A few new videos…

Here’s a few new videos we took today

The first one is Mummy (Sal) and the boys playing with a spinning top. The boys LOVE the spinning top, and enjoy taping, touching and kicking it so it spins out across the floor. They are laughing hysterically in this clip.

 

The next clip is Ben walking up and down the stairs. Yesterday he worked out how to walk the stairs without holding on to the banister. He’s still getting the hang of it, but is now doing most of the stairs without holding on. He’s so proud of him self, and says “again, again, again”.

Below are a few videos of Mummy (Sal) reading books to the boys. Ben and Ethan LOVE books, and we read several every day. They have about 10 favourites, that we know very well. The first clip is a book called Wiggles Opposites.

and a book about counting…

and a book about The Wiggles going to the zoo….

and finally reading a book with pictures of objects and their names. This (and other one similar) has been Ben’s favourite book for months. He got it for his first birthday and has loved it ever since. In this video Ben says lots of words of all the pictures he sees…

Cooking

One of our favourite activities is cooking. Mummy (Sal) and the boys usually make some pancakes or muffins about once a week. We like to make our own, as the boys are still allergic to egg, and can not have commercially made muffins, cakes, pancakes and some cookies.

The boys are very helpful at cooking, and love to add cups of flour, milk and help stir. Every time we add a new ingredient Ben likes to ask for a “taste”, and then often “more please”…

They LOVE to lick the beaters, spoon and bowl when we are done. Cooking is a very messy affair, that usually results in flour and batter everywhere, including the floor, and both boys almost needing a bath and change of clothes to clean up!

Ben licking the beater of banana muffins

Ben, Ethan and Aunty Linda all helping with the cooking.

Ethan and Aunty Linda

No More Elecare

Elecare is the hypoallergenic formula that Ben has been drinking since he was 4-5 months old due to his allergies. It was a miracle formula in the early days and made a HUGE difference to his eczema.

See this post about his skin at 4 months old

Then part way through this post at 5 months old, we had started Elecare and had almost instant success with his eczema

At about 12 months old, we introduced whole milk, which he tolerate well, and since then we’ve been weaning the bottles. Now our boys still have one bottle a day, right before bed. They are still having bottles, partly because it’s part of our routine, partly because they like it, and partly because the dietician still wants them to have some nutrient rich formula in their diet to help them fatten up a little.

A few days ago we ran out of Elecare.

We knew this would happen as we need a prescription from the Doctor to get Elecare and the doctor says he’s ok to be on regular formula now, so we just used up the Elecare until we ran out. Both boys are now drinking Ethan’s formula….

 

As you can see, Ben drank all his formula and has not complained once about the change to his formula. We are very pleased he’s drinking the new formula without a problem

By the way, Yes, our boys do drink out of different bottles. Ben always has the Tommee Tippee bottle, and Ethan has the Avent bottle. They took to these bottles as babies, and we just kept giving them different ones when they were younger as it made it easier when they were drinking different formula to remember whose was whose

Few random shots

I’ve had these few photos for a month or so, and as I usually do posts with a specific theme, they haven’t been posted yet……. So here they are.

Ethan – wearing his girls Dora the Explorer PJ’s. Ethan loves Dora, and we find it very frustrating that he can’t get any boys Dora clothes, so we bought some girly PJ’s for him, and he loves them!

Also see Ben in the background. He’s wearing Dorothy the Dinosaur (from The Wiggles) PJ’s, though his are a rare find and are actually made for boys.Ben building a block tower. Both boys love their mega blocks, though usually prefer to destroy towers other people make, but they are pretty good at making it themselves too. I took this picture for Grandma, as Ben chose the colours for this tower him self, and I thought she’s like it! (blue and yellow are colours of her favourite sporting team) 

Coffee time! – The boys LOVE their morning “coffee” It’s basically half a cup of lukewarm hot chocolate with frothed milk and chocolate powder on top. Ben calls it coffee, as we froth the milk with our cappuccino machine. Ben also likes the smell of coffee, and if we put him on the bench, he will crawl over the the cappuccino machine and lift the lid of the bean storage hopper and smell the coffee beans and say “mmmmm, coffee”!

Ben drinking his “coffee”Ethan drinking his “coffee”

Painting

Ben and Ethan have discovered painting…… and they love it!!!! We’ve only done it a handful of times, as it’s a messy affair, but they have such fun.

