Micah Joben Taulelei and Oriana Hanako Teuila Taulelei

Happy 4th Birthday Micah!

2012-02-06T12:48:00.000+11:00

It still hasn't sunk in that our little boy is 4 years old and that he'll be going to school next year!! This year, we were going to go to Splash Planet for his birthday but when we decided 3 weeks before his birthday that Mark and Micah would join in on Israel's trip instead, we had to rush and try and organise a birthday party for him.

Since he now has some mates from preschool, we decided to have a separate party in the morning for his friends and then invite the family and family friends in the afternoon. Not sure why we made that decision, but it sounded like a good one at the time.

Unfortunately we didn't consult Micah about this and so when his friends arrived in the morning for the party, he ran into his room, took his pants off and hopped into bed. Horrified, I tried and tried to conjole him out of his room and to come and play with his friends but to no avail. Obviously Micah subscribes to the philosophy that 'It's my party and I can sleep when I want to...". So his little friends spent about 30 mins playing on their own until Micah decided to make the grand entrance and away we went.

Funnily enough, the kids did end up playing mostly in Micah's room and in his bed so he got his way after all.

Next year, we're definitely going away on a holiday....because it took us all about 3 days to recover from having 2 parties in 1 day!!

Happy Birthday son!

Splash Planet

2012-01-28T12:36:00.000+11:00

This year, Micah and Mark took a boys trip away and joined in on Israel's Birthday NZ tour. When one of the Taulelei boys turn 10, it's tradition that they get to go on a trip of their choice and have the 'man talk' with their dad. When Xander turned 10, he went on a trip to the Gold Coast with Joe and we met up with them there. Last year when Israel turned 10, he decided on a NZ road trip and so Mark and Micah met up with them on the last stop - Splash Planet! Just so happened that Walter and Lilly also went along and so did Xander, Ethan, Leigh and Bill (Leigh's brother).
I stayed behind in Wellington with Oriana (the thought of putting on swimming togs didn't really appeal to me so I used the excuse of "Oriana's too young to travel" to get out of going! lol).

But it looks like they all had a great time and all the kids came back happy and very well tanned!

Micah's first play date

2012-01-22T12:54:00.001+11:00

Micah had his very first play date today. I tell you, this is a whole different world for us! We invited his friend Saskia to come over to play for a couple of hours. Everyone pitched in and got up early to clean up the house. Papa cleaned up the outside, Mark and I set up the toys and cleaned up the house and Nana baked choc chip cookies. A lot of effort but we wanted to make a good first impression!

The backyard looked like it could have been a daycare facility! lol

We all had a great time - Saskia is a bright, intelligent and wonderfully behaved little girl - oh so different from our Micah! ha,ha For lunch, she only wanted to eat carrots and apple while Micah only wanted his cheese toastie. Then when asked what movie they wanted to watch, he wanted Bambi and she wanted to watch Kung Fu Panda....what the hey? lol

She got on brilliantly with Micah and before we knew it, it was time to go home. We all had a great time and now everyone is having naps!!

Happy Belated Birthday Uncle Matt!

2012-01-01T14:53:00.000+11:00

Ooops Sorry Uncle Matt, we forgot to wish you a hip hip hooray happy birthday and an even fabulous New Year.
I know it's like a month late, but if it makes you feel any better, we're planning to send you and Rach a care package with some kiwi goodies for your birthdays!!!

Yippeeee.....hope you had an awesome day!!

What a skux! :)

Micah's Prize giving

2011-12-30T14:31:00.000+11:00

This is a picture of Micah's preschool class. Can you see him in the middle there with his happy face on? LOL

I asked him later on why he was so grumpy and he just shrugged his shoulders. The friends that he plays with the most are Saskia (blonde girl - second from the left, back row) and Arnav (boy with the blue top sitting on the middle chair, front row).

Before preschool broke up for the holidays, they held a little prizegiving and all the kids got certificates for achieving something this year.

Micah got a certificate for his wild imagination. Every time he goes to school, he pretends to be either somebody else (e.g. Isla or Lilly) or an animal (e.g. dinosaur or doggie). It's gotten to the point where the kids ask him who he is when he arrives at school and then they all play along!

This year, Micah also received a special certificate for being kind and caring towards others. His teachers said that he always goes out of his way to make the new kids at school feel welcome. I think this probably comes from the time that he spends playing with Isla and being aware of someone that is younger than he is.

Merry Christmas from us to you!

2011-12-25T14:54:00.000+11:00

Summer is here

2011-12-13T13:36:00.003+11:00

Wow, all of a sudden the temperature has been hitting the mid 20s here in Wellington. I never thought it would come but yep, summer is finally here. I think I prefer summer in Wellington over the sweltering heat in Sydney. At least here you can go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. In Sydney, we tended to stay indoors most of the time because it was just TOO hot!

So with summer comes lots of time to play outside. Micah loves it when Isla comes over for play dates. They really are tight as two peas in a pod.....most of the time. They do have their battles as well but most of the time they enjoy each other's company.

Last week they were playing with the hose filling up buckets of water for their swimming pool. I felt so sorry for them trying to swim in their budget pools that I went out and bought them a secondhand paddling pool off TradeMe.

Fun, fun, fun!

With their budget bucket pools

Rub a dub dub two monkeys in tubs

Yippee, upgraded to a real paddling pool

Ooh and off come the clothes

Through Micah's Eyes

2011-11-30T12:44:00.000+11:00

Micah is a budding photographer. He loves to grab the digital camera and take snaps of different things around the house or when we’re out and about. I think some of them are kinda artistic...if you look really closely! :)

Here are a collection of photos that he’s taken recently.

Really proud of him for taking this photo!

Classic photo of Aunty Lagi and Isla

Getting carried away with the zoom feature here!

I love this one of Isla - the expression on her face is like she's been caught in the act...which kinda
doesn't surprise me considering some of the stuff Micah and her get up to!

There are literally 100's of photos of Micah's feet...had to delete 50 the other day
to free up some memory on the camera! :)

Taupo Bike Race

2011-11-26T12:51:00.000+11:00

On the weekend of the 25-26th November, Mark took part in the Cycle around Taupo Challenge. The bike race is about 180 kms long and covers lots of hills and long stretches of Highway 1. Considering he did NO training whatsoever, Mareko did pretty well - almost 70 kms before throwing in the towel. On his team were Joe, Mark Lerwill, Ioasa Kosena and his fiance Jess Jones. They had a really funny team name:
"On ya Marks, get Jess....Joe". Ioasa was a late addition to their team. He rocked up on the day before and signed up!

The supporter crew stayed at in 5 star accommodation on the top of Acacia Bay. Was so flash that we didn't leave the house the whole time we were there...even forgetting to cheer on the team! ha,ha

Unfortunately, we forgot our camera at home so only have some copies of the official pics.

Mark cycling up the biggest hill ever!

Ioasa

Joe

Jess

Mark Lerwill - he really looks the part!

