal with a local bottle of Sangiovese. It was so so goooood…
And Chance loved all the extra cuddles he was getting too!

Chance and I are heading up to Brisbane for more cuddles from family and friends next Tuesday for a week. We’re leaving Hubs behind unfortunately 🙁 but hopefully he can make it next time. My solo parenting trip to Melbourne was a bit of a practice run, and since that went so well, I’m quite confident about taking Chance on the plane on my own. Hopefully that confidence won’t be challenged too much! See you in Brisbane if you’re around!

Beauty mate!

Today has been one of those ho-hum days. I’m tired and I’m sick of washing and trying to tidy our unit and am just generally nice and grumpy. Hubs cheered me up a bit before so now I’m (just barely) in the mood to write about our little trip to Mt Beauty yesterday.

We headed there to check out the town where we will be living in a few months time. Hard to believe we’ll be moving in the not-too-distant future. I keep trying to get our current abode in a manageable state, but I think I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s too small and we have too much stuff so it’s always going to feel cluttered. (This added to my doldrums today 🙂

So anyway, we had a drive around and chatted to the 2 real estate agents there. They seemed pretty confident that we’d be able to find something at that time of year so that was reassuring. I just can’t wait to move to a house where we can actually have people over for dinner as well as stay with us! Having people over for meals or to stay is such a big part of who we are and it’s really hard living in a place where it’s almost impossible to do that. And I miss having an outdoor area where I can just sit and have a cuppa or a glass of wine and watch the world go by. As much as we love living in Wang, it will be so lovely having a bigger place!

We are trying to be good with our pennies at the moment so we made our own breadrolls for lunch. I felt like such a Mum. It was awesome! Here’s Hubs and Chance enjoying themselves on our little lunch seat:

We have already confirmed house guests for August (yay!) and hopefully there will be plenty more to come. Please. Join us!

MIA

I spent a few days in old Melbourne town this week, hence my absence in the blogging world. Plus, you know, I’m lazy busy. I went down to the capital to see my friend A-dele who was down from Brizzie for a conference, and I took the opportunity to catch up with a few other friends as well. I also dressed Chance in on of the very (very) few outfits that I have actually bought him:

And a way-too-cute close up to highlight the reason for the purchase:
What’s that? You’d like another one? Oh, okay then…
So clearly as soon as I saw the little feet on the onesie I simply had to buy one for my Littlefoot. Oh, and don’t tell Hubs, but I also bought it in white with silver trim for the girls we’re going to have. Hee hee!! Fun!!
The trip was HEAPS of fun and it was so nice to see our friends again. Chance hung out with his little friends who just adored him:
I was a little nervous about taking Chance on my own but I had a great trip which was made even more smooth by driving our newest member of the family, Sherry. Chance was an absolute dream and slept the whole way, there and back, and although we missed Hubs and he missed us, it gave him the opportunity to catch up on scary/non-Wifey movies (e.g. Resident Evil.) I’ll tell you about the other trip we had tomorrow…

Nanny and Chance

While we were up in Brisbane, we visited Nanny & Grandpa each week. Almost as soon as we arrived, Nanny would tell me to sit and eat while she took Chance to the lounge room to play. Chance is Nanny & Grandpa’s first “grand-grand son” and they really doted over him. They didn’t quite understand that “Chance” is a name, so in true style, Nanny said to me “I just call him Harry.”

Nanny would sit herself down on the couch and put Chance on a cushion on a stool in front of her and tell him all about how life works.

And kept him cool in the warm Brisbane summer:
And sometimes he would go to sleep:
He really loves his Nanny!
The 4 generations together:

Chance is so lucky to have 4 great-grandmas and a great-grandpa. He hasn’t yet met his Ouma Lies in South Africa, as well as the rest of our family over there, but hopefully that will be on the cards in the next few years!