What A Croc?

Evan has always had issue with shoes, he is just so fussy and won't wear just any old shoe. Last summer I he was in runners all the time as no matter what type of sandal I got, he hated it and would rip them off his feet. So much money wasted.

I was in Surf, Dive and Ski on Thursday and noticed some of those rubber CROCS, they were all the rage last summer for adults and I think they will be even bigger this summer. They had them in little kids sizes, so I decided to splurge and get Evan a pair, at $50 they are not cheap.

The plan was to try them on him and if he refused to put them on, then I'd take them straight back. I didn't want to wait for summer only too find he hated them and I was down $50. So Friday morning I got them out. To my suprise he went nuts... he LOVED that they were blue... he LOVED that they had Crocs on them and he LOVED that they were like mummy's, as yes I also got myself a pair.

There was one BIG problem, he wouldn't take them off. He wore them to childcare and showed everyone all day... going "look at my blue crocs"....LOL, he wanted to wear them to bed last night and again today he wouldn't wear his normal runners, only his "CROCS". I still can't believe it.

The photo is of him wearing them with his pyjamas last night, I swear he was planning to go to bed in them. Also this morning I was getting his breakfast ready and he came up to me with them on his feet, I asked where he got them and he goes "in my room, Evan put them on". LOL he even hunted them down and put them on himself. Looks like the Crocs are here to stay. Although at this rate I might have to get a second pair as he is going to wear them out.

The Big Sleep Issue

Not sure what is going on with Evan's sleep routine lately. All I know is the great little sleeper we had has disappeared.

Where he once was happy to play in his cot and chat to himself, until he fell asleep is gone. Now he insists one of us is with him in the room until he falls asleep. First he wants to lie down with us no the spare bed in his room, he spends about 10min playing with my hair, face, teeth and just fidgeting until it gets too much and I put him in his cot. He then spends almost an hour squirming about, asking for his bedtime buddies or wraps before he drifts off from exhaustion.

We've tried to do the controlled comforting thing and going in and out of his room at regular intervals, the patting and the shhh shhhing. Nothing works. Unless we stay in the room he gets hysterical and starts hyperventilating or vomiting.

DH and I are exhausted, as not only is going off to sleep a problem, but now he is also waking a couple of times a night and looks to find one of us on the spare bed, if someone isn't there he just goes nuts and climbs out of his cot looking for us. Trying to put him back to sleep can take hours and doesn't make for a happy mummydaddy, especially as we both need to go to work in the morning.

We just don't know what to do, so we are going with it and hoping that he will eventually feel secure enough to be able to go to sleep alone or wake up alone. DH and I are taking turns sleeping in his room each night. Maybe that's not the right thing to do, but at least we are all getting some sleep this way.

This parenting thing sure is hard.

Evan & Some Fish

Shhhhh don't scare the fishies away

Sydney Aquarium Visit

It was pretty miserable and rainy in Sydney on Saturday. We'd promised MIL that we'd take her out for the day, so she could spend sometime with Evan. It was also her birthday earlier in the week so we wanted to do something special. Sydney Aquarium seemed like the perfect indoor spot and it was.

We started by having breakfast at Nick's Cafe at Cockle Bay. Evan loves bacon and sausages, so just got a big breakfast and we shared. There were lots of birds about and Evan was determined to feed them his breakfast. He kept yelling "birdy food", taking bits off my plate and running off to feed the birds.

Then we head off to the Aquarium. There was a huge line and Evan was not very pleased that we had to wait. He wanted to see the "Sharkey". There was a huge shark's mouth that you walk throught to enter the aquarium. I think the wait in line gave him time to realise that it was scary, as when we did eventually walk through he got really spooked and wanted to go home.

It didn't help that it was pretty dark in there for the first few exhibits and Evan kept trying to make a bolt back to the enterance to go home. Eventually we got to the seal pool, which had plenty of natural light. He finally setteld down and had a great time watching the seals from the underwater vantage point. He wanted to sit on DH shoulders so he could get closer to the seals.

The rest of the visit went smoothly, except for the race through the shark exhibit, when we realised he was getting scared by those big jawed beasts. He loved the Great Barrier Reef exhibits the best, and kept shouting "Dory, Nemo... where are you?" Needless to say he got very excited when he found them.

He even managed to make friends with some older kids and they all posed for this photo in front of the Barrier Reef display. Don't the fish in the background look cool? The kids had a great time playing in front of the display, pointing out all the fish and talking about them to each other. He is definitely becoming more socially aware of other children now.

After literally dragging him away, we went and had some lunch in the cafe and a bit of a play at the small soft play place nearby. Is was a great day and Nanny loved the one on one time she got to spend with Evan.

The Last Few Months

Hi, its been awhile since I updated this blog. I am going to try really hard to at least update once a week if not more. I'm not keep any other sort of record book for Evan, so am hoping that this could be it.

Time is moving so fast. Evan turned 2 on 25 May. He is now almost 16kg and 93cm tall. He is in size 8 shoes and wearing size 2 bottoms and 3 tops. He is growing so fast that his wardrobe just can't keep up.

We had a pretty quiet birthday for him as we didn't do the big party this year. We've booked a trip to Disneyland in September, so he can have a party with Mickey & Minnie instead. He had lots of cake as there were cakes at daycare, cake with the family and cake at the inlaws. Of course he loved it, he sang happy birthday to himself and was able to blow out the candles. We had to relight them several times as he wanted to blow them out again and again. Such a different experience to last year.

In June we went to see The Wiggles in concert a couple of times. They did a series of small shows at the local clubs and we were lucky enough to get tickets to Hornsby RSL and Mingara Club. Evan went crazy when he realised how close he could get to them. He even managed to shake hands with them all and got a big bear hug from Jeff.

He got down and boogied to all his favourite songs. He even sang along and seemed to know all the words. My little boy is definitely a Wiggles Groupie.

We got him a Jeff & Murray dress up costume for his birthday. Evan just loves dressing up as The Wiggles. He especially likes the belt and wants to wear it all the time. The dress up outfits came with a cheap vinyl one that had a Wiggles sticker and velcro on it. It was already falling apart after just 1 wear. I was able to get a "real" belt from the Wiggles Shop online. It even has a cool metal logo for the buckle, just like the real thing.

Here is a pic of Evan at the Hornsby RSL show. As you can see Evan was able to get very close to the stage.

On the health front, Evan had an endoscopy in late April. Wasn't something I really wanted to get done as its an intrusive procedure and requires general anesthetic. We had to have it done as he is still having problems with dairy and soy proteins. He is on a special formula which is subsidised by the government, but only until he turned 2. To keep getting the subsidy we needed to prove he still has the allergy. The good (and bad) news is that he tested positive to the allergy, so we are able to still keep getting the formula. Also as the allergy has been confiremd we were also able to start a new medication called Singulair. The new med has been fantastic and we have been able to let him have small amounts of yogurt without any problems. He is still on 40mg a day of losec and will probably be on this for sometime.

Back with more later.....