Halloween

2011-11-18T09:02:00.000+11:00

This was the first year that we did anything for Halloween. Because we lived in an apartment block in Sydney, we didn't have any trick or treaters coming to our door, so this year we made sure that we were prepared with a large bowl of candy...and then we took off and left Nana at home! lol

We actually headed into town to take part in the Halloween Party that was held at Civic Square. We met up with Isla (aka Angelina Ballerina) and had lots of fun. Micah really loved riding the Dragon rollercoaster.

When we got home Nana said that she had 3 visitors come by....so we all had to eat the rest of the candy - which took us about 3 weeks! :)

Oriana aka Christmas Grinch

A Good Big Brother

2011-11-11T08:54:00.000+11:00

Micah adores his little sister. Before Oriana was born, we were a bit worried about how Micah would react to having a new baby in the house. But he has adjusted fabulously and is very kind and gentle towards her.

One morning, I asked Micah to ‘look after’ Oriana while I went to the bathroom. Imagine my surprise when I got back to find that he had propped the iPad in her Moses basket so that they could watch whales together. I asked him what happened and he said “Oriana was crying so I helped her”. Too precious!

Oriana's Operation

2011-11-01T15:28:00.000+11:00

Oriana was born with a little skin tag on her ear. The doctors recommended that it be removed when she is still young so that she won't remember the procedure. When I asked the paediatrician what a skin tag was, he told me that it was a remnant from when we used to have gills.......HEY? lol

We were told that she would have to wait until she was at least 6 months old because of the long waiting list for elective surgeries. Fortunately when Oriana was 4 months old we were told that she could have her operation if we were willing to travel to Kenepuru Hospital.

So early in the morning at 7 am, we took her into the hospital for the operation. We were so fortunate to have Narko as our anaethetist which put us somewhat at ease. The whole operation took about an hour. The hardest part was that Oriana had to fast before the operation so you can imagine how cranky she was when she woke up. She had a few little stitches which have completely healed leaving a very little scar. She was a brave little girl!

Grumpy bums - too early in the morning

At the last minute, we realised that we hadn't taken a photo of the skin tag!
This is a bit blurry but you can see the skin tag just in front of her ear.

Mama's brave girl

One last cuddle before the operation

Airplane Crazy

2011-10-30T13:20:00.000+11:00

A year on and Micah is still mad about airplanes. Luckily we don't live far from the airport because he could quite happily hang out at the airport all day watching airplanes land and take off.
He also loves watching airplane videos on YouTube. Fortunately there are lots of people who also enjoy watching airplanes and have loaded up 100's of videos!

He has quite a big collection of airplanes now - thanks to Mama who spends a lot of time on TradeMe looking for cheap planes. His favourites are Qantas, Air NZ, Jet Star, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, KLM, Lufthansa, Virgin and the All Blacks plane.

If you're wondering what to get him for Christmas, you can't go wrong with an airplane!

Rugby World Cup 2011

2011-09-16T15:40:00.000+10:00

Our family had a lot of fun during the Rugby World Cup. We decorated our house and put up lots of flags along our fence. Micah soon learnt how to recognise the different country flags and whenever we were out and about he would call out all the flags that were on cars that we saw driving around.

His favourite flag is the All Blacks flag (of course) but he also likes the Samoan flag, the American flag, the NZ flag and the Australian flag. He knows that the NZ flag has red stars and the Australian one has white stars.

MICAH'S FIRST RUGBY GAME

Micah was so excited when we told him we had tickets to attend the Fiji vs South Africa game.

At first he wanted to support the Fiji team, but then when he saw that the SA flag was bigger, he decided tha South Africa was his team!

We love the All Blacks but our second favourite team was the Manu Samoa. When they played Fiji in the pool matches, our whole family got together to have a big lunch before we went down to watch the game. We all painted our faces and Uncle Joe bought some silly wigs for some of us to wear. Micah didn’t want to get his face painted but he put on a wig instead.

The weather wasn’t very nice so instead of going down to the FanZone as we had planned, we went down to the local pub instead to watch the game.

After about 5 minutes, Micah was more interested in eating chips than he was with watching the game!!

GOOOO THE ALL BLACKS!

On the day of the RWC final, we all wore All Black tattoos on our faces—even little Oriana! We then went out shopping at the mall and everyone commented on our cool tattoos.

We put Micah to be early that night so that the grown-ups could watch the game, but he must have known something was up because he woke up again at 8.45 pm just in time for the kick-off!

We let him stay up to watch the game in his pyjamas and when the All Blacks performed the haka, he got up and announced “I’m the captain” pointing at Richie McCaw. We then spent most of the game looking out for No.7.

By the end when they had won, Mama was very excited but all Micah said was ‘Can we go to bed now?’ :)

Welcome Luca Tolovae Ichiro Auva'a

2011-09-01T15:10:00.000+10:00

Yippeee, someone else to share a September birthday with me. Lagi, Tolly and Isla welcome baby brother Luca to the world on the 1st September. He's such a good baby and has a very mellow temperment. Unlike his cousin Oriana who likes to inform the whole neighbourhood when she is hungry or tired or needs her nappy changed. Luca has the softest, cutest cry and Papa and Nana are always fighting over who gets to hold him!

Wax On, Wax Off

2011-08-20T15:05:00.000+10:00

Any sign of sun and Micah is outside playing - usually with the hose, so this time we gave him the task of washing the car. And what better way to do it but in your undies and gumboots. Such a stylish boy...wonder who he takes after? :)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2011-08-14T15:36:00.000+10:00

Who would have believed it, snow in Wellington for the first time in decades. Here's the evidence:

Nana's birthday

2011-08-09T15:00:00.000+10:00

Another year, another birthday for Nana. June, July, August, September are going to be busy, busy months from now on filled with lots of birthday parties.

Nana and her 3 grandkids - with one more to come!

Nana doesn't even get to open her own present...

Or blow her own candles! ha,ha

A little star is born

2011-06-20T12:48:00.000+10:00

On the 20th of June at 10.55 am, our little princess was born weighing in at 3.4 kgs. We named her Oriana Hanako Teuila Taulelei.

She made a memorable entrance, with a few complications and scares, but all that has been forgotten. Not sure if that has to do with the lack of sleep or because with one brillant smile, she makes it all worthwhile.

Where has the time gone?

2011-06-15T12:45:00.000+10:00

Hmm...2 weeks before Christmas and it finally dawns on me that I haven't updated the blog in over 6 months! A lot can happen in 6 months and I was on the verge of throwing in the towel and starting all over again in the new year. However, looking back on all the old entries, it occurs to me that this blog is a fairly good record of events and activities over time. So wish me luck as I try to 'rewrite history' and summarize what we've been up to in the last 6 months!

Karate Kid IV?

2011-06-14T10:12:00.003+10:00

My little Karate Kid is growing up. We took these photos the other day when Mom found her Japanese bandana and we had to coax Micah to wear it. Mark showed him some moves but unfortunately I didn't get them on video.

Making smoothies for dessert

2011-06-12T10:03:00.002+10:00

The only way to get Micah to eat any fruit is to make it into a smoothie. He's a really fussy eater and doesn't like to eat any veges or fruit or anything remotely 'natural'. Must run in the male side of the family because Isla is a remarkably good eater. She'll happily eat broccoli or carrots or peas or anything you put in front of her. I remember Mom had a hard time getting Matt to eat veges too! So making smoothies has become a family affair most nights.