Ben and Ethan

Ben and Ethan

Ethan and Ben

Ethan, showing off his messy legs

Ben – finger painting turned into feet painting! (see our car in the background….. obviously this was before the accident)

A quick movie of the boys painting

Cleaning off after painting. Ben is squirting the water from the tap onto Ethan, and both boys think it’s very very funny!

Video of cleaning up (water play)

Update

It's been a while since an update. Sorry about that. For those who know us, or are on facebook, you'll know it's been a hectic fortnight! (to say the least)

So here's a few updates.......

Ethan's hip - We took Ethan back to the hospital last Monday morning. The doctors looked at his walking (still limping) and blood test results (all normal) and decided that he had 'irritable hip'. They tell us it's a viral infection of the hip joint and it should resolve all by it's self. A week or so later his walking had greatly improved.

Yesterday (and the afternoon before) Ethan had a bad day. He woke with a temp of 38.8 and feeling miserable. Everything was wrong.... ALL day. He whinged and cried on and off the entire time. His limp returned for the day and he went off his food. We were worried about his hip, but today, after a good sleep (7pm-9:30am!!!!!!) he's all better :) He's been happy all day, running around and eating normally.

Unfortunately today, Ben's been sick. He woke with a temp of 39.8 (103.6F) and it's been high all day. It only went down to 37.7 (99.8F), but was back over 38.3 (101F) within half an hour. As I'm typing this at 3:30pm he's woken early from his nap crying. His temp is 39.4 (102.9) again. Poor baby. We've been giving him nurofen (motrin) and panadol (tylenol) all day, but it's hardly making a difference. On the plus side, he's still eating and drinking normally and still seems very happy. We hope he gets over this as fast as Ethan and it's just one of those 24hour viruses...

In other news, last Saturday we took the boys on a lovely picnic. We went to a great park by the water with Tracie’s mother (Grandma). We had a great time at the park..

Ethan

Ben going down the slide. Mumma (Tracie) watching.

Ethan, negotiating the bridge.

Ethan on the bridge, talking to Grandma

Ethan, steering the boat.

Ethan

Ben

Ben, peering under the wharf

Ben and Grandma

Ethan, riding the boat.After playing at the park for a while, Mummy (Sal), Grandma, Ethan and Ben went for a walk to find some ducks……

Ethan, Grandma and Ben feeding the ducks

Ben and Grandma -  Ben’s saying “raaaaa” at the ducks. See his hands out like claws!!!

Ben and Ethan

Ethan – chasing the ducks

We had a great time at the picnic……

On the way home we had a car accident. A car pulled out in front of oncoming traffic and two car's a head of us stopped suddenly, as did we. Unfortunately we all crashed trying to avoid the other car - which fled the scene..... Our car was pretty smashed up at the front and we hit hard enough to make the airbags deploy. Us 3 adults (Sal, Tracie and Grandma) got some bruises and felt a little sore for a few days. Both boys were completely fine. Ben had a tiny little scratch from the seatbelt on his neck, but otherwise they didn't even get a bruise. We were pleased with their car seats, and how safe they were in the accident. We took the boys to the hospital as we wanted to get them checked, just in case they had any injuries that weren't obvious to us. They were monitored for 4 hours and sent home without any problems.

Our car was towed from the scene and assessed by our insurance company. They decided it was too damaged to repair and paid out our claim. So then began the task of shopping for another car. We had planned to sell our car in the next year or two and buy a 7 seater, so we decided it was best to buy a 7 seater now. We had several options to choose from, and did LOTS of research on the internet before buying. We really liked the inside of the Holden Captiva, as it was spacious without feeling like you're driving a tank or bus, however we heard several reports that there had been many problems and recalls with that car and people telling us that the car will cause us trouble in the long run. We also liked the Toyota Kluger, though not quite as spacious inside, it is a much better built car with a better reputation. So after many pro/con lists, we bought a silver 2004 Toyota Kluger. We will pick it up on Friday :)

After our car accident, our insurance company also covered the cost of new car seats for the boys. They now have seats that will last them until they are 7 and no longer need a car seat (as per the Australian laws). These new seats are bigger and they look small in them! So cute. I will try and upload some pics of the new car and car seats once we get it. In the meantime, we've been driving an almost new Toyota Corolla rental car. It's VERY nice. I'd love to own one in 20 years when we no longer need a big car!

Here’s a few pics of our smashed up car…..

Big Red Car

Ben and Ethan in their new inflatable Wiggles Big Red Car

 

Ben in the car

 

Boys in the car. See the white zinc cream all over the car and table??!?! They got the jar of sudocream (zinc cream) and “painted” the car while we were in the other room!