400 Horse Open Sleigh.
I think I forgot to write about this in my last whirlwind catch-up blog. The Saturday night before Christmas, we took the boat out for our first night cruise. The Coen’s came along for the ride. We blasted Christmas carols and cruised the canals to check out the Christmas lights. Our canal was full of festive cheer. The other canals were not so much. We rode around for about an hour before we decided that there were too many Scrooges around. But we still had a good time. It was a beautiful night, just chilly enough to sit under a blanky and feel “cold” – just like back home…sort of…

Boxing Day.
What the heck is Boxing Day? It’s a national holiday in Australia. The day after Christmas. So I had to go to work the day before Christmas – Christmas Eve. But don’t worry, the day AFTER is a holiday. Not sure why? To break down all of the toy boxes to put them in the recycle bin? To park 10 km (a long flipping way) from the shops to buy more boxes (I sure hope those deals were worth it)? Or to celebrate boxing kangaroos? Or to go to the bottle shop and buy a box of stubbies (beer)? Or an excuse to spend the day in the pool (that’s what we did). Whatever the reason, I was happy to not be at work.

Step Up 5.
So yes, maybe I should do a better job of preventing my 4 year old son from watching certain movies. But he LOvES dance movies. See?

“Mom, my favorite is the girl in the pink shirt.” (Bra). “Why Ty? Why is she your favorite?” “Because she has sweet moves.”

“Mom, how old do you have to be to kiss a girl?” “18, Ty, 18.” “Can you be 4?” “No, 18.” *counting under his breath* “4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18. Are you SURE I can’t be 4?”

Nothing more awesome than eating mac-n-cheese on the couch.

“Mom, can I try the move where I jump off the wall?”

“Mom, I can only kiss you. And dad. And Lily. But that’s it.”

PS – there is a Step Up dance movie workout video that will be arriving at our house as soon as the Australian Post can deliver it.

PPS – you should all be jealous of the super sweet dance party that Ty and I have during the closing credits. Oh yeah.

Big Hero 6.
On the day after Boxing Day (not sure what that day is called) we went to swim lessons and then surprised Ty by going to the movies. We saw Big Hero 6 – cute movie! Lily does surprisingly well during movies. I had no idea how much she loved popcorn. Do NOT take the popcorn box away from the baby.

Blanky.
Speaking of things I didn’t know about my daughter… She has been using the same little pink blanky at daycare for a year. Every Friday it comes home with us and we wash it, put it in her bag, and back it goes to daycare on Monday. Um. Whoa. Sister LOvES her blanky. I feel like an awful mother for not knowing this. She literally carries her blanky around wherever she goes. It is kind of cute. Where have I been all her life?

Ladder.
And speaking of Lily. Crap. She has figured out how to get around our makeshift baby gate, which was a ladder with a piece or two of cardboard stuck in it. Yes. We are redneck. If you couldn’t tell by our Christmas tree, we like cardboard. So we might be a little redneck, but it really is (was) effective. Not anymore. So now our daughter has a nasty bruise on her cheek (I think she did it on the steps) and her favorite game is climbing the steps. And I will have a heart attack. But she has to grow up sometime. Where did my baby go?

PS – she also loves rocking out to Step Up movies. She has sweet moves.

Undeck the Halls.
Saturday evening we took down all of our Christmas decorations. It was a good opportunity for me to do some major cleaning underneath furniture that we normally clean around. And sometimes you just need to rearrange your living room. So we did. Not sure I love the new layout, but we will try it for a few days.

Decluttering.
Sunday morning we decided to be productive. Lily has had a growth spurt and is now officially too big for 12 month clothing. I went through all of her clothes and pulled down her last bag of clothes from the US – sizes 18 months to 2 years. She is getting so big!! Once I finished that, I was on a roll. I posted a bunch of things on gumtree (like craigslist) and am hoping to get some of our things sold. Jay and Ty went through all of the toys and pitched a bunch of broken toys. They also set aside a bunch of toys to donate to daycare. I was very proud of his ability to do this task without freaking out. But we had to make room for some of the new toys they got for Christmas.

Toys.
Speaking of toys. I think that I have picked up toys on a constant basis for the past 4 days. And done dishes. And picked up toys. And changed diapers. And picked up toys. And moved Legos off the table. And picked up toys. If there ever was any doubt, no I cannot be a stay at home mom. I sure hope Em knows what she is in for! It’s a good thing my kids are cute.

Random.
We spent a couple days of shutdown not doing anything newsworthy. Ran some errands, picked up more toys, did more dishes, got hair cuts, sold some baby stuff (gumtree is fun!), watched some movies at home, learned new magic tricks, talked about not kissing girls until you’re 18 about 100 times (really need to be more selective about what I allow Ty to watch on TV), did some work to try to clean up my inbox, took naps. It was just what we needed to unwind a bit.

Bundy.
We are now on the road head for a little mini vacation to the Bundaberg area. We are staying in Bargara for 3 nights and are going to hopefully watch some sea turtles hatch Thursday night. I can remember watching documentaries on this awesome natural event when I was a kid – can’t wait to see it live! We don’t have plans other than that, so we have no idea where we will end up the next few days. Should be an adventure!

G’day mates!