Winter is here!

2011-06-10T09:16:00.004+10:00

Winter has well and truly arrived in Wellington with lots of rain and cold weather.

We stayed the weekend at Aunty Lagi and Uncle Tolly's place and when we woke up in the morning, the car park was flooded. But Micah loved it! He loved splashing in the water in his gumboots and making boats out of sticks. Took us a while to drag him away. Gotta make the most of it I suppose - there's a silver lining in every rain cloud! :)

Micah starts Preschool

2011-06-09T09:54:00.002+10:00

Last month, Micah started at the St Mark's Preschool and attends 3 days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday). St Mark's is Daddy's old primary school and Micah thinks it's pretty neat that there is a school named after his dad!

It took him about a week to settle in. On his first couple of days there were lots of tears when we dropped him off. But now he's quite happy to go. His start coincided perfectly with Mark starting his new job so now I have 3 days a week to relax and watch Oprah. Yeah right!

The pic above is taken from Micah's weekly newsletter. It shows him and some of the other kids peeking over the fence to watch the cars come out of the Mt Victoria tunnel. His teachers told me that they were amazed that Micah knew most of the brand names of cars. His favourite of course is 'Mitsubishi' but he also knows that Nana drives a Honda, Aunty Lagi drives a Toyota and Uncle Joe drives a Subaru. Daddy, of course, catches 'the bus'!! ha,ha

Everyone's a comic in this family

2011-06-08T09:02:00.002+10:00

Mom's answer to my request for her to label her containers! ha,ha

What I got for Mother's Day

2011-06-08T08:57:00.002+10:00

I loaded this video up on Facebook a while back so most of you will have already seen it. This is really for Mom because she doesn't log into Facebook alot and has been bugging me about loading it on the blog!

Spending time with the grandparents

2011-05-11T10:05:00.002+10:00

Micah and Isla enjoy spending time with Nana and Papa. Most Saturdays Micah goes to church with them.
Now that I'm over 8 months pregnant, it's nice to be able to relax and tell Micah to go and play with Papa or Nana. Micah loves reading books or showing airplanes on the iPad to Nana. He'll usually say to Nana "Come on Nana, let's go" and hop in her bed. Sometimes when I go to check on him he'll say "Go away Mama...go see Daddy". Love it!!
Papa sometimes takes Micah to the airport to watch the airplanes come in. After that they go watch the ferry come in.
I think he's about ready for some sleep overs! hahahaha

Story time with Papa - good to see they are all colour coordinated! :)

Bath time with Nana

Recipe for baking powder coated chicken wings

2011-05-07T07:24:00.003+10:00

Every Friday, we usually try to get together for a family dinner. Lagi and I try to cook so that the food is ready by the time Mom gets home from work.

Lagi [whilst making the potato salad]: "Good thing you know how to do the chicken wings. I haven't done them before"
Sachi: "How hard can it be it's just cornflour"

5 minutes later whilst cooking the chicken wings.

Sachi: "Hmm, these don't look the same...maybe the oil is too hot. Maybe I'll drain the oil and start again"

Mom arrives home and luckily has brought a second batch of chicken wings so I am able to start all over again.

20 minutes later, food is ready and we're all ready to eat.

Dad: "Yeeehaaa, chicken wings for dinner"
Micah and Isla take one bite of their chicken wings and then start shaking their heads "No more, no more"
Mark: "Hmm...these taste a bit salty"
Lagi: "Maybe the cornflour is a bit off? Or a different brand?"
Sachi: "Nah, I'm sure it's the oil....I used the cornflour that Mom always uses from the red container"
Mom: "RED CONTAINER?!?!?!?!? RED CONTAINER?!???! That's BAKING POWDER"
Everybody: "Uuugh, yuck" spit, spit, cough, cough

Mark starts googling baking powder poisoning whilst everyone else just eats potato salad.
Sachi: "Well, good thing Lagi made dessert too..." ahahahahahahahaha [which was yummy scrummy by the way].

Disclaimer: A month ago, I said to Mom "Why don't any of your containers have labels?" We had been baking something and I didn't know where the baking powder was. Mom's response was "Why should they have labels when I know exactly what is in there". Now we know why labels come in handy...when Mom's not cooking!!!
Maybe this will get me out of cooking for the next couple of months..... :)

Catch up entry: Micah's first bowling game

2011-04-27T11:48:00.004+10:00

Every time Uncle Joe gets the boys (Xander and Israel) for the weekend, we try to do something together with them. They decided to go bowling and this was the first time Micah had tried it. He just barely fit into the smallest sized shoes that they had and took a while getting used to the feel of them.

He had a great time! The funniest thing was that he ended up beating all of them - Uncle Joe, Daddy, Israel and Xander. Mind you, he didn't have to do much as he was able to use the ramp and the gutter guards were up so he didn't get gutter balls. He didn't even have to carry his own ball to the ramp. However towards the end of the game as the boys could see that Micah was winning, the help slowly started to dry up! ha,ha

He ended up with his first score of 89 and while we were all marvelling at his effort, he was too busy trying to get his bowling shoes off so he could run around at Junglerama on the other side of the building!! lol

Maybe Micah can join Uncle Matt's bowling league in a couple of years and get some bowling tips from Maddy. Too bad there's not much money in bowling....or is there?

Catch up entry: The Mouse vs Mark & Dad

2011-04-25T10:15:00.001+10:00

We have a little mouse that lives in our house. Its very small but very crafty. Dad has tried several times to catch it with a variety of different mouse traps...but to no avail. So Mark did what he does best and looked up on Google to find out the best way to catch a mouse. The end result was hilarious and you had to see it to believe it. Needless to say, it didn't work and the mouse is still roaming free! I know because I'm the one that usually spots it while I'm watching TV at night!!
Mom reckons that the mouse has shown that he's too smart and deserves to stay alive. Hmmm...yeah ok, anyone have any bright ideas on how to catch a mouse?

The scoreboard showing how the mouse is winning

Mark's super amazing mouse trap (that doesn't work)

The theory is that the mouse will be attracted by the peanut butter at the end of the bottle. It will use the boxes or in phase 2 Mark built a little ramp for the mouse to go up the to the bottle. It will climb onto the bottle neck to get to the peanut butter and then slip on the butter falling into the bucket of water - where it will either swim for hours or drown.

Yep, we all had a laugh at this contraption. Poor Mark had to endure jibes such as "Oh the mouse told me to thank you for his playground - he had a lot of fun on it last night" lol

Catch up entry: Daddy's Backyard

2011-04-24T10:01:00.000+10:00

When we first moved into the house, one of the first things that we wanted to do was fix up the backyard. The previous owners had two large garden beds that took up most of the space in the backyard. We did think about continuing on with the gardening tradition, but since none of us were born with green thumbs we decided to remove the garden beds and replace with grass so the kids could run around on it and kick the ball (well, that was the plan...still hasn't really happened yet...lol).
So Mark did a lot of research.....on YouTube....on how to lay grass. One weekend in Feb, he and Papa spent 2 days tearing down the garden beds and digging up the old grass.

