Weekend in Sydney

Last weekend Tino and I took mum to Sydney for a very short but fantastic weekend with my sister Melanie.

It has been quite a while since we have last seen Mel, and I think she really noticed the difference in Tino. Last time she saw him it took a little while for him to warm to her, however this time he was calling out 'Menie' before we even got off the plane!! (Much to her delight of course)

Mel and her boyfriend Joel have just got a gorgeous new kitten called Abbey, which Tino thought was a great toy.

Luckily Abbey thought it was a great game when Tino chased her everywhere, unlike Caleb our cat who does not think chasies and being rammed with tonka trucks is much of a fun game at all!!

The park was a hit with a real 'do it yourself' excavator!

Here is Joel being a big kid and going down the slide with Tino

Tino Loves...

Playing dress ups with everyones shoes!

Reading dad's truck and excavator magazines!

Scenic Tour

The first weekend Marcel was in Australia we took him for a drive to see some of the natural sites around the Gold Coast. Firstly we took him to the Gold Coast hinterland to see the Natural Arch.


After that we drove south over the border of NSW and QLD, through Murwillumbah and then stopped and had lunch at Kingscliff. Marcel loves the beach so we took him for a walk along the Kingscliff beach to enjoy the white sand and beautiful blue water.

Update

Ohh la la, I didn't realise how long it's been since I've updated this blog, sorry all, how naughty of me.

There's been a few things going on in the last few months. We have finally sold our house (WOO HOO) and it settled yesterday. We are still in the house for another 6 weeks cause they wanted us to rent it till 20th November, which suited us fine.

My cousin Marcel, from Germany has been staying with us for a few weeks as he is studying English in Brisbane for 3 months. It's been great to catch up with him, because the last time I saw him was when I was in Germany in 1998, and he was a bit younger then. Unfortunately I have not really had a chance to brush up on my German and it is more important for him to learn English. Of course we have been trying to teach him a bit of Aussie slang too....how could we not!!

Marcel brought over from Germany a souvenier from the village where dad was born (Deidesheim). It is a toy goat which Tino is sporting as headwear!! Every year they have the Geissbock festival where they find the most fertile male goat in the region, all the young married couples then walk with it from a nearby village through the forest to Deidesheim and then auction it off. It is quite an event!

This is Marcel and Tino taking a ride on the Wheelie Bee!

Here is Tino trying to read with Opa's glasses.

Tino is a very blessed boy. His aunty Linda has a fantastic job buying clothes all around the world, and Tino gets to keep some of the sample clothes. Here he is with the latest parcel of clothes - thanks heaps Ninee (aunty Linda).

On the Farm..

The other weekend we travelled down to Mullumbimby so we could see my dad and also so Frosty could take a few of his mates for a motorbike ride along the bush tracks he would bash around on while growing up.

Tino riding on Opa's tractor.




Saying g'day to the horses!

Here I am having great fun playing with Daddy's old Tonka trucks.

This is one of the Snow drops from Frosty's mum's garden. I wish they grew in Brisbane but it is too warm.

Malita's Baby Shower

My cousin Malita is due to have her baby towards the end of July and mum and I went along to her baby shower in Noosa. This is a photo of Malita with Tino and her good friend Iris and daugher Isabella.
Mum and Tino at Malita's baby shower.

Cousins

Tino's cousins Leila and Malachi came to visit and Tino had a great time running around after both of them.

Sleeping beauty!

I thought it seemed strange that Tino was playing so nice and quietly in his play pen, so I went and checked on him and was surprised to see that he had fallen asleep while playing with his toys!

Here is a photo of Tino with his twin friends Tia and Ava. He's already got that "I don't think I understand females" look on his face!!

A couple of weeks ago Tino, mum and I drove up to Noosa to see my grandparents. Of course Tino enjoyed the great grand parents attention!

Bathtime Fun

Bathtime fun with the pressies Aunty Mel got me for my birthday.

1st Birthday

For Tino's first birthday we took him out to a Turkish restaurant in West End which WE enjoyed very much! Tino enjoyed it too, but he only got to try a little bit of the food. He thought Turkish bread was a good thing.

His aunty Linda came up all the way from Melbourne especially for his birthday and she took him to experience the coffee scene. He even got to try his first 'Soy Babychino'!

I don't like the sand dad..

Over the Easter break we went down to Byron for a couple of days and thought we'd give Tino he's first beach experience. It sounds strange that it has taken us this long to introduce him to the beach, but this summer we have been more preoccupied with wake boarding in the river, which Tino loves (the boat ride that is!).
Well we were both rather dissapointed with his response. We thought he'd definitely be a beach baby and we'd have to hold him back from eating the sand! However, to the contrary he absolutely hated the sand and cried whenever we tried to put him down and let his feet touch the sand. Oh well, maybe he will like it more next summer when he is a bit older!

Walking :-)

Well, it certainly didn't take long. About a week after Tino learnt how to push himself into a standing position he was off and running!

Now that he has so much more independence he is loving it. He is the happiest little boy!

Sinnamon Park Sunset

We had a fantastic sunset the other night, and just thought I'd share it with you all....

Grease Monkey

Whenever Frosty is working in the garage or on his bike Tino ALWAYS has to be part of the action. I think his philosophy is 'the more grease I can find the better'!

Channel Surfing

One of Tino's favourite past times apart from playing with hose taps is grabbing the TV remote and changing channels......he does it like a pro (but more often than not finds the 'snow' channel!)



Generally Tino is a fantastic eater and gets very little food around his face. But this day his veges were a little over mashed and he ended up with a face full, right up to his eye brow. Thought it was worth a shot!

5th Anniversary

Here is a piccy of Frosty and I before we went out for dinner for our 5th wedding anniversary.

We very kindly had Tino babysat by Frosty's olds for the evening while we went out to a fancy restaurant. (Our 2nd night out alone without Tino!!)

We thought we'd struck a winner with the restaurant that I'd chosen, service was great, food was great........well that's what we thought until I woke up with tummy cramps and nausea that lasted 2 days (I chose the meat option and you could see "I told you so" written all over Frosty's face the next day!!) And don't anyone get any ideas with the tummy cramps and nausea .......it certainly won't be happening again for a while yet!!

Daddy is a leap frog!

I didn't mention it, but while we were in Perth Tino took his first 3 steps on his own. Since then he has been taking a couple of steps every few days as he lets go of the furniture that he is holding onto.

But, today Frosty taught him how to stand up on his own without using the furniture as a support. Frosty was jumping around the back yard like a leap frog amusing Tino, and he obviously thought he would like to give it a go too. Much to his astonishment he realised that it was the way to stand up on his own. Standing there with a smug look of satisfaction on his face he also proceeded to take some steps......well there will be no stopping him now!!