Was really proud of my husband as he's not really the 'handyman' type but becoming a homeowner has changed all that. He worked out that using a big plank of wood is just as good to level out the soil as hiring one of the rolling machines. Just takes 4 times as long and kills your back! lol
The finished job is a piece of art...now on to fixing the window...:)

A before shot of the backyard with one of the garden beds removed
Using a laupapa to even out the soil

Surveying his work....can still see a few lumps and bumps

The finished product...now we need to water the grass for 14 days straight

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-23T10:00:00.001+10:00

We had a great time catching up with Sonny and Birgit and the kids as well as Uncle Semu, Aunty Etty and Rosita at lunch yesterday. There was a lot of yummy food and Birgit made FIVE desserts! Yum, yum!
Afterwards we had an Easter Egg Hunt in the park down the road. The kids had a lot of fun and came away with loads of chocolate eggs.
Mom and Dad were so exhausted that they were both in bed by 7 pm!

Gorgeous Isla ready to hunt for some eggs

Can I have this one too?

Happy Easter weekend!

2011-04-22T08:59:00.004+10:00

Ok so it's been 2 months since my last post and a lot has happened since then. Been a challenge to update the blog as every time I hop on the computer a little boy finds me, jumps on my lap and wants to watch airplanes crash on YouTube...and that's another story for another posting!!

Today is Easter Friday here in NZ and we're kickstarting the festivities with lunch and Sonny and Birgit's house at 1 pm. Mom has been up since 7 am cooking pineapple chicken and fried chicken wings and Dad is in the kitchen making taro and fa'i fa'alifu. I offered to help but all I got given was to chop up the chicken wings and then spent the rest of the morning eating mom's choc chip cookies...ahhhh the life! ha,ha

Last night Isla and Lagi came over and Mom gave them their Lindt Easter eggs complete with bunny ears. So of course that was a perfect opportunity for a photo shoot...but the kids had other ideas. Mostly refusing to smile and not wanting to have their ears on at the same time.

The weather is pretty sad and dreary this long weekend so we're not sure what we'll be doing. But if it rains, it'll be the perfect chance to update the blog with what we've been up to...fingers crossed!!

Happy Easter weekend everyone!

Micah is 3!!

2011-02-07T11:12:00.003+11:00

Micah Joben Taulelei is now 3 years old. I always remember Matt saying to us in Las Vegas that it gets fun after 3 and I think he's right. Micah is a lot of fun to be around and has his own funny sense of humour.

Yesterday we had his birthday party. The weather was a bit cloudy and drizzly but that didn't stop us from having fun.

The great thing about being back in Wellington is that we get lots of help from everyone to throw the party. We have so many people to thank for helping out!

Uncle Joe made the birthday cake (an awesome Micah Air airplane)
Aunty Leigh made two scrumptious salads
Uncle Walter helped cart over the tables and chairs and brought all the bread rolls for the day. It turns out that he also cooked the BBQ while Daddy Mark enjoyed a whooole lot of beer! :)
Uncle Tolly and Aunty Lagi organised the fantastic party games which all the kids loved and Aunty Lagi also made the oka (yum, yum)
Grandma Isa made the chop suey and taro (yum, yum, yum)
Nana Michi made fried chicken wings and macaroni salad (yep, triple yum again)
Aunty Ngaire and Uncle Mark brought the ice cream\
Uncle Ku brought a case of wine
Aunty Birgit made a yummy caramel crumble and
Papa helped us clean up around the house and make sure everything was nice and tidy

It was a pretty busy day so I didn't get to take too many photos. The ones I did take were of the kids games that Lagi organised. They were the highlight of the day and had everyone in hysterics. I've loaded more of the pics on Facebook so check them out.

We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day - including the birthday boy. Micah got some great pressies and I'll have to send out the thank you cards to thank everyone for their generosity.

Can't believe our little boy is 3!!!

Good morning birthday boy!!

Paper planes decorated the house

Cute Isla in her party dress

Israel playing darts

The birthday cake baked by Uncle Joe

Lilly and Uncle Walter

The boys

Happy Birthday Aunty Rachel

2011-02-02T06:00:00.000+11:00

A big hip hip hooray and Happy Birthday to Aunty Rachel who is celebrating an important milestone. You certainly prove that things only get better with age :)
Hope you celebrate your day in style and enjoy your trip to Hawaii next month.

Sending much love from your family from Wellington
xxxx

Nana's glasses

2011-01-22T08:28:00.002+11:00

Both Isla and Micah like to play with Nana's reading glasses. Luckily she has 2 or 3 pairs so there's always a spare pair lying around for the grandkids to pull and push and almost break. Whenever Micah goes into Nana's room, he either wants to lie in her bed or put her glasses on his head. We had a bit of fun taking some photos with Nana and her mischievous grandson.

Seatoun Beach

2011-01-20T07:24:00.006+11:00

Last week Jo and her girls Faith and Lourdes came to visit. After pigging out on the morning tea goodies that Lagi pulled together, we decided to go down to Seatoun Beach for the afternoon. It was another beautiful sunny warm (surprise, surprise!) Wellington day.
Seatoun Beach is perfect for the kids because right next to the beach is a playground.

Matt, here's even more reason why you guys need to move home!! :)

Read a book Nana?

2011-01-17T08:00:00.000+11:00

Imagine my surprise when looking for Micah, I walked into Nana's room and saw them both in bed as cosy as two peas in a pod.
Apparently Micah had seen Nana reading her book in bed and then had taken off to get his own book and climb in with her.
Soooo cute! Although after I took the photo, Micah climbed out and took off again. Glad I was able to capture the moment at least!!!

Fish n Chips at Petone Beach

2011-01-16T08:48:00.000+11:00

The weather has been so great in Wellington lately. I think we decided to move over just in time as there has been lots of rain in Australia of late.
We are currently house-sitting in Petone at Walter and Rachel's house so on our way over one day, the whole family decided to come have fish n chips for dinner at Petone beach.
Was a beautiful evening and the grandkids got lots of play time with Nana and Papa.
Its good to be home!!

Isla loves playing with Micah's hair. Micah is not loving it so much though...lol

Isla, very pleased with herself! lol

Nice pic of Papa :)

Family day out at Staglands

2011-01-14T10:27:00.004+11:00

I think the last time we went out to Staglands was when Maddy was here - which was like 4 or 5 years ago. The place hasn't changed one bit and it was interesting to see Micah run around as he would have been the same age as Maddy at that time.

Was a really lovely day. Had totally forgotten about how long it takes to drive out there from the city. Will have to remember to take some junk food to eat in the car next time we go!!

Hair today, gone tomorrow

2011-01-12T10:03:00.001+11:00

One of the good things about our new place in Strathmore is that there are shops just up the road. One of them is a barber so not long after we moved in, Mark took Micah up the road to get a hair cut. As usual his mop had grown uncontrollable and he was in need of a cut.

From the pics though, he looks a lot happier before than after!!! lol

BEFORE

AFTER

Belated Happy Birthday to Uncle Matt

2011-01-11T09:26:00.006+11:00

Happy Birthday Uncle Matt. Sorry this is like 11 days late. We were thinking of you on the day and Mom made cupcakes which we all devoured in 2 minutes flat. Micah had 3 and a half and would have gone for more if we had let him.

Here's a little video recording of our little celebration for you. Micah was more than happy to stand in for you! Sorry, it's a bit blurry at times, the videographer's hand was a bit shaky! :)

Sending much love to you bro - your aiga in Uelegitone xxx

My baby is a little boy now

2010-09-07T10:47:00.002+10:00

Some of you may know that I was in Wellington recently for 10 days without Micah. For those of you who have ever been away from their child for an extended period of time (aka Matt!), you'll understand when I say that when you see your child again, you notice all the subtle little changes that have occurred whilst you were away.

Micah and Mark surprised me by meeting me at the airport, and I immediately noticed that he had changed a lot in the 10 days.

I had forgotten what a beautiful boy he is and how much I had missed his cheeky smiles. He had grown taller and was definitely a little boy rather than the baby that I had left behind. Must be because I had always seen him that way, but with a little distance for perspective, I can now appreciate the little boy that he has grown into.

He now talks a lot more and likes to engage in a conversation now.

And he has grown a lot closer to his dad - no longer wanting all my attention, he's quite happy to spend time with Dad now.

My little baby is fast growing up. Better appreciate every growing moment while I can!

A Father's Day to Remember

2010-09-05T22:21:00.006+10:00

"Shall I wake him up?" Micah contemplates whether to wake up his Daddy

Wake up Daddy! Happy Father's Day!

Ok time for pancakes now!

A Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there - especially Papa Mano'o, Uncle Matt, Uncle Tolly, Grandpa Taulelei, Uncle Sam, Uncle Walter and Uncle Joe. Micah is so lucky to have so many wonderful male role models in his life.

Our day today started off really well. Micah slept in which meant that we got out of bed around 9 am. Then it was pancakes for breakfast and then we gave Daddy his Father's Day gifts - a CD and DVD plus chocolates and twisties from NZ.

Then we headed off to the zoo and spent the day in the sun looking at the giraffes, elephants, seals and gorillas. Micah saw a "Big Daddy Gorilla" and learnt how to pound his chest with his fists.

After the zoo, Micah fell asleep in the car so we decided to stop off at a factory warehouse not far from our house. Mark needed some new trousers for work so we thought we'd pop in quickly to one of the outlets. Whilst Mark was inside, I stayed in the car with Micah until he woke up about 10 mins later. He wanted to go inside so I quickly locked the car and took him out to see his Daddy. We were only in the shop for about 10 mins and when we came back outside, we returned to see a smashed car window and my bag stolen from the front of the car (where I had unsuccessfully tried to hide it under a jacket).

I feel really stupid for leaving it in the car like that - but I thought it would be ok since we were only going to be in the shop for a very short time. WRONG! Anyway, a very expensive lesson to learn. We quickly came home to cancel all my cards and my phone. About 5 mins later, the store rang to say that they had found my bag with all it's contents (minus my wallet) dumped around the corner. Fortunately we were able to cancel everything in time and I had absolutely no money in my wallet.

The other thing that was stolen was our camera which had some lovely photos taken this morning of Mark and Micah. Luckily I had downloaded most of the photos before we left - but all our zoo pics and some great father & son pics are now gone forever.

So, we won't be able to update the blog with pics until we get a replacement. In the meantime, we'll try to use Mark's iPhone and some of the other pics that I downloaded before it was stolen.

So that was a bit of a damper to an otherwise great Father's day. The other downer is that my birthday money will now have to go to pay for a replacement car window. Boo hoo hoo :(

Red Stop, Green Go

2010-07-06T13:30:00.005+10:00

Like every little boy, Micah loves riding his bike. Across the street from us is the Road Education area that has an area that has little roads and street lights made especially for kids to ride their bikes on.

It's usually packed in the weekends and gets really chaotic with kids of all sizes riding their bikes, scooters and anything with wheels! Micah can't reach the pedals of his bike yet so he scoots around with his legs.

He's really fascinated with traffic lights and knows that Red means Stop, Yellow means Slow and Green means Go. The funniest thing is that when he sees a red light, he'll stop wherever he is (even if it's quite a way away from the traffic light). And then when it goes green, by the time he gets to the light, it'll turn red again. He's very patient though and waits patiently for the lights to change.

By the end of the hour or so that we're there, he's usually exhausted and ready for his afternoon nap.

Great to have such facilities just across the road from us. Perfect for a little boy with lots of energy!!

Stopping because he sees the red light....5 metres away

Man, that light takes ages to go green!

Come on...come on...

And then by the time he gets to the light, it goes red again...

Waiting patiently...again

And he's off

Zoom zoom

Pitstop - time to refuel

Getting lost and ending up at the Featherdale Wildlife Park

2010-07-04T12:36:00.004+10:00

Last weekend we headed off to the Inner West to visit the City Farm. However we got lost along the way because we had no map and no GPS. So we were driving around aimlessly when we saw signs for the Featherdale Wildlife Park and so decided to go there instead.
It was pretty awesome. There were kangaroos (or where they wallabies?!?) that were wandering around the park so you could go up and feed them and pet them. Micah had a blast.

So I guess it was worth getting lost in the end because we had a great day after all!

Micah petting a wallaby

Scared of the big emu that was approaching from the right

Anyone seen Micah?

An albino kangaroo

Botanical Gardens

2010-06-16T08:15:00.003+10:00

Monday was a public holiday in Sydney - Queen's Birthday. It was a lovely warm day, so we decided to head down to the Botanical Gardens for the day. Micah ran around for ages and was so exhausted that he had a really good sleep when we got home.

A perfect way to spend the day in Sydney.

Bit too slow to catch Micah's side step!

We caught the scenic train around the gardens

Sydney Wildlife Park

2010-06-14T15:46:00.005+10:00

Bit late updating the blog again! Last weekend, we bought a annual pass to the Aquarium which includes the Sydney Wildlife Park, so that's where we went on Sunday. Was better than I expected and Micah loved all the bugs and creepy crawlies. I think we'll be frequenting these places quite a lot as like every little boy, Micah is pretty animal mad at the moment.

"Are you ok down there Daddy?"

Butterfly exhibit

Was surprised that Micah wasn't afraid of the snake

Crocodile

Get up and jump please kangaroos!

Micah had heaps of fun climbing all over the exhibits

Nice pic of the boys

Mark clowning around

Shopping in Style

2010-05-27T10:07:00.004+10:00

On a trip to the the Coles in Surry Hills we discovered that they had minature shopping trolleys for kids. They're soooo cute and just the right size for a two year old. Only problem is that Micah won't let us put anything in his trolley - its strictly only for pushing around!

Sometimes when it's raining and we're bored we go to the supermarket just so he can push the trolley around for a bit of entertainment (sad, I know...but true! lol). So far there haven't been any tantrums when we have to return it!

D for Gog

2010-05-25T09:38:00.004+10:00

For his birthday, Micah received an alphabet book by Eric Carle from his Aunty Lagi. From that he learnt the alphabet fairly quickly - both capital letters and small letters. He's amazed us with how quickly he seems to have absorbed it. He loves reading signs on the street and anywhere he encounters letters.
He cracks us up all the time with his pronunciation and also how he'll say "D - Gog" - even though he can say 'D' perfectly well. Sames goes with 'M' - he can say Mama or Mommy and M but when it comes to say his name, it's still 'Dadah'.
He can also count from 1 to 10 and is picking up new words every day. Drives me nuts sometimes because he'll repeat the same thing over and over and over and over and over again until we acknowledge him. ANNOYING! lol
I laughed the most today when I heard him say in a very authoritative voice today - "Daddy sit down". Yep, you can tell who's the boss around here.

Have you missed us?

2010-05-23T19:29:00.005+10:00

Can't believe it's been over 3 months since my last post. Where has the time gone? A lot to catch up on and I thought this clip was the most appropriate to start off with considering the last post I made was about Micah's birthday.

Last week Micah came home singing 'Happy Birthday' or rather "Happy to you" as he calls it. Turns out there has been a spate of birthdays at childcare recently so the song was sung constantly over the last few weeks.

So I thought it might be fun to do our own little birthday ceremony at home since we didn't really have anything for Micah's birthday. I bought a few muffins from the supermarket and some candles and we had our own little party after dinner last week. Micah thought it was great fun and we had to do it over and over again. At the end of this clip you'll hear Micah telling Daddy to go back and light the candles again (well, he doesn't actually say that but you get the gist from his hand actions!).

Happy Birthday Micah!

2010-02-06T00:00:00.001+11:00

We can't believe that our little boy is 2 today! There's been so many reasons to celebrate and be greatful this weekend. The arrival of little Isla Michiko Auva'a; our 4th year wedding anniversary and Micah's 2nd birthday.

For many years to come, we'll always be eating cake and celebrating during these 2 days. Sounds good to me!!

Happy Birthday Micah - photos will be posted when we take some today!!

What does a dog say Micah?

2010-02-03T10:13:00.001+11:00

Happy Birthday Aunty Rachel

2010-02-02T07:17:00.001+11:00

Happy Birthday Aunty Rachel! Have an awesome day and hope Maddy and Matt spoil you with more than breakfast at IHOP!

Much love always, Sachi, Mark & Micah xxx

Micah fooling around with his Daddy

2010-02-01T00:00:00.002+11:00

Catching up with Tania and Nigel

2010-01-30T13:25:00.002+11:00

Last Sunday Nigel and Tania came to visit. We had our first BBQ in the back courtyard and had a lovely time catching up.

Nigel and Tans just got back from Thailand where they spent a week on holiday. Lucky for some! Micah enjoyed having company around even though it meant that he had to compete with Nigel for the breadsticks!!

A day at the beach

2010-01-27T10:19:00.002+11:00

There's no better way to spend a day off than at the beach. Sydney has so many beautiful beaches but Maroubra is one of our favourite places to go. Micah loves splashing in the water's edge and running away from the waves. I think he might grow up to be a surfie. That gives Daddy at least 3 years to learn how to surf so he can teach his son!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2010-01-26T08:15:00.003+11:00

It's Mark's birthday today and a public holiday in Australia. Mark and I had the day off yesterday and had an extra long weekend to celebrate. We called it our 'date day' since we still dropped Micah off at day care. Spent the day at the movies and watched 'Avatar' and had breakfast at Darling Harbour. Was a great day.
So today we're heading out to the zoo in the morning as a treat for Micah since we deserted him yesterday! ha,ha

Mark got his present last week since I was so excited that I had to give it to him straight away. He got an iPhone to replace his cruddy old mobile with buttons that didn't work. At least now he can't make an excuse about the phone not working when I call him! ha,ha

Micah and his shadow

2010-01-19T11:43:00.002+11:00

Last week Micah discovered his shadow. Not sure whether he knows what it is yet but he is really fascinated by it.

Wind in the Willows

2010-01-17T11:30:00.001+11:00

We got tickets to the Wind in the Willows play courtesy of Mark's work. It was held in the Sydney Botanical Gardens on Saturday night and was the perfect evening to be outdoors. We met Mark's work colleague Jehad who brought along his kids. Micah was a bit scared of the characters at first but soon got into it.

That's the great thing about Sydney - there are so many things on in the summer time. At the moment there are outdoor concerts on almost every night for the Sydney Festival.

Jehad and Micah

Jehad's children with some of the characters from the play

Playing on the stairs

2010-01-16T23:12:00.003+11:00

One of the pitfalls of having a place with stairs is that Micah loves playing on them! He's pretty good at going up and down now but we can't help but get nervous.

He invented a game of throwing his toy lawnmower down the stairs. In this clip I like how he does his 'sumo yell' before he pushes it down the stairs. The good thing about this game is that it wears him out after 10 or so trips up and down the stairs. Don't know where he gets his energy from!!

PS: Does anyone know where we can get him a slinky for his birthday?!? He'd LOVE playing with that on the stairs!!

Family funny faces

2010-01-13T12:20:00.001+11:00

Looks like we've got no clothes on in these pics but be assured that we do! ha,ha
Micah still has the best expressions of all!

Micah discovers our sunglasses

2010-01-12T12:16:00.000+11:00

First trying on Mama's

Yep, looks good

Now Daddy's

Bad boy look ruined by the thumb sucking!

Welcome to our new apartment

2010-01-10T23:53:00.006+11:00

Here's a little tour of our new place. Who is going to be the first to come and visit us??

Mark's computer area which is immediately to the right when you walk through the front door. You enter on the 2nd level of the apartment.

You then walk down a little corridor to the main bedroom

Our bedroom has an ensuite and a little enclosed balcony
You then walk down the stairs to the main living area

I have a little desk here for my computer (since I still work from home 1 day a week)

I loved the print/fabric that we bought for Lagi and Tolly last Christmas that we went back to Ikea and bought some more. Goes well with Mark's blue lounge suite!

There is another enclosed balcony at the front of the apartment which we have designated as Micah's play area.

This is also our dining table as we got rid of the old one that we had

The view back to the rear of the apartment from the front balcony

Micah's room is on the ground floor and opens up into the rear courtyard

Micah loves going outside now to play. He's got the best room in the house as it is very light and airy

We bought a BBQ from the previous tenants

Finally get to use our deck chairs properly!

Hot Summer

2010-01-10T13:21:00.004+11:00

Australia's been experiencing a heat wave for the last couple of days. It's 30 degrees today and it was 29 yesterday.
Luckily our new apartment has a courtyard in the back and usually has a lovely breeze so we can sit out the back and cool down. We've also been making good use of the complex pool.

Some photos of Micah and his Daddy chilling out back today.

Brewster finds a new owner

2010-01-03T08:32:00.002+11:00

Micah has claimed Brewster Bear as his own now. He has to take him to bed every night and when he gets up in the morning, Brewster gets up with him too.
However he isn't called Brewster anymore, it's 'Brown Bear' after the bear in the book. It's funny to see him try to sleep with Brewster because he'll try to lie on top of him - but because Brewster is so big, he ends up with half his body off the bed and his bum sticking up in the air. So eventually he ends up just putting his arm around him.

It's nice to see that he loves Brewster as much as I do.

Happy Birthday Uncle Matt!

2010-01-01T06:00:00.001+11:00

Happy Birthday and Happy New Years to Uncle Matt! Have an awesome day and hope you aren't too hung over to welcome in 2010!! Sending much alofas your way from your family in Sydney.

Hip hip hooray and happy new year to everyone else!!! xoxox

Sorting out shapes

2009-12-30T08:28:00.005+11:00

I mentioned earlier this week that Micah is really into his shape sorting and bead toys. We bought him a shape sorting toy when he was about a year old but he's only just starting to play with it now.

He also got a really flash VTEC one from Maddy, Uncle Matt and Aunty Rachel last year for Christmas. He loves how it plays music and names the colour or shape as you put the shape through the slot. I said before that he knows all the shapes and colours now but just to make me look bad, Micah completely played up when I was taking the video. He didn't want to cooperate so I gave up in the end!

Superman flies

2009-12-29T08:18:00.002+11:00

We bought Micah's Superman shirt when we were in the Gold Coast. This was the first time that he wore it and he looked really cute when he was on the swing and his cape was flying out behind him. He doesn't know who Superman is yet but I'm sure he'll be right into it like his Uncle Matt!!

Sliding down - fob styles

2009-12-28T07:34:00.003+11:00

For some reason, Micah prefers to slide down the asphalt on the SIDE of the slide instead of the slide itself. Looks like we're going to be investing in a lot of pants/shorts/nappies because Mark said that it really burns your bum as you come down. Luckily Micah has a thick nappy on so he doesn't feel it!

Move over Beckham

2009-12-27T07:29:00.001+11:00

Micah kicking the ball around in the park. This is the longest stint of time that he's kicked the ball non-stop so the clip does go on for a while....!

Christmas in the Park

2009-12-26T14:04:00.001+11:00

On Christmas morning, we headed over to the park to have a picnic. There were a few other families there as well. It was meant to rain in the afternoon so we decided to go in the morning before Micah's nap.

Was a nice way to spend Christmas but we still missed our families...and all the food that they must be having!!!

Off to the park with his two favourite things - Thomas the Tank
and his new caterpillar

Picnic in the park

This is how Superman flies!

Micah and the Caterpillar

2009-12-25T14:15:00.003+11:00

Micah playing with his new caterpillar stacking toy from BatGran.

He's really into his sorting and stacking toys now. Matt & Rach, he plays with the sorting toy that you got him last Christmas all the time and knows which shape goes in what hole and also the colours.

What Micah got for Christmas

2009-12-25T13:41:00.002+11:00

Micah is such a lucky, blessed boy. He had 4 gifts to open this morning (none from his parents...oops!).

Thank you to everyone for thinking of our boy and sending pressies. Thank you also in advance to his aunties and uncles whose gifts are still in the mail - it's always great to get New Years ones too!!! :) Our pressies to you are also in the mail... Santa was a bit late in picking them up this year!!!

His first gift was from Uncle Joe, Leigh, Ethan, Xander and Israel

It was a set of Disney board books.

The second gift was a book called 'The Cranky Bear' from
Uncle Sam, Aunty Dianne, Nathan and Elijah

His 3rd gift was from BatGran and Papa - Micah loved the wrapping paper!

It was a stacking caterpillar with rings.
He also got a Christmas Snow Dogs DVD - the sequel to his favourite dogs DVD!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

2009-12-24T21:06:00.002+11:00

Merry Christmas! It's very strange this year not being with family. It doesn't really feel like Christmas at all. Thank you BatGran for sending pressies which has made a difference.
We are definitely coming home for Christmas next year!!

The photos below are from last week when we went to Darling Harbour to listen to some Christmas carols and watch the fireworks. We were snapped by the official photographer who was wandering around - the photos were loaded on the Darling Harbour website. Daddy was getting our food so missed out.

Miss you all!! xxx

Merry Christmas from the Taulelei Elves

2009-12-22T22:41:00.004+11:00

Unfortunately this year we haven't been organised enough to send out Christmas cards to all our loved ones. So instead, we've created a video (using a free online service) for your viewing pleasure. Hope you laugh as much as Micah and Mark do whenever they watch it.

The video below is compressed so the quality isn't the greatest - to view a better version, visit:
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/v0XpFdnKuMOhwceWJ8z5

To all our friends and family all over the world, have a blessed, safe and wonderful Christmas. We wish we could be there to celebrate with you. We'll be there in spirit, especially when we're eating our fried chicken wings and potato salad!!

With much love, from the Sydney Tauleleis xoxoxoxo

Lagi's Funny Face

2009-12-17T11:56:00.002+11:00

Thanks to Mom for sending the photo of Aunty Lagi with her funny face. Yes, I can definitely see the resemblance with Micah. How old would Lagi have been here Mom?
But wait, who's that cute little girl...uh, I mean boy with the bowl haircut in the background?!? ha,ha

Visit to the zoo...again

2009-12-13T11:25:00.001+11:00

We decided to become a Zoo Friend this year which allows us unlimited visits to the zoo for a year. We figured that because Micah loves animals that we'll make a lot of visits. We only really have to go 3 times to make our money back.

Looks like the giraffe is eating Mark's cap!

We bought Micah a hat at the zoo and surprisingly, he kept it on most of the time!

Egg on Micah's face

2009-12-12T15:21:00.000+11:00

You may have noticed in the last post that Micah had a big lump on his forehead. This was from when I picked him up from daycare on Friday. The carer said that he had fallen off the slide and even though there was padding all around, his forehead swelled up.
Apparently he didn't cry at all (which I find very hard to believe) and he acted normal all day. I was a bit worried about concussion but when we got home, he didn't act any differently. Will still keep an eye on him though as it looks really sore.

I guess this is the first of many more bumps and bruises to come?!?

Funny Faces

2009-12-11T22:41:00.005+11:00

Micah and I like hamming it up for the camera. We're learning different emotions and faces and have a laugh when we see pictures of ourselves.

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last month. It's been super crazy at work so have been working late most nights. Will try to update the blog more often from now on!

"Ooooooooh you're in trouble now" face

"Hooray, Daddy just got home...and he brought KFC" face

"What you lookin at Willis" face also known as
"Cook me some dinner, fool" face

"Can we please win lotto...Amen" face

"Whose got the biggest mouth" face

"Yeah, Mama does" face

"Taking a break" face

"Hmm..Daddy, not sure that top goes with those
pants" face

"My Mama's the best in the whole wide world" face

Finding Nemo

2009-11-17T09:38:00.000+11:00

One of Micah's favourite movies at the moment is "Finding Nemo" - although at the moment, he only really watches the first 20 mins or so just after Nemo gets taken.

He has three favourite parts:

When the baby fish is playing on the sponges and falls off and starts crying - Micah pretends like he's crying too
When the baby octopus says that he has one tenticle smaller than the other and twirls around - Micah usually twirls too
But the funniest part is when Nemo tries to say that he lives in an anemone - Micah tries to say 'anemone' too...which usually results in us laughing along with him!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

2009-11-15T21:32:00.003+11:00

A video of Micah and me reading the book 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?'

He can remember the names of the animals and points them out when asked.

The joy of running

2009-11-02T10:45:00.002+11:00

Micah doesn't walk anywhere....he runs! He particularly loves to run downhill as fast as his little legs will let him. I find it hard trying to keep up with him...especially since it usually means having to run UP hill in order to run downhill.
I hold my breathe half the time as he hurls downhill, hoping that he doesn't do a face plant! Who needs the gym when you've got Micah as your personal trainer??

Evel Knievel

2009-10-31T21:37:00.005+11:00

We took Micah's bike to the park today. His legs are a bit too short and can't reach the pedals...so he has to move it "Flintstone" styles.

He did discover that rolling down the hill can be fun - despite a few falls and spills. Hey, Even Knievel had to start somewhere!!

Hmm...legs are too short

I think I can reach....

Aaarrgh, it's easier to just walk it!

Water Fun

2009-10-28T08:30:00.003+11:00

It was a very hot day today so we headed down to Pyrmont Park to play in the water fountain. Micah was a bit hesitant at first but was soon (with Daddy's help) running around and getting soaking wet.

Lauitiiti came to see us while we were there. Micah let him carry him without any fuss. Looks like we're found ourselves a new babysitter!!

Round and around

2009-10-27T08:25:00.005+11:00

See-saws are a thing of the past. Instead most playgrounds now have this round circle thingie that kids can go sit on and be pushed around. Sometimes Micah let's me put him on it but most of the time he just likes to push it around himself. I do get a good workout though!!

More fun at the park

2009-10-25T12:17:00.002+11:00

Stair Master

2009-10-24T12:10:00.004+11:00

Today was a beautiful day so as usual, we headed over to the park across the street. Micah loves playing on the stairs - of all places. There's an awesome playground around the corner but he spent most of the time going up and down the stairs. He'll be going up these on his own soon - but as you'll see in the video, Micah reckons you have to crawl before you can walk up the stairs!

Where's Micah?

2009-10-21T11:33:00.000+11:00

Micah loves playing 'Hide n Seek' - although at the moment his hiding places are usually behind our backs or behind the window blind. He'll happily sit behind the blind for several minutes not realising that we can fully see him...plus his legs sticking out the bottom are a dead giveaway!!

Kids can be so funny!

Kung Fu Micah

2009-10-18T21:06:00.004+11:00

There was a lot of giggles in the bath tonight, followed by 'Mama, come look!' So I went to see what the boys were up to in the bath. Micah was going through a series of karate kicks - side kicks, roundhouse kicks and kicks to the back....all followed by lots of laughter and giggles.

Wonder if he's too young to go for his black belt?!? :)

Who's that boy?

2009-10-16T09:17:00.000+11:00

Imagine my surprise when I walked into day care to pick up Micah and I couldn't see him anywhere.
And then all the carers started to point and lo and behold there was Micah dressed up as a clown. What the ?!? I cracked up laughing and of course everyone else did as well.
What I found most amazing was that he was happily wearing the costume which included a hat! If you know Micah, he doesn't let anything touch his head. But obviously he doesn't mind being the class clown!!

He's been invited to a Halloween party at the end of the month so guess what I think he'll be wearing?!?

Clown or dunce?

Video of Micah feeding himself

2009-10-14T11:08:00.002+11:00

You can tell why it takes us ages to get ready in the morning. Micah takes 5 hours to eat his breakfast!!

I'm a big boy now

2009-10-13T22:41:00.003+11:00

Micah likes to feed himself at meal times now. Which can prove a bit challenging because most of it ends up down his front or on the floor.
Good thing he has a dad that likes to clean!! :)

In the pics below he's having banana porridge for breakfast.

PS - he got a hair cut in the weekend but threw his usual tantrum so the barber only cut the front and left the back. Wonder if he'll ever like getting his hair cut?!?

What the ?!?

2009-10-09T22:46:00.002+11:00

Ok, apologies everyone - I've been really slack lately and haven't been keeping Micah's blog up to date. What can I say, time's just flown by and it's been 2 months since our last confession!
So much has happened - we've been to US & back (had a great time catching up with the family and friends in Las Vegas, San Diego, LA and San Fran), Micah's now in daycare for 4 days (a bit of an adjustment for him...and us), we've all gained about 5 kgs since our trip (Micah in height & hair, Mark around the waist and me everywhere else!) and we're trying to figure out where all the time has gone because Christmas is just around the corner!!

Micah is growing by leaps and bounds. He no longer fits into his size 1 clothes and I'm gutted that I didn't buy more clothes in the States. It might mean that we'll have to visit Elijah and Nathan in Melbourne soon to replenesh Micah's wardrobe!

He's also starting to talk a lot more - even though it's still a language of his own. Half of the time we're trying to figure out what he's trying to say.
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma' usually means he wants something - I think it's from the Samoan word 'mai' although I've only said that to him a couple of times.
He can say 'Ball, 'copter, tahr (car), daddy, mama, water, guck (duck), dog and his all time favourites 'uh-oh' and 'wooooah'.

Just yesterday I noticed that he was pointing at a lot of things and saying 'Wah tah?' - in a question tone. Because he's been often says 'Water' I thought that that was what he wanted. However it took me a while to figure out that what he was actually saying was 'What the ?!?' and asking me to tell him what that thing was. What the ?!?
Suddenly it was like light bulb going off in my head and I noticed that he actually says that quite a lot while he's pointing at things. DUH, sorry Micah, Mama's a bit slow sometimes!!

Micah and me before we headed to work and day care this morning
(he needs another haircut already!)

Happy Birthday Aunty Lagi

2009-08-25T06:00:00.000+10:00

Happy Birthday wishes to Aunty Lagi. We wish we were there to celebrate with you. Micah misses his aunty very much and hopes you can come and visit again soon.

Hope you get lots of pressies...or at least some kisses from Uncle Tolly!! :)

Much love, your nephew Micah and Sachi & Mark xoxoxoxo

Playing around with Mama

2009-08-22T09:05:00.000+10:00

Micah the Builder

2009-08-21T08:43:00.000+10:00

Micah's latest favourite game is to use blocks to build towers and knock them over. He started with 2 or 3 blocks and now is using 10-15 - he's only really limited by how far up he can reach.

He started getting a bad habit of pointing to blocks and expecting me to pick them up for him...but he soon got over that one when I just looked at him blankly! LOL

Ain't no mountain high enough....

2009-08-18T09:15:00.000+10:00

...or maybe this one was because Micah didn't make it to the top!

Summer has arrived in Sydney

2009-08-16T20:16:00.004+10:00

It seemed like summer today even though it's still August and supposedly winter. It was a sunny and warm 28 degrees and for the first time in ages we had to worry about putting sunscreen on Micah when we were in the park.

Micah had fun playing with his toy car that we got from eBay. He loves pushing it along the path in the park.

Hip hip Hooray for BatGran!!

2009-08-09T10:08:00.003+10:00

Happy Birthday BatGran! Hope you have a wonderful day and that Lagi and Papa spoil you rotten. Can't wait to see you next month....I'm sure you'll be spending lots and lots of time with Micah (hint, hint!!).

Much love always to the best BatGran in the whole wide world,

Micah, Mark & Sachi xx